ARIAMaximo didn’t come to my room in days. Four days to be exact. I tried to pretend like I didn’t care about it. I tried to pretend that his sudden absence, just after I heard him with another woman, didn’t bother me. But it did. Each time I heard someone at my bedroom door, the rate of my heartbeat doubled, hoping he was the one. I was always disappointed when I saw Maria with a tray of food and her usual emotionless face.My heart clenched at the thought of how easy it was for him to replace me with another woman. Did he even have to replace me? Was I ever relevant in his life?Caterina Gallo. She was his lover, his woman. I tried to think of how he acted around her. Does he always threaten to kill her like he does with me? Or does he love her? Did she manage to weave her way into the dark depths of his heart? The more I thought about it, the more my own heart cracked.Why did I care this much? Why did my heart clench painfully whenever I thought of him? Each day, I tried not to
MAXIMOA gruff curse escaped my lips as I stood up from my bed. I've been tossing and turning on my bed, unable to sleep. I need a smoke. Opening my nightstand drawer, I took out a packet of cigarettes and the lighter beside it. I slipped out a stick and lit it, before dropping the lighter back in the nightstand drawer with the rest of the pack. "Cazzo,” I cursed again as I tried to disperse the thick smoke that filled my room from the lit stick. For some odd reason, the smoke felt suffocating.Standing up, I walked to my balcony to get some fresh night air. I stood there and took a deep huff from my cigarettes. If Mama saw me right now, she would lose her mind. She hated that Papa smoked. She would tell him that he would die of cancer or suffer a terrible disease that would leave him frail and weak. The first and only day she saw me smoking a cigar I’d stolen from Papa’s office, she cursed me out loud and told me that I would become one of the sbandato who stood on the road and be
CHAPTER SEVENTEENMAXIMOA loud knock on my bedroom door woke me up. My eyes shot open, and I reflexively reached for my gun from my bedside table. That was until I realized that it was early in the morning, and it was definitely one of the maids knocking."Come in,” I called out, my voice gravelly and rough.The door slowly creaked open to reveal Paula, the middle-aged woman who cleaned my room every morning.Her eyes widened in fear as she looked at me, and then she quickly bent her head to look at the floor.“G-good morning, boss,” she greeted, her voice timid.I threw my legs out of bed, and that was when I realized that she’d probably panicked because I was shirtless."Why didn't you wake me earlier?” I asked in a low growl, looking at the time on my phone.“I-I didn’t know you wanted me to wake you. You’re always awake by the time I get here. I’m sorry. It will never happen again,” she rushed out in a panicked tone.She was right, and somehow that managed to annoy me even more. I
CHAPTER EIGHTEENMAXIMOI rushed towards her and lifted her body from the floor. Her head lolled to the side as I pulled her body into my arms, and I cursed, rage building up within me. Her body was soaking wet. She was not wet when I left her here, which only meant one thing—my men had messed with her.A bitter, sardonic laugh escaped my lips as I carried her out of the dark cell, walking past other occupied cells until I got to the staircase. The prison guards and prisoners stared at me with confusion spread across their faces. I didn’t give a fuck. At least not at the moment. The only thing I cared about was getting Aria warm and fully conscious.A sharp wince left her lips as I began to make my way up the stairs. She released another sound, a groan of pain, and buried her head into my chest. My heart squeezed with various emotions I didn’t know I was capable of. I decided to ignore it like I was doing everything else. The moment I stepped foot into the lobby of my building, I be
CHAPTER NINETEENARIAThe moment Maximo kissed me, everything else ceased to exist. My hatred for him, my desire to flee from him, my promise to never give him whatever it was that he wanted from me—it all disappeared into the air, like smoke on a foggy day. He tasted of whiskey and cigarettes, but underneath it, there was an undertone of something sharper, less sweet. Something dark, something dangerous. His warm hand came up to hold my face as he deepened the kiss. I moaned into his mouth as his teeth caught the seam of my bottom lip as he sucked it between his own. It was rough and wild, making my knees go weak in an instant. His stubble scratched against my chin as he moved his lips down the column of my throat. “Maximo,” I moaned, burying my hands in his thick hair as he pulled me impossibly closer against him.His hands explored my clothed body, caressing and pulling at the buttons of the cashmere sweater—his cashmere sweater—which I was wearing.“Fuck,” he groaned deeply.H
CHAPTER TWENTYARIA“It’s dinner time. The boss requests your presence downstairs,” Maria announced as she stepped into the room.I internally smirked. When Maximo didn’t call me down for breakfast this morning, I was confused, pissed and disappointed. Did he take my word for it when I told him I never wanted to be around him? No. That would mean he was granting my wishes, which isn’t Maximo-like.Did he decide to leave me locked in the room till I starved to death? I doubted that. If Maximo finally decided to kill me, I was sure he would want to do it with his hands. I had spent hours asking myself questions, with nervous anticipation coursing through my veins. I had a plan to escape, and for it to work, Maximo had to be predictable. I had to see him at least once every day. Seduction. That was my plan, to seduce him.There was something between us—a tension, hot electricity and heat that swirled in the air whenever we were in the same room. It had always been there, from the fir
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEMAXIMOMy hands remained balled into fists as anger coursed through my veins. I never had a problem with Lorenzo showing up for dinner unannounced. He was my brother, the only person I trusted, the only one I would lay down my life for if needed.But at this moment, he was the person I wanted to smack in the head, and he was the last person I wanted here.“I don’t understand why she’s having dinner with you, Scar,” he said, switching to Italian.I stabbed a piece of chicken with my fork, brought it to my mouth, and took my time chewing it before swallowing and turning to answer him. “Because I wanted her to.”We’d had this same conversation in the past, and it annoyed me that he was bringing it up again. Lorenzo’s brown eyes regarded me for a few seconds before he burst out in laughter. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I continued to devour my dinner.“I’m curious to see how this whole thing will play out,” he eventually said after his laughter had died down
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOARIAI was livid. At first, my anger stemmed from the fact that Maximo’s brother interrupted the moment we were having. I had been confident that my plans to seduce Maximo would work, especially as I saw the way he reacted to me. Until Lorenzo showed up, glaring at me like he wanted to kill me with his own bare hands. Lorenzo was the type of man who was all smiles and jokes but was actually very dangerous. Men like that were dangerous because people often underestimated them. But there was something about him that made dread skitter across my stomach. It was different from the transfixing fear I felt for Maximo—the one that held me in a state of captivation, unable to look away from him despite my trepidation.With Lorenzo, the fear I felt was dirty and repulsive. His presence in the room made my skin crawl. My anger only worsened when they began to speak Italian, deliberately exempting me from the conversation. Each time Lorenzo laughed and glanced at me, I wis