ElenaI lie in bed by myself, unable to fall asleep. I don’t even know what time Alexander will be home tonight.Outside of the bedroom we don’t talk—there are no texts, no phone calls. I have no idea what his days even look like.Even now that I’m married, I fall asleep alone almost every night. My heart aches as I think of everything I wanted out of life. A happy family of my own that would be nothing like my own family. Children that would be loved beyond compare. A husband that adores me.I saved my mother’s life, but I gave up my own in return. I have no regrets. If given the choice, I’d do it all over again—but that doesn’t mean that I don’t mourn the dreams I’m giving up on. It doesn’t mean I don’t wonder what I might be missing out on.I turn around in bed, my eyes falling to Alexander’s pillow. How is it possible to experience heartbreak over something I’ve never had?The door opens and I sit up in surprise, the sheets falling to my waist. Alexander doesn’t even notice me as h
Elena“Let me see?” Sofia says.I hold my hand up excitedly, admiring my own nails.“They did a great job,” she says, and I nod. I can’t even remember the last time I was this pampered. Sofia arranged an entire spa day for the two of us. We got massages together, followed by hair and nail appointments. It’s been incredibly nice, but more than that, I’ve missed this feeling—the feeling of spending an entire day with a mother figure. There’s nothing like it.“Thank you,” I tell her.She smiles at me and shakes her head, her hand in mine. “Darling, you’re my daughter-in-law now. It’s my job to spoil you.”She brushes my hair behind my ear, a huge grin on her face. I’ve noticed that more often than not, she’s lost in thought at home, a sad expression on her face. But not today. She’s enjoyed today as much as I have.“Alec explained that you two will be staging your relationship for my father and the press? You know that won’t be easy, right?”I nod nervously. “I know,” I murmur. “But we do
AlexanderElena walks into the bar I asked her to meet me at and I sit back, watching her from afar. She’s wearing a red dress that at once looks fucking sexy on her, yet perfectly appropriate. Her eyes find mine, and she smiles, drawing attention to her red lips.I told Elena to meet me here so we can start getting the rumor mill going about us. I’m certain someone will attempt to take a photo of us, so I told her to dress up. I didn’t expect her to look this beautiful, though.We’ve been married for two weeks now, and we’ve gotten into a routine of sorts. I was worried that she’d be needy, that she’d promise me one thing and demand another, but that hasn’t been the case. She’s kept out of my way without me having to remind her of her promises, and she’s been keeping my mother company when I can’t be around. She’s been the perfect daughter-in-law, and she’s been an even more perfect wife, spreading those beautiful long legs for me without complaint, without any drama. She agreed to g
AlexanderI groan as I turn off my computer. This work day has taken far too long—it’s nearly 10pm. My phone buzzes just as I’m finally on my way home, and I unlock it with a sigh, assuming it’s more work waiting for me. Instead, I find a text message from the last person I expected to hear from.Jen:I think I made a mistake, Alec. I miss you so much. Please, can we talk?I stare at my phone in disbelief, my heart twisting painfully. How dare she text me after all this time? She’s engaged to fucking Matthew Rousseau. She’s marrying him on the day she was supposed to marryme. What the fuck does she meanshe misses me? I guess rumors about Elena and me reached her ears. I know what Jennifer is like—even if she doesn’t want me, she won’t want anyone else to have me either.I clench my phone in my hand, sorrow filling my heart. She fucking broke me, and now she has the gall to text me? The worst thing is that my first instinct is to text her back. To ask her if she’s okay. If something hap
Alexander“Are you ready?” I ask, glancing over Elena’s outfit. She’s wearing a formal classy dress today, looking like an executive of some sort—like a Kennedy. “You look perfect.”Elena smiles at me, but the way she keeps touching her dress betrays her nerves. She follows me to my Aston Martin, her brows rising.“Didn’t you say we were going to your grandpa’s?” she asks, looking around. “I thought all Kennedys live on the same estate.”I smile and open the door for her. “We do, but the Kennedy estate is massive. This is just my mother’s mansion,” I say, tipping my head towards our house. It’s imposing all on its own.“My grandfather had his estate built so that each of his siblings and all of their kids would have their own space. It’s essentially an entire private neighborhood, so while this is all still private property, it takes about eight minutes to drive to my grandfather’s house. There’s no way we’re walking that far.”She looks around in awe and shakes her head. I forget tha
ElenaI wake up with my head on Alexander’s bare chest and snuggle closer. He’s got one arm wrapped around me, and I bury my nose against his neck.I smile at the memory of last night. He came to bed late last night, waking me up with countless kisses on my skin. The way touched me… he’s both rough and tender with me at the same time.Most days he’s gone by the time I wake up, but every once in a while, I wake up in his arms. I love those moments right before he wakes up, those moments when he’ll hold me close, when he makes me feel cherished. Those moments make our marriage more bearable—they help me forget that what we have isn’t real.“Your hair tickles.”I freeze in his arms, my entire body tense. I push away from him, but he won’t let me go. Instead, he pulls me closer. I blink, turning my head just a little. He’s got his phone in his hand, scrolling through his emails leisurely, his other hand on my waist.“Let’s go on a dinner date tonight. I think it’s time we start making fron
