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Married. To a man I’d asked to kill me only a few days before. It seemed unreal. Especially as I looked around the room and it was brought home to me that I’d married into a mob family.

I was supposed to be in the ground, not a mob enforcer’s wife.

But the ring on my finger was real, and heavy. A solid gold circle with a matching one on Tomas’ finger. A man who had saved me, punished me, pleasured me, and wanted me to call him ‘Daddy.’ And now he’d married me.

There was no part of me that could have ever predicted the trajectory of my life going this way.

I knew I should be thinking about escape right now – trying to decide who I could trust, who might be sympathetic, who might be weak… but at the moment that all seemed very far away. Especially because everyone had now relaxed around me, as if my marriage to Tomas solved everything. I was no longer a threat.

It was similar to when Don Bianco had put me in the cage. Neither he nor his men thought of me as anything other than the girl in the cage after that.

This cage was being Tomas’ wife.

A heavy hand came down on my thigh, sending a rush of anticipation through me, straight to my core, and I looked up into my husband’s dark eyes. It would be a mistake to think that he suddenly trusted me, just because he’d married me.

“You are not eating.”

I shrugged in response. It was not that I was not hungry, it just did not feel as though food was very important at the moment.

A forkful of meat appeared in front of me.

“Eat.”

Tomas wasn’t acting as Tomas now, he was very suddenly Daddy.

I had the sudden urge to push at him, to see what he would do when we were surrounded by his family… but that was playing with too much fire. Not only might he react badly, but they might if they realized that he had no control over me so quickly.

I opened my mouth and let him feed me.

A glimmer of a smile curved his lips. The hand on my thigh remained, like a warning not to get any ideas. So I obediently opened my lips, letting him feed me like a baby bird. A blush rose in my cheeks as he did so, his gaze watching me. Caressing me. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about thrusting his cock into my mouth, rather than the food.

Just thinking about it made me want to squirm in place. It was our wedding day, after all. I assumed that at some point, he’d want to fuck me again.

What surprised me was how much I wanted him to.

Hopefully without rope this time.

I wanted to touch him.

Which was also surprising to me, but then… today was full of surprises, was it not?

“Is there anything in particular you want?” Tomas asked, tilting his head at the tables full of food.

I hesitated. There was not, at least not on the tables. But he was asking, and it was our wedding day, so why not request what I truly wanted right now?

“I want to go to the conservatory.” I wanted to see it again. Now that it was officially mine to do with as I pleased.

If he had not exhausted me so last night, I would have been running through plans in my head. Instead, I’d been sleeping more deeply than I ever had in my life. I wanted to go look at it again.

He paused to think for only a moment, before inclining his head.

Tomas

As I led Ivy to the doors, Aunt Serena caught my eye. She looked back at me before she sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward. I didn’t need her to say anything to know that she wasn’t entirely pleased we were leaving the wedding reception early, but she wasn’t going to stop us either.

Ivy moved eagerly. She remembered the way to the conservatory, to my amusement. My longer legs had to stretch to keep up with her as she walked faster and faster, hurrying down the hallway.

When we entered the room, which was far warmer and more humid than anywhere else in the house, she let out a soft sigh, almost of relief. Her head tilted back to look around again, taking it all in.