Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“She’s going to for the rest of her life anyway.” At least when I wanted her to, I amended in my head. “So why not start now?”
“Because it’s a fucking punishment.” For the first time all night, Carmine raised his voice. “Is that really what you want her to think? That sleeping next to you is a punishment?”
“It doesn’t matter what she thinks.”
“That’s becoming clear. But why? What would it cost you to stop being an asshole and to show her a little kindness?”
That stopped me in my tracks. Did he fucking forget what family he belonged to? “After that stunt she pulled tonight?”
Carmine sighed, his shoulders slumping. “No. You need to address that with her. She could’ve gotten seriously hurt—or worse. But what if it truly was an accident? Then what lesson would you be teaching her?”
“That she’s an idiot and she needs to listen to us or she’ll get hurt. But yeah, I’ll be sure to put a friendly spin on it.”
Carmine ignored that. “But after tonight—you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Great. Cliches. “I don’t need to catch her. She’s already mine.”
“But you also don’t need to be a jerk. Why do you want a miserable woman around when it probably wouldn’t take much to make her happy?”
“Like you do?” I scoffed.
“Yes. Stefano, too. If you’d just bother to get to know her.” He stopped and ran a large hand across his short hair. “I know you didn’t want this marriage, but she didn’t, either. Why not make the best of it?”
“I am. I’m keeping her safe, which is more than I can say for you.”
“Fine, I give up.” He turned his back on me, fixing himself another drink.
Let him sulk. I had other matters to deal with. But his voice stopped me before I could leave the room. “If you make her come to your bed like this, she’s never going to voluntarily do it again.”
I paused, to see if he was going to say anything else. When he didn’t, I climbed the stairs to the second floor.
Allegra was perched on the edge of my bed when I entered the master bedroom. I’d half expected her to barricade herself in her tiny room. She rose to her feet as I shut the door behind me and took off my suit coat.
Her cheeks were full of tear tracks.
Which didn’t change the situation at all.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet and defeated.
That also didn’t change anything. “That’s not good enough.”
“I don’t know what else to say.” She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t trying to get away.”
“You put yourself—and Carmine—in danger.”
“I didn’t— Wait, Carmine was in danger?”
“If one of our enemies had decided to grab you when you did your little disappearing act, he, and the rest of my men, would’ve been obliged to come get you. And once bullets start flying, people get hurt.”
Her face paled. “I don’t want that.”
“Then don’t do such stupid things. I get that you’re naïve, Allegra, but you’re not new to this world. You lived in the same kind of situation in New York. Didn’t your father take your security very seriously?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s not even counting assholes like that guy you were getting chummy with.”
“I was trying—” She stopped and looked up at me with huge eyes. “Did he really drug my drink?”
“Yes. I saw him do it.”
“Why?” She was naïve, but her expression told me she at least suspected the truth. She was just hiding it from herself.
No fucking way I was going to do the same. “He would’ve taken you back to his place or out back and raped you.”
Her pale skin turned even whiter, but I remained silent, wanting the truth to sink in.
Then her hand flew up to her mouth and she bolted for the bathroom. She shoved the door shut behind her, but I didn’t need the retching sounds that soon reached me to know what was going on.
Shit. I debated with myself for half a minute and then followed her in there. She was on all fours, hunched over the toilet.
A really charming look for my bride-to-be.
With a sigh, I sat on the edge of the tub and pulled her hair back away from her face. I hadn’t done that for a girl since college. They’d all grown up and gotten more common sense.
Then again, Allegra was only twenty. I wondered how many decades away common sense would be.
Shit.
When she was done, I handed her a towel. “I’ll be waiting out there.” No way in hell was I going to get her a cup of water and tuck her into bed. I wasn’t her fucking father.
She emerged a few minutes later, pale and shaking. I was sitting in a leather recliner that had once belonged to my grandfather. I kept my expression neutral while she walked over to me.