Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“There’s something you need to understand if you have an ounce of common sense in your pretty little skull. Don’t test me, Aemelia.” The ice in his tone, or maybe the gentleness in his touch, makes her shiver and goosebumps break out over her slender arms. “Do as you’re told, and we’ll get along just fine.” His palm leaves the cheek he slapped, brushing over the center of her ass where she’s spread and exposed. His posture stiffens, and his tongue darts out to lick the center of his bottom lip. He leans over her body so his mouth is almost touching the shell of her ear. “Be a good girl for me,” he whispers, “and we’ll get along fine. And if you’re not… Well, we don’t want that now, do we?” He waits, but Aemelia remains still. “DO WE?” he yells.
“No.”
“No, what?”
“No, Luca.”
He smiles at the rushed sound of his name, and then he releases her. “Now, go to bed.”
Aemelia rises slowly and turns without a word, her face pale, her eyes dark as midnight but glittering with unshed tears. She walks away with her head held high, though I can see how much effort it takes.
I follow her, my footsteps heavy. When she reaches her door, she turns, glaring at me. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she whispers, venom laced in her voice.
I exhale. “No.” I step closer, my voice low. “But every time you fight us, there will be consequences.”
Her chin lifts defiantly. “Then you’d better be ready for war.”
I swallow against the strange feeling in my chest as I lock the door behind her.
This is only the beginning.
6
LUCA
TAMING THE KITTEN
“Send Rafa to Signora Lambretti.” I say her name with a sneer and shake my head, the memory of her outbursts toward Carlo coming back to me. This whole business is the last thing I want to deal with, but my hand is forced.
Rafa Bianchi is the best choice. He’s a huge brute of a man, built like a tank with a face like a battered slab of meat. In his youth, he was a bare-knuckle fighter, and now he wears every impact like a badge of brutality and strength. When he walks the streets, people flinch away from him, so he’s the perfect person to make Aemelia’s mother understand what’s at stake for her daughter if she turns informant.
We have enough of the senior police in our pockets to make major problems disappear. Even if she wanted to raise hell to find her daughter, she’d be met with nothing but cool indifference from the men who live like kings off my generous donations.
“It’s done,” Antonio says, already dialing.
I look down at my bare feet, still tingling from the touch of Aemelia’s lips. She kissed me and hated every minute of it, but she understood her place and that’s what’s important. My hand still stings from the impact against her ripe ass. It’s still coated with her wetness, too.
She’s like an angel but breaking her will take a devil's will.
“How did it feel?” Alexis asks.
“How did what feel?”
“Taking your hand to that sweet ass.”
“I didn’t do it for enjoyment,” I say, fixing my youngest brother with a cool stare.
“But you did… enjoy it?” He grins, sly and filthy.
He thinks he knows what I feel but he has no idea. What kind of man gets turned on by the daughter of his old friend, now worst enemy? “She’s a bambina,” I say. “Half my age.”
“She’s a woman,” he says. “A beautiful, pure, strong, vibrant, sexy woman.”
“She was a sweet little girl. She loved Rosita. They were like sisters.”
“That was a long time ago.”
He’s right of course. Aemelia isn’t anything like the little girl I carried in my arms. She’s all grown up, and ripe for the picking, but still my mind rejects the idea. There are lines for a reason. And too much sweetness can become bitter when temptation is too strong.
“She’s Lambretti filth,” Alexis drawls. “Her worthless father deserted her. What does that make her?”
“A pawn in a game she never chose to play,” I remind him.
“Unfortunate.”
Yes. He’s right. All of this is unfortunate. “I’m going to bed.”
“Vito and Andre are stationed outside.”
I nod, already leaving him behind. If there’s one thing I don’t have to worry about, it’s security. This building is a shiny fortress of my design, riddled with secret passages. Anyone foolish enough to think they can break through its defenses will find themselves drowning in disappointment.
As I pass Aemelia’s room, the soft sound of her crying carries through the locked door. I pause, remembering her whimpers and tears from so many years ago, and the way it broke my heart to witness her childish pain. And now? Now, her tears are salt water in the wound her father created. But still they snag at my cold, dead heart.