AlexanderI stand at the entrance of the store, silencing the sales assistant with my finger. I recognize my wife straight away, but unfortunately, I also recognize the woman standing next to her. I stand back, out of view, my focus entirely on Elena.I listen as Elise accuses her of having a sugar daddy, as she throws Elena’s mother’s hospital bills in her face. It doesn’t escape my notice that she purposely makes it clear that the bags Alaric Rousseau bought for her are of the same value as the hospital bills.I keep waiting for Elena to stand up for herself, but she doesn’t. None of the confidence she has when she resists me is present. She’s feistier when she’s reminding me that all I own is her body, than she is right now.She starts to shake, and I walk toward her. Elise’s eyes widen when she sees me, but I keep my attention on Elena. “I’m late, Buttercup,” I say, wrapping my arm around her. “But I’m here now.”Elena relaxes in my arms and looks up at me in relief. The trust in
AlexanderThe waitress leads us to a secluded spot by the window, but Elena doesn’t even notice the view. She’s absent minded. Even ring shopping didn’t seem to excite her. I offered to buy her additional jewelry, but she wasn’t interested.I move my chair closer to her, so I’m sitting next to her rather than opposite her, and she looks at me, a sad smile on her face.“My father hasn’t checked up on me since I turned eighteen, but he takes such good care of Elise,” she says, her voice breaking. “He doesn’t even seem to care whether I’m dead or alive.”I see the tears pooling in her eyes and grab her hand. Seeing tears in her eyes, fuck. I can’t stand it. “I know it isn’t the same, but you have me now, Buttercup,” I say involuntarily.She looks at me and nods. “I do. I do have you,” she says, her eyes never leaving mine. “There are a few things I want to do, Alexander… but I can’t do them by myself. Will you help me?”I raise my brows, and she tightens her grip on my hand. “I… I want t
“Keep. Going.”All over this city, I inspire fear in men. People talk about me in low whispers of pure dread, but I have no power here. It’s all Elena.“I’ll show you how bad you really want it,” I growl, pulling down her shorts and her underwear.Falling to my knees beside the bed, I stare in awe at her feminine core. She’s glistening with her wetness. Her lips are swollen with pure need. I reach under the bed and grab her ass, caressing her supple mounds as I bring my mouth to her slit.“Do you think this is a game?” I snarl.“I’m not playing any game.”“Sure you’re not. Beg me to lick your pussy. Beg me to make you come.”I stare up at her. Genuine desire dances in her eyes. She bites her lip. I can see how tortured she is. I can see how confusing this situation is—for both of us.“Do it,” she says after a pause. “Lick my virgin pussy, Dario. You own my clit.”“I don’townyou.”“Yes, you do.” She reaches down, dragging her fingernails through my hair. “You own me—all of me. Lick me.
I don’t know what this is. Is she trying to make some twisted point?She slides her hand higher up my leg. “You fought for me. Go on. I’m your trophy, your property.”“You don’t want this,” I groan.“Says who?”“You’re not thinking straight.”“I know you want it …”Fuck. She slides her hand even higher, finding my hot, pulsing steel and stroking me up and down through my pants. The mania in her eyes gets even more intense. I should stop her, but dammit. Her hand feels like it belongs on my precome-slick heat.“See,” she moans, moving even closer. “I know this is what you want. A woman who can see something like that and then give her wet pussy to you.”“Elena,” I groan. “This isn’t how you want to do this.”“Maybe I just want to forget.”She kisses me passionately, almost desperately. It’s like she wants to immerse herself in our pleasure so she doesn’t have to think about everything. Maybe this is her way of proving I only want to use her, not be with her, but it’s not true.Her body
DARIO“She doesn’t want to speak to me,” I tell Mother, a strange numb feeling cloaking me.“She’s never seen anything like this before,” my mother replies, her hand on my shoulder. “I’ve lived in this world for most of my life, andI’venever seenthataspect. You can’t blame her for being in shock.”“She looked like she hated me,” I say, looking up at the night sky as I sit on the back porch. “Do you know what she said when we got into the helicopter?Don’t look at me. Don’t touch me.She doesn’t even want me to bring her aunt and her friend here. She said she feels dirty, different.”“Dario,she’s in shock.”I grit my teeth, but I can’t stop reliving the beating I gave that lowlife who was going to hurt Elena. When I stormed the farmhouse after the successful shootout, and I saw him standing there with her, the monster in me came out—the part of me I never wanted her to see.“I’m going to see how she’s doing.”My mother sighs. “Is that a good idea?”“She’s my fiancée,” I snap.My mother t
