Page 20 of Twins for the Mafia Heir

Unfortunately, this third toast seems to have been the signal to open the floodgates. All the men start talking at once- and every word makes me feel sicker and sicker.

“It’s about time Thomas acknowledged us again,” one of the men says, far too loudly. “It’s his goddamn fault we had to steal away his cute sister.”

Another laughs. “How much you think he’ll pay to get her back?”

“Enough to nab that slippery bastard Piers!”

“Depends what our Achilles does to her tonight, eh?”

That sends up a round of laughter. Despite my horror, I notice the return of Piers’s name. I cling to searching questions so I don’t have to listen to the words flying around me. Who is Piers? Why are these people looking for him? Are they angling for Thomas’s money so they can have the resources to hunt him down?

Achilles’s eyes are black with fury. “This isn’t anyone’s business but mine,” he says, looking directly across the table at Fantasia.

“Oh no need to look so precious about it,” another man chuckles. “We all know what’s happening between you two tonight.”

“Right!” The man directly across from me tries to look me in the eye, but he’s too drunk to see straight. “We gave you an English welcome. Buthe’sgonna give you anEnglish welcome.”

Another round of cheering and jeering. Achilles’s hand is clutching his knife in a way that would make it very easy to wield as a weapon. His food is untouched. I take a bite of my steak, but taste absolutely nothing.

“She’s a real beauty, Achilles,” one of the men calls out from near Fantasia’s end of the table, “but she’stinywhere it mattersmost.” To my horror, he looks directly at me. Directly at my unimpressive chest.

I want to disappear. It feels like worms are crawling around under my skin.

“Which one will break first, you think?” another says with a chuckle. “The woman or the bed?”

“If you can get her pregnant in one go, that’ll be best. Then Thomas will shell out-”

“We’ll be retiring now,” Achilles says, standing swiftly from the table.

Fantasia’s smile vanishes instantly. “What- you’ve hardly eaten.”

“I’ve never been less hungry in my life,” Achilles bites out.

I’m half afraid he’ll outrun me out of the room, or worse, leave me here alone. But as I push out my chair, he holds out his hand for me. Relieved, I take it, and he tucks my arm firmly into his and sweeps me out of the dining hall.

The men misinterpret our fleeing, of course. They think we’re too eager to get the wedding night started to finish our meal. One last bawdy cheer follows us all the way across the house to the stairs.

“Fucking pigs,” he hisses under his breath. “Fantasia eggs them on and eggs them on, and now they might as well be base fucking animals performing for treats.”

I wish I could take in that morsel of information logically, but my stomach is churning too hard and my limbs are shaking. Those men down there think of me as nothing more than meat about to be devoured, and they like me that way.

This is why I always dressed up as a man before putting myself in a room full of men. When I was Silver, wearing a mask and a hood and a baggy jacket, with inserts in my shoes to make me taller and padding in my shoulders to make me bigger- I didn’t have to worry about being the target of this sortof treatment. But now I’m a blushing bride and all they want to talk about is what will be done with me tonight, and how they’ll report on it in the most scandalous way possible.

Achilles is angry for other reasons, and I should be paying attention to those. But when we arrive at the door to his bedroom, my legs lock up, and my arm tears out of his grip, and finally he stops and turns to me.

I don’t know what is on my face, but I can’t control it right now. I can sign paperwork with someone else’s name, but I can’t leave my body behind on my own wedding night. Achilles’s dark eyes search my expression. He sees my too-quick breath and my too-wide eyes.

He sees every bit of my fear, and looks away for a moment before looking back, his own anger cooled.

“I apologize, Raleigh,” he says quietly. “That was barbaric behavior. I should have removed us both sooner, but upsetting Fantasia is… unwise. I underestimated how much she would revel in your embarrassment, much less my own. If it reassures you, Fantasia’s generals don’t often stay in the Hall. They won’t be here for more than a few days.”

He takes a step toward me. “Even if we’ve been trapped together like this, I need you to understand that I won’t ever treat you like a tool to be used. We don’t have to do anything tonight, or any night, ever. If you told me never to touch you, I would respect that.”

I blink up at him, astonished. For the first time, I feel like he’s speaking to me without distaste. Even if this man hates being stuck with me, he’s willing to reassure me when he sees that I’m truly afraid.

My stomach starts to settle. But I’ve been quiet too long. He’s waiting for some verbal acknowledgment of his words, and I have no idea what to say.

“I’m… I’ve never had sex before,” I blurt, my voice so small I can barely hear it.

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