Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“I’m not a fucking boy,” the man growls and I take him in. He’s older than me. I met him during my meetings with his father, but he was silent and seemed bored. Melina’s brother.
Melina is shaking her head no and looks at her brother. “Marco, tell me that our father didn’t do this. I know he’s a bastard and I hate him, but tell me he didn’t sell me to a man who had plans to make me…” Her face goes pale, and she has trouble getting the words out. “Marco, tell me our father didn’t know what was planned for me when he agreed to this marriage.”
“Melina,” he says but even I can hear the truth in his voice. Her father knew all along. I’m going to kill him and I’m going to enjoy every second of it. As I look at the tears that are sliding down my woman’s beautiful face, I make myself a promise. I will put a bullet in him for every tear she sheds over the miserable piece of shit.
“He knew,” she whispers. “He sold my virginity and didn’t care what would happen to me.”
“I took your virginity,” I growl.
“I told you not to talk about that here. I don’t want my brother to hear about what we did,” she insists, while doing her best to wipe her face with the back of her hand and to collect herself enough to stop crying.
“Stop testing me, Lina. I will talk about whatever I want to when it comes to you. You belong to me.”
“I’m so tired of men thinking I’m a possession. I’m not! I’m a person with my own mind and my own feelings. I don’t belong to anyone!”
I use my free hand to hold the side of her neck and pull her to me. She gasps, her body going rigid as she tries to resist. “Bullshit,” I bark. “You are mine, Lina. You gave me your innocence and left me wanting more. Did you really think I would give that up? I’ve been looking for you and now that I have you, I’m not letting you go. You need to come to terms with the fact that you are mine now.”
“I’m not having this conversation here. Not now. Not in front of my brother and this pig that my own father apparently sold me to so I could become his whore.”
I don’t like seeing her like this. I’d rather she be holding on to her anger instead of being broken. So, I say the first thing that comes to mind that will piss her off. “You wouldn’t be a whore.”
“I would apparently be trained on how to please all of his buddies,” she hisses, motioning toward Kelly. “That would make me a whore.”
“Whores usually fuck because they want to. You’d be a sex slave, which is what your almost-new husband specializes in.”
She flinches like I hit her. “I would never allow that to happen!”
“None of this would have happened if you had stayed in my bed where you belonged,” I counter.
“I…You… I don’t belong there,” she sputters.
“You do. I’ve got shit to do here woman. We will have this out later, but if you keep arguing with me, I’ll strip you naked right here in front of everyone—including your brother—and remind both of us just how much you do belong to me.”
“Antonio—”
“Keep arguing, il mio tesoro. I’ve been dying to get back inside your tight, sweet, p—”
“Stop!” she yells.
For some reason our little discussion helped to relieve a little of my anger—at least it does until I turn back to find that Stone has pulled Kelly back up. Damn it, I may have to start liking this guy.
“I want you to inhale deeply, Kelly, because it’s the last breath you’re going to take,” I warn, pressing my gun against his forehead that is now covered with sweat.
He struggles against Stone. He’s a big motherfucker, but Stone is getting more impressive in my eyes because he’s containing Kelly easily.
“You can have the bitch. I was told she was untouched,” the man says, panic bleeding into his eyes because it’s starting to dawn on him that his men are not coming to the rescue. “This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”
“But it really does,” I counter. “Rest assured, however, the only blood lost here today will be yours and those of your men. You should have never touched my property. The moment you did, you signed your own death warrant.”
“Antonio, stop. He didn’t hit me. I never saw him until the wedding,” Melina pleads, wrapping her hands around my arm. “You can’t kill him,” she hisses, her voice dropping down.
“No one touches you, Lina. You’re mine. They touch you, they die. It’s as simple as that.”
“He hasn’t though,” she says, giving up trying to get control of my arm while self-consciously touching her bruised face.