Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
I want to own her.
And now I remember why I took her to begin with.
This girl is mine.
“Nobody is coming for you,” I say quietly, staring into her eyes. “The crime lords are too busy squabbling with each other. The Russians aren’t going to stick their necks out now that you’re under my control. Your family is dead. Your precious little Butcher is gone. Save yourself. Put on my ring.”
She opens her fist and stares at it, nestled there in her skin, red marks in her flesh from gripping it so tight.
“Why are you doing this?” she asks, sounding desperate. “Marrying me won’t get you anything. The association is finished. The Greek mafia is dead. They won’t follow you.”
“Maybe, maybe not. There are still some powerful families in the States that might be willing to swear themselves to me if you’re by my side.”
“Seems like a lot to risk considering your father wanted me dead.”
“You really don’t know when to keep your mouth shut.” I step toward her but she doesn’t flinch back. That’s a good girl. “Put on the ring.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll keep you here. You’re a pretty little flower, Kacia. Maybe you’ll make a nice toy if you won’t be my wife. But I’ll warn you, I’m not kind to my toys. I don’t take good care of them. I play with them, abuse them, get my pleasure from them and throw them out when I’m finished.”
“What happened to the bullet? You’re not making it quick anymore? Now you’re threatening to torture me? Use me?”
My lips pull back in a snarl. “I’m trying to get you to see reason. Think about it for one second, Kacia. You keep being stubborn and you’ll end up dead in this room, despite what you might think. I can’t hold out forever. But if you marry me, at least you’ll have a shot at life. Hell, maybe you can kill me in a few weeks. Harbor your grudge and let your rage grow and one day, when I’m least expecting it, maybe months or years from today, you can sink a knife in my chest or cut my throat in my sleep. You marry me, you play along, and you wait for your fucking chance to slip away. Or else you can be stupid, and stubborn, and force me to kill you.” I reach up without thinking and touch her cheek. She shivers under my fingers and I move my hand back to lace my fingers into her thick hair as I move closer, my lips inches from hers. Her chest rises and falls and the heat from her is like a volcano.
I brush my mouth across her cheek and whisper, “Don’t be fucking stupid. Be a good girl and put on my ring.”
I pull her hair once and make her gasp and whimper before letting her go. That whimper is like fire in my blood, driving me wild. I walk to the cot, yank off the mattress and toss the frame into the hallway. I pause in the door and she’s still leaning against the table, biting her lip, the ring still in her hand.
“Put it on. Take the future I’m offering.”
I shut the door and leave her alone.
Chapter 5
Kacia
I lay on the mattress on the floor and stare at the ring. The early morning sunlight catches the diamond and a rainbow scatters across the wall. On the table, the remnants of breakfast goes cold. One of his men brought it to me and refused to talk as he dropped the tray on the table and left again.
Now I’m alone. And the ring still isn’t on my finger.
I close my eyes and think about his lips brushing against my cheek, his hand in my hair, his voice in my ear. Be a good girl. It sends a shiver of desire down my spine and deep into my core. That short fight with him, the physical struggle, and finding out just how much stronger he is than me, followed by the sensual way he moved close and gripped my hair, it did something to me.
It woke something inside of me.
An inferno. A raging halo of desire. When he left me yesterday, I collapsed onto the floor, a puddle of want and need, my pussy dripping wet and aching.
Now I tingle like my thighs are on fire thinking about what he might do to me if I obey.
And what he might do if I don’t.
Maybe it’s the last gasps of a girl who knows she’s dead. Maybe my brain’s finally broken after all these years. I survived Papa’s abusive scorn and my brothers’ bullying, and survived the collapse of my family and my world, and survived the only person that ever cared about me dying at my feet in an awful and violent way, only to finally break here in this room.