I’ve never been more convinced that I’m half human, half devil—or some sort of fucking unholy beast because…by God…Leandra has never looked more exquisite than she does right now. That red-hot rebellion that blazes in her eyes, the wild anger fused with a soul-deep misery caused by a war raging inside her as she fights her feelings for me—it’s fucking beautiful. The fiery passion. The blistering desire.
The spark of attraction surges between us no matter how fucked-up things are. It’s still there, and it’s stronger than ever. I know it. She knows it. It’s a ticking time bomb, and I can’t wait for it to explode.
The more she fights me, the more I want her. The more she denies me, the harder my dick gets. And the more she hates me, the more I want to bury myself so deep inside her she’ll never be able to forget how much she fucking wants me.
I cross my arms as I study her and drink her in, allowing myself to appreciate the sight. Her raven hair shines in the soft light trickling past the curtains, splashing over her delicate features with a golden glow. The tear stains on her cheeks highlight the contour of her face. It’s like her tears magnify her allure, and I can’t stop myself from reaching out and touching her cheek. She lets me. She doesn’t retreat or fight me, her skin soft and hot against my fingertips. My gaze drops to her belly, and the thought of a piece of me growing inside her drives me fucking wild with a possession that makes my dick throb. “God. I want you so damn much, stray. My body aches for you.”
“Alexius—”
“Have you touched yourself, thinking about me?”
“Stop.”
“I’ve been palming my dick every morning thinking about you, jerking off like a goddamn teenager in the shower. But instead of coming inside you, I have to watch my cum run down the drain.”
Her cheeks flush, and I acknowledge the small victory with a slight uptick at the corner of my lips, knowing how much she loves my filthy mouth.
“I know you’re angry with me. But you can’t tell me you haven’t thought about me once, thinking about what it feels like to have my cock slip inside you so easily because your body remembers me. Your body knows who it belongs to, and your pussy aches to be stretched while I fuck goddamn stars into that pretty little head of yours.”
“Jesus, Alexius.”
She tries to turn away, but I grab her chin and force her to look me in the eye. “Tell me you’re not aching for me, stray.”
She’s sucking her lower lip into her mouth as if afraid her words might escape. But she doesn’t have to say it. I can see it in the flush on her cheeks.
A tear laps onto my thumb, and I place it in my mouth, sucking it off and tasting her sadness. “Bittersweet,” I say and step closer, touching her chin with my thumb and forefinger, forcing her to look up at me. “You think it’s my deception causing your tears, but it’s not. It’s your love for me that makes your soul weep.” I lean down, watching as she shuts her eyes and lets out a pained whimper when I kiss her cheek, lapping up a tear with my lips. “To you, your tears mean sadness. To me…it’s hope.”
“I hate you,” she whispers, and I smile, pressing my mouth against her forehead.
“You don’t. Not even a little.”
“You have no idea how I feel. How much you fucking hurt me.”
“I do,” I whisper, dragging my lips down to her temple, breathing in deep and appreciating her sweet scent. “I know I hurt you. I lost your trust. But I won’t apologize for doing what I needed to ensure you never walk away from me.” I step up close, and her body shivers against mine. She makes no attempt to step back, and I snake an arm around her waist, gently placing my hand on the small of her back. “You cannot expect a man to regret the decisions he’s made when he made them out of love.”
“It’s not love. It’s control. That’s what you want, and you feel powerless without it.”
“That’s true.” I trace my lips down the shell of her ear, and I can almost hear her heartbeat quicken. “So imagine how it feels for a man like me when a woman makes the power and wealth acquired through generations seem insignificant.”
Her shoulders tremble, and she leans her head to the side, making me wonder if it’s an attempt to distance herself from me or an offering for me to take what I want.
She lets out a labored breath and moves her arms in between us, but the way she pushes against my chest is nothing but a halfhearted attempt. “You can justify your actions as much as you want. There is no reason in this entire goddamn world that can make what you did okay,” she whispers, and all I want to do is devour her mouth and swallow her words because they mean nothing compared to the desire that thickens around us with every passing second.
“Oh, but there is one reason,” I say, brushing my lips down the side of her neck, “and it’s the only reason I need to warrant every action I’ve taken, and every action I’ll take in the future to ensure you stay mine, and mine alone.”
She turns her face back toward me, denying me to taste her delicate skin any further. “And what is that?”
My eyes search hers, the air around us palpable with a passionate mix of hate, pain, longing, and an all-consuming lust. “Love,” I reply softly. “My love for you is all the reason I’ll ever need, stray.”
