Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Ciara
Marco is going to be the death of me.
How can a man be so infuriating, condescending, controlling and insanely handsome all at the same time?
The moment I make it into the bathroom and see that it’s empty, I let out a scream.
For a moment, I considered letting myself like Marco.
When he saved me, I got confused. But now I know who he is: a complete ass that I cannot trust. He is just marrying me for this alliance with my father.
There’s no love between us. I need to steel my heart from him.
After composing myself, I leave the bathroom and run right into Marco.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks.
“I had to pee. So sue me.”
“You’re trying to get under my skin.”
“Do I bother you that much?” I taunt him. “Then good. Because you bother me too. I don’t like you. We agreed to stay away from each other. Let’s just end this here. We’ll finish the party. Play cordial. And then learn to live our lives away from each other.”
“Fine,” he grits out.
“Fine,” I snap back. I walk past him and into the reception hall. The large ballroom is bustling with people, laughing and dancing the night away. Good for them, even though their happiness pangs me with jealousy.
My father approaches me before I can get far. “Ciara, I need to speak with you. In private.”
“What?” I ask once we’re alone in a quiet corner.
“I can sense the tension between you and Marco. Everyone in this room can.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. Cormac just tried to kill him an hour ago. He’s upset. And I never wanted to marry him in the first place.”
“I know. But I need this alliance to work. This is our in with the Italian mafia for the very first time.”
“You’re so obsessed with power. Have you even considered me?”
Dad brushes past this. “What I am telling you, Ciara, is that you need to make this work with him. It’s your wedding night tonight.”
“And?” My spine stiffens, worried where my father is taking this.
“And… you need to… you know.”
“What?” I push him. I need him to say it out loud.
“I need you and Marco to make this marriage work. It’s the only way he and I can trust each other. So do your duty tonight.”
“My duty? You mean… have sex with him?”
Dad flushes, looking away from me, as if the topic of sex is too much for him and yet, he was willing to sell his own daughter off. Hypocrite. “Yes. That’s what I mean. You need to make this work.”
“And if I don’t?”
“He could be upset and then leave you. And that would be the end of this alliance. So make this work for me, Ciara. Please.”
“You’re asking a lot out of me, Dad. You never even let me date in high school. You pushed every boy away that I was interested in and now you want me to whore myself out tonight?”
“He’s your husband.”
“So? You’re still whoring me out.”
“Don’t say that, my darling. You know we need this deal.”
“We have money. We don’t need more of it.”
“I want more power,” he states.
“And what about what I want?”
His eyes tighten before he sighs. “I am sorry, Ciara. But this marriage is not about what you want. So do your duty. For this family.”
“And what about Cormac? If you don’t stop him from going after Marco, my husband will kill him.
I don’t want my brother dead. And then there goes your alliance with Marco.
So my duty will be pointless. Just think about that.
” I storm away from him before he can say anything more.
But his words resonate with me throughout the rest of the night.
Marco and I ignore each other as we sit next to one another. Can I really give myself over to him? Marco doesn’t want anything to do with me and I don’t want anything to do with him. I’m not sure how any of this will work.
“It’s time,” Marco grumbles. Time for our wedding night.
We leave the reception hall and head upstairs of the hotel. Marco booked us a room for the night.
Neither one of us says a word as we step foot inside the suite. It’s a beautiful place but the tension between us makes the entire room look ugly.
“We should change,” Marco says tightly. “I need to keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t try to stab me tonight.”
“Can you really sleep beside me? Worry I’ll smother you with a pillow?”
He makes a point of taking out a gun from his jacket pocket. I didn’t even realize he had a gun on him. I go cold. He sets the gun on the bedside table where it’s in clear sight for both of us.
“Duly noted,” I say. “I won’t try to kill you. I don’t want to die myself. And I meant what I said after you saved my life. I tried telling my brother that we shouldn’t kill you. For a moment, I did change my mind.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t trust easily, do you?”
“No.” He takes off his jacket and unties his tie.
“What happened to you?”
He stops before he can get to his shirt. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you clearly don’t trust people. That has to be for a reason. What’s the reason?”
“Why do you care? I thought we agreed to live our lives apart?”
“I just want to know.” And my father wants me to make this work. I don’t want Marco trying to kill me or Cormac. If getting on Marco’s good side will help with that, then so be it.
He unbuttons his shirt, revealing his bare chest underneath. I force myself to look at him. God, why does he have to look so good? For a forty-year-old man, I wish he was balding with a beer belly.
