Page 22 of Daddy's Mad Love

Picked up her bouquet from the table she’d set it on.

Turned back to me and slid her fingers into mine.

Something settled inside my chest when I had her in my grasp again, easing some of the tension that had been building inside me. Maybe I should have stayed closer to her during the reception, but I’d thought keeping my distance to be the better option. Give her more time to get ready for the night without me hovering over her. Ensure I’d be able to keep my own desires under control.

While my mother would excuse us leaving early, she definitely wouldn’t have forgiven me for disappearing in the middle of the reception to consummate the marriage, even if we’d returned afterward.

The hotel was only five minutes away from our home.

Hailey

Nerves rang through me as Giacomo led me into his bedroom.

Not the nerves of a virgin on her wedding night but the nerves of a woman who planned to take the life of a mafia don’s son, then disappear into the night.

Doubts assailed me.

What if I don’t succeed?

What if I do succeed and don’t escape?

What if I do succeed, escape, then they punish Clara because I’ve disappeared?

Surely, they won’t punish her… If I do this and run, they should think I don’t care what happens to her, but what if they hurt her, anyway?

Killing Giacomo would start a war between my family and his, but they had all made their choices. They had chosen their lives but had taken all of my choices away from me. Perhaps if I did this, they would learn their lesson, and no other woman would be forced to marry for the good of the Family.

Can I really kill him?

Am I really going to do this?

What if I can’t go through with it?

Do I really have the right to decide if someone dies? What about innocents caught up in the war? What if Giacomo’s father is as barbaric as my grandfather was? Do I really want my whole family to die?

What should I do?

I didn’t want to kill him. I just didn’t want to be married to him.

Maybe I should do myself in instead. That would send a message as well, though my grandfather might blame the DiNardo Family and start a war again, although it’s not as if I’d be around to see it. I wanted to live, wanted the life I chose, not the one that had been chosen for me.

Apparently, that had been too much to ask.

It all became a moot point when Giacomo closed the door behind him and spun me around. My hands came up automatically, the bouquet bouncing off his chest and falling to the rug at our feet. His lips were on me before he could see my expression, which was a relief because I had not quite been able to suppress the fear and horror that flashed across my face.

My nerves seemed to work against me, morphing from anxious tension to an altogether different sort of tautness inside my body. Giacomo’s tongue invaded my mouth, and his cologne filled my senses as his hands roamed over my body without pause. I could feel his hardness pressing into my stomach, and my own passion responded, surging harder and faster than I could have anticipated. I moaned against his lips, a denial, but it was also full of arousal as my body betrayed me.

He moved us across the room, hands pulling at my skirts, only to curse and give up when the heavy fabric of the long train proved to be too troublesome. The style might not have been as fashionable, but I was grateful for the reprieve.

Spinning me around, he pushed me forward a step. I gasped when my thighs hit the bed, my hands going out to catch myself and hold me bent at the waist before him. Immediately, he was behind me, fingers working at the buttons going up the back of the dress, his breath hot and heavy against my ear while his lower body pressed into mine.

“I imagined our first time together while you were still wearing this dress, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”

No, not hardly, though I didn’t say so aloud. It would have required quite a bit more cooperation on my part than he was going to get. I peeked over my shoulder, but the bouquet was on the floor, far—too far—away from us to be of any use.

A hot, wet kiss on the nape of my neck startled me, and I moaned, the sound surprised out of me before I could muffle it.

Jack

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