AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let’s talk about your woman instead,” he said firmly. “Are you planning on marrying her?”
Into my mind spun every moment I’d spent with Iris. From the first time I’d laid eyes on her from my room at the resort to her flushed face and little gasp as she came in my arms at the club and all the arguments and orgasms in between.
But what stood out most starkly was the fear I’d felt when I saw her drugged and surrounded by mercenaries.
I’d fucked a weapons deal right then and there and killed the men we were doing business with. I’d do it again, a hundred times over because her safety meant everything to me.
I cleared my throat. “Are you planning on trying to stop me?”
“No,” he said.
I wasn’t prepared for him to say that. His eyes narrowed in the afternoon sun and quick as a flash, he lifted the shotgun and fired it. There was a sharp squawk from the tall grass at the edge of the woods and silence. He cleared his throat.
“Well, that’s dinner,” he said.
We trudged through the grass to where the limp bird lay in the grass. Lucien gathered it up and put the shotgun over his shoulder. He took a short breath and sent me an impatient stare.
“How do you feel about another man fucking her?” he asked.
Lucien had never been tactful, so I wasn’t surprised. Anger rose in my chest so fast and hard my head spun.
“Not good, it’s mine,” I snapped.
“What’s yours?”
Confused, I shrugged. “Her cunt, all of her. When I ask her who she belongs to, she says me. I don’t want her to fucking say that to some other son of a bitch, ever.”
Lucien’s jaw twitched. “Word of advice. Don’t ask her if her pussy is yours unless it’s fucking yours. That goes for everything else.”
I scowled. “Easy for you to say. Your situation is cut and dry.”
“Do you want to marry her?” he asked.
In another life I would have balked. But after the last few weeks, monogamy sounded perfect if it was with Iris. Getting to sleep in bed with her every night, fuck her endlessly, maybe get her pregnant someday and raise our kids together—it sounded like paradise.
“Yes,” I said.
Lucien’s jaw twitched. “Go back to Miami,” he said. “Get drunk as fuck, make sure people see you, and make it look like you married her by accident. Don’t let her see her parents first. Everyone needs to think it was an impulse decision.”
I blinked, confused. “What?”
Lucien’s eyes darted to the house and back. “I’m not the one who wanted you to marry someone important. I’m just an underboss. Romano likes keeping money and power up at the top and he asked me to make sure you picked someone who fulfilled those designs. I don’t give a fuck, personally, who you marry.”
“Okay,” I said quietly, his words sinking in. A wave of guilt moved through my chest. “What will Romano do if I marry her?”
“He won’t be happy,” Lucien said grimly. “But I’m marrying Olivia at his request. My obedience should be payment enough.”
I hated it. For as long as I could remember, Lucien had always been there as a shield between me and the world. He stepped between me and my father. He took the punches for me from bullies at school. He’d taken on responsibility for the Esposito name and rose to shoulder the burdens that went with it.
Even if it meant he couldn’t choose his wife.
“You do have a heart in there, I guess,” I said.
Lucien’s ice cold eyes narrowed and he put a cigarette to his lips.
“Fuck you,” he said.
We went back to the house and Lucien sank onto the porch steps in his shirtsleeves, rolled to the elbow, and began dressing the pheasant. I loitered, my hands in my pockets. After a moment, he looked up and jerked his head.
