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“So you admit I’m in danger?” She sets her glass down. “You’re mad at me, so now you’ll kill me?”
“You were blasting my brothers’ names into a million homes a day! Dragging good men through bad press. So yeah,” I bite out, “you’re in danger.”
“They’re not good men! They’re criminals, just like you are.”
“They’re men who were never given a choice which world they wereborn into. They’re sons of a don, but that’s not the life they chose for themselves.”
“Oh please! Archer carries a badge and a gun, and has taken visits from the New York portion of his familymultipletimes since March. You can’t be an upstanding cop and have dinner with the mob. It doesn’t work that way, Felix.”
“It does.” I take a step forward and burn her with a glare. “I’m not here for your opinion, Christabelle. I’mtellingyou he’s not crooked. So until you learn to play nice, you’re not leaving this fuckin house—and you’re not submitting another article that’s gonna bring heat down on his blindside.”
“I’ll be dead before you realize how stupid you are.” She thrusts her hands my way. “Release me!”
“No.” I set my hands in my pockets and rock back on my heels. “Don’t feel like it.”
“Release me! Now.”
“Go have a shower,” I counter, nodding toward the attached ensuite. “Get dressed. Join me for dinner.”
She chokes out an incredulous laugh and rattles her cuffs. “Delusional. Like I said.”
“Either you join me for dinner, or you spend a long, boring night in here while I go out and eat on my own.”
“Oh sure. Like the former is the better option. You miscalculate your appeal, Felix Malone. Somehow, despite your rough upbringing, you seem to think peoplewantyou around.”
“I know what I am, Christabelle. I understand my appeal exactly.”
I move closer and snatch her hands, since she’s still offering them. But instead of unfastening the cuffs, I swipe my fingers down the front of her blouse and tear off the buttons so they fall to the floor with muffled thuds.
She audibly gasps, stunned that I would pull the same move a second time. But I turn anyway, holding her cuffs, and drag her toward the bathroom. “You’re going for a shower,” I growl, tired, hungry, and completely fucking done listening to people tell me how unwanted I am.
I swing the door open and slingshot her onto the stark white tile. Then shutting the door again and fastening the lock, I stalk to themassive cascading shower and flip the taps on. “You have bruises under your eyes. Your cheeks are flushed. Your lips are dry and cracked. And I know for a damn fact you hardly ate anything today.” I grab the zipper on her skirt and yank it down until she squeaks in indignation.
The heiress to the whole fucking city, being manhandled instead of being treated like royalty.
I drop her skirt to the floor and reveal delicate black panties that are almost—almost—see-through… though I leave them in place, since I’m not about that life. Then, straightening up, I slide her blouse back to reveal her shoulders and a matching bra that screamsI like money, and I have loads of it to spend.
“I’m going to kill you.” She brings her bound hands up to cover her chest. “The very first chance I get, I’m going to use your own knife to slice you open.”
“You won’t be the first.” I tear the shirt clean off her body, then I turn her and push her toward the shower. “You can rinse off and freshen up on your own, or I can do it for you. But no matter what, you’re having a fucking shower and joining me for dinner.”
“I won’t eat.” But she steps under the spray in her underwear and tilts her head back so the water sluices her almost-black hair straight down her spine. “You can’t make me.”
“You’re wrong.” I leave her to do things on her own, but I stroll to the long double vanity and perch against the edge, crossing my ankles and settling my hands in my pockets. “Icanforce someone to eat, if that’s what I want from them. I can force them to dance or sing or suck my cock, if the results match my wants.”
“But you don’t rape people,” she scoffs, turning away and resting her hands on the glistening tile wall above her head, ultimately showing me the long, long lines of her body. “You seem to think you’re innocent of rape, purely because you haven’t fucked me. But you abducted me. You undressed me. You assaulted me. All of these are variations of the same crime.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she pins me with a stare, though the water sitting in her lashes is what pulls my focus more than anything else. “You could say you’re not a thief, because you haven’t robbed a bank. But stealing bread and fruit from the local store is still theft.”
“I see your metaphor.” I firm my lips and consider her for a beat, my pulse thundering in my veins and, shamefully, my cock throbbing in my pants.
She’s a beautiful woman. Annoying. Stubborn. And dangerous. But hell, she’s pretty, and she’s naked.
There’s only so much I can do in such circumstances.
“If I need that bread to feed my family, then fuck it, I’m gonna take it.”
“Which makes you a thief.”
