“I mean…” I shrug. “Itisa family business, and Iama member of that family. Maybe I should be more abreast of what’s going on.”
Roman chuckles. “Evie, of course you’re part of this family. But, I mean… Isn’t dance your thing?”
I scowl. “Yeah. But this couldalsobe my thing. Is that a problem?”
“No,” he says quickly. “No, of course not. But…”
I scowl. “But?”
“I’d need some time, Evie.”
My brow furrows. “Why?”
“C’mon, Eves. Yeah, I’m the boss, but I’m thenewboss. The newgayboss.”
“Roman, your top guys have made it clear they don’t care about that.”
“Yeah, well, there’s the way people talk and then the way they act,” he growls. “I’m still shoring up the foundation of my throne. I’m not sayingno, obviously. But… It’s not like you’ve got any experience with bratva shit, you know?”
“Okay, but again, it’s my family business. I was raised in it, Roman. All I’m asking for is a foot in the door.”
He exhales. “Look, I’mnot saying no. Just…can you give me some time?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, sighing. “Yeah, of course. Thanks, Rome.”
“I almost don’t wantto ask what you’re doing. The view is too nice.”
I gasp at the sound of his voice behind me and start to zip my hoodie back up.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Vaughn murmurs, crossing the bathroom floor to where I’ve been standing topless facing the floor-length mirror. “Don’t even think about it.”
I grin, biting my lip and flushing all over as he wraps his arms around me from behind and pulls the hoodie back open, revealing my bare torso. A soft hum starts in my throat as his large hands slide up my ribs to cup my breasts.
“Okay,nowI'll ask what you’re doing,” he growls into my ear.
My cheeks flush.
“I was…thinking about where it might go.”
Time flies when you’re having fun. When you’re being chased, and grabbed, and brutalized, and choked, and slapped, and fucked to within an inch of your life on a nightly basis by a gorgeous, intensely captivating villain of a man.
When you’re falling head over heels for that man.
It’s been just shy of three months since that first initiation at Blackbriar Hall. Soon, in another shadowy ceremony there, I, together with the remaining Acolytes, will pledge myself entirelyto the Syndicate, and get its mark—the upside-down dagger surround by a halo of light—tattooed on my skin.
“W-where do you think it should go?” I ask with a shiver as Vaughn’s thumbs brush my tight nipples in the mirror.
His hands still, and his brow furrows.
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he murmurs.
I twist in his arms, turning to face him. “What?”
“Evelina, the Syndicate is for life?—”
“Vaughn,” I say quietly. “I know what I’m signing up for.”
“My worry is that you don’t,” he growls. “And that you’re still only doing this foryour father.” His jaw ticks. “I could pull some strings, maybe, outside the Syndicate…”
