Chapter 71Cephus’ POVThe knife lands with precision right where I expect it to—just shy of cutting her ear off. A breath of an inch closer, and she would have been one ear short.Her eyes are as wide as saucers. Fear is rooted deeply in them, and I know she thinks I’m going to kill her. She thinks that one of these many knives is meant for her.She is wrong. None of the knives are meant for her—they are meant for me.“Whatever fucking crazy ass rollercoaster you’re on, I want off.” She is tiny but sounds like a ferocious beast. Her eyes are filled with fire, but her body trembles with fear.“Sorry, no refunds, baby,” I taunt, grabbing another knife from the drawer. I can go all night. There are knives upon knives that can be thrown, but I have other ideas about what I can do with them.“Then kill me. Do it. Because this game, or whatever it is that you’re playing, is fucking with my head. You’re fucking with my head. Just do what you planned to do all along.”My dick grows harder wi
Chapter 72Cephus’ POVI slide my blade across her hips, watching as her panties fall away. Nothing is separating us anymore. She is completely bare for me. Mine.Her pussy is freshly shaven, and it begs to me. Her pulse jumps as I separate her lips, my finger sliding through the slick wetness. Her need for me can be seen and smelled from miles away.“You want me?” I growl. It isn’t really meant to be a question, but more like I’m letting her know that I know. She says nothing, other than allowing a gasp to leave her lips.I drop the knife next to the bed and listen to it fall to the floor. With both hands free now, I push her legs apart. Gripping her behind one leg, I place it over my shoulder. I want to feast on that slick pussy.“Please,” she greets me with a begging plea as she lifts her other leg to place it over my shoulder to allow me to grip her ass and bring her pussy to my face. She smells delightful, and I can’t decide what I want to do more—fuck her or eat her out. I nuzz
Chapter 73Katie's POVA self-righteous prick who thinks he is a king, when in reality you’re nothing but a sad man who can’t love and can’t let go of the anger that’s eating him up inside.”Her words have not left me since the moment they fell from her plump lips. Honestly, I think they will haunt me for the rest of my life. Why? Because they are so close to the truth that it makes my chest ache ferociously.I can’t believe how quickly she forgives me. How easy it is for her to turn the other cheek. She is the angel, and I’m the devil.There is no saving us from the destruction I will cause. Katie, It has been three days since I had the most mind-blowing sex of my life. Well, the only sex of my life, but it was amazing, nothing like I expected. He hasn’t fucked me since that night, and though I have given him blow jobs and allowed him to go down on me many times, we still haven’t connected like we did that day.I’ve been spending my days playing the piano and reading while he does
Chapter 74Katie's POVI’m panting with need by the time he releases my hair and pushes me back so he can unbuckle himself. I watch as he slowly pulls his pants off, his cock comes to attention, and I feel my mouth watering. The thought of him taking me, with no intention of warning me, has me growing wetter by the second.“Hold on. . . I’m going to fuck the defiance right out of you,” he whispers in my ear, his teeth graze it, and I let a sigh escape my lips. My ass is tugged to the edge of the counter, and suddenly, he’s at my entrance, entering me with an intensity I have never felt in my life. Our grunts and slaps echo through the bathroom. Cephus’s fingers bite into my flesh as a flutter runs through me and straight to my toes. They curl, and a cry of pleasure leaves my lips as I open my eyes and catch him watching himself push in and out of me.“Your pussy, your body… It is all made for me,” he growls, his teeth scrape my skin as his cock continues to push into me, hitting my
Chapter 75Katie's POVThe glass is cold under my fingers, and I pull my hand back, finally catching a glimpse of my face in the mirror. I look like a five-dollar whore. Fingertip markings can be found on my legs, hips, and arms. My hair desperately needs brushing, and my lips are red and chapped as if I have been kissed for hours.At least my bruises from the night at the club are gone.I run my fingers through my hair, hissing at my sensitive scalp. The memory of the hours before swarming me. The way he had taken me, the way he had possessed my mind and body… It was all about him and me at that moment. The mafia, the money owed, debts, nothing mattered. Everything fell away, leaving him and me behind. Cephus may be a lost cause to most, dark and dangerous to others, but I have never felt closer to anyone like I do to him.Stopping myself from thinking of how his cock tastes in my mouth, I head to the shower. My mind turned my blissful thoughts into shit almost immediately. He is
Chapter 76Cephus’ POV“Go get her,” I said firmly to Eli. His eyes bore into mine for a moment longer than I would like before he goes upstairs to my room. Katie has found a way under my skin, and each day that she is here, I feel myself losing my grip on things. I’m not soft, I can’t be. In this world, there is only strength or weakness. Being weak is certain death, and strength is power, something necessary when you have men breathing down your throat and people shooting at you.Speaking of which, I’m going to kill Luccio tonight if he doesn’t give me the answers I need. Someone sent one of his men to my home for something. Something which is unknown to me, but I am going to find out. When we had last spoken, he seemed so intent on helping me find my mother’s killer, now it seems as if he is the enemy, just wanting to weasel his way further into my life, hoping I’ll expose any and all secrets.My fists clench with anger, isn’t that what everyone wants? Katie, too? To weasel her
