This couldn’t be happening.

This couldn’t be my ending.

My life had been so perfect just minutes before. Now I would be raped and killed.

My parents would never recover from it.

Carter would be haunted by it.

This death was a death to all the Barsettis.

“Let her go.” A deep, masculine voice filtered through the alleyway, the baritone powerful and innately sexy. Full of authority and a hint of fearlessness, it was the voice of a man who wore an invisible crown.

The men turned silent, their shuffles absent because none of them was moving.

It was so quiet, I could hear the man’s footsteps.

The men were still frozen in place.

I couldn’t see the man because I was facing the other way. All I had to go off was the sound of his voice, the way it was rough like sandpaper but hard like steel. He sounded young, maybe a few years older than me. It wasn’t Bones or one of my family members to save me. This man was a complete stranger—and he was provoking four armed men.

He spoke again. “Now.”

The man with the beard released my wrists. “Bosco—”

“Not her.” He snapped his fingers, commanding them like dogs. “Leave.”

The rope was yanked off my wrists, and the gag was pulled out of my mouth. The only thing they left behind was my black clutch that had fallen to the ground at the beginning of the fight. Their footsteps were audible until they turned the corner in the alleyway and disappeared.

My dress was still yanked over my ass, so I stood up and pulled it down, reclaiming my dignity after it had been taken away. Even though I was safe now, I was more afraid of the man who’d saved me than those idiots. All he had to do was say a few words to get those men to leave. That was an absolute kind of power—and that scared me.

I knew I was safe from those monsters, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think I was safe from him.

Once my dress was smoothed out, I faced the mysterious man named Bosco.

He was looking me up and down, checking me out without a hint of shame. His blue eyes started at my legs and slowly made their way up, following the curves of my figure until he settled on my face.

“Are you done?”

Amused, he gave a lopsided grin. “I’ll never be done.” He stepped closer to me, his black leather jacket tight on his thick arms. His muscles stretched the fabric, showing the physical representation of his strength underneath the clothing. He wore a black t-shirt underneath, and that was just as tight across his hard chest. He had narrow hips that led to dark jeans. He didn’t seem to be armed—and that made his power even more impressive.

He stopped a few inches away from me, so tall that he had to bend his neck down to look at me. He still wore the same smile of amusement as he met my gaze. When he shifted his eyes downward and looked down the top of my dress, his expression turned serious once more. “They made a good choice.” With stubble across his hard jaw and blue eyes like Griffin’s, he was a handsome man who didn’t belong in a dark alleyway. He belonged on a billboard or in a magazine. He didn’t need to kidnap a woman when he could sink himself into any pussy he wanted.

Like every other woman in the world, I wasn’t immune to his charms. He was a panty-soaker, a man I would take home in a heartbeat. Even if he told me he was a playboy who would be gone the second he was finished, that would have been fine with me—because he would make me come.

I didn’t like his arrogance, the way he thought he owned me just because he chased away those assholes. Without knowing a single thing about him, I knew he was from the underworld. He was the biggest predator in the food chain, the great white in the ocean. I didn’t underestimate his power, but I didn’t get on my knees and thank him either. “What do you want?”

He cocked his head slightly, his amusement increasing. “What makes you think I want anything?”

“Because you’re worse than they are.”

His eyes narrowed, and he stared at me for several heartbeats. He held my gaze without blinking, absorbing my words well after I’d said them. Long stretches of silence didn’t affect him at all. He seemed to thrive on it. “You’re a smart woman.”

My heart started to beat harder. I considered crying for help, but I suspected he would rip out my throat before I got the chance. His killer good looks didn’t mask the dangerous undertone he possessed. I’d been around powerful men long enough to recognize it from a mile away. He had the same aura as Griffin, the sort of man that could be equally evil or kind depending on the mood he was in. “What do you want?” Did he want to drug me and throw me in the back of a van? Or did he want me to get on my knees and suck him off as a thank you? It didn’t matter—he wasn’t getting either.

Tags: Penelope Sky Lingerie Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net