Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56365 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
“She’s my fiancée,” I snap.
My mother tilts her head at me.
“What?” I say.
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
She doesn’t reply, so I walk through the townhouse to Elena’s bedroom. When I knock, she moans, “Go away.”
“It’s me.”
“Please, Dario.”
“Let me in.”
I lean against the wall, resisting the desire to bash the door down. After several minutes, I hear her footsteps on the other side. She opens the door, staring at me bleakly. She looks drained after a fresh shower, her hair tied up, her eyes dark pits. She’s still beautiful, even if it’s in a tragic way.
Her gaze hovers somewhere slightly below my eyeline as if she can’t bear to look at me.
“How …” I hesitate, “are you feeling?”
For a moment, I think she’s going to sass me. Oh, yeah, I’m feeling great, she might say sarcastically, but she shakes her head and turns into the bedroom. The beast in me notes how short her PJs are, showing her thick ass, her creamy thighs. I’m still pumped with adrenaline after all the violence. I’ve heard my soldiers talk about wanting a woman after a fight before. I’ve never experienced that need until now. I tame that part of me for the moment or try to.
She sits on the bed, chewing on her fingernails as she stares at the floor. Closing the door, I join her, then gently remove her hand from her mouth.
“Why are you here?” she says numbly.
“To check on you.”
“I never heard my parents or brother in the fire,” she says. “I never saw what happened to them. I’ve never seen anything like that, Dario.”
“I know,” I sigh.
“No, you don’t know.” She still won’t look at me. “You’ve lived in this world your entire life. How could you know what it’s like to be a regular person?”
“That man was going to kill you,” I growl. “Maybe worse.”
“I know, and you saved me. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve it, but to see it. To s-smell it …”
She begins to cry, burying her face in her hands. I wrap my arm around her, but then she cringes away, shuffling to the other side of the bed and angrily wiping her cheeks. “I’m supposed to be strong … for Aunt Rosa.”
“I can bring her here.”
“I don’t want that. It’ll just stress her out. She already disapproves of us.”
“So there is an us?” I say, with hope in my voice.
“With the deal, I mean,” she corrects, causing my hope nearly to wither.
I swallow, my heart picking up speed again. If this has taught me anything, it’s that I want her … bad. The fear that flooded me when I thought she was going to die proves it.
Elena finally glances at me. “Are you checking me out?” she says in an unreadable tone.
“Uh …” I snap back to the moment.
“You were staring at me.”
“You’re beautiful, angelic, sexy,” I snarl. “What happened doesn’t change that.”
“That’s how normal this is for you, huh? You’re not shaken up by it at all?”
“My heart’s beating a million miles per minute.”
“But you’re not disgusted or ashamed or scared or any of that?”
“No,” I snap. “He was going to do terrible things to you.”
She shuffles down the bed, her cheeks flushing red, eyes wide and almost manic. “Then why don’t you take your prize, Dario?” she murmurs, putting her hand on my leg.
I don’t know what this is. Is she trying to make some twisted point?
She slides her hand higher up my leg. “You fought for me. Go on. I’m your trophy, your property.”
“You don’t want this,” I groan.
“Says who?”
“You’re not thinking straight.”
“I know you want it …”
Fuck. She slides her hand even higher, finding my hot, pulsing steel and stroking me up and down through my pants. The mania in her eyes gets even more intense. I should stop her, but dammit. Her hand feels like it belongs on my precome-slick heat.
“See,” she moans, moving even closer. “I know this is what you want. A woman who can see something like that and then give her wet pussy to you.”
“Elena,” I groan. “This isn’t how you want to do this.”
“Maybe I just want to forget.”
She kisses me passionately, almost desperately. It’s like she wants to immerse herself in our pleasure so she doesn’t have to think about everything. Maybe this is her way of proving I only want to use her, not be with her, but it’s not true.
Her body feels addictive. I caress her chest, slipping my hand under her shirt and rubbing her nipples. She moans through the tightness of our kiss, then climbs on top of me, grinding her sweet wetness against my crotch. I sink my hands into her hips and begin moving with her. I try to stop, but she has a hold over me I can’t explain.
“Are you sure about this?” I groan.