“Fine with me.” Jaxon’s face was filled with amusement. “Now that we have that settled. Are you going to agree to marrying me?”
“Like a contract. Right? An arrangement. Two of the most powerful families forming the perfect alliance.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Like two lovers who can’t keep their hands off each other.” As if to prove a point, he dragged me onto his lap and against his rock-hard, throbbing cock.
Dear God. My mouth watered.
“You are insatiable and I might not be an expert in the love department, but when two people are supposedly so madly in love, the man usually proposes by getting down on one knee and begging for her hand in marriage.”
“That’s so old-fashioned.”
“I come from one of the most old-fashioned families in the world. So do you.”
The driver of the SUV ahead of us pulled in through a set of ornate iron gates, heading toward a building that reminded me of an old Italian church. My father had taken me to this place once before as a child. The meeting ground of the most powerful men in all of Italy. Owned by a consortium. No one was allowed access but the members of the prestigious families who’d run the underground of the mafia world for generations.
The very world I’d tried so desperately to break free of, but fate had other things in mind.
Because I’d fallen madly in love with a man with as much brutal power as my father.
How was that even possible?
Because once a mafia princess, always a mafia princess.
My thoughts briefly shifted to Irina. In the two days following learning of my father’s murder, I’d had almost no time to talk with her. The woman I thought was my mother had experienced difficulty when giving birth to Marco, which had prevented her from having another child. As with every Italian family in Italy, the larger the better, which was why a surrogate was hired, a young woman desperate to leave Russia.
I’d seen the love for my father in her eyes, a relationship that could never have been allowed. Maybe that’s why she’d gotten very close to Jaxon’s father over the years. At least I knew why the woman I’d believed to be my real mother hated me. She’d always known the egg fertilized hadn’t belonged to her. I would never know if my father knew Irina was my birth mother.
Did it really matter any longer?
Everything in my life had changed. Everything. But there was no looking back. I had a future to consider and one I would control.
Well, with the assistance of the sexy man determined to be in my life.
“Hmmm… My lost angel has demands,” he whispered in my ear before nipping my earlobe.
“You should keep that in mind. I might be required to obey your rules, but I will be in charge.”
He laughed wholeheartedly as the driver pulled to a stop. At that moment, the frivolity ended and the business at hand resumed.
After brushing his lips across mine, he pulled away. “You need to follow my directions, my sweet Anna. This is highly dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I know. But it needs to be done.”
“Are you certain you want to face your brother? No one will fault you for being unable.”
“I am my father’s daughter. Marco killed my papa. He must pay for his sins.”
A slow and steady smile crossed his face. “I guess my angel isn’t so lost any longer.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you for a very long time.”
The driver opened the door and Jaxon stepped out first. His hand was presented, easing me from the backseat. My lover and evidently soon to be my husband had purchased me a red suit to wear.
The color of blood.
The color of legacy and karma.
“You were right, boss,” Donatello said as he approached, nodding to me out of respect.
