Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Story of my life—I’m never where I should be. But my morbid curiosity has me in a chokehold, and instead of leaving, I blurt out a question I’m certain they won’t answer.
“Who killed him?”
“Get her back to bed.” The guard ignores me, speaking directly to Nicky.
Nicky reaches out to pull me in the other direction, and I jerk away.
“I can move on my own, thank you.”
Heading back toward the hotel, I increase my pace to put space between me and my handler. He keeps his distance, leaving me to mull over the thought playing on a constant loop in my mind.
Did someone kill that guard because of me?
My sandals slap against the gravel road until eventually, I realize Nicky’s footsteps aren’t behind me anymore.
Just as I’m turning to glance over my shoulder, someone snatches me from between the trees, yanking me sideways and pulling me from the view of the main road.
I let out a startled yelp as a solid chest meets my back and a gloved hand settles over my throat.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The low, gravelly voice brushes against my ear, sending a full-body shiver through me.
“Show me your face,” I demand.
A dark laugh stirs the loose strands of my hair as he breathes me in. “I’m not your lapdog of a fiancé, Abella. Your orders won’t work on me.”
“I need to know who you are.”
I need to know if you’re him.
His hand scrapes down my throat, gliding beneath my silk robe to stroke my breast. I bite my lip, arching into the touch as pleasure ricochets through my body.
It isn’t rational that this man can have such a maddening hold over me. But as I wait for another scrap of his attention, I know that’s exactly why I came out here. He recognizes the part of me that I’ve hidden away for so long. The woman with needs she can’t verbalize in the world she lives in.
I was taught to be quiet, polite, and demure. Smile and look pretty. Don’t ask for much. Sex is for your husband’s pleasure. Mafia princesses aren’t supposed to harbor fantasies or tell the men how they’d like to be fucked. Every desire I’ve ever had has felt forbidden, but this man knows them all. And in every interaction, he gives them to me.
It’s the way he commands me, his roughness, his possession. If he told me to, I’d strip naked right here and give him what’s only meant to be my husband’s.
But he doesn’t.
Even as the length of his erection presses into my back, hot and impossibly hard, he releases his hold on me and whispers in my ear.
“Goodnight, Abella.”
By the time I turn around, he’s already gone.
“Sooo…” Gabi uses an empty cocktail glass as a prop for her phone, allowing us all to see Chantel on the video call. “How was your date?”
“Oh, you know...” Chantel drapes herself across a red velvet chaise lounge and takes a sip of her wine. She’s the picture of retro glamour in a black, structured corset, cheeky panties, fishnets, and a garter belt. As the vampy-goth friend in our group, her signature look earned her the stage name Dollface at her job as a Burlesque dancer. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, insanely talented, and a little bit theatrical.
We all stare at her as she leaves us hanging, which she often likes to do. It adds a dramatic flair to our conversations.
“We live vicariously through you,” Valentina reminds her. “Come on; put us out of our misery, and give us the juicy details.”
Chantel examines her blood-red nail with a bored expression. “I invited him over, and he fixed my leaky faucet.”
“Is leaky faucet code for something?” Gabi frowns.
“I’m not sure if you need a plumber, a priest, or a gynecologist,” Val says.
“It isn’t code.” Chantel smirks. “He also fixed the banister, a loose tile, and a cupboard that never closed quite right.”
“So, in other words, you invited him over to do maintenance.” I laugh.
“It’s a soft launch.” She twirls a piece of black hair around her finger. “If he passes the fuck boy test, I’ll hard launch him.”
“Right into your vagina?” Val teases.
“If he’s lucky,” Chantel muses. “It has great reviews.”
“It must be so liberating to date who you want.” Gabi sighs.
“It can be,” Chantel answers softly, all too aware that none of us will ever have the same amount of freedom. “But there are a lot of assholes out there, too.”
Her voice betrays the lingering hurt from her on-again, off-again relationship with a man from The Society. Her position in IVI is a complicated one, being that she works for them under contract. She’s not a member, and her ex is expected to marry for business rather than pleasure. Though she’s one of our close friends, she’s not part of the same world. If she were, then she’d be able to be here with us right now.