21. I Dare You #3
She didn’t respond. Just kept staring, as if she were trying to figure me out.
We both sipped our champagne, getting lost in each other’s eyes.
For the first time today, I saw the fight in her falter.
She didn’t relax, not entirely. She just looked tired.
As if she couldn’t physically keep up the bravado anymore.
“I don’t understand you,” she finally whispered.
“What don’t you understand?”
“Why are you doing this? Going to these lengths to…” she searched for the word before giving up. “I don’t know.”
“Have you?”
Her eyes snapped to mine.
“Do you believe in soulmates?”
She scoffed. It was obviously the last thing she expected a sociopath to say. “No. I don’t.”
Ouch. Well, that hurt.
I set my champagne glass on the bathroom floor and sat up, leaning forward to close the gap between us. Her chest rose a little faster with each breath as I looked into her eyes.
“So when we first locked eyes in that spa, you didn’t feel it?
The connection before any words were spoken.
An intoxicating pull that felt like a spark of warmth in your veins.
An instant desire the moment our eyes met, and when we finally touched…
” I ran my fingers along her collarbone and watched the goosebumps appear in their path.
“... it felt familiar. Like our bodies were made for each other. The chemistry is electric, almost dangerous.”
I held her gaze, watching how her irises sparkled like sapphires as they filled with lust.
“There’s heat and passion, but also a longing that feels thrilling yet safe.
In that moment, your heart recognised mine before your mind could catch up.
And you knew your life would never be the same.
Because no one else will ever make you feel the way I do.
” I leaned back against the bath, letting my words sink beneath her skin. “You didn’t experience that, Ribelle?”
She stared, a perfect frozen doll in her pretty dress. She took a slow sip of her champagne, then ran her tongue over her bottom lip, catching a drop. My already half-hard dick turned to steel in an instant.
“Nope,” she lied, staring me dead in the eyes.
“Shame. It’s a fucking glorious feeling.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You really expect me to believe this? That you think I’m your soulmate, and that you didn’t just marry me to piss off my father?”
“I won’t lie. Pissing off Piero was a bonus.
But it’s not just your family who were against this.
Mine weren’t thrilled either.” I shrugged.
“I’ve made everything worse by marrying you.
” I leaned forward and gently placed my hand around her dainty neck.
Her pupils dilated as my thumb caressed her fluttering pulse.
“But men like me don’t step aside and let another man take from them.
We claim what we want. And I want you. No one was going to stop me. ”
I could see the war raging in her pretty eyes. She didn’t want to believe me, but there was no hint of a lie.
“Men like you? Mafia men, you mean?” She raised an eyebrow, daring me to deny it.
It was obvious she knew who I was and what I did, and I’d never lie to her.
I might keep things from her until I knew it was safe for her to know, but I also needed to earn her trust in return. Risks had to be taken to achieve that.
“That’s what some might call us.”
She gulped but held my gaze. “Did Damiano try to stop you? Is that why you killed him?”
“No.” I leaned back against the bath, bracing myself for her reaction. “That’s not why I killed him.”
She drew in an audible breath, her eyes blown wide by my confession. “B-but you did… kill him?”
“Si.”
“Why?” she breathed, her hand trembling so much around her glass of champagne that she had to put it down.
“Because he deserved it. He was an ex-Leone soldier.”
Her brows pinched together. “An ex-Leone soldier? What’s that?”
“The Leones were my family’s enemies years ago. Damiano had worked for them as a dirty soldier, which meant he was recruited specifically to kidnap, torture, rape, or kill women. The jobs other men didn’t have the stomach for.”
Her lips parted as she stared at me, pure disbelief etched on her face. “You’re lying. My father would never hire a man like that as my bodyguard.”
“I’ll never lie to you. I don’t believe your father knew. Damiano had covered his past well. Someone helped him.”
“Who?”
I clenched my jaw. “I’m not sure yet. But I’m going to find out.”
She swallowed and looked down at her hands. “So you… killed him because he used to work for an enemy?”
“No,” I said so quickly that it made her glance back up. “I killed him because of what he planned to do to you.”
Her breathing became erratic as she stared into my eyes. I could tell she was torn between wanting to know and staying blissfully unaware of how much danger she had been in. Her curiosity won out.
“What did he plan to do to me?”
I rubbed my jaw and sighed. “Not nice things. I’m sure you can imagine. All you need to know is that he won’t ever hurt you. I made sure of that.”
