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)
Adrian nodded, seeming satisfied with his father’s response. “Now if you’ve all had enough, please leave and close the door behind you. Serafina needs privacy.”
Privacy? I almost laughed because it was utterly absurd. What privacy?
It was too late for that now.
Damon, my father and Enzo left.
Matteo didn’t.
He stayed rooted in the doorway, fists clenched, jaw tight and eyes so dark… so furious, I had never seen such pure unadulterated hate in my life before.
“Why?” he asked quietly, a cold whisper.
He was speaking to me.
My lips trembled. Did he hate me? Did he also think I was an abomination?
I betrayed him.
He hated me, he had to.
How could I even begin to apologize for such a treacherous mistake? “Matteo—”
Adrian moved, standing between us, his back blocking my view of his brother. “Don’t speak to her.”
Matteo ignored his brother, side-stepping around him.
Adrian moved fast, pushing at his brother’s chest until Matteo stumbled back. “And don’t fucking look at her.”
Matteo’s face contorted with rage. “She belonged to me,” he bellowed. “You’re a fucking piece of work, Adrian. You and your goddamn ego.”
Adrian cocked his head to the side, not looking the least bit intimidated by his brother’s wrath. “Do you know how her lips taste?”
Horror unfurled inside me, his words causing me to burn with humiliation.
Matteo growled low in his chest.
Adrian threw his head back and let out the coldest laugh I had ever heard. “Yeah, brother. You don’t. But I do. I know what her lips taste like and I know how sweet her pussy—”
Matteo let out a roar, lunging for Adrian.
My heart lurched into my throat when Adrian grabbed his brother’s arm before he could land a punch. I remembered how fast and deadly Adrian had been in that death arena.
And even now he moved with the same stealth, the same raw power.
Adrian pushed his brother into the wall, his forearm pressed against Matteo’s throat. “She was never yours to begin with and today, she’ll walk down the aisle to me and you’ll watch as I make her mine in front of God and witnesses.”
“Fuck you,” Matteo hissed, spitting in his brother’s face.
Adrian didn’t even flinch. He just laughed like a madman. “Yeah, that’s right. She’s going to be my wife. She’s going to be in my bed. And I’m going to fill her womb with my babies. My heirs.”
His words echoed with territorial possession, dark and definite. Absolute.
Adrian branded me as his in a way I never thought he could or would.
His earlier words reverberated in my ears.
“I’ll marry her because I love her.”
Did he really…? Love me?
Was it possible that he really did love me in his own fucked up way? Because why… Why else would he go to this length to have me?
“And you?” Adrian scoffed, still holding his brother by the throat. “You will have nothing. No legacy. How does that feel, big brother? Knowing that I took your legacy from you. Your obsession. Everything you had ever wanted is mine now. And Serafina chose me.”
Adrian finally let go, pushing away from Matteo. He cracked his neck, left and right, as if he was preparing for a fight. A war.
“You’ll regret this,” Matteo seethed, turning on his feet.
“None of us are free from the consequences of our choices,” Adrian jeered, almost tauntingly, which made his brother pause at the doorway, but he didn’t turn back around. “Not even you, Matteo.”
I heard a scoff. And then Matteo was gone.
Adrian closed the door and it was just us.
He walked toward the bed, and I sank deeper into the mattress, holding the blanket tighter. He put his hand out, as if to prove that he wouldn’t hurt me.
“I know you’re confused and this was utter chaos,” Adrian said slowly, carefully, like I was some kind of wounded animal.
“But I promise that I will make it better.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his hands coming up to cup my face. His thumb brushed over my tear-stained cheeks and I wanted to pull away, I wanted to scream at him, I wanted answers.
Yet I couldn’t find the words.
Dizziness swept over me at his closeness, and everything that had just unfolded left me tangled in confusion.
“I will fix this, Princess,” Adrian rasped in the most gentle way. He had never spoken to me like this before. Never. “All you have to do is walk down the aisle to me and I will take care of everything else.”
“Do you really love me?” I finally croaked, swallowing past the lump in my throat.
“You don’t believe me,” he said, matter of fact.
I shook my head. “H-how can you?”
“My heart is not as cold or as dead as you think. It beats, Serafina.”
“With love?”
His thumb traced the curve of my lower lip, the barest graze of skin. “Love. Obsession. Need. Yearning. Whatever you want to call it.”