Page 28 of Jealous Vows

He pauses to study my face and shoulder.

“Well, what would it take?”he asks.

“What would it take for what?”

“To get you ready.”

I scoff in disbelief at his playful, flirty tone.

“Fine.Tell me why,” I demand.

Fully aware I’m playing with the devil, I curl my hands into fists and press them against my thighs, preparing for the inevitable switch.I doubt he’ll stay pleasant for long.

“Why what?”he asks.

I struggle to find the words.

“Any of it?Why approach me?Why help me?Why kidnap me?”

He skims a roughened finger along my jawline.

“Revenge.”

His low, rumbly voice tumbles down my spine and furrows into my core.I scoff and turn my head before he shifts his caress to my lips.

“If you wanted revenge against my father, you chose the wrong target.He’s given up on trying to marry me off.”

He pauses, pinches my chin, and forces my face to his.

“Marry you?No, Sienna.I don’t want to marry you.I want to humiliate you.Break you.Make you my little toy.”

The intensity of his gaze adds an unexplainable sensuality to his horrifying words, and I fight against the urge to rub my thighs together.I force my response despite the hunger in my bones.

“Why?What did he do this time?I know my father is a piece of shit, but—”

“It’s not your father I’m after.It’s your uncle.He stole my bride at the altar, so I’ll make his niece my little plaything.”

I blink as my mind flings from one thought to the next so fast I wonder if I can create whiplash without external forces.My mouth runs away from me.

“Valentina was going to marryyou?Let me guess, it was an arrangement between you and her shitty, power-hungry father.”

It’s the wrong thing to say.Insulting my captor is the stupidest play in the book.Icy fury shines from Romeo’s eyes.

I found it.The switch.He’s no longer the man I knew on the plane or in the boutique.Now he’s the monster who attacked me in the bathroom.

“The arrangement failed.Her father is dead,” he growls.

Even though I held no fondness for Valentina’s father, sadness rips through me.She lost her last family member without me by her side.

I swallow the bitterness coating my tongue and stare into Romeo’s eyes.The whirlwind of emotions clamps my jaw shut, preventing me from speaking, but I wouldn’t know what to say even if I could.

My mystery mafia man is no longer my protector.He’s my worst nightmare.

The one time I didn’t dodge fast enough, Romeo caught me, except it isn’t my father’s shady deal that will ruin me.

It’s my uncle’s.

Misery threatens to swallow me whole.