Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17383 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 87(@200wpm)___ 70(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17383 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 87(@200wpm)___ 70(@250wpm)___ 58(@300wpm)
I’m supposed to be scared, right? Why is this so thrilling, instead?
9
ROMEO
Iwant you to destroy them.
The Don’s words chip away at my soul. They’ve played on repeat in my head all night, chipping away at my psyche and leaving me feeling weak.
“So, this is your place?” Her gentle finger runs over dusty vases and trinkets decorating my apartment. I haven’t given them much love since I bought them, and it shows.
“Sure is.” Trying to sound normal when feeling this crushed is challenging.
Beating the shit out of her dad? No problem. He deserves the terrible thing heading his way. But where will that leave us? Jess will hate me for it, and I’ll be the monster who destroyed her entire world.
I brought her here to keep her safe. Hide her away from what must be done.
My crusade—the Lion’s crusade—will not leave her a casualty among the rubble.
I have to say something. Break the tension. If not for her, then for me.
She beats me to the punch, and I’m thankful for it. “Did you really have so much fun that you’re willing to risk getting caught for another taste?”
A naughty twinkle dances inside the deep oceans of her eyes. She hasn’t stopped smiling since we left her place. I wonder if it’s going to change. If the severity of what’s about to exit my mouth will gnaw away at her the way it’s doing me.
“I’d give up this whole damn world for another go at you.” The massive swallow of drool flooding my mouth is proof enough. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since…” You shook my world and left me desperate.
I can’t be so forward, though. Not yet.
“Okay, enough brooding. Tell me what’s going on.” Her tone changes, and Jess makes her way over to me.
Come clean. Do it. Tell her you’re a wicked bastard working with worse people. Let her decide if you’re good enough.
And I do, rehashing the events of last night in painstaking detail—from the moment Dante picked me up right down to the Don’s last order.
“They want me to destroy your father’s business,” I finish.
Jess doesn’t interrupt while I speak. Her smile fades, and her face shifts from happy to neutral, but there aren’t any signs of her being upset. If I wasn’t the one to spill my story, I’d assume we were just talking about how my walls could use a fresh coat of paint.
“Destroy it?” Her brow furrows.
She needs to process what I’ve said. Take it in and let it stew in her mind. Funny faces and a deadpan tone are a far stretch from my expectations, but we all cope with things in our own ways.
“Destroy him?” Her faded smile returns to her face, bigger and brighter than ever before. Her eyes twinkle with teary delight. And she starts to laugh—an ecstatic, erratic laugh bordering on frantic.
I might be reading the signals wrong, but is she … happy?
Without warning, Jess jumps onto the coffee table next to us to meet me face to face. Her hands find the bottom of my shirt, and her lips crush against mine as she shoves her tongue into my mouth.
Fucking hell.
“Do it,” she says between kisses. “I want you to. Fuck him up. Pillage and plunder his ill-gotten gains.”
She pulls my shirt over my head like a feral cat clawing at its prey.
“Starting with me.” She pulls back to finish, gazing straight through my eyes and into my soul. The same longing, hungry look I’ve had since the second I met her.
I fucking knew it.
She’s perfect.
10
JESS
Romeo may be a beast, an unholy monster sent here to leave this world in ruin, but he’s mine.
I can’t keep my hands off him. The thought of him crumbling Father’s empire and saving me from this hellish life tickles me to the core. And the deep satisfaction of knowing he’s doing it all for me leaves me too weak to fight the incessant urge to feel his body against mine.
Romeo loses himself to the frenzy that’s gnawed away at us since we met. He throws himself forward and locks our mouths together in another kiss while his enormous hands wrap around my breasts.
The ferocity with which he throws himself into me almost knocks me off the table, but he catches me before I can fall back and lifts me in his strong arms. We make out while we walk, discarding our layers with every step. My shirt goes first, then his jeans, and finally my bra, until we’re in his bedroom with my leggings and his boxers as our final barriers.
His stiff erection brushes against my belly as I slide down him and back to my feet. His entire body is vibrating, and the shakes get worse when his eyes meet my bare breasts. Just as quick as my feet hit the ground, Romeo hoists me into his arms again.