Page 6 of Merciless Attraction

Damian snarls, talking to his brothers. “I knew Vito wouldn’t keep his fucking word. He promised I could buy Trips off of him if we didn’t go to war. Then he pulls this shit? People need to die, Bash. TONIGHT!”

“No,” Gemma says quietly. “I told Verducci that Antonio and I were engaged, and that Antonio’s protected by the family. I didn’t want a war to start between families and you guys just got to the west coast. The scumbag who drugged me said he didn’t know who I was, but Verducci said they would take care of it.”

Bash nods, pausing to think a moment, and says, “Verducci’s not going to do anything about this. It cements his position as the new Don of the Dacosta family and shows me to be weak if I don’t handle this Frankie shit myself. You two need to stay engaged. Really act the role.”

“Now wait a minute,” I tell them. “I’m thankful to you, Gemma, for saving my neck back there. And fellas, you’ve always looked out for me, but this is too much.”

I’m not husband or fiancé material in any way. My job comes first. My sexual tastes require a certain kind of woman who won’t run screaming when she realizes what turns me on.

Bash approaches me as Gemma refuses to meet my gaze. Out of earshot from everyone else, he looks me in the eye. “Antonio, I need you to do this. Frankie needs to die because it doesn’t matter whathesays, or what Verducci says. If you’re not really engaged to my sister, they’re going to kill you.”

“I’ll take my chances, Bash. Do you really want me to be your brother-in-law?”

“You’ve done more for me than any of my brothers,” Bash admits, his voice barely above a whisper.

“And I’ve paid the price for that—”

He interrupts me. “And I’ve paid for your sacrifice a thousand times over. You’re a doctor without any stupid loans and you have a felony conviction. Who protected you behind bars? The Family did. Do you think that shit was easy? Or cheap? All I’m asking you to do is babysit for a few weeks while we sort this shit out. I can’t have Gemma with any of us full time while we do what we need to do to make this right.”

I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose before I smooth out my eyebrows. As much as I’d love to be engaged to Gemma, genuinely engaged, there’s no way she can give me what I need. If she ever sees the kind of shit that lives in my head, she’d run screaming for the hills.

I don’t ever want to see a look of fear or disgust in her eyes. I don’t want her to see the kind of monster I can become. Bash is right about protecting me behind bars, but that shit only goes so far. I’ve had to do things I don’t want to be forgiven for, and I’m scared that even pretending to be engaged to Gemma might lure me into wanting it for real.

“Listen,” Bash continues his campaign to convince me. “This will be the last thing I ask of you. Being engaged to Gemma keeps the target off your back until we deal with Frankie.”

I glance at Gemma while she rests her head against Natalie’s shoulder. There’s no way I trust Verducci tohandleanything in regard to his own man. But with the Marzano brothers involved, things are liable to escalate quickly.

“Let me think about it. I have a shift at the hospital tomorrow. If Verducci puts a satisfactory end to this Frankie situation, we can hold off on telling everyone about this engagement. Verducci seemed open to burying him somewhere to avoid a war,” I tell him.

Bash pats me on the shoulder. “I can wait twenty-four hours. In the meantime, Gem, you’re going home with the doc. I don’t want that asshole, Genero, stalking you to your place or anything like that.”

“Bash—” I say his name gruffly. Yet, I can’t tell him why I’m so adamantly against this. I can’t tell him about the lonely nights when I stroke myself to climax with fantasies of his sister’s lips tracing every line of my body.

Bash raises his hands in surrender. “She can stay in a hotel. She can stay with Natalie, but Antonio, you need to be wherever she is. We won’t trust her safety with anyone else. You’re going to be married after all,” he says with a grin.

Every alarm in my head rings loud and clear. This doesn’t end well if I don’t go along with this engagement. I don’t want Gemma in danger. I don’t want some target on my back for protecting her. The biggest problem is, once she’s in my arms, I’ll never want to let her go.

How the fuck am I going to play the good fiancé when every time we kiss, she’ll make my dick hard? How long am I supposed to ignore the carnal urges building inside of me?

With plans of giving Don Sebastien Marzano my answer tomorrow, I hope Verducci is a man of his word. If Bash handles Frankie before Verducci, bodies will fall, and I’ll have to rise to the occasion. My hands can’t stay clean when it comes to keeping Gemma safe.

I turn to her, happy to see she’s feeling better. Her slender legs swing over the edge of the gurney. I catch the quickest glimpse of the plump curves of her ass before she shimmies to pull the bottom of her dress down. Natalie wraps an arm around her waist and throws a look over her shoulder to me.

“You gonna take me home, too, Doc?” Natalie asks.

“I will,” Damian says before I can answer. “I’d rather take you home just to be sure there’s no one there waiting for either one of you.”

I move beside Gemma, wrapping my arm around her waist to keep her steady.

“Thanks, Antonio,” Gemma whispers.

We leave the clinic and Ronan locks up. Damian and Natalie pull off while Casper and Sebastien get inside their car. Ronan rushes to get to the driver’s side of his ride, but someone moves in the shadows.

There’s darkness across the road since nothing’s over there but trees that lead to another medial complex. Gunshots ring out into the night, sending the three of us to the ground to avoid bullets. Bash and Casper exit their car to use it as cover, firing into the darkness with their own weapons.

“I guess Verducci didn’t handle it,” Ronan shouts over the gunfire.

I shake my head while covering Gemma and trying to calculate the time and distance between our location and the car. It’s too risky to move. I turn to Ronan with anger building from the pit of my gut. Verducci will die for this.

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