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I turn to him with a false smile. “I’llbe ready.”
He brings his knuckles to stroke the apple of my cheek before exiting the car and rounding the hood to open my door. We jog to the door to escape the frigid air, and he instructs one of his men to grab our things and bring them inside before kissing my forehead and heading to his office.
With at least an hour to burn before I start getting ready, I do some yoga. With the soft waves of Tibetan singing bowls playing over my room’s sound system, I let myself get lost in the movement of each position and the cleansing stretch of each muscle and tendon. I release each breath in tandem with the switch in position, allowing my body to relax, and before I know it, it’s time to get ready for the party.
I chug the saccharine sweet concoction Sebastian sends up from the nutritionist I saw regularly in the hospital. The prescription label lists a host of vitamins and medical jargon and is supposed to help with memory recall.
I toss the bottle in the recycling beneath the bathroom sink, take a deep cleansing breath, and begin the process of building the persona of an adoring wife.
Wife.
My thoughts keep going back to that word and how I’d come to like the idea of being Emiliano’s wife and decide to use that feeling to aid in pulling off this farce for the evening.
“Make sure you do not look like a slut this evening,” Miss Rossi––or, as I’ve come to learn, Maria Rossi––says from the doorway of my room.
Turning to the woman who seems to loathe my very existence, I give her my own look of disapproval. “Excuse me? When exactly did you become a fashion consultant?”
The woman’s eyes narrow, and she tips her chin up in superiority. “I do not need to be an expert to know you American women have no respect for yourself and compensate by wearing slutty outfits to catch your men. I will not have you embarrassingSignoreMarius.” I blink at her in astonishment, then burst into laughter. “What is so funny?” She practically spitsin anger.
“You,” I chortle, “thinking you know anything about me. Do you know what I think your problem is? Not that I may embarrass Sebastian, but that I will be the one on his arm tonight, andIwill be the one he introduces ashis wife.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” she argues, but I see the fire that ignites in her eyes atmy words.
“I’m not blind, Maria. I see the puppy dog eyes you give him when he speaks to you. You want him, but he doesn’t see you as anything but another employee to be at his beckand call.”
Her look of superiority morphs to one of murder, and she takes a threatening step toward me but halts when Sebastian walks in wearing a perfectly tailored black single-breasted blazer and high-rise flat-front trousers. His hair is still damp from the shower, his beard is trimmed close to the skin, and the diamond earring sparkles in hisleft ear.
He looks at Maria in question before he turns his blue gaze to me, and they shine with lusty appreciation as he takes in my leather-clad form. He approaches me with a knowing smirk, like a predator with his prey caught in his crosshairs.
With his hands stuffed casually in his trouser pockets, he leans into me and whispers, “I will be the envy of every man in that room tonight. It will be difficult to hold myself back from killing every man that looks your way.” He brings his lips to the pulse point of my neck and with the lightest brush of his lips, places a tender kiss against my skin. Goosebumps skitter across my skin at the touch, and when his lips come down hard and possessive on mine, it’s not my husband’s blue eyes that flash across my vision as my eyes flutter shut, but the glowing amber eyes of the wolf that stole me to repay a debt. The man I fell in love with despite our wretchedbeginning.
Emiliano devours my lips like a starved man, and I let him take what he needs. Because I need him too. A moan slips from my lips as he plunders my mouth, my panties dampen with desire, and my clit sizzles with need. My hands thrust into Emil’s long, curly…
The feel of the close-cropped strands of Sebastian’s hair kicks me out of the fantasy, and mentally shaking myself, I pull away. We’re both breathless, and Sebastian’s erection presses against my stomach. Gathering my wits, I give him a coy smile, wipe my gloss from his lips, and turn on my façade. “Behave, husband. There will be potential clients there tonight.” I lace my arm through his and turn us toward the door. “Now,shall we?”
He chuckles at my bravado and brings my knuckles to his lips. “What will I do with you, wife?” He guides me out of my room, and Maria Rossi is nowhere tobe found.
6
Emiliano
The hours drag on as my men and I pore over more and more of my father’s documents, all with my name printed in big, bold letters, while my men on the streets turn over every stone for information on the men in the video and the mystery Bernardo. More hours go by for Greta to get farther and farther away.
The situation in Rome is still a concern. Call it a gut feeling, but I’m convinced that the tourist abduction and Greta’s are linked. How? I have no clue, and after weeks of being locked in a cell and tortured, my father still hasn’t given us a name for the person they callVipera, and I’m starting to wonder if he genuinely doesn’t know their name. Like all the otherScorpioniunder the Vipers’ rule, my father may never have gotten close enough to find out who they may be.
“Emil,” Boian calls from the door ofmy office.
“Yes?” I answer without lifting my eyes from the document in my hand.
“I sent your father to one of the safe houses outsideof town.”
That gets my full attention. My eyes lift to my second’s, a threat to tread carefully. “There better be a damn good reason.”
“His wounds began to fester, and he spiked a fever. I sent him to be treated, and I’ll return him to his cell once the docis done.”
Releasing a grumbled sigh, I run restless hands over my face before responding. “Don’t bother. I may still need him, so keep him under heavy guardfor now.”
“Already done. Do you––” Boian’s question is interrupted when Luca storms into my office. Again, his hair is disheveled, his eyes wide in concern, and I swear the kid never relaxes a day inhis life.
