Cassie POVWe all stood there staring at the “Jack Russel cop" as he stepped toward Boss, handcuffs dangling from his fingers. “What's your evidence?” Boss demanded to know, a mix of anger and terror on his face. “I didn't touch the girl!”The DNA swabs confirmed that Miss Parker was pregnant with Mr. Maretti’s baby. That was clearly his motive for killing her.” The other cop put his hands on his hips and shook his head as he said scornfully, “didn't touch the girl? Then how was she pregnant with your baby?”A hush ran through the crowd before Greg launched himself at Boss, screaming “You bastard!”Damian managed to pull Greg off of Boss, but not before Greg got a couple of good punches in, busting up Boss's lip so that blood trickled down his chin and onto his shirt. Boss didn't fight the cops anymore, he hung his head in shame and let the cops lead him away in silence, hands cuffed behind his back.We stared after him, Greg's fists clenched by his side while others comforted him.
Vasilios POVThe moment I felt Cassandra pull away from me, I knew something was wrong. I'd been so wrapped up in kissing the gorgeous woman in my arms that I hadn't even heard the knock on the door, but she had. And the look of disgust on her face confused me until I heard the whining voice of the bitch across the hall. “Vasilios? Are you in there?” My physical reaction to her voice was instantaneous, my dick which had been straining against my boxers at Cassandra's touch became as limp as cooked spaghetti, and the urge to cram myself into a cupboard to hide was almost undeniable. Cassandra breathed in sharply before she said scathingly, “your new girlfriend is waiting for you,” turning on her heels and locking herself in the bathroom without a second glance. I let out a low growl as she turned the shower on and I heard Anna bang on the door even louder. “Vasilios, I need you,” she whined again and I darted a glance at the bathroom door. Fuck, there was no way I was going to
Cassie POV“I still don't understand why you couldn't have just gone and helped Anna turn the water off,” I moaned, sounding like a moody teenager.I was ankle deep in water as I sloshed around, trying to pack a bag for the hotel I was being forced to live at until the flooding issue was over, while Vasilios sat with his feet up on my coffee table as if he were lazing on an exotic beach. He shrugged and said casually, “I didn't want to fuel your wrongly placed suspicions that I was sleeping with your neighbour.”I snorted and threw a few more things into my bag, swearing internally. “And how about when the water started flowing under my door?”He shrugged again, a twinkle in his eye, “I thought a plumber would be best suited to the job. I didn't expect her to shove a cork in the pipe and cause more pipes to burst instead of actually calling a professional.” Grabbing my makeup from the bathroom, I threw the case into my bag and zipped it up. “I'm done, we can get out of here,” I sig
Cassie POV I buried the bottom half of my face in the bubbles to hide my laughter, making Vasilios’s eyes narrow at me. “Cassandra, why are all the girls calling me Big Daddy? The one even told one of the clients that she couldn’t give him a private show because Big Daddy would spank her. What kind of reputation will I have in this fucking city by the end of the week?” I lost my self-control at that point, snorting up a few bubbles from my bath as I dissolved into giggles. “It’s not funny, Cassandra. I know you had something to do with it, now fix it!” I shook my head, coughing as I tried to recover from the bubble inhalation. “No! It’s the second time you have left me alone in a hotel room while you wander off to one of your clubs.” A confused look plastered itself on his face. “Huh? What are you talking about.” I sat up straight, huffing with indignation at his apparent loss of memory. “Are you so old that you can’t remember what you did on the night of our wedding ce
Cassie POV Vasilios caught my hair in his fist, pulling on it so that he could deepen the kiss, his tongue sweeping inside of mine. I felt my arms gradually snake around his neck, clinging to him as if he were a lifeline. His tongue rubbed seductively against mine, drawing me into an erotic dance fueled by years of forbidden passion. I nibbled his lower lip, sucking it into my mouth as he pulled me closer to him. In one swift motion, he cupped my backside and lifted me up against him, my legs wrapping around his waist as he lowered me onto the bed. I could feel the hardness of his dick pressed at the junction of my thighs, the towel no longer offering any protection. Slowly, Vasilios moved his lips from my mouth and trailed kisses across my cheek and down my neck, nibbling the spot where his mark should be. I gasped as the waves of pleasure rushed through me, the blood in my veins turning to liquid fire. His lips peppered kisses across my collarbone, and lower until they reached
Vasilios POV I wrapped my hand around my whiskey glass, staring at the ice as it slowly melted. I had made a mistake - and I wasn’t used to making mistakes. I had been certain that Cassandra had been intimate with other men, so certain that I would have even staked my life on my assumption. But I was wrong… terribly wrong. And the woman who had tormented me for almost a decade had won. My dreams were now filled with her, and every fibre of my being ached to have her in my arms. If there had been even a sliver of doubt that the woman was my mate, it was completely gone now. Only one thing remained - the need to have her by my side. I pulled out my phone and stared down at it, wondering which of the Castello brothers would be the best option to call and bounce my ideas off of. With a sigh, I selected Enzo’s name. “Vasi! You’re still alive? I was pretty sure Cassie would have you hung up by your ballsack after the apartment flooding,” he chuckled in greeting. “You’re not so far
