Page 44 of Heartless Vows

She scowls and mumbles, still half asleep.

“Tristan won’t be home until after dinner. I don’t want to go in early.” I pause before rubbing my lips back and forth over her knuckles.

“Why don’t you want to go inside?” I murmur against her skin, keeping my voice low so she doesn’t fully wake.

“We didn’t have sex. She’ll lock me in the closet again.”

She gasps and jolts awake as I squeeze her hand in shock.

“Your mother locked you in the closet?”

My voice emerges as more of an animalistic rumble than actual words. After a moment of confusion, she glares at me in fury.

“You’re such a jerk. Let me go. I—”

When she reaches for the door handle, my control snaps. I grab her by the hair and haul her over the center console and into my lap. She screams and flails, but I part her knees around my hips and trap her arms to her torso while pulling her head back, exposing her neck as much as possible in the cramped space.

“Is that why you’ve been half delirious and exhausted all day? Because your mother locked you in the closet last night? For not having sex with me yesterday—the day we met?”

Trapped and stretched out like a feast on my lap, Aurora trembles from head to toe and aims vulnerable green eyes at me. The defiant set of her features slices me in two.

“You were never going to tell me either, were you?” I snarl.

“You didn’t need to know! I can—”

I release her arms and grip her jaw, framing her face with my massive hand.

“No, I don’t want to hear your excuses, Aurora. You’re mine now. Only mine. No one except for me, not even your mother, will ever hurt you again.”

A single tear escapes her lashes and trails along my finger.

“We’re leaving. You’re moving into the townhouse with me and never coming back here again,” I snarl.

Her glare hardens my cock and awakens my need to conquer and claim every inch of her.

“No. I’m staying at my parents’,” she insists.

“Why? Does she lock your brother in the closet, too?”

“She’d do that and so much worse if I left. I need to stay.”

“We’ll take him with us,” I snarl, half delirious from her ass against my thighs and beyond furious over how she was suffering in silencebecause of me.

“Are you stupid? He’s the heir to the Achilles family. You may be the Vivaldi heir, but you can’t kidnap him without starting a citywide war. Thousands of people would die in the crossfire.”

How in the hell is this tiny woman so smart, scrappy, and stubborn?

“Then thousands die. I don’t care. You’re my only priority,mia topolina.”

She scoffs and shoves against my chest.

“So much for being a man of your word. Let me go.”

“Excuse me?”

She stills as the menace in my tone registers, but the anger vibrating from her fills the car as she speaks with barely leashed fury.

“You’re lying. I’m not your only priority. Your sisters and parents are important, too. Can you imagine how hurt Serenity would be if she heard you kidnapped an eight-year-old boy and put everyone associated with your family in danger?”

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