Morina Bailey had pushed me over the edge in a matter of weeks. It’d taken this little free spirit only that amount of time to do what no one else had ever done. I wanted to punish her and fuck her all at the same time.
Her MO was to go where her gut pushed her and she’d decided that meant following her anger down this path of going to the gala with other people.
When I’d suggested we go separately, I was only trying to create a professional distance, one where we were still friendly with one another.
She’d thrown that in my face and suggested other men like she could insert anyone between her legs and be just fine.
She probably would’ve been because I wasn’t about to hurt her. But I’d kill the man. I wanted to put a hit out on Bradley for that very reason.
I’d seen red when she’d left the ballroom with him on her arm.
Maybe it was a pride thing. I had to tell myself it was. Mixing business with pleasure and staking the family’s legacy on something as frivolous as my feelings for her was unacceptable.
Bradley had shaken my hand tonight and smiled while on the arm of the woman he’d heard me call my fiancé a week before.
I didn’t care what she’d told him, in another life, I would have shot him just for that. Had I been like my father or anyone else in the mob, he would’ve been dead already.
I still wanted him dead even after I’d had her.
His lips had been on hers and he’d dragged his hands across her hips.
It didn’t matter that he’d stopped, it didn’t matter that she’d called my name out after getting herself off.
Lost in something that wasn’t even jealousy at this point, I took her pleasure the way I wanted it.
Reason wasn’t present in that room with her. She’d called me by my full name. Sebastian Armanelli, head of the mob. The last name that signified violence and danger. In that moment, the name fit me perfectly.
Fuck.
She shoved me away once we’d finished. I let her go. I couldn’t be held accountable for anything I did at this point in the night.
She breezed by me, her blue dress flapping with how fast she left the room.
I pounded the wall with a fist.
“What are you doing?” I whispered and then spun around, pacing back and forth.
We weren’t even a month into this arrangement.
I needed to marry her. Lock it down. Get this shit straight and stop indulging. She trusted me enough already to sell those shares and she’d be an Untouchable. It could be complicated but if we kept ourselves in line, it could be clean. This company didn’t need feelings involved. She needed to trust me without my cock in her.
I called my brother. “I’m marrying her tomorrow. If the papers aren’t ready, prepare them.”
“Tomorrow? I thought we had another–”
I hung up on him, then called my lawyer and told him to get the courthouse ready tomorrow too.
I was done tiptoeing.
I stalked back into the ballroom. She stood at a small table on her own, looking over the dance floor.
A man approached her and my temper flared again when she smiled.
Morina didn’t seem to understand that we were bound now in a way she would never be able to shake for as long as she lived.
My Untouchable.
Her sapphire eyes locked onto mine as I stalked closer. I didn’t wait for an introduction. Instead, I took her fingers in mine and ran my hand over the box in my pocket.
Leaning down to her ear, I saw the bite mark I’d left. My cock stirred. I whispered in her ear, “smile, ragazza.”
Then I got down on one knee.
I spoke in Italian to her. I told her she was as beautiful as the sea, that I would never really be able to have her like I wanted because who could bottle the beauty of the ocean.
She wouldn’t understand, nor would anyone else.
I opened the box and in dark velvet sat her ring. At the center sat a princess cut diamond but the surrounding stones were crystals. “Rose quartz, howlite, and some other stuff I’m not sure of at this point, ragazza. Same as your crystals and beads.”
I told myself I went through the trouble so that she’d be comfortable wearing it for the remaining months.
The smile she’d pasted on her face dropped away. “My bracelets, Bastian?” she whispered. Then a lone tear fell from her eye. Then the real smile, the one I really wanted shone across her face.
That was the real reason for those crystals in that ring, you dumbass.
I took the jewelry and slid it on her left ring finger.
The crowd clapped. The cameras went off. The news was made.
Our arrangement had officially begun.
She gripped my hand, hers so small in mine as I thanked everyone who congratulated us and steered us toward where our coats were checked.
“Your date gone for the night?” I asked her, knowing I’d sent Elizabeth home.
She nodded, apparently not willing to engage in any sort of conversation with me. She was probably shocked with the night’s events. Or embarrassed.
And I knew that was on me. I should have been embarrassed too for fucking her in the library of someone else’s home. Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to find much remorse in it.
We drove home, silent for the first half of the ride. She turned that engagement ring on her finger over and over again.
“Thank you for the crystals,” she murmured finally.
I nodded. “I figured you’d need them in times like this when you decide not to wear your bracelets.”
Her hands folded into her lap. “I’ll get you a ring too.”
“Not necessary.” I tapped my gold ring on the window, the one that held such weight and responsibility. “I have this one. It’s just fine.”
“That’s not a wedding ring.”
“It’s for my family. It’s what I’m truly dedicated to.”
“Well, you’re dedicated to seeing this marriage through for a few more months to get these shares, aren’t you? It means you can wear a wedding band from me.”
She wanted to give me back something that I didn’t need. I didn’t even want it. “I don’t need a reminder, Morina.”
“A wedding band isn’t a reminder. It’s a symbol of trust or something. We need that. We need something after what just happened tonight.”
“And what just happened?” I eyed her in the dark of our SUV.
Goosebumps popped up on her arms. “You fucked me in public like you owned me, Bastian! The night was a shit show. You don’t even want to fuck me. You were the one that put the brakes on it in the first place.”
I hmphed and kept tapping on the window. “Your friend knew we were involved.”
“So what?”
“So he shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“The whole point of going with other people was for us screw them discreetly before we were engaged and release our sexual tension.” She slapped the leather of her seat.
“I don’t think that’s an option for me when I see you with other men who know you belong to me.”
She screamed in frustration, balling up her fists. “You wouldn’t even kiss me a few days ago!”
I nodded, knowing I sounded insane. “I still don’t think we should. It’s fucked up that you’re in my head this much, that I’m around you and can’t seem to feel, smell, imagine anyone else, Morina. Do you know I considered checking my horoscope today?”
“You’re insane,” she grumbled. “I can’t talk to you right now. You’re so fucking insane. I just want to go to sleep.”
“Great.”
I did too. I wanted to wake up tomorrow and screw my head on straight because tonight I was losing my mind.