I shudder, still not looking at him, but I’m forced to when he violently stabs the knife into the wood of the table. “I asked you a question.”“No. I don’t know.”He grins a thin, ugly smile. “The other fellas don’t much like the things Vesper does to ladies. Some of them got their morals, or that’s what they call them, anyway. Me? I take a more flexible view. Get what I mean? They don’t want to be here in case I’ve got to make you see sense. Please, make me have to make you see sense. Get it?”Part of acting is using my imagination to immerse my mind fully in a character’s experience, but this doesn’t require much effort. I don’t have totryto imagine what hemightmean. This man, the psycho who refers to himself in the third person, is willing to go to lengths even regular Mafia soldiers won’t. That means serious, life-ending abuse.“That wasn’t rhetorical,” he says.“I understand.”He taps the knife against the table. “Why don’t you try to give me some fight, hmm? Why don’t you try to
ELENAI’m pretty sure I’m in the back of a car. My hands are bound in front of me with zip ties. I think it’s a car, not a truck, because I can see light shining through the bag they’ve put over my head. I have no idea how long we’ve been driving. Time has distorted, losing all meaning. I’ve been trying to focus on slowing my breathing down.They haven’t hurt me yet, apart from the ambush itself, my head still splitting down the middle from what I assume was some sort of grenade. It all feels surreal—an acid reminder of how unsuited I am to this world.I’ve stopped crying, at least. When I think back to the attack, I feel like an idiot. I shouldn’t have assumed that the men were on my side. Nobody in the mob, not even Dario, is on my side. I’m not just from a different world but from a different universe.I think about all my aspirations and dreams of acting as Aunt Rosa sits lovingly and supportively in the crowd and all the good times Giulia and I would share. Now they’re all gone t
“I didn’t tell them anything,” my father says. “I only learned about this after the fact. Please, son, sit. Try to slow down. Try to think. You can’t approach this how you need to if you’re in this state.”I lay my fists on his desk, glaring at him. He flinches away. Now, it’s the second time he looks spooked by me. “I’m in the exact state I need to be. The right mood to tear this city to pieces to find Elena. The right state to destroy the Romanos.”“We have to be intelli?—”“Are you telling me tolet them get away with this?”“No, of course not,” he says quickly. “When they find her, I know you’ll do what you must.”“So, what are you saying?”“I don’t want you to domorethan is necessary,” he says slowly. “Find her. Rescue her. Hurt anybody who gets in your way, but as it stands, there have been no deaths.”“That we know of,” I say, then regret saying it. Putting it into words is like giving it a chance to be real. I slam my fists on his desk. “I don’t want to think about that. Elena
DARIO“Don’t start a war?”I roar down the phone at my father on speaker as I speed through the city, my hands tight on the steering wheel, blood boiling through my body like a call to violence. “Are you fucking joking? The Romanos attacked Mother and my fiancée. Theytook her, and you want me to be calm?”“Your mother is safe. The men got her out.”“And they left Elena!”“They didn’t leave her,” my father says as I speed around the corner to the theater. The police are already here, a cordon out front, which means I’m too damn late to get any information. I’m unsure what I will find, but not Elena, the one thing Ineed. This can’t be happening. “They tried to rescue her, too, but the Romanos had already taken her by the time they arrived. They didn’t abandon her, son.”“Do you think that makes any of this better?” I bellow, then hang up and call Allessio. “What’ve you got?”“No activity at their safe house on the docks, Dario,” he says. “I’m going to check their warehouse in the industr
I almost laugh, breaking character. Instead, I take the cell and pretend to type. “What’s your passcode?”She grins. “I shouldn’t tell you that, should I? I’ll type it for you.”“Here you go. Oh!” I pretend to drop the phone, then lean down and pick it up. “It’s busted. I’m so sorry; I’ll pay for a new one. In the meantime, do you have a landline?”Her eyes gleam. “I’ve been waiting for one of your kind to come.”I’m surprised for a moment, but the exhilaration of acting keeps me going in the scenario. I broaden my stance. I put a grim note to my voice. “So you know what I am, then, day dweller?”“I know, and I’m ready.” She pretends to take something out of her pocket. “This is a clove of garlic.”I smirk. “Those old myths, day dweller? I’ll take your garlic and use it in my pasta sauce. It doesn’t do a thing to us.”“What aboutthis?!” She leaps to her feet, looking so different from her usualpersonathat I wonder if she’s been putting on an act all this time, too. Or maybe it’s natur
ELENA“Iwould just like you to give me a concrete reason I can’t visit the theater,” I tell Rocco, my driver and mafiosi bodyguard.The lean man frowns at me from across the roof of his car. We’re in the front courtyard of the townhouse, the vehicle gleaming after a recent wash. “There are several issues, ma’am,” he says, clearly uncomfortable with challenging the soon-to-be Mafia princess.Since Dario left around two hours ago, I’ve felt more restless than I have since I agreed to this deal. I let myself fall into a false sense of intimacy, let the sass hint at something real. However, earlier, and let’s be honest, I played my part, too. He made it clear that was a mistake.“Are you seriously telling me?—”“Is something wrong?”We both turn at the sound of Maria Moretti’s voice. She walks toward us in a long, flowing dress that makes her appear to floatelegantly. Rocco stands a little straighter, his hands behind his back.“I was telling Miss Esposito that we can’t, at this time, tak