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“FRANCESCA!” I shouted in a dire tone, but Francesca didn’t even flinch and kept on storming away. I took three larger steps and grabbed her arm, turning her around to face me. “What’s the difference? Do you really prefer my brother to me that much?”
“I would prefer to not be treated like a thing. It’s my life we are talking about here.” She was hurt. It was more than clear in the quiver in the sound of her voice. “I’ll marry you, Matt, but I’ll make your life a living hell every opportunity I get. You’ll get fed up and set me free before you can say ‘wife.’”
I pushed her back against the wall, caging her in and taking her jaw in my hand. There was a small glint of discomfort, not fear, just sass and repugnance for being so close to me.
“It could be fun,” I whispered.
“It will be hell.” She spat back, her eyes facing me like a war before they dropped to my lips.
Caught, Gattina.
“Then let’s burn together,” I said before crashing my lips onto hers.
Francesca resisted first, only to give in a second later. I ravished her mouth with all the pent-up eagerness I had to consume her again. She kissed me back with just as much need, her hands pulling me closer to her while my tongue tasted every inch of her mouth.
I was rock hard in less than a second, grinding my erection into her and reveling in the moans she released into my mouth each time my cock pinned her further against the damn wall. She was as lost in me as I was in her.
Too soon, she came back to her senses and pushed me back, her hand colliding in a sharp slap on my face.
“I’d rather watch you burn alone.” She spat in anger. “Don’t you ever touch me again. I am not your whore.”
She quickly escaped down the hall, disappearing completely as I tried to recover from what just happened. Lust, fury, bloodlust, and the need for punishment blinded my sight, and I couldn’t hold up my armor, try as I might.
I walked back into the office with a darkness I couldn’t mask while my words came out just as enraged. “It’s set. Don Amato, I’ll see you in New York for the wedding. Make sure she shows up, or I’ll come get her myself.”
Chapter 1
Matt
Once upon a fucking time, I got married.
Only I had no idea how that shit would turn out.
Happily ever afters had never been in the cards for me. Those were reserved for heroes and knights in shining armor. I knew that. I was under no impression I was either. Quite the contrary. I was the bad guy in those bedtime fables. Yet, I had no idea I was stepping into a hell of my own making.
My choice.
My actions.
My deception.
???
“You can relax now, Matt. This is happening.” Liam, my younger brother and best man, tried to diffuse the tension as we waited at the altar. “There’s no way she won’t come. She’s just giving you a run for your money.”
“It’s been half a fucking hour!” I growled through gritted teeth while my face remained placid and unfazed. I controlled the pulses surging through my muscles while my fingers snapped each other behind my back, hidden from the crowd.
In this trade, showing your hand was a sign of weakness. And a weak Don was as good as a dead one. I took pride in always shading my impulses behind a mask of serenity, just as my grandfather had always taught me. My thoughts and feelings had no place outside of the privacy of my mind. Leverage and unpredictability were too important to waste over sweaty palms and a false sense of relief.
Yet somehow, this little waiting game was harshly tugging on my nerves. I’d been more at ease when held at gunpoint.
“Relax. Being late is the bride’s prerogative. Are you really that surprised she’d stretch this out to get to you? You said she was a firecracker.” Liam was right. I had said that, but fuck was I wrong. That word seemed short and bland to describe the walking tornado I’d soon be calling my wife.
“I might have been a little flat with that description,” I admitted, earning a chuckle and a strong slap on my back from my best man.
“Then you’re getting exactly what you deserve.” I couldn’t hold back the steely glower from shooting right at him, making Liam hold his hands up in mock surrender. “Just calm down. It’s starting to show.”
With a sharp inhale, I took in Liam’s words as I faced the crowd again, noticing the aisle was a clear division between familiar faces and new ones who’d soon become family.