“So you killed him? To protect me,” her voice choked with emotion, and I swore when I saw the fear in her eyes. I wasn’t sure whether it was fear of me or of what could have happened to her.
Honesty probably wasn't the best policy this soon, but it was all I had.
She needed to know who I was if I had any hope of her accepting me.
Many would think me foolish to put such blind faith in a woman who could easily run to her father and tell him everything, but my papi had taken the risk with my mamma, and I was following his lead.
I believed this was it. She was my woman.
My queen. She needed to know all of me. The good, the bad, and the downright terrifying.
“Yes. I’d kill anyone who hurts you, threatens you, or even thinks of harming you. That’s who I am, Aria. I won’t hesitate to take a life to protect you. And that’s not on you. That’s on me. Don’t you dare feel guilty for that sick fuck’s death.”
“I don’t,” she whispered, surprised by her own admission. I smiled, relaxing a little. “But… I still don’t understand why me? You barely know me.”
“I know enough about you to know you’re the woman I’ve been waiting for. My Bella Ribelle. You are part of my world, whether you like it or not. But one thing you never have to be afraid of is me. I will never hurt you. I would hurt anyone else, but never you. Do you understand?”
She didn’t. How could she? She wasn’t from my world. Death and violence shocked her, and the idea that I would end anyone who harmed her? She was struggling with that. But she wasn’t screaming. And she wasn’t running. I’d take a win when I could get one.
“Earlier…” She bit her bottom lip, her cheeks flushing, and she avoided my gaze.
I stilled, feeling the blood rush back to my dick again because I knew that look. It was my good girl thinking of bad things. The fact that she was thinking of naughty things after what I’d just confessed, shit, she really was made for me.
“What?” I grabbed her chin and forced her to meet my gaze. “Ask it.”
Her blue eyes sparkled with desire mixed with fear as she kept biting her plump lip.
“Aria?”
“Earlier at the reception… you said… no, you threatened…”
I frowned, not knowing where she was going with this.
“If I carried on ignoring you, you’d enjoy punishing me very much.”
A slow, seductive smile curved my lips as her cheeks turned crimson. I ran my thumb across my lower lip to hide how wide my smile was as I watched her squirm.
“How’s that not hurting me?”
“Because the kind of punishment I’d give, you’d enjoy.”
Her pupils dilated. Her breathing was erratic. I could almost feel her body vibrating with need.
“I wouldn’t enjoy it. Who enjoys being punished, unless you’re a masochist?”
“Maybe that’s exactly what you are. Because why else would you keep testing me?”
Standing in the tub, I peered down at her, pulled off my bowtie, and unfastened my shirt buttons, one by one. She stared up at me, her lips parting and her blue eyes mesmerised as more of my chest came into view.
“What are you doing?” she husked, her voice laced with so much arousal she couldn’t hide it even if she tried.
I loosened my cufflinks, peeled my shirt down my arms, and dropped it to the floor. Stepping out of the bath, I unbuckled my belt while holding her gaze. “Taking a shower.”
When I unzipped my trousers and yanked them down with my boxers, she gasped, and her head snapped in the opposite direction. I walked into the two-person shower, turned on the hot water, and kept my back to her, feeling her heated gaze slide down my body.
“I think you knew exactly what you were doing. Reporting me to the police but not going through with a restraining order. Agreeing to marry another man while confessing you wanted me only minutes before you walked down the aisle. Ignoring me throughout our wedding dinner. You like provoking me.” I turned to face her, giving her a full frontal view of my nakedness, and smirked when I caught her already staring.
“Admit it, you’re practically begging me to punish you for living up to your nickname. ”
“As if I asked for any of this! You are unbelievable!” She jumped up from the bath, standing in her stunning dress, looking every inch my beautiful, livid bride.
“I know, I’ve been told. Multiple times, usually in bed. Lucky you, huh?”
Her anger flared. I was really pushing my luck, but there was something about seeing her beside herself with passion that really did it for me.
And without realising it, she was proving me right.
She wasn’t afraid of me. She knew I would never hurt her, no matter how hard she pushed.
But she was curious about what a punishment from me meant.
“Fuck you,” she breathed, her chest rising and falling as her eyes devoured my body. I ran my hands through my wet hair and chuckled.
“I dare you, Bella Ribelle.”
“What?”
“To come in here and fuck me.”