Her eyes start to glimmer with unshed tears as she takes a step back, my arm falling away from her waist. “You don’t know the meaning of love.”
“Just because my love doesn’t fit the mold of what you think love should be? I told you, Leandra, I warned you that my love would be a burden you’d have to carry for the rest of your life. Well, here it is.” I spread my arms wide. “The fucking burden of my love.”
“Deception. Lies. That’s the burden I have to carry for loving you?” She swipes at her wet cheeks, newfound defiance ignited in amber hues. “God, you’re a selfish asshole.”
“And you’re afraid of what we share.”
“What?” She recoils.
“Admit it. You’ve been afraid of this connection between us since the first time I fucked you in that boutique. If not for the placebos, you would have found a way to sabotage our relationship sooner or later because when you’re with me, you have no choice but to be who you truly are. The true Leandra Del Rossa, and not some stereotypical poor girl society has programmed you to be. And you can’t accept that. You can’t accept who you really are.”
“You don’t fucking know me,” she snaps, her cheeks red as anger starts to simmer.
“I know every little part of you, inside and out.” My cock stirs. “No one knows you as I do, and no one else will have the privilege. I’ll make sure of it.”
“By keeping me locked in here?”
“No. As a matter of fact,” I take the key and unlock the door, opening it and standing to the side, “you can leave your room whenever you want. I won’t keep you locked up in here anymore.”
Her eyes narrow with distrust. “You’re letting me leave?”
“Your room, yes. But you’ll stay on the estate at all times.”
“So, I’m still a prisoner?”
“If you choose to see it that way.”
“Then how the fuck do you see it?”
I shrug. “Protection.”
“From what?”
My eyes meet hers. “From making the wrong decision.”
I half expect her to challenge me, to snap back with some wise-ass remark or well-aimed sarcasm. I can almost see the words forming on the tip of her tongue. But she chooses silence, her eyes studying me as if she’s trying to see inside my head. I wouldn’t be surprised if she could because this woman has managed to infiltrate the deepest parts of my being, occupying every corner of my soul, controlling my thoughts and haunting my dreams while I sleep without her next to me. It’s the worst part of hell I’ve ever experienced.
There’s suspicion in her eyes as she watches me. “What’s going on?”
“There’s no hidden agenda here, Leandra,” I say, trying to set her at ease. “I realize that having you locked up is unnecessary when this estate is heavily guarded at all times.”
“In other words, I’m still a prisoner. I just got awarded a bigger cell with outside courtyard privileges.”
“See it as you will. But for now, this is how it will be.” My gaze falls to her belly and drags back up to meet her eyes. “You belong here with me. All three of you. And until you see that, until you realize that no matter what happens, your place is at my side and in my bed, you’ll be guarded at all times.”
“Like your captive,” she snaps.
“Like the one thing I can’t stand to lose.”
Her lips part, her throat bobbing as she swallows. Even in an oversized turtleneck and black tights, her hair in a messy bun and no make-up, she’s still fucking stunning.
I smile. “I saw it the day I walked into your apartment, determined to make you accept my offer.”
She reaches behind her ear, sinking her nail into the scarred flesh. “What did you see?”
I step out the door and into the hall, glancing back at her. “What a beautiful mess you are, and the disaster we’ll be.”
It takes everything I have to walk away from her, to not slam the door and lock us in so I can prove to her what we have is stronger than the betrayal she clings to. All it would take is a slick slide of my dick inside that sweet pussy of hers, and she’d be reminded who owns her, who loves her, who gives her the ecstasy she needs. With every step farther away from her bedroom, I’m fighting the urge to turn around. It’s been too long since I’ve had her, tasted her, felt her. All I can fucking think about is watching her face as I sink into her, witnessing the pleasure on every crevice of her beautiful face while I make her come.
Fuck.
As if I don’t have enough shit to deal with, I have my goddamn cousin’s unexpected arrival to deal with. Rome Savelli. The prodigal son returns.
I round the corner into the dining room and find Caelian leaning back on the couch, staring at the whiskey in his glass. He looks up when he hears me, then glances at the antique grandfather clock. “When two brothers need a drink at eleven a.m., that means shit is quite close to hitting the fan.”
“I won’t argue that.” I pour myself a drink, slam it all back, swallowing before pouring a second glass, deciding to nurse this one rather than gulp it down.
“So, Rome is back,” Caelian says, taking a sip of his drink and pulling his lips in a thin line as he swallows. “I have to admit. I didn’t think he’d ever come back.”
“Neither did I. He took the first opportunity he got to leave this family, his father, only to come back now.”
“Why did he leave in the first place?”
