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“We’ll need to renegotiate.” I draw in a deep breath and steel myself. Maybe my family can use this somehow; can reap some benefit. “I agreed to marry Davide. There may be different terms.”
“No,” Leo snaps, all his humor suddenly gone, and I stiffen, squeezing the boardwalk rail. The small of my back is damp with sweat beneath my floaty lilac dress, and my pulse taps frantically in my throat. “Nothing changes, Mia. You and I will marry in six weeks.”
Or else.The unsaid words hang between us, ringing in the air.
“Oh, look. A seal.” His toned arm stretches out in front of me, muscles pushing at the suit sleeve, and I stare instead at the dark hairs dusting Leo’s wrist. A seal? Is he kidding me right now?
His watch looks expensive. Every time I breathe, I catch another whiff of his cologne, and I hate that I like it. Hate that I keep sucking down deeper breaths, like I’m drinking him in.
“Are you looking?” Leo grips the top of my head, impatient, and turns me to face the seal. It’s just a dark shape bobbing in the waves; it looks like a buoy when it’s not moving. Who freaking cares?
“Take your hand off me,” I grit out between my teeth. “If you touch me without an invitation again, I will slit your throat in our marital bed.”
The hand leaves my head. I smooth down my hair, flustered and annoyed.
I shouldn’t have said that. Shouldn’t have threatened a kingpin, anddefinitelyshouldn’t have pissed off my future husband. It’s not smart, and it’s not like me. I always step carefully. Always say the right thing.
But something about the overly intense man beside me… he throws me off. Makes me jittery and thoughtless.
After a long silence, I steal a glance at my fiance. I expect to see murder in his eyes, but instead he’s leaning against the boardwalk rail again, grinning. He looksdelightedby my outburst.
“I mean it,” I say, doubling down, because apparently I am an idiot today.
“I know.” Those dimples deepen, and brown eyes land on me. Trap me in their gaze. “Next time, I will wait for an invitation. I’ll wait for you tobegme, princess, and then if you are very good, I will lay a single fingertip on you. Agreed?”
I huff, my hands clammy on the rail.
I shouldn’t want that. Idon’twant that, damn it.
“I’ll never beg.” My head swims as I stare at my future husband, at his dark curls and glittering eyes and broad shoulders. His sharp, dangerous smile. “If you keep your promise, you’ll die a monk, Palladino. You’ll never bed your own wife, and you should know: I won’t tolerate mistresses.”
A flash of white teeth. “I wouldn’t want you to, Mia. I prefer you like this: snarling with jealousy at the very thought.”
Ugh. “I am notjealous—”
“Besides,” Leo says, continuing like I never spoke, “why would I ever want another? Look at what I’ve already done to make you mine. Think of all the things I’d still do.”
I swallow, mouth dry.
It’s true, my fiance does not seem to be mourning his brother’s death. A part of me already knew that Leo probably killed him, but I assumed it was an internal power struggle. Palladino business. Nothing to do withme.
“Davide was not the first,” Leo says quietly, and some of the twinkle is gone from his eyes. He’s serious, his words soft below the screeching seabirds. “My father wanted you before him.” He catches my shudder and nods, fervent and angry. “Yes, you would have hated that. Iknew, Mia. I knew. So I dealt with it for you.”
The children are still squealing and whooping all around us, their little feet trundling over the boardwalk, but the sounds are fuzzy now. Coming from far away.
When Leo leans close, his lips hovering by my ear, shivers wrack through my body, never mind the hot sunshine. “I’ve wanted you for a long, long time, Mia. I’ve been waiting for you. Paving the way for this peace. And once I finally have you, I will make you need me too; I will make you just as raw and desperate for this as I am. Do you understand?”
Yes.
I nod, and Leo straightens up, looking pleased. But I’m not agreeing to his terms—I’m saying I understand him. I understand my situation.
There is no way on earth I can marry this man.
He’d break me. And I’m afraid I’d like it.
Leo
Present day
