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Or I could shimmy down this sheet to whatever waited for me.
The sound of the door opening in the distance caught my attention, and I barely saw Valentino’s surprised expression before I went over the balcony.
Chapter 11
Lucas
Moments Before
I left Leda in the bedroom and walked down the stairs to my office, the automatic lights coming on as soon as I stepped over the threshold. It was sometime after midnight, but I felt like this night was going on forever, wanting nothing more than to crawl into my bed and catch a few hours of sleep.
Instead, I grabbed the decanter on the sideboard along the wall and poured a healthy swallow of whiskey into the glass, watching as the amber liquid filled the crystal. While I should have been upstairs, making good on my claim when I acquired Leda D’Agostino, I hesitated.
Mainly because I wanted her to wallow in the fear of what was going to take place for a little while longer. Call me a bastard, but I enjoyed watching her shrink from me.
I wasn’t a sadist by any means. I didn’t hit women or inflict any forms of abuse, but if a woman wanted to be spanked, well, I wasn’t above doing that. The pain I inflicted on my partners was for pleasure, theirs and mine.
Picking up the glass, I took a long swallow, feeling the whiskey slide down my throat. I was certain that she was sitting in that room, wondering what was going to happen to her.
Fuck, I had so many options. I wanted her to beg for me, for my cock. I wanted her to have a flicker of distrust in those gorgeous fucking eyes of hers so that I could play on that distrust.
I wanted Leda to wish she had never been born a D’Agostino.
I drained the glass and set it aside, running my hands through my hair. I could already taste her skin on my tongue, drinking in her fear of me intermingled with passion that I would pull out of her. There was something lurking behind Leda’s innocence, something that was begging to be brought to the surface, and I was the sort of man to do it.
Adjusting the front of my slacks, I forced myself to think of something else for now. If I didn’t, I would be stroking myself in a few minutes.
My cell phone buzzed in my coat and I pulled it out, holding it up to my ear. “Yeah.”
“Hello, Lucas.”
My blood ran cold at the harsh voice. I clenched my free hand into a fist at my side. “What the fuck do you want, Adrian?” Adrian Gallo fancied himself to be something other than a member of the Cavazzo Mafia.
The fool fancied himself the Don.
Too bad I had already filled that position.
“I’m hearing rumors,” he stated. “Rumors that you have the D’Agostino princess in your grasp.”
I chuckled darkly, figuring that word was spreading like wildfire already. Now that the funds had been paid, I owned Leda. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“I’m not going to war over the bitch,” he growled.
My good humor left my face. “It’s not your war to decide. You aren’t the fucking Don, I am. Have you forgotten?”
Truly it had been a surprise to all, including me, that Cosimo Cavazzo would pick his enforcer to become Don in his will. I had watched the Mafia Don’s back for five years after he had pulled me out of his shithole organization to serve him in a different capacity. Adrian had been his nephew, the heir who was destined to become Don.
The funny thing was, I knew the old man was having the last laugh. His entire family, including Adrian, had protested the will, but in the end, I had inherited the title and all the fucking money.
It didn’t mean that any of them liked it. I knew I had a target on my back, not only from the rest of the actual Cavazzo family, but from other Mafias. To them, I was an outsider, someone who wasn’t born into that inner circle.
And the truth was, I wasn’t.
I was just a kid when my heroin-addicted mom sold me into the family—trading her son for her next hit.
I had suffered at their hands in ways that no one could even possibly imagine.
“So you keep reminding me,” Adrian said with clear displeasure in his voice. “You are a disgrace on my uncle’s name, Valentino, and I am going to ensure that his legacy, my fuckingfamily’slegacy, is put back together like it should be.”