Chapter 77Cephus’ POVI clench my teeth together as sweat forms on my hands. This is the part that gets me, the part where someone wants to know about my family, or what happened to them. No one asks because they already know, yet looking deeply into her eyes, I can tell she deserves at least a smidge of the truth.“I know more than you think, piccolo…” My words are soft as she looks at me with concern. This is the hard part of what I do. Not allowing myself to get close to anyone. It’s always easier if you shut yourself out from the world. If I make the rules, I control the outcome. With Katie, I’m starting to wonder if I can control the outcome of all of this.“Why do you call me that?” Her voice is hushed, and there’s a sense of warmth that fills my bones. She’s too innocent for her own fucking good.I reach out, placing my hand on her thigh. Her skin is warm against my hand, and I stare deep into her eyes. “You’re a little one. Or at least you remind me of one.” She won’t unde
Chapter 78Cephus’ POV“You don’t have to stick up for me. I can do that myself. I mean, you’re the one who was just holding me by the throat, after all,” she growls, pushing the food away that had been placed in front of her. I feel myself growing feral with every word that slips from her mouth. She’s mouthy, she’s sinfully sweet, and she’s extremely dangerous to my sanity.I frown at her but continue on with my meal. I won’t waste my food simply because she doesn’t like hers. She’s not in control.I think about telling her more about my mother and father, about what happened to my mother, but I don’t. I know it might make her understand me more, but I feel like if she understands me more, she won’t fear me. Once the fear is gone, I have nothing to use against her.Time passes as I finish my meal, and she sits there with her food untouched—what a waste. The server comes and removes our plates without a word said. I leave the money on the table and stand, pulling Katie to her feet.
Chapter 183Katie's POVAll I see is a blur of him as I try to get my mind and body to function so I can answer him. My legs hit the floor as he pushed me down, releasing me to walk away. His hand grips his hair as he stares at the gun in his other hand and back down to me.“No. No, it’s not true,” I whimper, tears still falling. “Don’t listen to him,” I plead, looking him straight in the eyes.“Silence,” he orders, walking over to me with his hand raised. Will he hit me? Will he hurt me?“That isn’t true!” I shoot back. “Nothing he is saying is true…”Silence ensues for a long second before Cephus speaks. “Get the ropes and tape!” he yells to Mack. I’m lying on the ground on my side when his face comes into my vision.“Was it all a lie, Katie? Was it all some fucked up lie so that you could get into my head? So you could get the inside job done and walk away unscathed?” His voice is so loud in my ears, I push away from him.“Was it?” he shouts, demanding a response, his fingers gripp
Chapter 182Katie's POV“I see it as more of a protective arrangement for both of us. There are legal protections for each of us… incentives to keep one another’s secrets.”I fixed him with what I hoped was the most vicious look I had in me. “I never went to the cops after you kidnapped me, didn’t go running to my parents begging them to find someone to break your kneecaps, and you thought you needed some other way of getting me to keep your secrets?”“It matters…” I can hear the anxiety in Mack’s voice. Something is very, very wrong.“Why does it matter? She was nothing before this whole incident and will be nothing after everything takes place. She’s clean. I know it.” Cephus sounds confident, and though I know I have done nothing wrong, if Mack convinces him I did something, I know I am as good as dead.“It matters because I know she’s not clean. After Jared called me and told me what Luccio said, I did a little digging on her and found some shit out.”Horror fills my mind. What i
Chapter 181Katie's POV“I was seven or eight, in a regular primary school not far from here.” His right hand moved, grasping for his phone, then he left it alone and pulled my hand he was still holding onto his knee, placing both of his hands over it. If the ring I was wearing was digging in, he didn’t give any sign. “It might surprise you to hear this, Katie, but I was not the best of children.”“Shocking revelation.”“I was always targeting kids a bit younger, a bit smaller. The ones I knew wouldn’t be able to give me any shit in return. Except this one time, there was this kid—Billy Burke, I remember his name vividly—and he did give me shit. He told me he wanted me to stop pushing him around and trying to scare him, and no he wasn’t going to give me his lunch money, by the way. I’d never run into this situation before when I was running this scam, so I panicked a bit. I hit him in the face. Told me to his parents.”I didn’t know what to say to this. It took me all too quickly b
