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And I suppose I did, in some respects.
But never in the bedroom.
My desires, the things I’ve dreamed about in secret for longer than I can remember… They make me feel like this fucked-up version of myself that I don’t want to take ownership of. Niccolò is just another cocky, self-assured prick I’m confusing with someone who is going to dominate me in the way I’ve been salivating over for years.
“Hello?”
His voice pulls me from my incessant, stupid thoughts about him.
“Hello,” I say, doing my best to shrug off my bullshit.
“Did you not hear anything I said while you were sitting there with hearts in your eyes?” he asks, and I flip him off.
I don’t even know why I do it. My middle finger just flicks up before I can even tame myself.
“The only way I’d ever become your wife is if youboughtme, Niccolò,” I tell him.
It’s a lame joke. One I don’t even find funny, but I’m just buying myself time here at this point.
He clearly thinks my joke is a lot funnier than I do though, because he breaks out in laughter and pulls me up and out of my barstool. He’s so much taller than me. I reach to just under his chest and have to crane my neck to look up at him, but Jesus Christ, is it a good view. He’s so good-looking it hurts. My fingers ache to run my hands over his face, run them through his hair.
No.
No, Evelina.
No, stupid.
No. Just no.
“It’s almost like I anticipated you saying that,” Niccolò says, brushing hair away from my face and using his thumb to stroke my cheek just before I swat him away.
He brushes off my attempt to break away from his touch, and rather than keeping his hands to himself, he trails the tip of his index finger down my throat and then unzips my hoodie, making no attempt to hide the way he admires my chest.
“Say no more,” he says. “If you want to be bought, you’ll be bought.” He zips my hoodie back up and looks me in the eyes before motioning to a group of men standing at the end of a long hallway I hadn’t noticed until now. “It’ll look a lot cleaner that way. More by the book. You’re a smart woman.”
Niccolò walks away as the three men head in my direction, and a pit carves itself into my stomach.
Just before he walks out the door, he turns to me, his smirk plastered on his face as mine disappears. Maybe I’ve met my match with this man, but I don’t know if I like it.
“These men will make sure you’re safe for the next few nights. Don’t try anything stupid, okay?” He winks, and I fucking melt into a puddle on the floor despite by utter annoyance. “I’ll see you at the auction, little viper.”
And with that, he walks out.
21
EVELINA
His words make my stomach lurch.The auction.
I’d heard whispers about it over the few years Enzo and I were together, but wives never went to the auctions—for obvious reasons. The auctions were for women to be bought, and it wasn’t something that anyone spoke of in the daylight.
Me and my big fucking mouth.
These auctions are underground. In the middle of the night, dirty,these women are for sale like cattletype of auctions. At least, that’s what I heard from Vittoria DeSantis when she spoke of the type of money that gets dished out during these events.
They are for men who can’t get a woman of their own.
They are for women who have gotten themselves into trouble with the mafia…or who are used to pay a debt that is owed by someone they once trusted.
