Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
I reach for him and cup his strong face in my hands. “I’m sorry for my mistake, but I will not apologize again for it. I’m sorry our parents let us down and betrayed friendships. I’m sorry for all of it. The wars. The bloodshed. The death. But we can’t change what happened. We can either move forward and make things right or live in the past with all our demons.”
I feel the tension in his body ease slightly as another brick tumbles from the wall around his black heart.
I rise on my tiptoes to press my forehead to his. “I have agreed to marry you. I will live with you. I will play the role of your wife in public as I am expected to. I will respect and honor our agreement. But if you ever put your hands on me again, Don De Kysa, then as your queen, I will destroy you.”
29
Nico
My mood thaws during the car ride to the reception dinner.
Beside me, Bella stares silently out the window while I stare out the other.
I’m trying to put a name to the strange feeling lodged in my chest.
The one that tells me I might be losing control of the situation.
I never expected any of this.
Truth be told, I was so consumed by my need for revenge I didn’t form any expectations of what we would be together.
Oh, I knew Bella would fight me. But I never thought she’d play along, let alone rise up like a queen.
If you ever put your hands on me again, Don De Kysa, then as your queen, I will destroy you.
And the feeling it stirs in my blood makes me wonder what the hell is happening to me.
With no warning, a tight knot has lodged in my chest when I think about my bride, and it’s not a knot of panic or fear or irritation.
It’s a knot of longing.
Somewhere along the way, I’ve started to enjoy her company.
And somehow, I’ve started to consider her feelings more and more.
Like right now, when I realize this dinner will be the first time she’s seen my father since Italy. Back when he was the giant asshole of the family.
The crown he has since passed down to me.
I take a glance at her. Her pulse thumps against her slender throat, and she silently bites down on her bottom lip. It’s a nervous tic that makes my lust ignite and my cock hard. I turn away before I give in to my urges and hate fuck her against the back seat.
She’s probably petrified.
I steal another glance.
No, she’s not petrified. But she’s nervous.
And she has every reason to be.
Gio De Kysa is a mean, impulsive son of a bitch who still hasn’t forgiven her father for what happened that night.
He also mopped up the tears of his brokenhearted teenage son when he returned home after running away to the US to find his girl.
So much has changed since then.
Without speaking, I reach over and take Bella’s hand in mine, and I hold it tight all the way to the restaurant.
It’s like a De Kysa family reunion.
After word spread of my father’s spontaneous nuptials, all the De Kysas in the US have descended on the restaurant where the wedding celebration is being held. Uncles. Cousins. Distant relatives. Somehow they’ve hauled ass to make it on short notice.
When Bella and I walk in, we make a beeline for the bar. My father’s new wife, Juliet, descends on us like a shooting star crashing to earth.
“Domenico, it’s so lovely to meet you.” A plume of Chanel No.5 engulfs me at the same time a pair of bedazzled arms wrap themselves around me. “I’ve heard so much about you. I heard you were handsome, but your reputation doesn’t do you justice. Look at that thick head of hair and those cheekbones. My lord, you look like your father. Have you met my daughter, Eve, yet? She’s a little peculiar, but you’ll get used to her.”
My father’s new wife is like a cannonball erupting out of a cannon at full speed. High energy and explosive.
And she likes to talk.
A lot.
She loops her arm through mine. “I do hope we can spend some time together and get to know each other. You must visit us at the house. I’ll fix you my shrimp and grits, it’s to die for, and you can get to know your stepsister a bit better. We’re family now. Perhaps we can visit the Low Country as a family. Good Lord, look at your wife. She’s beautiful. Look at that hair.” She sighs as she looks at Bella. “I have to pay for that color, but you are a natural beauty.”
Bella chuckles politely. “Thank you.”
I observe the new Mrs. Gio De Kysa.
The willowy redhead from South Carolina is nothing like the women my father has dated in the past. She looks like she fell into a vat of glitter and sparkles in her short skirt and tight jacket covered in pink and white sequins. Even her high heels sparkle. Thick makeup does nothing to hide the years she has on my father. If I were a betting man, I’d put her somewhere in her early sixties.