Page 30 of Unholy Vows (Original Sin)

She didn’t. She had excellent control over her fear. I’d enjoy breaking that control to pieces and seeing what it revealed beneath. My hand framed her neck like a tattooed necklace, pressing in at the sides just enough to force her eyes wide. She flushed, and her lips parted and reddened, like I’d touched her clit instead of her throat. So responsive and lovely. So wicked and depraved.

“I can’t figure out if you’re afraid or excited,” I confessed.

The room around us had faded away, and there was just Charlotte and the feeling of her lifeblood rushing desperately under my palm.

She wet her lips, and my heart lurched. “Do you really care?” she asked.

I considered it for a moment before shaking my head. “No. In my experience, they’re very much alike. You told me that you understand men like me…What is it you understand?”

Her lips parted to answer, but no words came. She was willful and loyal. Good in her bones in a way I’d never been, not even as a child; my blood didn’t allow for that. She also had no idea of her true appeal. I’d bet my life that Miss Charlotte Burke didn’t have a lot of experience with men. I liked that thought. I liked it a lot.

“Have you ever been properly fucked?”

She clearly wasn’t expecting that question as her eyes widened comically.

She recovered quickly and scoffed. “Are you asking me if I’m a virgin? I’m twenty-six.”

“I’m not talking about a little piece of inconvenient skin. I didn’t ask if you’d ever been pawed by some sucker who was punching above his weight. I meant have you ever been fuckedproperly…Have you ever seen stars behind your eyes while some lucky bastard pumped his cum into you? Have you ever come so hard, you forgot how to talk…how to breathe?”

My hand still ringed her throat, and her pulse hitched another notch upward. “You can’t expect me to answer that,” she muttered.

“I don’t need you to,bambina;it’s obvious. But don’t worry.” I leaned in and rested my forehead against hers. Just being skin to skin felt soothing. Right in a way I’d never experienced. “We’ll remedy that soon enough.”

A throat clearing sent Charlie jumping back, her face twisting guiltily. She leaned back and nearly fell in her desire to turn around. I steadied her from my seated position and took my time making sure she was fine before swinging my head toward the intruder.

“Boss.” Elio pushed the curtain open and shouldered in. “There’s some business that needs your attention.”

“Arrivo.” I looked back at Charlotte. “But first, a little reminder that you can’t escape my eyes in my city.” I gripped the back of her neck, like a newborn kitten, and pushed her face forward.

Behind me, Elio produced a syringe and handed it to me. I wouldn’t let him put the tracker inside her. No one but me would break her creamy skin. That was my privilege.

I slipped the needle under her skin as her hands shot up to rest on my thighs, her nails digging into my legs as she gasped. I injected the tiny tracker in the back of her neck where it wouldn’t move. She also wouldn’t be able to cut it out too easily, with her neat and capable skills.

“What have you given me?” she asked, her voice calm. There was that impeccable control.

“A new leash. Don’t test its bounds; they’re shorter than you can imagine. We’ll continue this conversation later, Miss Burke.”

I handed the syringe back to Elio and released her neck. She looked up at me immediately. I cupped her angelic face with both hands. Leaning in, I placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. A pardon for her sins, for now.

“Answer your phone when I call,bambina, and be on your best behavior. Lucy, too, or I’ll get upset. You wouldn’t like me when I’m upset.”

8

RENATO

My business waited for me in the warehouse on Clements Drive.

Elio filled me in on the drive over. “A representative of the Castillo cartel. I don’t know who the fuck he is, but he has enough men to make a mess.”

This confrontation had been a long time coming. I was starting to think that the head of the cartel had no interest whatsoever in how many of his men I killed, as we’d been cutting them down for nearly a year and there’d been no sign of repercussions.

It was almost a relief that something had finally rattled their cage enough to draw them out. There would be no eradicating them as long as those in power stayed hidden.

The man was wearing a suit, unlike those lower than him in the organization, and he clearly wasn’t a man who walked into a rival family’s territory lightly. His security detail, a force of nearly fifty men, communicated his awareness of that fact.

“What an unexpected surprise,” I said, entering the warehouse. My own entourage was only Elio, but my men who were stationed at the warehouse surrounded the Castillo thugs, and tensions were high.

“Renato De Sanctis, we finally meet in the flesh. I’ve heard a lot about you.” The Castillo spokesperson smiled broadly. He was a confident fucker, but he had to be to just show up here like this. “I’m Juan Ruiz Eduardo Castillo.”

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