Francesca #3
“Not at the rate we’re going.” He didn’t crack a smile.
“I understand your concerns. If you stay with me, you’re going to be the woman of a man who your own brother says is crazy.
I’m wired differently from other men. I don’t feel fear or pain.
I’m addicted to adrenaline, and the more I chase it, the harder it is to find.
I’m restless when I try to sleep and utterly calm in a gunfight.
I was the top lieutenant of Cosa Nostra because I was a fucking killing machine, and I have no doubt that I’ll reach that same position with your father in a very short amount of time.
I’m not someone you want as your enemy. I’m smarter and stronger and faster than all of my opponents—and I fucking know it.
So yes, this is the life you’ll know if you want to be with me. ”
“Sounds dangerous…”
He gave a shrug. “Or completely safe—because I’m the last man anyone wants to cross.”
I stared at him across the table.
“Because everyone will know that if they look at you wrong, I’ll kill their entire fucking bloodline. Wives, kids, I don’t give a shit. And then once they’re all dead and he was the last one standing, I’d finally grant him mercy with death.”
“You—you kill women? And kids?”
“I’ve never killed or harmed a woman or a child, but if someone hurt you, nothing’s off the table.”
I studied him, seeing the deadly serious look in his eyes.
“I’m already crazy, right? So imagine how deranged I would be if someone left a single scratch on your beautiful skin? I’d go scorched earth on fucking everyone and everything.” He cocked his head. “How does that saying go? Sorry, not sorry? Yep, that’s it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want that.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” he said without a hint of remorse.
I swallowed, kinda afraid of him again. “What if my father crossed the wrong man and that man killed me?”
“That would never happen. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“But what if it did?”
“Would. Never. Happen.”
“Wolfe—”
“The only thing you should be scared of is what I’d do to your enemies. The lengths I would go to to protect you and avenge you—and there’s no infarction too small.”
“If this is going to work, then you need to promise me you would never hurt a woman or a child because of something a man did to me.”
He cocked his head the other way, his eyes narrowed.
“Even if they kill me. Even if they—”
“Don’t go there.” He dropped his arms from the table and leaned back in his chair, immediately withdrawing from me when I broached a subject he wouldn’t touch.
“I need you to promise me, Wolfe.”
He stared me down.
I waited for him to agree, but it didn’t seem like he would.
“So you’re still in this with me?”
“I was scared…but I never left.” I swallowed. “I still am scared, if I’m being honest.”
He didn’t give me any reassurance.
“That if one day I get too scared…you won’t let me leave.”
He remained quiet as he stared at me, like he was thinking about my words.
“Alright, I promise I will never hurt a woman or a child in your name. Or for any reason whatsoever. And I promise that if you ever want to walk away at any time, I’ll allow you to do so.
As I just proved the last few days. I waited for you to come to me instead of blowing up your life like I wanted. ”
Maybe those words shouldn’t make me feel better, but they did.
“But there’s a caveat to that.”
The security I felt dropped out of my body.
“If you marry me, then no, I will never let you go.”
Bumps formed on my arms, and I took a breath I didn’t need.
He remained deadly serious, unapologetic.
“It’s barely been a month, and I’m already out-of-my-fucking-mind obsessed with you.
So, if you were my wife…” He made a tsk-tsk noise behind his closed lips as he gave a slight shake of his head.
“That would be a whole different level. That’s a legal and emotional contract that I would never let you break.
If you ran from me, I would hunt you. If you fucked someone else, I would kill them.
If you filed for divorce, I’d burn down the courthouse with the papers inside. ”
I was back to being as scared as I was at the start of this conversation.
He was the single most intense and domineering man I’d ever met, and yet, I continued to sit there.
I continued to look at him. Continued to participate in a relationship that gave me so much joy…
and fear. I was terrified to be completely and irrevocably his, because once that happened, there would be no escape.
He studied my reaction as he said his words. “Still with me?”
I could walk away now, but I would return to my life of quiet mediocrity.
Back to meaningless flings with men who could only make me come half the time.
This brief period with Wolfe had somehow become the deepest relationship I’d ever had.
The most intimate and the most passionate and the most… beautiful.
I didn’t want to lose him.
The last couple days had been psychological torture.
I would hate to imagine if it were real.
He cocked his head slightly. “I know how brave you are, baby.”
My eyes immediately flicked away.
“You can handle me.”