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The words slip out before I can stop them, and they startle even me.What happened to one fuck to make it legal, and then never touching her again?Somehow, over the past few hours, I’ve managed to forget that Sofia was only ever supposed to be a contractual agreement. Our marriage, much like the monthly deposit to her account, was meant to be a business deal. Signed, sealed, and filed away for safekeeping.
But nothing about what I want to do to her is businesslike. Nothing about the feelings rushing through me, the way I desperately want to toss her back down onto that couch, shove her dress up above her thighs, and thrust myself inside of her is contractual. She’s making me feel things that I’ve never felt for any woman,wantin a way that I’ve never allowed myself to want anything.
It has to stop, and now.
I can’t allow this woman to unman me. Sofia Ferretti is a duty, a box to check, and she needs to remain exactly that. All of the things that she makes me feel, all of the ways she makes me react, are distractions that I don’t need. Emotions that lead to mistakes.
I’m the future Don, the man who is next in line to lead the most powerful criminal organization in the world. A man whose territory is being threatened, whose position and life are in danger.
And it’s not just my life, or Sofia’s. It’s the underbosses, the made men underneath them, everyone who works for Rossi, and me, and now Franco, and the other underbosses and capos. Their lives, and their families lives are at stake. If the Bratva move in on our territory, if they’re allowed to start a war, it will be a bloodbath the likes of which hasn’t been seen in decades.
Right now it’s Don Rossi’s responsibility to keep them safe—to keepallof them safe—but a large portion of that rests on my shoulders. At some point, all of it will.
That reminder is sobering.
I take a step back from Sofia as I regain control, letting out a long breath as I feel the lust, that overwhelming sense of passion and possessiveness, receding.
“You can fight me all you want on this, Sofia, but it won’t change anything. Next Saturday, before man and God, you will become my wife, and this will be settled. We can go over the details of it in the meantime, when you’re calmer, but there is no choice. That’s final.”
She stares at me, wide-eyed and disbelieving. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
I don’t flinch. “You know that I’m not. And what’s more, we’re going to have to do something about that mouth of yours. Good mafia wives don’t talk to their husbands like that.”
Sofia jerks backwards, as if I’ve said something awful. She wraps her arms around herself, shuddering a little as she backs away from me, around to the other side of the couch. “I’m not going to marry you,” she whispers. “I won’t. You can’t force me to say the vows.”
I grit my teeth, biting back the words I want to say. “No,” I admit. “I can’t. But Icankeep you here until you understand the gravity of the situation, and I will.”
“I’ll run again. As soon as you leave this room, I swear—”
“Sofia!” For the first time, I raise my voice, and it shocks her into stillness. With two quick strides, I move around the couch to stand in front of her again. “I kept you from leaving the apartment because I don’t feel like chasing you all over hell and back. But you arenotgoing anywhere. Even if you made it to the elevator, there’s a code required to go down after a certain hour. The moment I’m done with this conversation, I will make sure to lock and set the alarm on every exit. And if you somehow managed to get past all of that, I have security all over this building. I’m the only one who lives here. The rest of the units are empty, or devoted to my security teams. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
As I speak, I can see her eyes start to fill with tears as it slowly sinks in. “I am one of the richest men in New York City, Sofia, and second in command to the man who presides over all of it. I have the best security money can buy, out of pure necessity. There are plenty of people who want me dead. And you, too.”
Her lower lip quivers. “I hate you,” she whispers. “I swear on my father’s grave, Luca Romano, I hate you.”
I sigh resignedly. “Be that as it may,” I tell her flatly. “There’s no way out of this, Sofia. At least not one that you would choose.”
And then without another word, I turn on my heel and stalk out of the room.
Sofia
The moment that Luca walks out of the room, I sink down onto the couch, struggling not to burst into tears.
For all my bravado, I’m terrified. Everything that’s happened tonight—the drugging, the kidnapping, waking up in the hotel room only to be stuck in a closet during a shootout, fainting only to wake up in another strange room…and then being told that I have tomarrythis strange man?
It’s too much. It overwhelms me, and I press one hand over my mouth, trying desperately to breathe, not to cry, but I can’t help it. Too much has happened, too much has changed, and I feel the tears start to drip down my cheeks.
A moment later my face is buried in my hands, my shoulders shaking with deep, wracking sobs that threaten to send me over the edge into hysteria.
Somewhere in the middle of it, I hear a faintbeep, like a smoke alarm, and look up to see a red light blinking next to the front door. A moment later, there’s another, farther off.
Fuck.
He set the alarms, just like he said I would. I’m trapped in this luxurious fortress of a penthouse, with a man who might as well be my jailer. A man who claims I have to marry him—or else.
I don’t know what the ‘or else’ might be, but nothing I’ve seen or heard tonight makes me think that it would be anything good. I definitely don’t think that it would include going back to my old apartment or my old life. And the thought of that terrifies me.
Why would you do this to me, papa?I stifle another sob, the voice in my head that of a sad, frightened twelve year old girl. I feel as if I’m losing him all over again, because the man I knew, the one who spun me in circles and smelled like vanilla tobacco, the one who brought me books and listened to me play the violin even before I was any good at it, wouldn’t have done this to me. He wouldn’t have forced me into a marriage with a man I don’t even know, a man in line to run the same organization that caused his death, that threatened my mother and all but certainly drove her to an early grave.
