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“Do, do what?”
He gestures at my face, “The bullshit smiling, laughing, keeping up the facade. I know you get it. This is what we do, this is what’s expected of us, the acting, the charm, but we can at least offer each other that. A reprieve.”
What? I look away, trying not to show the myriad of feelings in my face. Okay, so, not going to kiss me.Calm yourself, Ellie.
“I chose you because I knew you’d understand. You’re the princess of the whole operation, you know how this works. We don’t have to get to know each other or be friends, but we can at least do this, don’t you agree?”
I take a moment to stare at his handsome face, now almost devoid of its life. “Um, no.”
“No, what?”
“No,” I say, raising my chin and looking him in the eye. “No I don’t agree that’s the least we can do. We should be friends. We should be partners, in this together.”
He jerks backward looking downright disgusted. “In what together? This isn’t a real marriage.”
“It is,” I hold my ground. “It—“
“No, Eleanna.” His whole persona turns to ice. “Listen, I don’t like you, your family, definitely not your family’s empire, any of it. And I don’t have to. This is a business arrangement. If you can’t agree to that, then tell your uncle, but I do think you’re the best choice for this. You’re pretty enough that the press will love you. You work a room almost as well as me. I’ve been impressed.” He glances at the doors. “Shit, your father’s goons are coming out, guess I reached myunchaperonedtime limit. Un-fucking-believable.” His eyes turn their freezing glare on to me fully and he squares his body as well. “If you’re reneging, do so quickly.”
When Raul gets within a few steps, Mark’s face lights up like the sun, warm and comforting. He’s transformed into a completely different person right before my eyes.
“Duty calls,sweetheart,” he says with that smirk—what I see now is a fake, plastic smirk—and he offers his arm. I loop my hand through, but I feel him tense. It’s what I wanted. And it’s the closest we’ve seemed like an actual couple as we mingle around. But it’s all wrong now.
He leads me inside and with all the warmth I saw before, the fake charm, the dripping politeness, he introduces me to a few new people. His magnetism has lost its effect on me now, but I still can’t stop staring. He’s just so brutally gorgeous. When the night is over, he leads me to the curb, but it’s not his car we came in.
“I have to meet an associate for drinks, think about what I said,dear.” He says with a bright smile before shutting the door in my face and tapping the hood.
My whole body shivers from non-existent cold as the car pulls away. Mark White is a shark. A fraud. I wanted to know the real him and wow, he revealed himself. He’s not just a player or a showboat. He is mean, cold and bitter.
My fiancé is terrifying.
As a girl, I used to hope that an arranged marriage was a recipe for two unsuspecting strangers to find their soulmate. As a woman, the thought of a soulmate in the mafia gave me pause. I know what they are like, what they do for a living.
But the scariest thing of all is realizing tonight my fiancé isn’t justnota Made man, or not my soulmate. He is completely soulless.
Now what do I do?
CHAPTER 6
Mark
I close my eyes to block out all the useless, shit-for-brains dickfaces I call my peers. My car pulls away from the Capitol building where a bunch of lawmakers and wannabes stand around puffing up their chests. Being around them pisses me off, which sucks ass for me, since being around these losers is my life.
The sickest part is the flocks of followers. Each empty suit is surrounded by a group of young men and women batting their eager eyelashes, not knowing every single one of these assholes is as dirty as they come.
Including me.
At least I don’t let a gaggle of staffers worship me. Not if I can help it. I’m direct with them and with my opponents. Charming, but not subtle. About what I want, how I want it. Like today. I can’t come right out and say I’m getting in bed with the mafia, but I don’t mind implying so to see my opponents piss themselves on the hill. Spineless idiots.
In bed with the mafia. Touché, subconscious.
I raise the partition between me and Ric, happy not to be in one of the SUVs today. Once I have some privacy, I call Robbie.
“What do we have on the woman?”
“Hello to you, too.”
“My fucking future wife, what else did you find?”
