Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
When he was finally done cleaning up after me, he untied and sat me down on the edge of the bed and crouched before me. “You have to stop trying to kill me, Lila. It’s giving me a massive hard-on, and I’ve never been good with delayed gratification.”
I glared at him skeptically. I wasn’t even sure what he meant by that.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” he explained plainly. “Not tonight, anyway.”
My eyes darted to the condom on the vanity in the open bathroom, my throat bobbing with a swallow. He followed my line of vision.
“Bold of you to assume you’re worth my time.” A smile tilted the corners of his lips. It was mocking and humorless, but the first I’d seen from him. “The condom isn’t meant for you. I was supposed to fuck someone else. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the mood for a brunette.”
My shaking subsided little by little. Nobody had ever used these words with me. In truth, people hardly spoke to me at all. When they did, they treated me like a small child.
Tiernan slanted his head. “How much do you understand?”
I didn’t answer him. I still hadn’t decided what’d be the best course of action to protect myself in this marriage.
“You gonna stop trying to kill me?”
I shrugged noncommittally.
“Very quixotic.” He rubbed his thumb across his lower lip. “How about a six-hour ceasefire until morning?”
This time I nodded. I was exhausted. Hungry, thirsty, and overwhelmed with my own existence.
“Same bed?” he offered.
My eyebrows slammed together.
He grinned in response. “Have fun on the floor, then.”
I assumed the tiny square of bathroom carpet as my bed, curled into a shrimp-shaped figure, crying myself to sleep. Tiernan didn’t suggest I take the bed, nor did he check on his whimpering, hiccuping wife.
The marble beneath me was cold, the pins in my hair too tight, the corset too suffocating, but I was safe.
Locked away from the big, bad monster.
At least until dawn.
CHAPTER EIGHT
TIERNAN
A loud bang on the door woke me up.
“Wakey wakey, Sir Kills-a-Lot,” Enzo’s voice sing-songed from the other side. Of course, the cheerful bastard was a morning person. “Time to fulfill your end of the bargain.”
My end of the barg—?
Bollocks. I forgot the stupid blood-on-the-sheets tradition. Vello needed it to prove his knocked-up daughter was a virgin. I wasn’t normally in the habit of following directions, but in this case, we needed to keep a united front. It’d be bad for business if people knew I married a knocked-up woman.
I grabbed my phone, sifting through my last messages.
Luca: Don’t you dare touch her.
Achilles: Not even a peck on the cheek, asshole.
Tiernan: Stop blowing up my phone.
Enzo: Touch a hair on her head, and your phone won’t be the only thing exploding.
Seeing as my wife stabbed and shot me last night, I had at least two semi-open wounds to tarnish the expensive sheets with. Funny, the don didn’t mention she was violent. Probably because he knew it’d turn me on.
“Ten minutes.” I stretched across the bed. I could practically feel Enzo hovering on the other side of the door like a floating piece of shit in a public restroom.
“Is Lila okay?”
I threw a glance at the locked door of the en suite, from which annoying whimpers had drifted until four in the morning. “Grand.”
Silence seeped through the door crack.
“Did you…” He paused, clearing his throat. “Honor our deal?”
Barely, I thought sardonically. That second time she tried to stab me, I leaked enough precum to glaze a Cinnabon.
“I did.” I slung an arm over the mountain of silken pillows behind me. “Despite her constant begging. She was really asking for it.”
I was supposed to get my dick wet after the ceremony to ensure I was sated by the time I got to the suite. The Ferrante brothers had offered to pay me 50K for every month I didn’t touch their sister. All in cash. Unfortunately, the cheerleader spoke too much and sucked too little, so I cut her loose before I even unzipped. Not that it mattered. Even a good fuck wouldn’t be enough to calm down the fire Lila ignited in me whenever she tried to kill me.
Which was pretty bleeding often considering we hadn’t known each other for more than eight hours.
Smashing a vase inside her dress was a nice touch. I wasn’t sure about her cognitive abilities, but I deduced she knew exactly what happened to her and wasn’t keen on a repeat.
Rubbing the sleepiness from my eyes, I stood up and banged on the bathroom door.
“Up.” I cupped my morning wood, dying for a piss. “We need to hit the road.”
The Ferrantes’ private jet was due to leave at noon, and I still had to present the sheets, have breakfast with a bunch of Italian dimwits, and meet with the Camorra to strategize the attack on the Bratva.