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“You don’t think I’d try to get away at this point, do you?” I asked as I slipped my hand around his waiting arm.
His mouth quirked in a grin.“I don’t take chances with the things that are important to me.”
The hot coal inside me glowed.
“Anyway, you’re unpredictable and keep me on my toes. I never quite know what to expect.”
“I hope you’re looking forward to a lifetime of it. I don’t plan on changing anytime soon,” I muttered.
His hand tightened on mine, where it was curled like a claw around his forearm.His softly whispered word took me off guard. “Good.”
We reached the official who had probably been brought here at gunpoint, judging by the sweat beading his brow, and the vows began.
Half an hour later, I could barely remember them. Some of Vincenzo’s men, including Matteo, had signed as witnesses, and there was a kiss, this time quick and chaste. People were leaving, and my anticipation rose at the thought of being alone with my new husband. I was married. The idea should feel stranger than it did. I hadn’t run away before it happened. I hadn’t managed to escape my destiny as a mafia princess. Yet, there was little regret in me.
I watched Vincenzo close the door behind the last person, including his security team, and turn his dark eyes on me. Fear wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. I was burning, and only this man could help me.
He started toward me, and the tiny part of my brain still capable of rational thought pushed words out my mouth. “Why did you do this today? What did my father and brother want?” I had to know.
He paused before me, his eyes solemn.“They wanted to know where you were and my assurances you were safe. Someone raised an objection against our marriage to your father, and I wasn’t going to sit around and wait until the entire city knew about it.”
Terror clamped my guts. Someone? There could only be one person.“Who?”
“You know who, tesora. The man you failed to kill. The one who wanted you since you were little and twisted your father’s arm to get you.”
His words made me nauseous. The past descended on me like a swarm of flies feasting on fresh road kill. My inner, most secret shame was public knowledge.“Who knows?”
“Only me, and it’ll stay that way. No one would dare besmirch the name of a Luciano wife. No one.”
His strong words gave me the energy to look at his face. Whatever I’d expected to see there, it wasn’t burning anger and possession.“You… it doesn’t change the way you see me?” I stuttered out the question, pathetic as hell.
Vincenzo narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.“Don’t offend me with a question like that again.”
My mouth curled into a disbelieving snarl as hot tears pressed behind my eyes. I had so much trauma and pain associated with that night. I couldn’t delve too deeply into it, or I would unravel. “Please, don’t pretend that it doesn’t bother you. An old creep tried to buy a child bride, and when he touched me, I tried to kill him, except I wasn’t strong enough to finish the job,” I muttered, angry at him but more at myself. I recalled the nights I’d lain in bed, haunted by nightmares of blood and terror. I’d run away. I’d let him live, and now he was back to haunt me.
“Suna, tesora,” Vincenzo said, stepping close to me and wiping a broad thumb under my eye. “Nothing you do or have ever done will change how I want you. I saw you, and I knew you were meant to be my wife. No one will come between us. I won’t let them. No one will ever touch you again, except me.”
I closed my eyes, and his arms reached around me.“As for the man you spared four years ago, his days on the earth are numbered. I’ll finish what you started, and I’ll make it hurt.”
Dark pleasure and relief surged through me. I was as fucked up as my family if my husband’s vow to kill a man for me was more romantic than the wedding lines we’d just recited.“Did you just promise to murder someone for me as a wedding gift?”
Vincenzo smiled. Not a smirk or a grin or some arrogant know-it-all look. It was a proper, genuine smile, and at that moment, he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.
“No. I promise to murder whoever you want, whenever you want, as long as we both shall live.” He wrapped his arms around me and tugged me close.
The movement made the whalebones in the corset of my scandalous underwear dig into my skin, and a flash of heat threatened to consume me. “And what do you want from me in return for that promise?”
He was walking me backward with a slow but steady step, and I was letting him. The open doorway to our room was behind me, and before I knew it, we were inside, and he had kicked the door shut.
“Just,” he thought for a moment, “everything. I want you heart and body. I want you to live happily in my cage and enjoy your clipped wings that return you to me every night. I want you to learn to live within the radius of my control, so I can breathe without worrying that someone has hurt you. I want your trust, your love, and endless devotion. That’s all.”
He walked me back until the bed met my legs, and I stopped, overwhelmed by this man in every way. My mouth felt full of cotton wool. No one had ever wanted everything from me. Well, not someone I’d wanted to be with, anyway. Did I want to be with Vincenzo? Of course, I did. It was useless to deny it.
“You don’t ask much, do you?” I teased.
Vincenzo’s hands delved into the coiled updo my hair was scraped into, and hair pins tinkled to the floor as the pressure on my scalp retreated. He moved his attention to my dress, and with a few tugs, the flowing satin of the classic gown loosened, tumbling like a waterfall to my feet.
Vincenzo leaned back and stared down at my body. My breasts were propped up high by the corset, and my small waist was pinched in. The crotch of the bodysuit was missing entirely, and the back, well, there was a strategically placed bow that would bare me with one tug if one wanted to access that particular area. I shivered like I was in a desert, and gales of heat were washing over me.
