“That’s not how this is going to work.”
“That is exactly how the fuck this is going to work. I don’t know who you think you are talking to me that way. Do you understand the seriousness of the position you’re in? I’m being generous offering you what I have.”
“Generous would be walking away and never contacting me again. I didn’t make this deal. My father did.”
His dark eyes burned into me. “Then walk the fuck away. We’ll own your father’s property, and that will be the end of it.”
I wanted to strangle him. “It’s not my father’s now. It’s mine.”
“Then the debt is also yours.”
“Why the fuck do you have to be like this? Why do you have to hurt people? Do you get off on it?”
Angelo grinned, and I was sorry I’d asked the question.
“Only when they’ve crossed my family or someone I care about, or when they like it just as much as I do.” His gaze held mine as he said those last words, and a shiver ran over me.
No, I would not like being hurt by him. Maybe I would like a hard, rough hate fuck, but nothing more painful than that. No matter what I fantasized about, I didn’t actually want Angelo to hurt me. “You could just forgive the debt.”
Angelo shook his head. “That’s no way to do business.”
“Why are you in this business?”
“It’s what I do best, and it’s very lucrative.”
“You just don’t care, do you? You don’t care who you hurt.”
He had the nerve to look offended. “Trust me. Most people I hurt are way worse than me.”
I scoffed at that, and Angelo stalked toward me, anger blazing in his eyes. I scurried backwards, more scared now than I’d been of him before. I ran into the counter, and before I could maneuver around it, Angelo was right in front of me. He wrapped a hand around my throat. My pulse pounded as he squeezed, not hard enough to cut off my air, but enough to make me know he could if he chose to. I wouldn’t be able to free myself. He could squeeze the fucking life out of me right here, right now, and I’d been stupid enough to deliberately piss him off.
“Don’t you dare make the mistake of thinking I’m your worst option. There are people out there who’d pay your debt, take it on so you owed them rather than me. They would hurt you, toy with you, torment you, make you do things that would give you nightmares for the rest of your life. I’m giving you a choice.”
“I can be your whore, let you use my business to further God knows what illegal activities, or lose the one piece of my grandparents I still have. What kind of choice is that?”
“Oh no, you misunderstand.”
The silky-smooth menace in Angelo’s voice made my pulse race even faster. “What do you mean? There’s another option?”
Angelo loosened his grip, caressing the side of my neck. I shivered, and my body tightened. I despised how I reacted to him.
His smile widened. The fucking bastard had noticed.
“You had a chance to let us continue the arrangement your father made with us. You turned that down yesterday. Now your only options are giving me your body or giving me your property.”
I should have known he’d change the rules. It was a good reminder to never trust him. Maria had almost convinced me it would be okay to just do what my father had done long enough to pay them back even though I’d never wanted to take that route. I wanted this place to be mine, free and clear, clean of everything to do with the Marchesis. Maybe Angelo’s bargain was better. I could dirty myself as long as I had this place to be my refuge from him.
“When you say I’d be yours, what does that mean?”
“It means that you’d do whatever I say.”
“I have limits, Angelo. There are things I will not do.”
“Back in high school, taking money from a man like me was something you wouldn’t do. Unfortunately, your father’s already done it.”
“That’s not what I mean.” I was glad I had thought this through as I’d sorted through endless bins and boxes that afternoon. Even as I’d told myself I wouldn’t agree to this, I’d made a list of rules I needed to lay down. “I need to know I’ll only be with you and no one else.”
Angelo grinned. “I have no desire to share you. When I say you’re mine, I mean you’re only mine, not anyone else’s.”
“Not your cousin’s or…” I realized what I was insinuating and tried to backtrack. “I mean I heard that you…”
Instead of looking offended, Angelo just laughed. “I’m not going to say Devil and I’ve never shared, but that’s not part of this deal.”