“How do you feel, Mariposa? You never replied to your friend when she told you. You never responded to Grumpy Indiana Jones in the kitchen. You never answered me.”
I narrowed my eyes. He had read the conversation on my phone when Keely had texted me at The Club. And he’d been listening tonight. No surprise there, but suddenly, I had the insane urge to scream,you don’t own me!But he did. And I owned him. That was how the deal worked. We both set our terms and vowed to honor them.
“If I loved himthatway,” I said through clenched teeth. “I wouldn’t be fucking marrying you! What do you take me for? If love was what I wanted, I wouldn’t be standing here withyou! If love touched me, I’d never, ever sell it out. If love drove my life, I’d be its main chick. Ride or die, Capo. Would I sell my body to live? We both know the answer to that. Would I sell out love for the sake of this arrangement? Never! I’d die first! So, no, I donotlove him in that way!”
My words seemed to stun him for a moment, though he recovered quickly. He didn’t want me to see that some part of my truth had touched him, but too bad. He wanted nothing but honesty from me, so he was going to get it. Even if it meant a dagger to his iron-clad heart. It might not nick him, but it would make a dent that would forever mark him.Mariposa was here.
“You belong to me,Strings,” he said, his voice cold, “and I won’t stand for any man to run behind you like you’re a dog in fucking heat.”
In what seemed like slow motion, my arm came up, and my hand connected with his cheek. The slap rang out in the night air. “You might be mycapo,” I said, “but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to disrespect me.”
He didn’t even flinch at my slap, but something in his eyes changed. They softened some, but in a way that I wasn’t used to.
One, two, three, four breaths, and he took my wrists, raising them above my head, his face coming close to mine. His mouth was a kiss away, his breath warm as it flowed over me, and I breathed him in.
The bulb lights had been turned on in the backyard, and between us, a white spark flared in the darkness. My chest heaved up and down, my breasts pressed against his chest. The friction felt so good. I’d never been more starved for this kind of connection in my life. I had hungered for the unconditional love of parents, for food, for all of the things that money could buy, but never forthis.
A lover’s touch.
He showed me something that I craved the mere idea of. I’d sampled it the night at The Club, and I was already addicted to the flavor.
I inhaled again, breathing him in even deeper. The heat made his scent stronger. Cool. Clean. Healing. His eyes had turned a darker shade of blue, the color of the deepest part of the water.Sapphire.
Pressing against me as he was, he never felt more intimidating. He was like a monster wave before it comes crashing down on someone who doesn’t know how to swim. He was made up of hard lines, and he radiated power, control, while he swept me away.
His teeth raked over his bottom lip, and in the glow of the lights from the yard, it glistened. I wanted to lick it, to taste his mouth again. “I seem to remember telling you that I’m not an honorable man, Mariposa.”
“And I seem to remember telling you that you will not speak to methatway,” I said, hoping he saw the defiance in my eyes. “If you’d rather a woman that goes for anything, a different kind ofpurchase, you know which way the city is.Thataway.” I moved my head to the side to give emphasis to my words. “And I’ll just see myself back to the party after you go.”
“So you can run back to Harry Boy and finish your earlier conversation.”
“No.” I shook my head. “So I can hang out with family and friends while I wait for you to do whatever it is you feel you have to do. Then, once you come back for me—because I know you will—we’ll see Rocco about changing the terms of the agreement. You’ll bediscreetwith your lovers, and so will I. If your mouth can’t respect me, then your hands have no place on my body.”
When I said the words “you’ll bediscreetwith your lovers, and so will I,”his grip on my wrists tightened, enough that I almost wanted to squirm out of his hold. I came close to giving in and resisting, pushing against him so I could turn my back on him and take a much-needed breath. But I didn’t. I held my ground.
All of my life, I thought that holding my ground meant fighting for it. In that moment, I realized something. Sometimes holding ground meant going with the flow, saving energy, so when the wave passed, I could go in a better direction.
We had come to terms in Rocco’s office, but we both knew there would be times that we’d have to draw lines outside of that room. This was one of those times. And he’d either call my bluff or he wouldn’t, but since I was committing my life to this man,proposition or not, and he could easily crush me, I had to be as term-oriented as he was. He seemed to like the control it gave him, and for a man who was always in control, I needed to learn to work around him in a way that he was familiar with.
After a tense stretch of time, he lowered his head, his nose skimming my neck. “Concordato,” he murmured against my overheated skin.Agreed upon. “I will choose my words wisely around you, Mariposa. They seem to cost me more than our agreement.”
I closed my eyes, giving myself over to the feel of his body so close to mine.
“Never…” he said, pressing his hips against my belly, giving me a taste of what was to come when I was ready. Even though I was nothing but skin and bones, he was still harder than me, and he made me feel...soft, feminine. “…think that I need to pay for a fuck. I never have. I never will. Come tomorrow, you’ll be the only one I’ll be fucking for good. Plans and dates and times can go to hell.” Then he said something in Italian against my pulse.Il tuo profumo mi fa impazzire.I think it had something to do with the way I smelled. He kept breathing me in, inhaling my skin like it was air. Sandalwood hung heavy between us.
I bit my lip, not wanting an embarrassing sound to escape from my mouth at how good he felt against me. My lower stomach clenched like a fist, and my entire body was damp, and not only from sweat.
“You taste as good as you smell.” He inhaled even harder, and then his tongue trailed from my neck to my heart and back up to my chin, stopping close to my mouth. “Say it, Mariposa.”
“Concordato,” I repeated. We both had to repeat the word during our meeting in order for Rocco to finalize the term and move on. He was keeping to those rules. I lowered my voice. “We were only talking. Just because Harrison said those words to me doesn’t mean I feel the same. I do love him, but like a brother.”
The neutral territory we stood on seemed to disappear beneath my feet, and we were back to opposite sides of the battle lines. As soon as the wordsI do love himcame from my mouth, I felt the change in him immediately.
“You.” His tone was gruff and came against my skin like a hundred stones. “You’re my territory. I say who does and doesn’t come near it. I’m the only one who touches it.”
Territory. Like property. “Your property?” My eyes flashed up to meet his. He was right. He did own me, in a sense. He owned my loyalty, but I wouldn’t stand to be treated like some piece of land he could shit on whenever he wanted.
“My fucking property. My territory. You seem to forget that it was you who came to my table willingly. You hashed out the details. Set terms. You signed papers with your blood. We made a deal.”