Cassie POVAvoiding Vasilios had been hard, but trying to stop myself from reliving our intimate moment over and over again in my mind had been harder. I'm ashamed to say that I actually had rather sensual dreams every night since then, and they all revolved around the man I was avoiding. And the worst thing about it all, was that I wasn't sure where Eliana stood in terms of me and Vasilios. Her forcing me to go to dinner with him had confused me a bit about what her endgame actually was. I'd called Yvonne instead and had explained to her what had happened. She pulled out her lawyer training and responded with, “well, you've consummated that marriage, and until you know whether or not you have Vasilios's pup growing inside you, you can't petition the elders for a divorce.”Great help she was. Amy had been a little bit more helpful and I was grateful that she'd dragged me from the hotel so that we could have a real conversation. “So, you slept with him. Is that the worst thing?” A
Cassie POV“Hey Cassie, where are you?” Greg's frustrated voice came through the speaker of my phone as I was carefully putting clothes into my suitcase. “What do you mean?” I asked, somewhat confused. “A water pipe burst at my place so I'm in a hotel. I thought you knew.”He huffed through the phone and I could hear laughter in the background. “No, I mean why aren't you here at the theatre?” “Shit! I forgot, give me like half an hour and I'll be there,” I scrambled, tipping out the clothes I'd just packed in search of something appropriate for Broadway. “Don't bother, it's about to start. I'll see you tomorrow at work,” he grumbled and put the phone down before I could tell him that I wasn't going to be at work the next day… or for the next few months. I sighed loudly and looked at the mess of clothing which I now had to repack into my suitcase. With a groan, I picked up the first piece of clothing and began folding it. “Alright, my guys will fetch your furnishings from your a
Chapter 2Kat POVI pressed my ear to the door of the suite on the third floor of the Palazzo Hotel, hearing the steady breathing of the occupant inside. He must be fast asleep - just how I wanted him.“This should be easy,” I whispered to myself as I pulled the lock picks from where I had hidden them in my hair.The hotel had been deserted as I had made my way through the foyer and hallways, as it should be at 3am. Only a sleepy looking desk clerk had possibly seen me, but I think the man was too busy scrolling through reels on his phone to even realise that I had snuck in.Not exactly the kind of service you would expect to find at a five star hotel, but I was glad for it. Within a few seconds, I had the door unlocked. With a slightly proud smile, I slipped off my shoes and pushed the door quietly open before I snuck inside. The room was lavishly decorated and my bare feet sunk into the thick carpet. Exquisite paintings hung on almost every wall and I had to stop myself from pullin
Chapter 1Kat POVI was drowning. The water flooded my lungs as I tried to scream, my clothing dragging me down into the dark depths as shadows hovered above the water. Bright lights flashed across my vision like fireworks as my lungs burned, and then it all went black.“Wake up, Kat, it’s just a nightmare.” I felt a hand press against my mouth and my arms flew out to ward off my attacker. “Stop screaming before you wake up the others!”Giulia’s face was barely visible in the dark room, her warm brown eyes filled with sisterly concern.I nodded my head and she removed her hand, brushing my hair from my face just like a real big sister would do. “Was it the same nightmare again?” she whispered, careful not to wake up the four children who slept on mattresses on the floor.“Yeah,” I whispered back, shivering as the cool night air cut through my pyjamas which were drenched with my own sweat. Giulia tugged the thin blanket up under my chin, looking after me just as she had done ever sin
Cassie POVI stood watching the ceremony with tears in my eyes as Aleko took over the Alpha title amidst cheers from the pack. Once the shock of Vasilios stepping down had worn off, the elders of the pack were elated to have Aleko back again. The giant man had begun helping with training the younger wolves, and had even gone as far as to redo the roof of one of the ancient widow’s homes that Vasilios and I hadn’t even known was leaking. All in all, he was far more suited to the role than Vasilios ever had been. And we had come to the conclusion that Vasilios had just wanted to be Alpha because that is what had been expected of him his whole life. Vasilios had formed a strong bond with Aleko in just a few short months, and the man had quickly become like a father figure to him. In fact, no one was surprised when we named our own son Niklos Aleko after his great uncle. The baby boy had launched himself into our lives a month early, but according to Luna Delia it was probably a good th
