Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
She sighed and pushed ravioli around her plate.
“But you’re right. Your father was backed into a corner.”
“Thanks for that.”
I nodded as I stuffed a forkful of salmon into my mouth. We ate in silence for a few minutes. Every time I looked at her, she’d have her eyes on her plate.
“Your sister isn’t married?” I knew she wasn’t and suspected what the man I’d assigned to follow her would come back with.
“No.”
“If I may ask, who is Effie’s father?”
She picked up a ravioli and turned her gaze fully to mine. “You’re welcome to ask. You’d just have to ask her.” Her mouth spread into a victorious grin.
“Touché.”
“Salvatore,” she started a moment later. “This party,” she put her fork down and wiped her mouth, shaking her head. “I don’t know if I can. He hates me, and I feel the same toward him. I don’t even know why you’re nice to me.”
I reached across the table to touch her hand. “I’m not him, Lucia.”
She looked at my hand covering hers. It was so much bigger than hers. It swallowed her up. It was almost a physical manifestation of my power over her: I could make her disappear.
“Look.” I turned her hand around and traced the lines of her palm with my thumb. “We don’t have a choice. We will go to that party. There’s no if about it, not even for me. You and me…it could be worse. He could have kept you himself or given you to my brother. You don’t want that.”
I knew she understood by the way her face changed a little, becoming more hesitant, but her expression told me she trusted me, at least more so than any member of my family. It was a start.
“I’m not saying you have to be grateful for any of it, but neither of us have a choice. We just need to go, to get through it. Just do as I say, don’t make waves. We’ll eat dinner; I’ll be beside you the whole time. Keep under the radar, and don’t give him any reason to have to prove anything. He will not miss another opportunity, Lucia.”
“So do as you say. We’re back to that again.”
She rolled her eyes, but it was all an act underneath which, she was afraid. “Look at me.”
She did, reluctantly.
“I can only keep you safe from him if you do as I say.”
“I’ll try.”
“Are you finished?”
Lucia nodded. She’d eaten half her plate, which was good enough.
“Then let’s go.” I tossed some bills onto the table and stood. “I want to give you a closer look at those things you found in my bedroom.”
10
Lucia
He didn’t try to hide his amusement at my expression when he said that. And if he did it to get my mind off the discussion of the party, it worked because the entire way back, all I could think about was that.
Once inside the house, Salvatore kept his hand at my back and told Rainey and Marco to go to bed. We then went into the living room to grab a bottle of vodka before he led me upstairs to his bedroom.
“Are you still curious?” he asked once we were inside and he’d closed the bedroom door. Uncapping the vodka, he took a swallow then handed me the bottle. Watching him, I did the same, then coughed and handed it back. He chuckled and drank once more before setting the bottle on the nightstand. He dimmed the lights and stripped the bed of its comforter before turning back to me. “Are you?”
“Salvatore—”
He wrapped one arm around my waist and put his forefinger to my lips. “I want you, Lucia. My cock is aching to be inside your warm little pussy.” He kissed me, and I yielded, my body already reacting to his touch, wanting him. Remembering how he made me feel. How he made me come.
His fingers touched my shoulders, and I felt the dress dragged down over my arms and to my waist, leaving my bared breasts pressing against his chest. Salvatore stopped for a moment, pulling back, his dark eyes making my nipples tighten. With one hand, he tugged his shirt over his head. I watched, desire hot in my core as I took him in, his body big, muscular, powerful.
Large hands found my hips as he neared to kiss me again, our eyes open. He pushed the dress down and off. Salvatore stepped back, and I watched him strip off his jeans and briefs, wetting my lips at the sight of his thick cock ready for me.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, reached for the bottle, and drank again. When he held it out to me, I shook my head. He put the vodka back on the nightstand and gestured to my panties.
“Off.”
My pussy clenched. I slid my fingers into the waistband and slid them down and stepped out of them. Salvatore’s eyes went to my pussy, a hunger in his gaze he did not try to hide.