“I asked you a question.”
“Don’t come any closer!” I squeak when he takes another step my way.
He smirks, amused by my fear like a lion toying with a mouse. “Or, what? You’ll scream? What will they think, I wonder, when they discover you inmybedroom?”
Another step closer and I take another one back. At this rate, I’ll be in the closet again. “I… I’ll tell them the truth. That I got lost and… and… you…”
“I, what? Will you tell them I couldn’t wait to bed a Morelli? That I wanted to rape you before our wedding night,” he sneers.
He looks disgusted by the notion, and his hatred of my family couldn’t be clearer, but all I heard was ‘rape youbeforeour wedding night.’ I shudder as he circles closer. I wish I’d never wanted a moment’s peace from Mother’s chatter. I should’ve stayed put in our guest quarters.
“Perhaps you hoped to catch me off-guard coming here,” he accuses. “Perhaps while I showered, you thought to get my gun. Another De Luca eliminated, right? Wouldn’t Nico be proud of his little sister?”
I glance at the weapon he aimed at me a moment ago and shake my head. “I’ve never even held one.” The men in my life protect me. They’ve never taught me how to protect myself.
“Perhaps you have schemes that you conceal under that slutty excuse for a dress though. Is there a knife under there somewhere, Caterina? A very small one, naturally.”
Another burst of mortification blasts through me. I hate this dress with its plunging neckline, high slit and low back. A grown woman accustomed to such clothes might love it, but I’m sixteen and have never dressed so immodestly in my life. It doesn’t make me feel sexy or strong. It makes me feel cheap and exposed.
My hand rises to my throat as he moves closer, like a predator toward his prey. I’m definitely the prey in this scenario. He’s just a breath away now. I can feel the heat radiating off his powerful body, calling to mine in some strange, primal way. What’s wrong with me? He frightens me. I shouldn’t be so… confused.
“Mother made me wear it.”
“Is the sight of your small tits supposed to make me overlook those hideous bangs?”
“Hair grows back,” I answer, defensively. I do not mention anything about my breasts though. This man is horrible. “Maybe you’d prefer it if I shaved it off for the wedding?”
“We have scissors here somewhere if you’d like to experiment with your hair style now.”
He’s mocking me, and I suspect he knows there’s no way in hell I’m picking up another pair of scissors as long as I live. A fresh wave of shame rolls through me. I’ve never felt so much like a stupid little girl as I do right now. “Mother said I must look irresistible to ensure the wedding pact,” I hear myself whisper. “All she’s managed to do is make me feel even more vulnerable and cause your words to cut that much deeper.”
To my surprise, Alessio takes a step backward at that. When I dare meet his intense gaze again, he’s glaring at me. He continues to look angry as he stalks over to his bureau a minute later and roots around a drawer for a pair of sweatpants. He jerks them on as I watch, my eyes unable to look away from his body. Even his backside is an appealing sight. I’m fascinated by his firm butt until I see the tattoo covering his left shoulder blade, the Grim Reaper in his hooded cloak with his scythe. The words floating below it read,‘He Comes for Us All.’The blood seems to freeze in my veins.
He grabs the gun again, shoving it into his pocket and grasps me by the elbow. “I’m taking you back where you belong so stop that,” he growls when I flinch.
The hallway is blissfully deserted as he takes me in a different direction than the one I came from. I look back over my shoulder, confused, but I do not struggle or resist.
After what I overheard in the hallway when Alessio’s uncle and foul cousin were talking about me, the wedding night sounds like it will be the stuff of nightmares just as I’ve suspected since the night father told me of my match. ‘She’ll be fun to break. She’s got three holes to fill.’I nearly vomited hearing his cousin’s awful words.
‘My bride is mine to do with as I please. If taking revenge on her for my brother pleases me, that will be mine alone to enjoy. Remember that.’It sounds as though Alessio doesn’t wish to share, but I can’t say it was any less frightening. Nothing he’s said or done since then has altered my impression.
“Alessio, I went to your room by mistake but…”
He scowls at me, rendering me silent. Why am I trying to explain myself to a monster?
Another stairway leads us down a floor and I hear the sound of girls talking through a door. Maybe a boy, too? Where are we?
Without knocking, Alessio opens the door and pushes me inside where three teenage girls and a young boy are seated on a king-sized, canopied bed, chatting. They all fall silent, look me up and down and then look to Alessio with questions in their blue eyes that match his own.
“Welcome to the nursery,” he drawls. “You’ll fit right in.”
The little boy harrumphs at Alessio, offended by the term nursery perhaps, but a girl with red hair snorts back laughter. My stomach hollows out at the way the oldest girl narrows her eyes at my dress. She looks to be closer to eighteen with light brown hair like Alessio’s, and I note all the girls are dressed suitably for a special family dinner and not as if they’re expected to work a street corner later. How I hate this awful dress.
The final girl is a beautiful blonde, and she seems to fit into this pretty, pink princess room the best. She rolls her eyes at him. “Alessio, only you would meet your fiancée looking like that,” she declares, scrunching up her perfect button nose at his shirtless torso and blood-stained hands.
“Meet your future half-sisters and brother-in-law,” he tells me in a bored tone. “And cousin-in-law,” he adds with a nod toward the girl with red hair.
No further explanation or names are given before he turns back around and strides off, no doubt to take an overdue shower.
