Page 15 of Till Death Do Us Part

“New wife.” I exhaled, laying my head back and looking upward at the stars. I’d lived twenty-seven years without a woman at my side.Mi padredecided that was too long. After the blip our alliance went through, he decided it would be best to form another bond with the Italians.

Cue my upcoming wedding.

“You’re not changing your mind,” Em said. “The Mafia offered up their princess.” He laughed. “Of course, she’s not as pure as that redhead.”

“The redhead,” I said, speaking of Jasmine, “is too young. Too docile.”

Em laughed again. “I didn’t get to meet Mia during Cat’s wedding. Never imagined she’d be up for another wedding. That husband of hers was a prick.”

A smile curled my lips. “I hear the same about her next husband.”

“Oh fuck yeah.” Em laughed.

I never fathomed that Mia Luciano would be available to marry. If I’d known, I would have been happy to accelerate her late husband’s demise. Thinking about Mia at the wedding, the way she acted…when we were alone in that dark hallway—the slap. I was seconds away from kissing her smart and sassy lips when her husband and brother appeared.

Yeah, the memory of that fire did something to my dick every time. However, I also remembered her asshole husband talking about Mia on their wedding night. He’d said something about how much she bled. The fucking kicker was that he made that comment in front of Vincent Luciano, her father, as well as Dario, her brother and now the new capo, and Dante, her other brother.

I didn’t have a sister, and I was far from having a daughter, but if I had either one, and anyone spoke that way about her, I’d slit his throat first and demand his respect, second.

“It doesn’t bother you that she’s been married?”

“Who did you fuck last night?” I asked.

Em shook his head. “You want a name? I’m not sure I got a name.”

“Did you give a fuck that she wasn’t a virgin?”

Laughter filled the air. “I prefer my whores with experience.”

“Mia isn’t a whore.” Why I had the urge to stand up for her was beyond me. I went on, “The experience doesn’t bother me. Too much fucking responsibility to be the first. I’ve popped my share of cherries. If I’m going to settle down, I don’t want a scared virgin.”

“Does she know yet?”

I inhaled and exhaled as my cheeks rose with my widening grin. “The capo dei capi said she’d be informed this week. I’m flying to Kansas City next weekend for the engagement.” I looked to my friend. “Come with me. You can see Cat.”

“I’m still not sure I won’t ruin the alliance and slit Dario’s throat.”

It was my turn to laugh. “You could have done that the night of the attempted coup, and no one would have known it was you.”

“I thought about it.” Em poured more bourbon into his glass. “El Patr?nwould have been pissed.”

“And Cat would have been heartbroken.”

Em sent me a disgusted look. The night of the attempted coup in Kansas City, the cartel learned that Dario Luciano was a man of his word. That didn’t mean that Em was any more thrilled that he was also his brother-in-law.

“I’ll go with you,” Em said before downing the bourbon. “I’m headed to bed. Morning is coming early.”

Staring up at the star-filled sky, I thought about what Em said. I needed to start looking for a place of my own. One thought led to another as I began thinking about Mia Luciano. I’d revisited the vision of her at Cat’s wedding a hundred times since making the marriage deal with her brother. I saw her in the long silver dress that accentuated her tits. Her slender shoulders and suntanned skin. She stood out the way Jasmine stood out. Their hair. While Jasmine’s was fiery red, Mia’s was paler than most, a light brown with hues of caramel and even lighter strands of blond. The night of the wedding she had it all twisted in some fancy hairdo. I also remembered the way it looked while she was lying by the pool, piled on her head with rogue strands dropping in curls around her face.

Her pouty lips.

Her hazel stare.

Her stinging slap.

I sighed.

There was part of me who knew I wanted Mia the first time I saw her. I was thinking about a quick fuck, not a lifetime commitment. No matter my goal, it was no secret she didn’t share that attraction—which was not what I was used to. Getting women to spread their legs was not usually a problem. And once they did, they were guaranteed to come back for more.

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