“I don’t owe you an explanation.” I turn to leave.
“Goddamn it, Blake!” He seizes my arm and jerks me closer, his touch rough enough to make me wince in pain. “Do you really think you’ll ever find anyone better thanme? I’m getting fucking tired of you playing hard to get. I took a chance on you. You know what my friends said to me when they found out we were dating? They told me I should just fuck you and then find myself someone who wasn’t born in a fucking trailer park. But I didn’t listen to them. I gave you my love. I gave you everything. You don’t get to just throw all of that back in my face.”
My throat thickens. His words feel like needles piercing my skin.
“You’re going to marry me. You’re going to have my children. And you’re going to be a good wife who knows her place, because the life I’m offering you is the best life you could ever get. Are you so stupid that you don’t see that?”
A mix of fear and anger churns inside me at his poisoned words. The man I thought I knew, the man I thought cared about me at one point, is showing a twisted sense of entitlement that makes my skin crawl.
He never saw me as an equal. Never saw me as worthy. The whole time we were dating, he thought he was doing me a favor.
I was just a poor stupid girl he probably thought he'd saved.
“Remove your hand, or I will,” an icy, commanding voice says.
I twist my head to look over my shoulder. Just seeing Rowan approaching sends relief rushing through me. At first glance, he looks relaxed and at ease, but his eyes tell a different story. Darkness swirls within them, along with a clear warning.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Brett snarls as he drops my wrist. “And what the hell do you think you’re doing with her?”
“What’s going on between Rowan and I is none of your business,” I snap, moving to stand beside Rowan.
“It’s all right, baby. No need to spare his feelings.” Rowan slips his arm around my waist and pulls me flush against his body. “Here’s what I’m doing with her, Brett. I’m treating her right. I’m earning a place by her side, not taking it for granted. And I’m taking care of her. You didn’t know how, but I do. It’s time you move on. Blake certainly has.” He pulls me closer and crushes his lips against mine.
CHAPTER 28
NERO
The kiss is nothing like that time I kissed her in her kitchen. That kiss was probing. Gentle. I wanted to ease her into it.
Now? I’m kissing her like I’m claiming her. Like I’m a predator, and she’s my prey. My lips crush against hers, devouring the breathless gasp she makes. Her fingers curl into my lapels.
Blake needs to understand that I’m done playing games as far as she’s concerned. I’ve spent the last week thinking about what I want and what I'm willing to do to get it, and in the process, I’ve realized a number of things.
When I was in New York—even when I thought I was on top of the world—there was an achy loneliness buried deep inside my chest.
The women I dated always had certain expectations.
I was Nero De Luca. The Messero consigliere. Powerful, dangerous, cunning.
I had a role to fill. A name to live up to.
Sometimes it felt like I was reduced to just the name and the reputation.
My impenetrable armor.
I’ve never let a woman see the man beneath.
But in Darkwater Hollow, everything is different. The pull of my old life is waning with each passing day, because being here no longer feels like being sentenced to death by slow-acting poison.
It’s starting to feel like the start of a new life.
My stepdad wouldn’t have approved, and that thought still stings. I loved that stubborn old man.
For Renzo, the mob was everything. There was no life outside it.
When he married my mom, he could have chosen to ignore me, but instead, he took me under his wing. The two of them were unable to have kids, but I was always Renzo’s boy.
He called me son. I called him dad.