I walk over to the fireplace, staring into the flames. “He was there with Roberto when I overheard our uncle say how he wants to kill Dad, wipe out the Del Rossa bloodline. “
Caelian shifts to the edge of the seat. “Roberto wanted him in on it.”
“I suppose so. Rome would have been the heir to this empire if Roberto succeeded in killing Dad. It only makes sense that Roberto would want him in on family business as soon as possible.”
“Is that why Rome left?”
I turn to face him. “I’ve always suspected it. But I don’t know for sure. Who knows what went on behind closed doors in the Savelli house? All I know is Roberto had to pull a huge motherfucking unicorn out of his ass to get Rome to come back.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Caelian mumbles, staring out in front of him as he shakes his head.
“It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense or not. He’s here, and he’s taken Roberto’s place in the Dark Sovereign.”
“You’re not going to fight it?” Caelian stands, placing a hand in his gray suit pants pocket. “You’re going to accept it? Just like that?”
I pull a hand through my hair. “What would you have me do? It’s his right to take his father’s place. I had what I needed to get rid of Roberto, but I have nothing on Rome.”
“Do we really need something?” Caelian challenges. “The Dark Sovereign is ours, and we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
“That’s not how it works, and you know that.”
He gulps down the last of his drink and slams the glass on the table, visibly on edge. “We don’t have any alliances to placate. We can do whatever the fuck we want because all this,” he holds his arms out wide, “is ours.”
“We might not have alliances, Caelian, but we have a reputation to uphold. If we cause civil unrest between our two families, we’ll lose the trust of our business partners. We can’t bend the rules simply because it suits us.”
“That seat is Isaia’s. You know that as well as I do. He deserves to be in that room with us, Alexius.”
I throw my head back and groan, knowing all too well what this is really about. “Listen, if Isaia has something to say about the new turn of events, he can come say it to my face and not bitch to you about it.”
“On the contrary,” Caelian says, crossing his arms, “Isaia didn’t say shit. He left after the meeting this morning without saying a single fucking word. He’s too proud to make a scene even though Rome’s unexpected arrival robbed him of something we promised to give him.”
“Do you think I’m happy about this?” I shoot back. “Do you think I wanted Rome to waltz in here and fuck up our plans? No. But he did, and now we need to regroup. Figure out where we go from here.”
Caelian throws his hands in the air, his frustration rippling from his tense shoulders, cursing as he starts to pace. “We’re going to lose him, Alexius.”
“Who? Isaia?”
“Yeah.” Caelian stills, his face nothing but hard lines. “Things are already tense between the two of you. He buried his girlfriend—”
“Melanie was not his girlfriend.” I roll my eyes.
“It doesn’t matter what she was. The point is she was something to him. He lost her. He lost Leandra.”
“He never had Leandra,” I growl, instant anger bursting through my veins, clawing at every muscle. “You can’t lose something you never had, and he sure as fuck didn’t have my wife.”
Caelian holds up his hands, sighing. “Wrong choice of words. But what I’m saying is Isaia needs this. He needs to be a part of this with us. He’s been an outsider long enough, and if we don’t do something to include him, we’re going to lose him, and I don’t want to see that happen.”
Caelian’s eyes resemble my dad’s—gentle green hues peeking from behind hazel swirls. When he’s angry or annoyed, it’s more brown than green. Mother always joked about his eyes being the transition color, from Nicoli’s and my blue eyes to Isaia’s dark brown. Isaia has our grandfather’s eyes. He has our grandfather’s silent and aloof personality too. No one can figure him out. Well, my wife seems to be the one who’s come the closest to uncovering that my little brother does, in fact, have a beating heart hidden inside his chest.
I take off my jacket and toss it onto the couch, loosening my tie. “What do you want me to do, Caelian? It’s not like I invited Rome to join this fucking shitstorm just to complicate the matter even further. Roberto found a fucking loophole, one we could never have predicted because our cousin coming home seemed highly un-fucking-likely. Now all we can do is stay one step ahead of him. The man already wants my head on a stake ever since I told him about the recording of him plotting to murder our father. And after Micah’s anonymous letter to him about Jimmy, the man wants blood.”
“You know how this is going to end, right?” Caelian’s eyes narrow as he studies me. “In the end, it’s going to be you or Roberto, one killing the other. That’s the only way this war with our uncle will stop. But think about it, Alexius.” He inches closer, and his jaw tics. “If Roberto lays a motherfucking finger on you, Nicoli, Isaia, me, we’ll hunt him down and tear his spine out. But if you kill him, Rome won’t let you get away with it. So, no matter what we do, a civil war is inevitable.”
