Page 35 of Where the Wicked Reign

“It will just look like that on the surface, but it won’t be your reality with me. I give you my word.”

“And how can I just trust that? Especially after the last three years? For all I know, this could be your big move, your endgame. To take me down using my father, to tame me using this marriage.”

His lips quirked. “Believe me, the last thing I’d ever want is youtamed.You’re a force of nature, and that’s what sparked my obsession with you in the first place.” He fingered my hair, twirling a lock around. “Besides, I also came here to make a deal.”

I cocked an eyebrow, trying to ignore the intensity of him right in my space and touching me, especially when we hadn’t yet come down from where we’d been headed earlier. “What kind of deal?”

A sadistic smile spread over his face. “A deal that will bring their entire world crashing down around them.”

7

~Julian~

“So, bachelor party? I’m thinking—”

Nico rushed me, slamming me into the wall, grasping my arms painfully and effectively pinning me there.

I was sure it would have been a lot harder than merely a little jarring normally in the same situation, but he didn’t want to do damage to his little obsession’s apartment.

It was sweet. Well, almost. ItwasNico we were talking about.

“What the fuck are you playing at?” he roared in my face. “I told you to back the fuck off! That wasnothow I wanted the news relayed to her!”

All right, so he was still partially in hisferalstate then.Jesus Christ,I hadn’t ever known it to last this long for him before.

“You clearly didn’t want it relayed at all. You supposedly came here to tell her and yet when I walked in, you were all over her instead.”

“It wasn’t your decision to make!”

“No. It was yours. But you didn’t do it.”

He snarled in my face, like the animal he was at the moment.

It looked like he was about to fire back some more harsh words.

ButI pulled him up short by jerking one of my hands free and using it to grab his dick through his pants, his still very hard dick.

It was one of my many dominant moves that I used on Subs atNocturne.I’d also used it on Milo before. It was certainly an attention-getter.

And this instant was no exception.

It had Nico pulling up short in surprise.

There was confusion too because I didn’t do this sort of thing with him.

But this current situation was rendering it necessary.

I stroked him, then squeezed again, moving between the two, and it had him groaning, pushing into my hand and actually starting to calm as the slow and sweet pleasure worked to cut into his rage and the pain he was trying to conceal behind all the rest.

“Everything you do is for the Family. You earn for them, work your ass off for them, punish, and even bleed for them. You exist for them. But this thing with Caterina, you wanted to have something for yourself. Then, with the news tonight, you felt it all crashing down, her being pulled back in, this marriage directive tainting what had been building carefully between the two of you. When you laid eyes on her, when you were in her vicinity here, you wanted to hold on to that. So desperately.”

His grip loosened around my biceps.

“It’s too late now. It’s ruined.”

“Or not.”

“What? Of course it is. You witnessed her reaction for yourself.”

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