Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
My cock throbbed painfully against my blood-stained pants. I palmed myself through the fabric, savoring the ache she’d left behind. The memory of her body pressed against mine, trembling with a desire she couldn’t admit to herself, burned through me like vengeful fire.
“Goddamn it,” I growled, adjusting myself with a grimace. The pain from the fight grounded me, kept me focused.
She had felt so fucking good, so fucking right. All that fire and resistance melting into submission beneath my hands. I felt it in her pulse, in the way her body quaked against mine.
Serafina was a woman who craved darkness, a woman who wanted to be devoured.
But she didn’t even understand how much of that darkness she truly desired.
Oh, silly her…
I leaned back, my head against the wall and closed my eyes. The way her breath had hitched when I thrust against her… I knew that sound would haunt my dreams tonight. That, and the way her eyes had widened when she realized how wet she was for me.
My brother thought he had won, bringing her to The Pit to witness my savagery. He thought he was showing her what a monster, what a heartless beast I was. To scare her. To intimidate her. To remind her that I was the evil brother.
But he didn’t know her like I did so he couldn’t have known…
Serafina didn’t run from me because she was disgusted.
She ran because she was terrified of what she wanted.
I pushed off the wall, straightening my torn shirt. When I smiled, my split lips bled some more, but the pain was nothing compared to the burning in my gut.
The need for vengeance that had consumed me for a year now had a new target.
A new purpose.
My chest rumbled with a dark, bitter laugh that echoed off the walls of the corridor.
And what a beautiful pawn she was.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Serafina
Two days until the wedding
Arabella: So, do you want to read the new chapter I wrote? I had been stuck on it for a while.
Me: YES, PLEASE!
Arabella was an amazing author. Well, she was my favorite. She had a special way with words, but she doubted her writing skills too much. I guessed that was every writer.
That was how we met, after all.
I always loved reading romance books, feeling some kind of pull toward their love stories because I had always known that I would never have one like that of my own.
I wasn’t destined for love and romance.
I only had a duty to fulfill for the rest of my life.
So, one day I decided to get lost in a love story that would never be mine. A romance that had been gnawing at me for months, the characters whispering for me to tell their stories. So one random night in my dorm room, I started writing on the notepad on my phone and the words just seemed to flow.
It was silly, to be honest.
I really didn’t think anyone would read my book when I posted the chapters for free on a reading app. But ten chapters later, and a few thousand views, a name popped in my inbox.
Arabella Rose.
I had found her published books a year before I decided to write my own and read her whole backlist. So, color me surprised when I found her message as she told me that my story had intrigued her and she couldn’t wait to read more.
Our friendship started with books, and somehow, we became friends that understood each other on a different level, a soul connection. Sure, we didn’t know each other’s real name and we both understood the need for privacy, so this was a boundary we never crossed.
But I knew I could trust her.
I knew I could depend on her.
And I knew if I ever needed her, if it was life and death, she’d come running.
Arabella: I know you need the distraction today.
Me: Don’t remind me, please.
Arabella: Weddings can be… joyous.
Me: If I remember correctly, you told me yours wasn’t.
Arabella: Yes, my first wedding wasn’t but my husband and I renewed our vows and that was joyous.
Me: That’s because you love each other.
Arabella: He hated me at first…
Me: Right…
Arabella: So maybe you can learn to love him. You said there’s nothing inherently wrong with your fiancé and that he was attentive. Then what’s the problem?
My problem was his brother.
See, I couldn’t tell Arabella everything about my arranged marriage because while she was my best friend, my only friend… I still had to maintain my family’s image and our privacy. I couldn’t tell her why I was marrying Matteo and why this marriage was so important to our families.
I couldn’t exactly divulge or confess to my online friend that my family was part of the Italian mafia and that my future husband was the heir to an organized crime syndicate.
Me: The problem is that his brother is a pain in my ass.