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He sits back. “Fairy tales aren’t real.”
I look down at my food, realizing I’m not eating. But since I’ll likely throw it up, I don’t even try.
“You say you want to be valued for you, and yet you considered yourself so worthless that you sold your body.”
My gaze snaps to his in indignation. "You considered me so worthless as to buy me and then to kidnap me in your game."
"Worthless?" He scoffs. "I paid a lot of money for you."
Oh, yeah. He doesn't just control me because he took me from my father and Romeo. He owns me.
"I wanted to escape. I want my own life. I don't want to be in this game between you and my father."
He takes my hand, but it’s not soft. It’s a reminder that I’m powerless. Fear grips me until I can't breathe.
"This is no game, Elena." His eyes are dark and deadly. "This is justice. Revenge. Your father and his cronies took something from me, and now I have taken something from them."
16
NIKO
I've prepared myself to see her again. To not let her beauty and innocence mixed with fire affect me. But when I see her outside the dining room door, the red dress hugging every curve as if it had been painted on her, I know I’m in trouble. When she turns and I look into her dark eyes, my resolve slips. I'm finding it harder and harder to stop myself from wanting her in a way I shouldn't and it's driving me fucking nuts. The woman went behind my back, and yet all I want to do is to keep her. Protect her.
Taking her was supposed to be revenge against her father, nothing more. But something about Elena nags at me, causing me to think about her too much. Too often.
When she said she wanted a life outside the Mafia with another man, I saw red. If she succeeded in this new life, heaven help any man she wanted to be with because he'd be dead. I'd make sure of it. She's mine.
My Elena. Therein lies the problem. I'm thinking of her as my woman when she's nothing but a means to an end. The more time we spend together, the harder it is for me to remember that.
"That's what I mean," she says in response to my comment that I've taken her in retaliation. "You don't see people… me… as a person. In this world, women are only to be pretty and obedient."
"Is that what you think I want from you?" I ask.
She arches a brow. "You have no power here, Elena." She tosses my words back into my face.
"And yet, here you are at my dining room table. Enjoying a gourmet meal." Except for the fact that she's not eating. She hasn't even tasted the wine. Does she think I poisoned it? "I've put you in a primary room in my home. I have guards ensuring that your father and Romeo, who is looking for you, won’t get to you."
"Why?"
Why, indeed? I tell myself my feelings for her are simply desire, that she's a beautiful woman I intend to possess in every way. Her spirit only makes it more enticing to dominate her. There's also the added benefit that she's Fiori's daughter.
But even as I think these things, I know it's a lie. She's gotten to me in a way no woman ever has—beyond the physical. I want her fire, her passion, not just her body. I wonder if I could change her. Maybe I can make her see that she'll never be able to leave our world. Even if I let her walk out my door, her father or Romeo or Tiberius would take her and lock her away. Or another rival family would snatch her. None of them will treat her as well as I do.
Perhaps I can take her up on her offer to tell me all she knows about her family and in time, she'd see that only with me can she be safe. In time, she could come around to me… and… and what? Marry me?
I nearly choke on my wine as the thought hits me. Then again, Elena is the key to my revenge against Fiori and Abate. Asmy wife, I'd have inroads to take over her father's business. Our son could become more powerful than even I can imagine.
The image of Elena ripe and round with my child inside her makes me hard. I remember not using a condom when I fucked her the last time, so she could already be growing my son. The thought fills me with fierce power.
"Have you ever wanted anything else?"
Her words pull me from my reverie. The tough guy in me wants to lie and tell her no, I was born for this life. But I'm on a mission of revenge and seduction, so I opt for a version of the truth.
“My uncle was the Don. My father worked for him, so my being Don wasn’t in the cards.” Now I know differently. Now I understand that I was born to run this organization. To grow it. And to crush anyone who gets in my way.
“What were you going to do?” She seems to relax, but she still doesn’t eat. Is she sick? I remember Maria telling me she was ill that morning. Perhaps this situation is getting to her. Maybe it’s time to back off a bit, to give her some room to come around. To recognize just how much I can do for her.
“I considered either law enforcement or the military, but my uncle died… and even then, my plans didn’t change until my cousin arranged for your Family or maybe Tiberius’s to kill my father. So I had no choice but to kill my cousin and take over.”
