“What the fuck am I going to do? I can’t fuck this up, Vincent.”
“Does she love you?”
“Fuck, no. She doesn’t even trust me.”
“Not good, little brother,” he said as he raised an eyebrow. “It would be better if she loved you.”
“Don’t you think I know that? So far, she seems to like me, despite everything, but she definitely doesn’t have Stockholm syndrome or any of that shit. She’s too polite to tell me to go to hell.”
Vincent took a sip of his bourbon and gave me a steady look.
“Marrying her isn’t enough. If you really want to tie her to the family, give her a kid. Give her twenty.”
“Twenty kids? Jesus,” I joked. But hot lust shot through me at his words. Lust and something else. Something primal. The thought of her with a round belly . . . or holding our child. Well, fuck if it didn’t make things fall into place for me.
I wanted to impregnate Evangeline, I realized. More than anything I’d ever wanted in my entire life. I wanted to breed with her.
It was too soon now, but the wheels were turning in my head. The darkest part of me went into full Machiavellian mode. I’d forgo protection on our wedding night, I decided. I doubted she would even notice. She was inexperienced, to say the least. I knew she wasn’t on the pill. Vincent was right. Knocking her up was smart, and it satisfied my baser needs. It guaranteed that our line would continue, too.
Was it nice? Breeding some innocent girl to tie her to me? Giving her a child so she wouldn’t turn on the family?
My old man would be so proud, I thought somewhat bitterly.
I’d make her happy, though, I vowed. I’d be a good husband. A good father, if things went to plan. And they had to go to plan.
For now, I would just have to take as many cold showers as it took. I needed her to go through with the ceremony.
I was not going to risk scaring off my bride-to-be. I had to control the situation. And soon, very soon, she would be mine to do with as I pleased.
That night, I slept in my apartment across town.
Chapter 24
Evangeline
It was still dark when my eyes opened. I didn’t remember where I was at first. That’s when I saw the man in the corner. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle my own involuntary scream. A thin hiss of air was the only sound in the room.
It’s Antonio. It’s just Antonio. He won’t hurt you.
Are you sure about that?
I stared at him, waiting for him to say something. He just sat there, in the dark, watching me. Once again, I was struck by his stillness. By the predatory way his whole body moved, or in this case, did not move. He was leaning back in the huge arm chair, his legs spread.
He could have been asleep, other than the glint of his eyes. He could have been a statue, other than the heat he gave off. I could almost feel it from the bed.
Somehow, he still gave the appearance of a cobra ready to strike.
“Antonio?”
“Go back to sleep.”
I shook my head. He hadn’t been sleeping here the past few nights. But that didn’t mean I was free to go. If anything, I had less freedom when he wasn’t around. Still, he couldn’t make me go back to sleep if I didn’t want to. He might be able to keep me in this house, keep me from leaving, but he couldn’t control everything about me.
He couldn’t make the goosebumps go away or make the chills stop traveling up and down my spine. He couldn’t stop the fear and the desire I felt every time I saw him.
Even now.
Especially now.
“Are you going to sit there all night?” I asked in a lame attempt at a joke. He didn’t answer me at first. Then he nodded.
“Probably.”
I slid out from under the covers and crossed the room slowly until I was standing in front of him. He looked up at me, his gaze dark and his lids heavy.
“Go back to bed, Evangeline.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
I wanted him to hold me. But I didn’t say that. I had the crazy feeling it would make him mad.
“Do as you are told,” he growled.
“Make me,” I challenged, lifting my chin to glare at him. I couldn’t stop the squeal that tore out of me as he lifted me up and over his shoulder in one absurdly graceful move. “Antonio!”
He sat on the bed and lowered me over his lap. Face down.
“What are you—”
His hand came down to smack my bottom. It stung for a second. It rested there, then he gave my cheek a squeeze. I tried to look at him over my shoulder but he gently turned my head to face downward again.