Cassie POV“I wonder why Damian is being so secretive about who he wants us to meet,” I mused aloud as we drove to Damian’s house. Vaslios was driving at a snail’s pace, and I had to resist the urge to take over. The man had been driving me insane over the last few days with how over protective he was being - “No Cassandra, you can’t lift that. You’ll hurt yourself.”, “No agapití mou gynaíka. You shouldn’t be straining yourself. You need to rest.”I was seconds away from murdering the man. I guess it was cute that he was trying to protect me, but I was made of tougher stuff and I didn’t feel like being imprisoned in my own apartment because the man thought the stairs were too dangerous. “I guess it won’t matter since I will die of old age before we get there,” I muttered under my breath. Vasilios snorted and rolled his eyes before he increased the speed by a fraction. Luckily we weren’t far from Damian’s house and as we drove up the driveway we could see another car parked. “Well
Vasilios POVI watched the screen as the doctor slid what looked like a product scanner across Cassandra’s stomach, not entirely sure what to expect. I’d always heard that foetuses look like little aliens, but to me it looked like perfection. “There’s the spine, and there you can see baby’s heart beating,” the doctor pointed out bodyparts on the screen which I could barely make out. It was a bit like those black blobs shrinks use to determine if you’re insane or not - only in this case I was trying to figure out my kid’s anatomy. My child. The thought was still so strange and yet so welcoming. “Are you wanting to know the gender?” the doctor asked. Before I could respond, Cassandra shook her head. “No. I want it to be a surprise.” As if having the kid in the first place wasn’t enough of a surprise, but I let her have her way. Either way the child was going to be loved beyond measure. If it was a girl, she would be my princess. I would treat her in a way that she would know what
Cassie POVVasilios and I collapsed onto the bed in the honeymoon suite of the hotel - the same one where I had lost my virginity to him. I chuckled when we had pulled up outside the Aman and he had shot me a strange look before he took my hand and guided me into the gigantic, minimalistic monstrosity.The honeymoon suite was on the top floor, and Vasilios lifted me into his arms and carried me through the door into the candle lit room, laying me gently on the petal covered bed before he collapsed beside me.Our wedding reception had been a blast, even with the very few guests attending. By the end of the night, Laryssa had pulled out a handy pair of scissors and had styled a fashionable knee-length dress out of my gown, and we had all danced to music played by Benny while Terry poured drinks into any glass that seemed slightly empty. The pair had celebrated my pregnancy and my nuptials in style, insisting that they be part of the celebration.Vasilios and I had been slightly surprise
Cassie POVIf someone ever tells you that you can’t organise a wedding in twenty-four hours, tell them that they’re wrong. By the time the sun rose the next morning, I was relaxing in my apartment with Elle and Laryssa, sipping mocktails and gushing about the gorgeous dress Laryssa had managed to get for me for an absolute steal. “So, Amy is on her way to pick up the bouquets we ordered and then she will come and dress here. Luca says the decor is already set up and that Damian’s chef friend is preparing what seems to be a twenty-course meal. We are all sorted,” Elle ticked off the to-do list on her fingers, smiling brightly. I took her and Laryssa’s hands and squeezed them slightly, “thank you for everything you have done for me. I really don’t think I could have pulled this off without you both.”Elle kissed my cheek and winked before she snuck off to call her mother-in-law so that she could check in with Gia - the kid was probably having the time of her life without her mother c
Cassie POVI’m pretty sure that the nurses held a party the moment I walked out of the hospital. Not because I was a terrible patient, but because Vasilios was probably the most non-compliant family member the ward had ever experienced. He refused to leave my side, and only my father was able to make him leave for an hour, although he complained about that too and made my dad stay while he was away. Vasilios broke all the hospital rules; climbing into bed beside me, reading my medical chart, getting food delivered because he said hospital food didn’t have enough nutrition to feed both me and his baby. The guy was overbearing to put it mildly. But I didn’t mind in the least. Vasilios drove carefully through the city, and we spoke about our wedding plans. I was determined to be able to have a relaxed ceremony with just our close friends and family, where we could actually say our vows and mean it. Yes, I know that we weren’t technically divorced, but this ceremony was going to be the
Cassie POVI felt as if I was burning alive, the fire clawing at my chest as restraints held me down. I tugged on the rope which seemed to be emerging from my own arm, but that only caused screaming from the depths of the dark cave I was locked in. “Someone, help!” I thought I heard Vasilios’s voice, but then a sharp pain radiated from my arm and my world went dark once again. It seemed like just a few moments later that I woke up again, the pain in my chest more of a dull throb than the fire it had been. The room was dimly lit, but my eyes seemed to take a while to adjust to the light as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. The clinical environment and the drip poking out of my arm seemed to be enough clues to point to the fact that I was in hospital. The highly flattering hospital gown and catheter removed all doubts that remained. I tried to sit up and groaned as the fire burned through my chest again, and I was forced to remember that I had been shot. The last thing I re