“He was supposed to be paying the rent? And he didn’t?” She must hear something in my tone, because she pauses before she continues, then blows out a breath.
“Well… I gave him half and he was supposed to pay, but he took my money and never paid a thing. Cleaned me out.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You were going to split the rent?”
“Romeo, do you have any idea how things work outside in the real world? Where humans are autonomous and not threatened by dangerous hitmen? Where people don’t actually own weapons?”
I shake my head. “No.”
She gives the most adorable, most unladylike little snort. “You don’t lie, do you?”
“Also, no.” I shrug. “You might not always like what I say, but you’ll always trust what I say.”
“Okay, I already rarely like what you have to say.”
I take that as a personal challenge. I do what I’ve been holding myself back from doing. I bend and kiss the little freckle then lick the place I kissed.
Her head tips back with a moan that begs for more. “I’ll teach you to love what I say,” I whisper in her ear as her fingers scrabble for purchase, anchoring around my neck. I lift her and walk to the couch, then lower her body, stretching her back against the velvety cushions. I drape her legs around my torso. “If I whispered in your ear how I owned you, how your pussy belonged to me, and how I planned on worshipping that pussy until your body ignites, would you like what I said then?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers with a wicked little grin. “We should maybe test that out…”
“Naughty girl. Someone needs to go back over my lap for a spanking.”
“No! No, I… ohh.” She can’t hide the little moan she releases when my hands knead her breasts, my thumbs flicking over her pebbled nipples. She holds my gaze and whispers, “Fuck.”
I reach for her top and slide my fingers under it before I grasp her breast and tweak her nipple. Her back arches and she gasps. “Romeo!”
“What did I tell you about that language? Hmm?” I give her another punishing tweak.
“Fu —” she bites her lip. “Not to swear. Got it.”
“Good girl.” I bend my head to her chest and kiss her abused nipple, drag the silky fabric of her bra down and gently lap the puckered skin. Her mouth hangs open, and her eyes flutter closed.
“You’d like what I said, Vittoria. Wouldn’t you? If I whispered in your ear how beautiful you were?” I kiss the top of one breast, then the other, then up her neck to her chin. “I’d teach you to love when I talked to you.”
“Something tells me,” she says, panting, “that I’d learn to love a lot of things.”
I kiss along her jaw until I reach her lips, and before I kiss her again, whisper, “You would, bella.”
I don’t know what pushes her over the edge. I don’t know what pulls the curtain down on the magical moment between us, but one moment she’s putty in my hands, and the next, she’s shaking her head.
“I can’t, Romeo. I can’t do it. I can’t just… agree to spend the rest of my life with someone I don’t know. I don’t care how much money I get. I don’t care if it means my safety and protection. I don’t know you. You don’t know me.” She values her self-worth and independence more than material possessions. I get that. She tips her head to the side. “Isn’t there anything we can do about that?”
I meet her gaze and smile. There’s something about her so simple, so unencumbered with lies or pretentions, it’s as if she’s melting the coldness that surrounds my heart.
I have to keep her from my father. I have to protect her from what could happen.
But I won’t take her by force. It could take years to repair the damage done by a forced marriage and I could do irreparable damage in the process.
And yet, I have to have her. There is no other choice.
She looks at me pleadingly. Beseechingly. She doesn’t speak while I think this through, and I’m momentarily grateful. Every family member of mine pushes and pushes until they get an answer, but she gives me space to think.
“Stay in my bed, then,” I say with a final nod. “For tonight, stay with me. I can’t promise you the protection my ring would give you, but if you’re in my bed he can’t get to you.”
She eyes me warily. “Is that a pickup line?”
“Absolutely.”
She bites her lip, and my cock hardens. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Love is heavy and light, bright and dark, hot and cold, sick and healthy, asleep and awake- its everything except what it is!” Romeo and Juliet
Vittoria
A bell rings downstairs. I sit up, still pinned beneath him. Every inch of my body’s on fire, and the proposal he just made hasn’t helped.