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Suna
An hour later, I could still feel Vincenzo Luciano’s hands on me. It was like they’d burned through my dress and scorched my skin. I was marked by his touch, and if anyone looked at me, they’d know exactly where he’d touched me, maybe even see his fingerprints.
“Earth to Suna. Have a drink or something and cheer up,” Hana warned me, jerking her head toward my father, who was watching me with narrowed eyes.
I jerkily brought my hand to my face, my fingers clutched around a glass of prosecco like a lifeline. Mauro Luciano, the aging symbol of the Luciano family, sat beside my father. Vincenzo flanked him, with my brother Jae opposite. A sense of tension and danger filled the air. But Vincenzo’s eyes weren’t on my brother, his rival. They were on me.
I brought my glass to my lips with his gaze, warming my hand every inch of the way. The alcohol tasted bitter in my mouth, the memory of Vincenzo’s blood still lingering there. I put the glass down and tore my eyes away.
Why hadn’t his possessive touch made me nauseous, like the memory of those hands on me from long ago? After everything that happened with my first engagement, I couldn’t stomach the company of men who weren’t family, never mind someone touching me or, God forbid, kissing me. I doubted Vincenzo Luciano expected to be getting a virgin in this day and age, but he was getting one, anyway.
My eyes met Vincenzo’s again. A flicker of something I didn’t know how to categorize flickered in my chest, and I looked away. I couldn’t take the intensity of his dark good looks. Seriously, if someone was going to be a bad guy, he shouldn’t look so good. Dark hair, tanned skin, dark stubble, and a brooding authority I felt down to my toes. He was dangerous. One look at him made that clear. His expression made my skin tight and feel hot, like I was running a low-grade fever.
The tapping of metal on glass filled the room, and Hana elbowed me again. At this rate, I’d have permanent bruises from her pointed reminders.
“Better get yourself together. It’s dance time,” she hissed.
Shit, I’d forgotten all about the dance. The fucked up thing about these kinds of events was there was little pretense that the couple was marrying because they liked each other or even knew each other. The men talked business, and the women talked about dresses, wedding nights, and kids. I wished I was a man sometimes. To walk in the underworld, instead of merely existing in it, to be bartered around and sold off.
One thing the organizers had decided would pass as a sufficient romantic gesture to placate the bored housewives in attendance was a dance. Music swept through the room, and I tensed, wishing I’d snuck off to the toilet before we’d gotten this far, or better still, got out of here and run off into the night. I considered making a break for it when a solid presence warmed my side.
“Suna, if I may have the pleasure?” Vincenzo’s voice was pleasant enough, but there was steel just beneath. It warned me to play the part and go along with it or else.
My father’s eyes were on me, and I turned my face toward my fiancé. I slipped my hand into his, and then we were moving. The dancefloor was cleared, and the lights were dimmed. Everyone was quiet, and only the music filled the air. Vincenzo pulled me close, resting a huge, hot palm against the small of my back. He was so big, my head rested against his pec. I could have easily closed my mouth around his nipple if he wasn't wearing so many layers. Where the hell did that image come from? I tried to clear my head as we moved to the music. We turned, and I found my heels didn’t trip me for the first time. I looked up at Vincenzo, surprised. His expert touch made me more graceful than I’d ever been.
“You can dance? I didn’t expect that,” I admitted.
His mouth tugged into a grin, and it was handsome as hell.“You’re certainly not what I expected either, so I guess we’re both caught on the back foot tonight.”
“Hardly. You might be able to dance, but everything else is about what I’d expected from the Luciano heir.” I gripped his arms as he dipped me low, drawing applause from our audience.
“Is that right? What about me is so predictable?” he asked, pulling me up and holding me closer than before.
The heat from his body made me flush.“The power you wield, the control you employ… the submission you demand,” I murmured, spellbound by his eyes. They were dark, but not as dark as mine. Hints of green and gold glowed within those depths. They were mesmerizing.
“Submission? The things I require from my men aren’t the same qualities I look for in a wife.”
I struggled to interpret his statement.“But you didn’t look for a wife, did you? You’ve been given one like I’ve been given you. Neither of us chose the other. I know you don’t want to do this anymore than I do. What if there was a way we could get out of it?” I whispered.
Vincenzo seemed to freeze as the music ended, and everyone clapped. His eyes narrowed on me, and I couldn’t get a read on his damn mood.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
The chant had started up somewhere, and now it swept over to us. My cheeks reddened at the thought of kissing this man in front of anyone. Well, at kissing him at all. I glanced at my father, who was watching with a shrewd expression. He inclined his head toward Vincenzo, and I knew I had no choice. After the promises I’d made my father, if he had even the slightest idea I wanted to run away, he’d lock me up in our family compound and never let me out again. I’d go insane. That was it. My fear personified—a cage with no lock.
I looked at my fiancé, involuntarily wetting my lips under his inscrutable gaze.
“Well, let’s get it over with,” I muttered at him, tilting my head back.
I’d thought I’d have a panic attack at a man’s touch. I thought I’d feel sick or dizzy, but I didn’t, not in the way I’d imagined. As Vincenzo lowered his face toward mine, his powerful hands gripping my waist, nearly lifting me to him, the dizziness wasn’t fear or anxiety. It was something else entirely. Something I’d never felt before.
I tried to turn my face to the side, hoping he’d go for a cheek kiss, but a firm hand immediately cupped my jaw and turned my face back toward his. There was no escape. He was going to kiss me, and I had to let him.
The moment his lips touched mine, that twisting, wet heat inside my belly expanded, igniting the blood in my veins and filling me with fire. He didn’t brush a light peck across my lips. I doubted if this man knew how to kiss someone appropriately. Instead, his lips moved across mine with complete possession, as if staking a claim.
His teeth bit down on my lower lip, and the scrape and drag of his stubble made me gasp. As soon as my lips parted, his tongue delved inside the cavern of my mouth and stroked along my tongue in sinuous strokes, carnal and vulgar. It was no mere kiss. Vincenzo turned it into a sexual act, and heat crowded all other thoughts from my head.His hand, still gripping my jaw, fell to my neck, circling the front and pressing lightly into the side, keeping me in place while he feasted on me.
My father was watching, along with the rest of our families, yet he didn’t seem to care. This man didn’t care if he was mouth-fucking me in front of my brothers. He was laying a claim and stealing something important from right inside my chest. My heart pounded, my palms were slick with sweat, and I swayed into him as my knees decided to give way. His arms swept around me and crushed me to him as clapping and catcalls started in the hall.
