Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Iheard her crying. I couldn’t not go and check on her. But when I peered through the door, she was talking to her parents, so I left. But not before I heard what she said to her dad.
I want CJ.
I didn’t stick around to intrude on the rest of their private conversation.
My heart did stop a beat at those words, though.
Once again, I’ve fallen into the trap that is Daniella De Bellis, and I’m likely going to end up with another hit to my ego and heart after what I’ve just done.
But right now, as my lips are pressed against hers, I’m thinking it’s worth it.
My tongue shoves through the seam of her mouth.
I don’t need to push hard because she opens for me.
Her fingers grip the lapels of my jacket as she pulls me closer to her. Daniella twirls her tongue around mine, and before I can think better of it, I’m lifting her off the ground. My hands under the back of her thighs as I push her against the door I just pulled her through.
Daniella wraps her legs around me. A little moan escapes her mouth and I want more. I need more. I need it all. I’m going to drag every bit of pleasure I can out of her. I thrust my hips forward, my cock pressing against her core, which grants me another small moan from her lips.
I pull back from the kiss to look at her.
I need to see her, and when I do, it’s as if a bucket of cold water has been poured over me.
I let her go, dropping her legs down. Once she has her balance, I take a step back.
Her face is full of regret, not a look I want to see on a woman I’d like to fuck until both of us take our last breath.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Daniella says in a quiet voice. “And you shouldn’t have suggested what you did last night.”
I tilt my head, staring at her. There isn’t much I wouldn’t take from this woman. Because one, it’s evident I’m a fucking sucker for punishment. And two, I fucking love her regardless of how much I hate her sometimes.
“Ask you to marry me? Why, Dani? Scared you’d be tempted to say yes?”
“Yes,” she admits.
“Then say yes.” I shrug. “What is it you’re so afraid of? Because I now know whatever has you holding back, it has nothing to do with love.”
“You think I don’t love you, CJ?” She laughs. “It’s because I love you that I can’t be with you. It’s because I love you that I can’t lead you into a life with me.” Her words are quiet. There’s a slight shake to her voice.
“Okay,” I say.
“Okay?” She looks at me, confused.
“I’ve tried, Dani. I’m not going to continue beating a dead horse.
You don’t want to be won over. You’re not playing the hard to get game, because you don’t want to be gotten.
I’m done. I’ll leave you alone from now on.
That’s what you want, isn’t it?” I’m not even sure if I’m capable of leaving her alone when she’s in the same house.
But I need to put some boundaries up. I can’t keep putting myself out there like this. It’s fucking torture.
Maybe I should go home. I don’t even live here. I have no reason to keep hanging around my parents’ house. Except for the fact she’s here. Why are they still in town?
“I… I understand,” Daniella says.
“Great. See you around, Dani.” I step past her and open the door, leaving her standing in my bedroom.
I need to get as far away from her as I can. I need to get back to work. Find something to occupy my mind that isn’t Daniella.
I walk into my father’s office. “I’m heading into town,” I tell him.
He looks up from his desk and shakes his head. “You were just shot a few days ago, CJ. Take some time to heal, recover,” he says.
“I’m fine. I need to work. I need to get out of this house,” I tell him. “Have you found anything out about the shooting?”
I’ve asked multiple times a day. I’ve watched the footage from the cameras on the Strip, followed the car through the street cams until it went under a tunnel and never came out.
We sent some guys into that tunnel. They found the car abandoned.
I had it towed to a warehouse and searched but it came up completely empty.
Not a single fingerprint was left on the car, which tells me whoever aimed at Daniella wasn’t an amateur.
It also tells me they probably won’t stop at one failed attempt.
“No. Have you gotten anything out of her as to why someone would want to be targeting her?”
“My best guess would be it has something to do with whatever business Gio De Bellis is doing here in Vegas,” I say.
“You’d be right.” The voice comes from behind me. The man himself. “I’m here to collect on an old debt. And it seems they’re not too keen to pay up.”
“Why would they target her and not you?”
Gio glances in my direction. “You think I wouldn’t rather them come after me?” he asks.
“I think it was fucking stupid to bring her here in the first place. She shouldn’t be a target.”
“You’re right. I’m sending her home. She’s leaving in two days.”
At this news, my hope of her figuring her head out and finally allowing herself what she wants vanishes. There’s a part of me that wants her to stay, and another part of me that wants her out of my fucking city and far away from me.
I do my best to school my features. The last thing I need is for Daniella’s father to realize just how into his daughter I am.
I personally don’t have a problem with anyone knowing, but she wanted us to be a secret, and I’m respecting her wishes on that.
Even after what I just heard her admit to her family…
“I’ve arranged her marriage,” he says, and all the air leaves my lungs.
“You what?” My words come out louder than I anticipated.
“It will keep her safe. She’ll be the wife of a Don,” Gio says.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me? You can’t be serious? Does she know?” I ask.
“CJ,” my father hisses my name in warning. “This really isn’t any of our business.”
“Like fuck it isn’t. She’s not some prized horse you can auction off. She’s a person,” I growl.
Gio’s lips tip up as if he finds me amusing. “Your father is right, CJ. This isn’t any of your business.” He pauses and then adds, “Unless you want it to be.”
“Meaning?”
“You don’t want me to marry her off to a Don, you marry her yourself then,” he says casually while staring me in the eyes.
I don’t even know how to respond to that. “You want me to marry your daughter?”
“Daniella, yes,” he says with all the seriousness you’d expect from a crime boss discussing his daughter’s marriage.
“Don’t you think she should have a choice in this?” I’ve known the De Bellises a long time, and not once have I gotten the inclination that Gio De Bellis would ever auction his daughters off like this. He did his best to keep them away from anyone with a dick.
“She will agree when I tell her she has to,” he says.
At this, I laugh. Now I know he’s full of shit. “No way in hell will Daniella just go along with a marriage because someone tells her she has to.”
Daniella is strong-minded. It’s one of the things I love about her. She’s also stubborn as hell. It’s one of the other things I love and hate about her.
“You seem to be taking a vested interest in my daughter’s future, CJ. Why is that?” Gio asks me.
“I just took a bullet to ensure she had a future. So, yeah, I’m interested in making sure I didn’t save her, only to have her enter a life of hell because her father wants to marry her off to anyone who will have her.”
“Well, unless you want to be the one tied to her forever, I suggest you find something else to spend your time worrying about.”
I don’t respond. Instead, I walk out. I was planning on going to town, but now I’m logging into the houses CCTV to find Aurelio. If someone can stop Gio’s plan to marry off Daniella, it will be her brother.
I find him in the gym with Aiden.
“Did you know?” I push through the door.
“Know what?” Aurelio looks at me with the same blank expression we’ve all learned to master in the world we live in.
“Your father is marrying her off. He’s sending her home to marry some Don.”
Aurelio laughs. “Yeah, good one, mate.”
“I just had a conversation with him in my father’s office. He offered her to me. Told me if I didn’t want her married to someone else, I should marry her.”
“So…” Aurelio shrugs. “Marry her then.”
“You can’t be serious. You need to stop this, Aurelio. The only person who gets to decide Daniella’s life is Daniella.”
With that, I storm out of the gym and head into the garage. I need to get away from this house.