Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38723 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
She didn’t reply. If anything, her muscles coiled with more tension.
I knew she was embarrassed when I fed her, but I was only seeing to her wellbeing. I’d thought she was relaxing a bit more into our routine after how she’d softened in my arms over breakfast this morning.
“What did you do to her?” Luca growled, a forbidden outburst.
“What I do with my wife is none of your concern,” I shot back, momentarily forgetting to rebuke him. I was too distracted by my worry for Nora.
“The last time I saw her like this, her bastard cousin had tried to rape her. What the fuck did you do?”
My stomach dropped, but I didn’t tell him to shut up. I needed answers, and Nora wasn’t responding to me.
“Which cousin?” I demanded.
“That sick motherfucker, Alberto,” he seethed, his fists flexing. “He attacked her at our wedding reception.”
I ignored the spike of jealousy at the mention of their wedding and focused on my growing rage. I pulled Nora closer to my chest.
“And you didn’t kill him for it?” I bared my teeth at him, the cowardly worm. “He’s should be long dead by now.”
Luca’s jaw ticked. “I banished him from my home. I made sure he suffered first.”
I sneered at him and petted Nora’s hair. “You wanted his allegiance more than you wanted to protect her. You were never worthy of her.”
His cheeks darkened to a deep shade of red, but his shame didn’t please me this time. The fucker should be ashamed. I was too consumed by fury to care about debasing him.
“Who else was there when you paraded her around in front of Alberto?” Luca demanded. “Her father? The bastard who’s abused her for her entire life and sold her to a sadist in exchange for power?”
My teeth snapped together, and I tasted copper on my tongue. Yes, Giuseppe had heartlessly sold his daughter to me, but I hadn’t cared about that; I was too pleased with the match, with my triumph.
I caressed her cheek, hooking my thumb beneath her jaw to lift her face to mine. “Look at me.” Her hazel eyes shined with unshed tears, and my stomach twisted. “Is this true? Giuseppe beat you?”
Her features tightened with resentment. Toward me.
“You saw how he ordered his guard to hurt me when I defied him and tried to save Giana from you. Did you think that was the first time something like that happened?”
My spine stiffened. Why hadn’t I ever considered that?
I’d nearly killed the man for laying a hand on her. I’d protected her.
“And Alberto?” I demanded, voice rough. “He attacked you?”
Her laugh was a touch hysterical, and she shook in my arms. “You think that was the first time he did that, too?”
“You stupid, selfish bastard,” Luca snarled. “How could you let them anywhere near her?”
“That’s enough!” I barked at him, and Nora cringed.
I smoothed her hair back from her pale cheek, petting her. The silky sensation of the brunette locks gliding beneath my callouses helped to calm me more than it seemed to soothe her.
I stared into her lovely eyes, so that she could see the truth of my promise deep in my soul. “I’m going to kill Alberto for you. He will never breathe the same air as you again.”
And her father… He was a dead man too. I’d have to wait until my coup was complete, my position of power secure, but he would be in the ground soon enough.
I would always protect my wife.
Chapter 9
Nora
“Don’t worry, Nora,” Dante reassured me, his thumb caressing my palm as he led me into his awful dungeon. “Only pleasure tonight. I promise.”
Luca followed us in tense silence. After his brief outburst at dinner, Dante had threatened his friends again to get him to stop talking.
Despite the monster’s reassurances, my feet dragged as we entered the perverted space. “I don’t want to be in here. Please.”
I didn’t want Luca to suffer anymore. I didn’t want either of us to suffer.
Dante paused and turned to face me, curling two fingers beneath my chin to lift my face to his. “I’m not going to hurt you. I will never lie to you, remember?”
I bit my lip, unsure what to say. He’d been truthful so far. He hadn’t hurt me with the rope last night, and judging by the way his emerald eyes had blazed at dinner, I believed that he intended to keep his promise to kill Alberto. For me.
My cousin was a key ally, a respected capo. Even Luca hadn’t dared to kill him on my behalf.
No, Luca had witnessed Alberto assaulting me, and he’d let my attacker live.
My teeth pressed harder into my lower lip as uncertainty nipped at me. How could I think badly of Luca for even a moment when Dante had us trapped in his sadistic playroom?
Dante scooped me up in his arms and carried me over to the enormous bed. He laid me down gently, cupping my cheeks in both hands to claim a deep kiss. I didn’t fight him. Maybe I should’ve bitten him, but I was becoming accustomed to his possessive kisses. He would take one from my lips whether I wanted him to or not. A kiss didn’t hurt. It was easy enough to simply allow my mouth to shape to his.