“I’ve been betrayed by too many people. My original boss, Enzo Bianchi, betrayed me when he went to work with the Bratva. I never agreed with it.”
“And yet, you’re now working with the Irish.”
“The irony doesn’t escape me.” He slips his shirt off before his hands touch his belt.
“Is that the only reason?”
“What other reason would there be?” I don’t look away as he takes his pants off.
Thank god he has his boxers in place. I’m not sure what I’ll do if he takes those off next.
But then he turns to one of the suitcases in the room and grabs a pair of sweatpants and puts them on. I let out a sigh of relief.
“You said you didn’t want to lose another girl,” I comment. “What did you mean by that? Did you lose someone in the past? Is that why you are the way you are?”
“I didn’t lose anyone,” he says in a tight voice, keeping his back to me. His back muscles are a thing of beauty. “Stop asking questions.”
“Fine. But what’s going to happen tonight?”
“I thought we’d go to bed. It’s been a long day. You can change into whatever you want. I don’t really care.”
“You don’t want to…”
He finally looks at me with an expression I can’t decipher. Partly dark and partly… vulnerable. “I don’t want to what?”
I motion at the bed. “Don’t we have to… you know.”
“Have sex?”
I swallow hard. “Yes.”
“You want to have sex?” The way he asks – full of incredulity – makes me blush.
“I just meant… we have to make this marriage work. For my father’s sake.”
“For your brother’s sake, you mean. You don’t want me to kill him. Do you think offering your body to me will lessen the chance of me hurting him?”
“It did cross my mind,” I admit. “But my father wants this alliance to work. He wants us to try. So… we have to try.”
“I never thought you were one to listen to your father.”
“That was before my brother tried to kill you at our wedding. You’re angry. I don’t want you to hurt him or me. So if giving you my body makes you happy then… then I’m willing to do it. If it means keeping myself and my brother safe.”
His eyes widen. “You would give yourself over to me as an act of selflessness?”
“Why do you sound so surprised?”
“I didn’t think you had any selflessness in you. Not after how you tried to get your brother to kill me.”
I huff. “I am capable of some good.”
“For your family.”
“Yes. For my family. Not for you. You’re just a stranger who…” Who confuses me.
Marco takes a step closer. “What? Say what you were going to say.”
“It’s nothing. Are we going to do this or what?”
“You really want to have sex? Fine then.” He picks me up by the waist and tosses me onto the bed. I stiffen. Marco looks down at me with intense, dark eyes that make me want to squirm. “You want this? Then prove it. Take my cock out and suck it.”
A hotness crosses my face. No one has ever spoken to me this way before. Not even the immature teenage boys I entertained dating before my dad stopped it.
I have to do this though. I have to keep Marco happy for the sake of my family.
Sitting up, I reach out to his pants with trembling fingers. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.
But before I can push his pants down, Marco grabs my wrists, stopping me.
“What?” I ask, hating how afraid I sound.
For just a moment, Marco’s eyes soften. “Don’t do this.”
“Why? We have to.”
“We don’t have to have sex to be married. The alliance is in place. That’s all that matters.”
“But don’t you want to?”
“Would I love to fuck you? Yes.” His honesty makes me blush harder.
“But I can see the fear in your eyes. Your hands are shaking. I’m not going to fuck you tonight just because your father thinks it needs to happen.
It will be better to just co-exist with each other than to get to know one another.
I only married you to get to your father.
I have my alliance I wanted. We don’t need to do anything else. ” He places my hands in my lap.
“But I need to keep you happy. I need to make sure you don’t kill my brother.”
“As long as he doesn’t try to kill me again, I won’t kill him. Now, go change. It’s been a long day.”
I wait for Marco to say more and when he doesn’t, I rush to my suitcase and pull out a pair of cotton pants and top.
I give Marco one more look before I go into the bathroom and change.
The wedding dress comes off easily. Marco would have made quick work of it if he had decided to take my body.
I’m glad he didn’t. It shows he’s not a complete monster.
Maybe this marriage won’t be so bad. We can just co-exist as he said. There doesn’t need to be anything else between us.
And yet… I’ve always wanted love in my life. My father denied me that and he’s still doing it. Marco may not want to hurt me but that doesn’t mean life will be easy with him. A life of coldness – of loneliness – is not what I want.
But I can’t stand him. How can we make this work when I want to slap him so hard across the face and yet… I also want to get to know him? Marco is keeping something from me. I can feel it in my bones.
This marriage is going to be the death of me. I just know it.