Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Act what way? Like you ruined my family and sent us running back to Mexico? Or like you killed my brother?”
“I didn’t kill anyone. Not back then at least.” I give her a wry smile.
“Maybe not you, but someone in your family. Someone in your organization.”
“That was ten years ago, Olivia. If the guy that pulled the trigger is still working for us, I doubt he even remembers.”
That’s the wrong thing to say. Her face turns to a snarl and she struggles hard, nearly knees me in the crotch, but I manage to block it with my thigh. A dull ache runs through my leg where she slams against it.
“Don’t you ever say that again,” she says, glaring at me, and I’m sure that if I let her go right now, she’d try to rip my tongue from my mouth. “Whoever killed my brother hasn’t just… hasn’t just forgotten him.” Her voice breaks on that word, forgotten, and I understand. My grip on her wrists loosens a touch and I bite my lip, head tilted to the side.
“All right, princess. Maybe he hasn’t forgotten. But how the hell do you think you’ll figure out who it was? There are hundreds of guys in my organization. Dozens of them were active back then.”
“I’ll figure it out. I’m sure you wouldn’t help even if you could.”
“Is that your goal? You want revenge for your brother? I remember him, you know.”
“Don’t.” Tears well in her eyes. She blinks them back, struggling not to cry.
“He was a decent guy. I never spent any time with him on account of being on opposite sides of a bloody mafia war, but I remember the guys all talking about how he was clever and strong. One of the best the Cuevas family had.”
“I know this already,” she says, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I loved Manuel. He was the only decent thing in my life, and you people took him away.”
I shake my head. “You keep blaming me. Did you ever stop to think that maybe it’s not our fault your brother was involved in a mafia war? That maybe it was someone else?”
“Go ahead, turn it around on Papa. That doesn’t change a thing. Your people pulled the trigger.”
I glare at her and she glares back, and I know we won’t get anywhere with this. We can fight about it all night and she’ll keep coming back to the same traumas, the same anger. Her brother is dead and there’s nothing we can do to change that fact.
“What do you want me to do, Olivia?” My voice is a quiet rasp and I smell her then, like jasmine and fresh cotton sheets. She’s a bolt of energy along my skin. She wakes me up and makes my mind spin.
“Give me my brother’s killer.”
“I can’t. You know I can’t. I’m the Don of this family now.”
“What a shame for your family then.”
I move my hand up, releasing one wrist, and grab her hair. She gasps in surprise as I grip it and I feel a pulse between my legs, a jolt of excitement over feeling her thick locks in my fist. I pull tighter, make her gasp sharply, and I’m staring at her throat like I want to tear it out.
“I can only be so patient, and this isn’t a game,” I whisper in her ear. My teeth are close enough to bite. “I know you hate me. The feeling’s mutual. But you need to start behaving because I can’t spend all my time trying to tame you.”
“I’m not some animal you need to train.”
“No, you’re my future wife. And I’ll treat you like it.”
She glares at me. “What’s that supposed to mean, huh? You think you can just—have me? When you want?”
“That’s right, princess. I think I can have you. I can take you, taste you, fuck you, make you scream my name, and all the while you’ll despise me but you’ll thank me when I leave you a sweat-drenched mess in the middle of my bed ringing with orgasms and content enough to die. That’s what I’ll give you, Olivia. I don’t care if you like me. You don’t have to. I’ll still make your toes curl and you damn well know it.”
She stares with her lips hanging open and I can’t help myself. She’s too beautiful, too incredible, and as much as I hate her right back for what she did to me, I want her all the same.
I crush her mouth in a kiss.
At first, I think she’s going to bite me hard enough to draw blood. She stiffens, doesn’t move, but as her lips part and I feel her tongue against mine, I realize she’s kissing me back and fuck, my god, she releases this soft whimper like she’s moaning but trying to hide it, like she’s submitting to me despite wanting to fight back. This breaks her, this makes her melt, and it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced. I growl and kiss her harder, deeper, and she shoves me away, breathing hard, lips pink and smeared.