Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 913(@200wpm)___ 731(@250wpm)___ 609(@300wpm)
Separating us from the city is a small river. The only way in or out of our zone, once you wind back down the hillsides, is a single bascule bridge—talk about the perfect location.
Behind me, the door to the room opens and closes, but I don’t bother looking, the soft cedar scent of his cologne giving him away with a single inhale.
Damiano’s palms close around my shoulders, and he glides them down my blazer, giving me a light squeeze. “Everything will work out, Rocklin.”
“I’m not concerned. There are plenty more students in this school to pick from.” None of which we’re interested in that we’re not already testing, but I don’t need to tell him this. He already knows.
“I’m not talking about the girl and her ranking.” He steps closer. “I’m talking about what your father told you yesterday, but you knew that already. I tried to talk to you about it before, but you cut me out.”
He’s right, I did, but if he’s brave enough to ask, he needs to be required to actually do so.
“Don’t cut me out. You’re stressed.” His voice ends in a low whisper, and from behind, he brings my knuckles to his warm, soft lips. “I can help with that.” His free hand slides around my body, pulling me further into him.
This is typical Damiano behavior, dying to be the white knight and waiting for the moment I need one, a moment I hope never comes.
The girls know about his offer of marriage, just as they know it’s not going to happen, and of course, it’s not due to my late mother’s one marital condition that her children would never be the victims of an arranged marriage—I guess her death overrode that little clause.
It’s because I’m not interested in becoming my sister and the disaster she’s become. Plus, my father would never allow the union, and it has nothing to do with the relentless efforts of my father’s business associate’s heir, Oliver Henshaw, shooting his shot with me every chance he gets.
Damiano is the son of a henchman who succumbed to greed and trusted the wrong man with his treachery. His mother was a random beauty paid to provide his heir and never heard from again after his birth.
I’m the daughter of the most notorious kingpin my world has ever known, the man all men must come to if looking to cross from the eastern to the western borders. My mother was the sole heir of the largest real estate enterprise in the nation, giving my father the furthest reach a man in his position has ever had.
His family is falling.
Mine is nearly limitless.
My father isn’t an ignorant man. He knows Damiano is a fantastic asset, the kind you want on your side, and he does admire his dedication, but as of right now, it stops there.
As for me as a person and not as a Greyson or the daughter of Rayo Revenaw, Dom is only relevant when he and I wish to capitalize on matters of a personal nature.
It works for us. It’s easier, safer. He doesn’t have to worry if a woman will claim foul play in search of a quick payout, and I don’t have to worry about a gun being pressed to my neck when expecting lips instead—that was one of those lessons you need only learn once.
Dark hair and crystal eyes flash in my mind, and I frown.
Or maybe I didn’t learn a damn thing …
The best part of it all, outside of not being potentially murdered or kidnapped as a bone for barter, is Dom still does as he pleases, with whomever he pleases, whenever he pleases, which I more than appreciate. The last thing I need is him coming after me to the point of obsession, and exclusivity always leads to something to that effect. I’ve led enough welcome wagons for girls dumped here for this very reason to know firsthand.
Fucking rich boys, I swear.
Damiano Donato, while a lover of all things love and the truest romantic I’ve ever seen, wants me outside of the bedroom for one reason, and that is what a position at my side offers him. But it’s as my father says, money does not give you power and love destroys everything.
Damiano would fall in love with me if I allowed him to, and that love would get him killed.
Just as it did my mother …
“You didn’t have to put yourself at risk by relieving Sai last night and taking off in your favorite car.”
Irritation prickles along my skin. I don’t like to be psychoanalyzed, but I am stressed. Tense. So I stand silent in his arms a moment but say in the next, “I’m giving morning announcements in five minutes.”
“You’re right.” He releases me as he steps away, and it’s only when he adds, “Not nearly enough time anyway, is it?” that I realize my irritation isn’t only coming from this conversation and the fact that he dared to have it, but also in the direction I took it.