Wife (Betrothed 1)

It was hard to watch him go, but I didn’t expect him to stay with me all day. “That’s a lot of watches.”

He left his closet and came to the bed, the towel still snug around his waist. There were still a few water drops on his shoulder, and his hair was still damp even though he’d dried it with a towel. “I’m a collector.”

“Didn’t know that.” I reached for his towel and gave it a playful tug. “When did you become shy?”

He grinned before he tugged it loose and let it fall to the floor.

I stared at his nice dick and reached out my fingers to stroke his balls.

He tensed slightly when I touched him, and within seconds, his dick increased to an impressive size. He was hard and ready to fuck.

I kicked the sheets back so he could join me. I went to sleep in the nude last night because I hadn’t had any clothes besides the ones on my back. It gave him easy access—if he wanted it.

“So, I’m your boyfriend?” His knees sank into the mattress as he moved on top of me.

I had no idea what provoked the question. I spread my knees and pulled him close to me. “I never said that.”

“Really? I heard you say it last night.”

When I’d tried to get that asshole to go away, I’d blurted out those words. I wasn’t thinking at the time, just saying whatever was necessary to get him to leave me alone. There had been no merit in it, but I didn’t want to ruin this moment with cruel honesty. “Don’t remember.”

“I do.” He pinned my knees back as he brought our bodies close together. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

I wouldn’t give last night another moment of my time. I’d learned my lesson, and now I would never walk home again. If Hades hadn’t been there to save me, my life would have taken a dark turn…or ended altogether. But that didn’t happen. “God, yes.” I grabbed his ass and pulled him deep inside me, feeling my toes curl when he was all the way in. “Yes.”

17

Hades

I examined the kilos of meth that were ready to be shipped and looked at the inventory sheet. Slightly over four hundred kilos of crystal were ready to be delivered to Milan, one of my most profitable cities in the country. There were smaller dealers who infringed on my territory, assholes with a tiny lab set up in their bedrooms, but since their product was so inferior and cheap, I didn’t give them the time of day.

The wolf doesn’t concern himself with the sheep, right?

I signed off on the paperwork so it could be shipped hundreds of miles north, disguised as cargo for a cheese company. I made appearances at every station in my lab, popping up randomly so my men would never know when I might catch them with their pants down. Damien did the same thing—so everyone walked on eggshells.

Damien took the clipboard and glanced over it. “What did you do with the body?” He did his own check.

“Oil drum.”

“And where is that?”

“Buried somewhere in the middle of Tuscany.” The guy hadn’t been a criminal who competed with my ranks, but he wasn’t an innocent person who should have walked free. He’d tried to rape my woman—even kill her. I enjoyed beating him to death. My knuckles were still sore, but that pain only reminded me how much I had caused him to feel.

“Is she alright?”

“Yeah. She bounced back pretty quickly.”

“That’s good. I bet she learned her lesson…”

She’d slowly floated back down to earth after the traumatic event took place. Then she brushed it off and kept going, almost like it never happened at all. She still wanted to sleep with me as if some man hadn’t just tried to force himself on her. It made me respect her, how tough she was. “Yeah. She won’t be walking home alone anytime soon.”

“I’m surprised you’re taking this so well.” He handed the clipboard off to one of the guys then walked with me to the counter.

“I killed the guy, didn’t I?” With my bare hands.

“But what if she hadn’t butt-dialed you?” His phone started to ring, but he silenced it and set it on the counter.

I didn’t want to think about that. “That didn’t happen, so it doesn’t matter.” If I had it my way, she’d be living with me, escorted everywhere she went by my best guys. All men would be afraid to look at her longer than a nanosecond. But that lack of independence was exactly what she didn’t want. She refused to let one bad night make her afraid to live.

Damien let it go. “Need anything?”

“I’m not the one who was assaulted.”

“Yeah, but it probably hurt you a million times more than it hurt her.”