Taken For A Debt: A Mafia Romance (The Taken Duet 1)

“Are you done turning this around in twenty different directions in your head?”

said O’Hare.

“Yes,” I told him. “I—”

“Well, if you ever raise anything against me like that in a tantrum again, I promise I will have my own hand raised to meet you, never mind your being a woman.”

“Who ever asked you to hold back on account of that, you arsehole—” I tried to squirm free and he grabbed my legs with his other hand, dragging them sideways across the bed so he could sit on them, pinning me thoroughly.

“There have to be some standards in this world, Julia. We have to draw lines in the sand, even if they’re absurd lines. For men like me, that usually involves a heightened level of respect where women are concerned. Are you going to behave now, or do I have to continue restraining you?”

“I won’t hit you with anything unless you really ask for it,” I muttered. O’Hare made a noise that might have been a laugh, and let go of me.

I sat up, shaking out my wrists. “Thank you,” O’Hare said.

I shot him a withering look. “For…?”

“For being as good as your word. I haven’t been merely trying to butter you up for the sake of achieving a strategic victory over your parents, Julia. I think most men would be delighted to have a woman like you agree to marry them. You are courageous and adaptable, and even that smart mouth of yours could be amusing under the right circumstances.”

“But this isn’t about liking me,” I countered. The weasel, he’d said most men. He wanted me to believe he was delighted when he couldn’t even bring himself to lie about it.

O’Hare looked me up and down as if I’d said something that made him think I would attack again. “I already like you quite a lot, Julia. There’s no need for you to be evasive: what you really mean here is it’s not about loving you.”

“I suppose you’re right,” I said.

“Does that matter to you: being loved?”

“To get married to someone… I think it does, actually,” I admitted. “I don’t see how I’m supposed to trust a man who isn’t a bit out of his mind where I’m concerned, because that’s just where men need to be at to not forget about you completely when you’re not in the room.”

Devin hummed a few notes in surprisingly good pitch. “I admit I’m surprised to hear you wanting another man to be a bit out of his mind for you, after what you’ve just told me.”

I curled my lip at him. “The truth is I don’t have any desire to get married at all. I prefer to be left to my own devices, to have relations with men if and when I choose.”

“Hm.” O’Hare’s study became more thoughtful, and somehow it started to feel as if the world was closing in around us, the setting turning intimate. I realised with a little shock that he probably had the power to negotiate me into agreeing to this, just as he said, “Perhaps I should be making a slightly different offer.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this.”

As he kept looking me up, then down, I realised that sort of attention was about as effective as if he’d been really touching me. “You must forgive my ignorance, Julia. For me… well, marriage is a necessity. Not in that I must do it to receive some benefit, but that I cannot imagine getting into my old age and having no life partner by my side. A permanent partner to me is what will balance me, reaffirm and remind me of my humanity when I am required to do very dark things, give my life the significance it would otherwise lack.”

The way he talked, it was like someone was forcing him to be some violent kneecap-smashing criminal. “Well you’ve kidnapped the wrong girl, O’Hare. Even if I wanted to, I could never do those things for you. There’s nothing soft or supportive about me.”

I stiffened into silence when he reached over and put his hand on my bare knee. “Please, Julia, it’s Devin. I don’t need to have women giving me this last-name attitude like they’re on the opposite side to me in a business deal. You at least are not, thank God for that.”

“Oh, there’s that sexism jumping out again.”

“I’d like to ask you, Julia, where you think your life is going if you’re not planning on getting married? You mentioned being ‘left to your own devices’… what are those, exactly? The television, your smartphone?”

“You’ve been stalking me,” I accused, even though that sort of proved his point.

“This is aside from the present negotiation, Julia. What is your future going to hold? You didn’t bother to finish school, and it doesn’t seem like you’ve been invited into the Mahoney business. That’s quite common with many young women in your position, actually. The family sees them as a jewel, not a human, and they are given no opportunities they don’t reach for themselves. Certainly they’re not wanted to dirty their hands with whatever the adults are getting up to.”

“I thought you were very serious about me being an adult.”

“It’s what your parents think, not me. But I suspect you’ve bought into it more than you’ll admit. You’re, what… twenty-three?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Twenty-two, and your life consists of Sex and the City reruns and scrolling through celebrity social media updates, because you don’t have any real friends of your own to keep up with.”