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“You’d just be promising yourself from your father’s shackles to mine,” he says as he pushes back the strawberry blonde wig. “I feel like you’ve left out some truths. Let me assure you, Arabella Barone. You will never escape me. You might go on your entire life without the validation you’re seeking. I never told you I was kind. Only that you’re mine. I want nothing you haven’t already offered, Ara. Because I have you now.”
I hate his arrogance. His certainty that I’m some dog that will come to his beck and call. A strange tension runs between us. I don’t know if it’s another game or another life sentence. I try to push down the unsettling feeling Luca always brings me, a mix of hate, desire, and something more that I’m not willing to admit. Can’t admit because wouldn’t that just be giving the devil what he wants?
I might not be certain on how I feel about this monster, ignorant to it even. However, one thing I’m certain of is this. “Eventually your family will kill me just as they did my mother.”
His lips purse but he draws nearer to me as if drawn in by my vulnerability. The stark reality sinks in. My mother’s death might’ve not been by Luca’s hand, and he may have not been the stranger to put a blade to my throat. But, he surely is going to be the one to break me.
“If I promised to protect you?” he asks, his bottom lip brushing against my top one. It catches me by surprise.
“Then I would call you a liar,” I say as his tongue slowly brushes against mine. I can taste him. All blood and masculinity. A feral unsaid promise and warning.
I shouldn’t be attracted to this.
My body shouldn’t crave him.
Nor should I feel any type of safety in his arms.
But he’s the only thing that’s lit me up since my mother died.
And it’s dangerous playing with fire.
35
LUCA
Ara wraps her legs around my waist when I pick her up. I want to devour every inch of this woman. I just can’t get enough of her. Yet every kiss tastes likes poison, lies and truth. A combination that has kept my little stalker alive for this long. I want to punish her but also take away all her worries.
And that startling realization is dangerous. Because I don’t care about anyone. A little moan escapes her as I press her back against the bed.
“Who was it you were pretending to be tonight?” I ask as I feather my fingers through the lifelike wig. She kicks up a smile, embracing the gift I offer her, to push all of those memories back into the pandora’s box they came from.
“Besides security, no one else asked for my name,” she cunningly says.
I lower my lips to hers again. “Good.”
She presses a hand against my chest, cautiously halting me. “Luca. My father is going to make me marry someone in six months’ time. Whatever this is will have to come to an end.”
I charm a smile and kiss along her neck and jaw. “You’re already so deep in it, sweetheart. There’s no escaping now. Whoever he tries to arrange your marriage with I’ll simply kill.”
“Luca.” Her voice is stern now. When I look down I see the burning reprieve through thick eyelashes and green eyes that sparkle with hints of blue. “I’m not the same as you. I don’t like violence. I don’t like you sending me chopped up hands and feet. As twisted as I might be, we’re too different. Besides, this thing between us…is madness. Everything I know about you points to the fact that you should’ve killed me the moment you found out my real identity. So why haven’t you?”
“So eager to die, my little stalker?” I ask running a finger against her collar bone and the faint remains of the scar. Our conversation tonight has confirmed my suspicions of our fathers’ previous dealings. The thought of someone standing over Ara with a blade to her throat unfurls something sinister within me. Her gaze shifts cautiously from my obvious killing intent. My jaw tics.
“What are you going to do with me?” she asks again and this time there is a hint of fear. I don’t understand why it unsettles me. I’ve always taken pleasure from people fearing me. From being shocked and frightened by the power I wield and how easily I can shake up their world. But now…when Ara looks at me with a similar expression, I don’t like it.
It’s the same feeling I had when I looked up at her from the fighting ring. I despised she had concern for Dmitri’s wellbeing. Ordinarily I would’ve beaten him to a pulp. However, there’s a hold this woman has over me I can’t entirely understand. She’s a mystery as much as she is an obvious weakness.
“I’m not sure yet,” I say truthfully. “What I do know is tonight, I’m going to fill that sweet little cunt of yours with my cock. Whatever other night I demand, you’ll be a good girl and do as your told.”
Her eyebrows furrow and she leans away from my kiss. “I need you to agree to something for me.”
I chuckle because I don’t take orders from anyone. But fuck does she know she has me at checkpoint because my cock is throbbing for her. This little bit of vulnerability from her and requests turning me on like wildfire. Because she’s the only one that’s daring enough to feel she’s entitled to it. Or maybe I was still coming down from the high of the fight.
“No more chopped up body parts for presents. And no violence in front of me.”
I laugh but she crosses her arms over her chest. I feel the distance between us the moment she pulls her hands away from my waist.
Fuck do I want her. This woman who I should’ve killed the moment I laid eyes on her. It’s been a fun game watching her get caught in my web. At every point she’s pushed back despite her impending doom. At every intersection I’ve come after her. “I’ll only promise no more chopped body parts. The violence however, I can’t promise. It’s every part of my being, Ara. It’s what I was raised to do and be. Not even you can change that.”
