“Stop talking, kitten,” he growls.
I glare at him.He rests his elbows around me, keeping me caged, but at least giving my chest room to expand and contract with enough air to actually breathe.“Fine.”
“We are not engaged.Desiree and I have been friends since childhood.Our families, unlike yours, were always friendly.Our fathers practically had us married as teenagers, but no one ever asked us.We are both completely compatible in one area and one area only, in the fact that neither of us wanted nor wants to be married to the other.Nothing has changed about that over the years.We never even dated.We pretended to date, and she went out with her friends and I with mine.An illusion for the families if you will.One to keep them off our backs.”
No matter that I said I didn’t care, my traitorous heart wants to believe.
“But eventually, I grew tired of the game, and she kept telling her father she was going out with me as a way to keep her security detail from following her to the places that she wants to be.”
Surprise, mortification, embarrassment and a ton of other emotions mingle in my chest.“You’re not dating?Not engaged?”
He lowers his forehead against mine and then whispers in my ear.“I only want one wife, kitten, and that is going to be you.”
26
Sophia
Massimo rolls me over and pulls me to him, pushing a piece of hair from my swollen eye, gently touching the cracked skin around it.“I’m sorry about this.It’s going to hurt in the morning.What happened?The perimeter alarms went off and I got in the car to get to the highway.The cameras showed you running in this direction, so I followed.That’s all I know.”
“One of your goons elbowed me in the face.I shot him with his gun.We’re even.”
His eyebrow arches.“You shot one of my soldiers with his own gun?”
“Damn straight.”
He tries not to smirk but I see it just the same.“You are not a kitten, you are a tiger in kitten’s clothing.Purring against me when I touch you just right, purring and letting me share your cream but then turning into a vicious and protective tigress with impressive claws when the need should arise.”
Massimo helps me up from the ground but standing causes me to wince.His brow furrows as he notices the bareness of my feet.“Come here,” he growls, scooping me into his arms before he carries me through the dense forest, while I push a branch here and there out of our way to avoid us getting caught by the thorns.When we reach the highway, his SUV sits parked on the road with no lights on at all.
I gesture to his vehicle.“You drove yourself.What if I had overpowered you, taken your gun, killed you and left you for dead?”
“You wouldn’t do that to me, kitten.”
“I thought you lied, that you were engaged and used me for your perverse pleasure.I might have done those things.”
He juggles me in his arms, pressing me to his body while opening the passenger side door.My eyes meet his, slightly embarrassed now that I know.“I can stand on my feet; they’re just going to be super sore tomorrow.I should have kept my shoes on, but I couldn’t scale the gates with the heels, or even the shoes after I removed them.Too slippery.”
Massimo shakes his head.“Your feet are bleeding.They are not okay.I’ll put you in the car, Sophia.One thing I can be assured of is that life will never be dull with you.Where did you leave our man?”
I point across the street to the fence.“Just over there.He’ll be fine.I didn’t kill him.”
He pulls out his cell and hits a contact to connect.“It’s me.I found Sophia.She said she left one of our men in the field with a bullet in his shoulder, any word?”He’s quiet as he listens.“Have him in my office first thing in the morning.I have more important things to deal with tonight.”
My heart races with fear of the unknown.I can deal with Massimo, but his father.That man is not the forgiving type, and it’s clear he wants nothing to do with me, or Massimo anywhere near me for that matter.Why else would he have mentioned Desiree?“What’s going to happen when your father learns that we made this deal?”
Massimo starts the car, and I buckle my seat belt as he puts his on.“He doesn’t know about the deal between the two of us, but he does know that I don’t plan to marry Desiree and that I plan for you to be my wife.”
“So, our secret pact.I’m the dirty little secret and still very much the enemy as far as your father is concerned.”
“Does that surprise you, Sophia?Surely, you’ve heard about my dad over the years.Does he sound like someone to go all soft and sentimental just because his son has picked a bride?Especially a Cassone?It is going to take time.”
I inhale a deep breath.“This isn’t going to be easy.Neither of our fathers are going to want this to work.Even if it pays my father’s debt, which would ease many things, but it’s more than money with them.It’s pride, its reputation, how others see the coupling.The Rosellis and Cassones don’t belong together.”
He starts to say something, but I put up my hand.“In their world, in their eyes, Massimo.But they are the ones we have to convince, because if I win, and I do plan to win no matter what you say, your father wipes the debt clean, or I walk away.That was the deal, the only reason I played.”
Massimo doesn’t slow the car before pulling to the side of the road but brings it to a complete and abrupt halt.He turns, unbuckling me suddenly and lifting me in one swift movement, dragging me into his lap, his hand sliding to my nape, holding me cradled and close as his eyes penetrate mine.My legs settle around his, my dress parting so that my core feels the hardness of his heat.“You are not going to win, kitten.You are going to beg me to keep ravishing you, you’re going to say my name, and I am going to win this bet.”
His lips are so close that they’re almost touching, yet he doesn’t close the distance.“Ask me to kiss you,” he murmurs into my ear, grinding my center into the hardness of his dick causing a shiver of need to pool in my center and a shiver to run down my spine.“Ask me to kiss you while I fuck you so hard that you want to scream my name.”
