Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 82094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Thanks, you’re really winning me over, you brainless jerk.” My cheeks flush red with anger. “And I can curse. You—You—You fucking asshole.” I immediately cover my mouth and hate myself for stopping to his level, but his grins at me like he enjoyed that little outburst.
“Nag and freak or not, you’re still going to be my wife.” He grabs my arm and holds tightly. Not painfully, but sharp enough that I know he has me. His dark eyes stare into mine and there’s a strange depth to him, one I’ve never seen before, like an emotion sparkles beneath the surface of him and wants to get out, but doesn’t know how. “And I will make sure you’re safe no matter what, even if you complain until my ears burst.”
I’m tempted to fight but it’s the look in his eye that makes me cut myself off. He’s right—I’m being stupid right now.
The hotel is the safest. And his room is the safest of all.
But why am I so nervous to be so close to him?
Chapter 10
Brice
We spend a restless night in a king bed together. I barely get any sleep and pass most of time staring at the ceiling, listening to him breathe, wondering if he’s awake and doing the same thing. He doesn’t try to touch me even though some stupid part of me wants him to reach across the sheets and dig his fingers into my thigh. Maybe if I gave in to this stupid desire and kissed him then I could get some sleep. Maybe we could ease this tension and get it over with.
Instead, I breathe his smell and dream about what it’ll be like to do this every night, to listen to the rhythm of his body and imagine him crossing that invisible line between us. In the morning, he’s up early and showered by the time I roll out of bed.
“Big day today,” he says without smiling. “You should shower. I’ll have room service bring up coffee.”
“Right. Move-in day.” A pit of dread opens in my belly. I knew this was coming, but why am I still so nervous?
“I’ll supervise everything.”
My eyebrows raise. “I didn’t think you planned on being here. I figured you’d fly back to Philly to get things settled there?”
He shakes his head and stares at me with his overly intense scowl. “I can’t do that anymore, not with Panagos sniffing around you. I’ll make sure you’re settled and I have a good security team in place before I leave you alone.”
I grind my jaw for a moment, trying to imagine my life for the next few days with Carmine hovering around like an overprotective bear, and find the whole thing is completely absurd. This is a gangster, the Don of a powerful mafia family, and he wants to help me move my stuff into his house? He’s got to have more important things demanding his time.
But I let him sweep me along. Carmine finds movers last minute and probably pays them a freaking fortune, but at least we have a bunch of big men to carry all my stuff, which really isn’t that much—I planned on carrying it all myself anyway. I shower, dress, and meet Cassidy downstairs in the lounge for breakfast while Carmine makes a dozen more phone calls holed up in the extra bedroom, which I didn’t know existed until he casually mentioned it this morning. The bastard, he probably hid it from me so I’d be forced to sleep in the same bed as him.
“What are you going to do?” I ask Cassidy as I drink coffee and pick at some fruit. “When we’re gone, I mean.”
“I’ll hang around here for a few more days, I think. Carmine says the room’s all paid up for a week and room service is on him, so I figure I might as well enjoy it.”
“Just when I was ready to write him off, here he is doing something nice.”
“Ah, he’s not so bad.” She clears her throat at the look I give her. “Okay, I mean, he’s not so bad for one of them.”
“For a violent mobster? He’s repulsive, Cassidy. I get he’s doing the bare minimum right now, but—” I shake my head, unable to finish that sentence. This small kindness doesn’t erase everything else. It doesn’t erase the way he talks to me and the way he looks at me, and it sure as heck doesn’t erase him blackmailing me into this.
“Is that really how you feel?” she asks softly and the note of sadness in her tone breaks my heart.
I give her a quick sideways hug and shake my head. “No, it’s fine, I’m just tired.” It’s not fine, and it is how I feel, but what’s the point of telling her that? Cassidy can’t help me, nobody can help me, and it’ll only make her depressed knowing I’m about to marry a man I loathe all for the sake of my family.