Page 82 of Forced Vows

"Reality can't live up to fantasy."

"Spare me your platitudes." She spins to face me, her lovely features set in anger. "Yes, we knew what our future probably held, but we weren't raised in a bubble. We knew that wasn't normal."

Her hands gesticulate wildly. "That other women got to choose their husbands. Your sister got to go to college before getting married. Both our mothers were over twenty-one when they got married."

"There had to be a reason your grandfather insisted Kara marry when she was so young."

"He wanted heirs. Male heirs that carry his name. If my father had agreed, I would have been the one giving birth at nineteen."

"Your nephew's last name is Shaughnessy."

"Yes. He'll be the boss one day and he has no more choice about it than his mom had about getting married before she'd had her first kiss."

"She'd never kissed anyone at eighteen?" The mob might have some old world ideas about marriage, but we live in the present. "Don't most kids kiss in middle school?"

"Your sister had a chance to pop her kissing cherry before high school?" Róise asks with narrowed eyes.

"I honestly don't know." Giulia would never have told me or Sev if she had. Mamma probably knows.

"But if she had, it could never be more than a kiss."

It's starting to sink in how important it was to Róise to choose her first sex partner.

"I don't know what my sister got up to before the engagement was announced, and I don't want to, but there was no way she could marry a civilian. Neither can you."

"Why? Because we give birth to the next generation of mobsters?"

Chapter 28: RÓISE

Miceli's hand cups my nape, his thumb brushing up the column of my neck.

I try to suppress a shiver.

Not very well.

"Cold?" The masculine purr holds more satisfaction than concern. "Here."

He takes off his suit jacket and settles it over my shoulders, surrounding me with his scent. I can't get away from it. Or him.

Do I really want to?

I ignore the treacherous question prompted by my ovaries, but do I move away? No.

"My cousin Nerissa is adopted." Miceli's fingers are playing with the hair at my nape now. "We bring in recruits from outside the Genovese families every year."

"That's great and all." Who can blame me if my tone is a little breathless?

Miceli De Luca has magic fingers and I know what they can do to every part of my body. Even spots I thought no one would ever touch.

My sphincter tightens and it's not in fear of what might happen in the future.

"But our contract requires a baby to cement it. I'm sure your brother expects his wife to give him heirs." I'm proud of my ability to follow the train of conversation.

This guy is way too good at the sex stuff. I was pretty good at it too, that night in Portland.

"All that's true, but none of it is the primary reason my father contracted a marriage for my sister with a don's son."

"Then what was?" My feet are moving, but my focus is on the hand touching me.

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