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My mother rushes toward me, fixing my hair and wiping off the lipstick as Marku saunters down the aisle. She hurriedly slips on the huge engagement ring I threw in Marku’s face when he proposed to me. A moment of respite and then Marku is back by my side.
I stoutly ignore him as the priest begins the ceremony with his Romanian Orthodox incantations.
He switches to English to ask, “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”
I turn toward Marku.
He smiles that smug smile, the one I hate more than anything. God, I want to wipe that smirk off his face.
Exploding with rage, I give him a grim close-lipped smile as I twirl my tongue in my mouth, gathering a mixture of saliva and seed.
And then, I spit in his face.
CHAPTER3
MARKU
Ipat the space beside me in my king-sized bed…seeking…seeking.
My bloodshot eyes spring open.
My bed is empty. She’s not here. Fuck. For half a second I finally fell asleep and conjured her up in my dreams. I’m awake, but my brain hasn’t caught up to reality. I scrub my gritty eyelids.
Of course, she’s not in my bed.
Another short bout of sleep. Another night plagued with nightmares of Cristian’s murderer. It’s a recurring nightmare where I’m chasing this demon-like figure down a dark corridor, close to catching him. My fingers snatch the sleeve of his jacket and he vanishes like a ghost. I don’t think I’ll ever get a full night’s sleep until I kill that bastard.
I turn onto my back. A shaft of blinding sunlight crosses over my eyes, joggling my dream-filled mind. I raise my hand to shield the light and glance down at my aching cock. I might be married, but my bride isn’t lying beside me in my bed.
I let out a long groan. I may be married in the eyes of God and man, but I don’t have my feisty woman by my side. And as if that’s not bad enough, I have to hide our marriage.
Disgusting.
I catch sight of the eagle tatted across my right hand lying on the empty pillow beside me. The things I do for this clan. This is the part of life as a made man that my father warned me about. No one ever said it would be easy.
But marriage?
That’s not something I ever thought would happen. I’d long ago told Cristo to take me off the marriage mart. After Cristian, how could my futuresefpossibly think I’d be an eligible match? I mean, the thought of putting me in charge of protecting another human being is preposterous. And Crina, of all people?
Fear strikes my heart.
I’m going to fuck this up, just like before…
And if that’s not bad enough, how about the fact that I still haven’t found and slaughtered Cristian’s killer? I’ve vowed to go kamikaze if I have to, killing myself in the process. And with a man as wily as my nemesis, I there won’t be an alternative. Once I finally find him, I’m going to throw everything I have into our fight. Even then, I may fail. I swallow the lump in my throat and distract myself by grabbing the cell phone on my nightstand. I check for messages, hoping against hope Crina texted me something.
Anything.
Nope.
See, she knows I’m not fit to be her husband. That’s the real reason she’s against this marriage. Shesaidit was because she was being forced into it, but our mothers had this planned from our births. Her reservations come from another source altogether. If I couldn’t keep my little brother alive, there is no way a woman as intelligent as Crina would think I could manage to keep her safe.
Guilt tickles at me. It didn’t help that I majorly screwed up the marriage proposal. She can hold onto a grudge like no one else, but I’d assumed she’d forgiven me, at least somewhat, when she let me kiss her…and do a helluva lot more than that.
Apparently not.
I see the traces of lipstick smudged on the side of my index finger. Not gonna lie, there will be perks to being married to a woman as hot-headed and difficult as Crina. I didn’t wash my hand after I swiped it across her swollen lips. Lips swollen from taking my cock whole, lips dripping with my come. And that’s the other reason I agreed to go through with this. I wasn’t about to let another man get his grubby little hands on those luscious curves and that fresh pussy.
Jesus.