Chapter 180Katie's POVEven when it gets worked out in the end, it sucks for long-term relationships.”It had to be even harder to find someone you could enter into the sort of long-term relationship most people were especially keen on with. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Cephus had jumped at the chance to get me on board as a future wife.And speaking of my future husband, I had half-expected he wouldn’t be there when I returned. Then when I saw him sitting on the couch in front of the TV where he’d been when I ran out to get in Caroline’s car—where he’d probably slept for all I knew, he’d gone out the night before and hadn’t been back before I admitted defeat and crawled to bed—I half-expected to spot Angel somewhere in the room in the next moment. She didn’t have anything further to add to her roster of manipulations for the moment: we were alone.“What was your day like?” asked Cephus without looking at me. I let my bag slip by degrees from my fingers, frozen in place by the p
Chapter 179Katie's POV“Cephus isn’t supposed to be a part of this side of things, he can’t do it… and I doubt you’re in a position to ask your mother for assistance. Caroline is an ideal choice.”I didn’t like it, but she was right. I couldn’t go about this the wrong way if I ever wanted to be on Cephus’s good side. I didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And while I was surrounded by Cephus’s family I needed to make connections unless I wanted to be treated the same way I was on my own. Caroline seemed like the safest option there so far.“If you’re sure I won’t be inconveniencing you,” I told Caroline. “I could use the help. I don’t have much experience with the whole wedding business, that much is for sure.”Caroline broke out in a little golf clap of delight. There might actually be some benefit in spending trying to absorb as much as I could of her elegance. “I’m so pleased to help. Now, I was thinking, I have the whole of tomorrow afternoon off work, so that would be a g
Chapter 178Katie's POVI sat up with a gasp.It was just like the morning before when I had woken to unexpected voices. But this time I was in a strange bed again, and at least one of those voices didn’t seem familiar at all.I’d learned my lesson from the day before. I couldn’t get myself into the single bathroom in the apartment, but I pulled on a proper outfit, brushed out my hair, and cleaned my face thoroughly with some wipes. I didn’t dare put on makeup without a full mirror, but I was young and fresh enough that I could probably get away without it.Once I was decent, I made a quick and quiet tidy of my room and then stepped up to the door for a bit of strategic eavesdropping before I joined the action.A childish female voice was doing most of the talking. “She’ll need someone to guide her through the process.”Cephus’s voice sounded both amused and exasperated. “Someone who has never been even close to getting married before?”“You know exactly what Caroline means.” The thi
Chapter 177Katie's POVI kept trying to convince myself that what I was craving was the worst craving anyone had ever had, including anything that had been thought up by a brain on pregnancy. But it was ridiculous to be so worried about whether I did or didn’t sleep with him when I was already making myself vulnerable to him, right? Or was this just how I was convincing myself to go along with wherever my lust took me?I don’t think about looking at my plate. Then when Cephus abruptly slid his chair backwards and stood, I startled like a tiny animal that could run away if provoked further. I knew damn well I couldn’t run.Cephus came to my side and put his hand out for mine, drawing me to my feet when I complied.“You have sauce on you,” he said and pointed it out on my shirt—his fingertip pressing slightly into my breast in a way that was, I’m sure, entirely necessary.I looked down at his hand there. Well, I’d managed to at least try to eat something.I thrust my chest forward in
Chapter 176Katie's POV“Madonna and child.” Cephus folded his arms and leaned back; it felt like an acknowledgment that I’d landed a hit, but I didn’t have any idea how. I’d just been trying to give a voice to my frustrations. “So you know a little bit about art, then.”“I think that’s kind of something I picked up through pop culture actually,” I said. I was hoping to screw with him while I seemed to have an advantage, and he did appear to deflate a little in response. “You’d be more eager to get a leg over if I was the kind of girl who t art and how to engage with you because I have any desire to ‘get a leg over’. And I have no intention of scorning you because you lack cultural polish. I assure you that I will be able to provide for you sexually in every way you might require.”“What kind of statement is that? Trust me, I’m a sexy beast, even though from the way I behave you would expect pretty much any Arctic land to be less frigid than I am?”“Do you want me to provide referen
Chapter 175Katie's POV“Am I supposed to believe you are shy?”I was so startled by Cephus's Voice that here I dropped the capsicum I’d been fidgeting with. It rolled across the bench, and Cephus caught it with one hand while he continued dicing its unlucky sibling with the other.“I guess you wouldn’t,” I admitted, “but if any situation was going to make me feel that way… I mean, we’ve gone from you having me dragged out If bed to trying to cook with me?”“You’ve got to roll with the challenges life presents you sometimes, Katie,” said Cephus, rolling the second capsicum into the path of his knife.“Are you talking about me here or you?”“Both of us, for once.” His expression visibly dulled. It struck me then just how much more animated he had become since we had first met. It was just a handful of hours but there was someone behind the mafia man front he was slowly letting me see, whether by choice or unconsciously I did not know.It bothered disappearing again. It was messing wi