Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
I understand his meaning. That will send word to everyone that we’re not playing when it comes to the war. We’ll finish what Moreno started, but what they won’t understand is that this is much more than a battle for life or death. Patricia’s mine, and it has nothing to do with Moreno. It would be better if she had no Moreno DNA in her, but we don’t choose who our parents are. Luckily, I was born into a great family, not pond scum.
A rapid knock comes through before Vivian strolls in. “Why did you bother knocking?” I grumble.
“Because I don’t want to startle men on edge, fool. This is my home. I don’t have to knock, but I’d have to smack you if you pulled a gun on me.”
She struts over to her husband, and he pulls her down onto his lap. “Good morning, Viper. Sleep well?” He kisses her while I take a drink of my coffee and try to give them a moment of privacy. They’re just married, and to be fair, they should have time to themselves.
“Yes. Where is the new addition? I expected to find her attached to your hip.”
“She’s still in bed.”
“Wore her out,” she says with a giggle. “Good for you. So she’s going to need a wardrobe, you know. I left her some clothes, but she doesn’t have a damn thing with her.”
“She ran off before getting what she needed.”
“Yeah, she explained what happened while you all had your brief meeting last night.” Damn, my sister can’t stay away from my wife. I wonder what she learned.
“What happened?” I questioned her, wanting the juicy details like comes gossiping hen instead of a man in my position, but when it came to my wife, I needed to know everything.
“You don’t know?”
“No. I didn’t get a chance to ask.” I blush, and my sister smirks because she knows why I didn’t bother talking about anything. Being inside my wife was all that flooded my brain.
She shrugs with indifference and I want to wring her neck. My sister is a true pain in the ass. “Perhaps you should ask her. She is your wife, after all.”
“No, damn it. Tell me, Viv.”
“Okay, calm down. I haven’t had coffee, and I’m ready to fight someone.”
“Here, baby. I’ll get you more.” He hands her the rest of his cup before pressing the button on his office phone that calls the kitchen. “Bring in more coffee for Mrs. Conti as well.”
“Yes, Don Conti.” He ends the call and rubs my sister’s back.
“Go on, Amore.”
“Well, she was neglected a lot and wasn’t allowed to leave the house. She spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, learning to bake. Yesterday was her birthday, so she was in the middle of making her own birthday cake when her evil mother came in and told her she was getting married.”
The housekeeper knocks, and Matteo summons her in with the cart of coffee and some sweets that my sister likes. “Grazie.”
“Prego, Mrs. Conti.”
Matteo rubs my sister’s stomach, and I know it’s too soon to know, but the man has wishful thinking on his mind. As the head of the family, it’s natural. Hell, I’m thinking the same thing, and I’m not the head of an empire.
Once the housekeeper leaves the trays, Vivian swallows a bite and continues, “So her mother sees she’s baking her birthday cake and assumes she knows about the wedding and is grateful that she’s already started baking the wedding cake. Shocked and angry, Patty tells her no and they argue. The bitch grabs Patty violently, throwing her against the counter and sending the ingredients to fall on Pattycake. That’s when she planned to run away.”
Fuck. It hit me hard that I wasn’t any better. I knew about most of this, but hearing her parents saying this to her and knowing that I hadn’t been any better? Damn, I was just as bad. A monster, forcing her to marry me and then fucking her until she gave me everything. What a birthday present. She got a husband she didn’t want as a gift.
“Don’t do that, Gio,” my brother-in-law admonishes me.
“Do what?”
“You’re not her parents.”
“I’m not that piece of shit Moreno, but am I any better? I forced her to marry me when she didn’t want to and to make matters worse, on her birthday too.”
“Please—she might have said no because she was scared, but that wasn’t a girl who didn’t want to. She was dry humping you in front of the priest and all of us,” Matteo says.
My hands stab through my hair, yanking on the ends. “Still, I forced her.” I rub my palms over my eyes.
“I forced her,” he answers, gesturing to Vivian.
I huff. “Yeah, but she’s crazy.”
“Fair point,” Vivian says.
“My crazy,” he growls. They start kissing. I stand and excuse myself before I vomit. Between their constant moments of physical affection and my shame, my stomach can’t take much more.