Page 54 of Where the Wicked Reign

It had me tensing.

What did he think he’d figured out?

He shifted his weight and folded his arms across his chest, regarding me astutely. “I’m not trying to manipulate you, Caterina.”

“What?”

“You’re suggesting this to ensure there’s no intimacy, to erect a wall between us, using Julian as a buffer.Andusing my obvious desire for you in order to get me to agree to it.”

I blew out a breath. “Becoming emotionally involved will just complicate things. Beyond what they already are.”

“You mean, it will complicate things foryouand make it so much harder for you to remain as a stone cold sociopath who doesn’t care about anyone or anything, who’s terrified to let anybody in?”

“Sociopath?” I spat.

He continued on regardless, “Too fucking bad, because once we’re married, you won’t be able to hide away like a scared little girl from all of that. You’ll be with me at the Manor living in close quarters. As my fuckingwife.Time to start getting used to that.”

“Go fuck yourself. Literally. Because doing that with me is now off the table.”

He scoffed. “Bullshit.” He ran his eyes over me in my leather jacket, my bustier beneath, down to my leather pants, and flicking to my chunky heeled boots. “I’m certain you’re all warm and wet for me beneath those tight leather pants.”

“You’re disgusting. And wrong.”

He moved into me and because I refused to give up ground and step back, his hard body pressed tightly against mine. “Wrong isn’t something I’m familiar with. As for being disgusting, we both know that gets you off when it comes to me.” He grasped my waist, making me gasp as he jerked me against him, and rolled his hips, forcing me to feel his hard cock.Shit.“You were panting in my ear, moaning, and grinding into me desperately when I spread my blood all over your lovely breasts and—”

I used his hold on my hips to spin him around and slam him up against the wall. He grunted as he jarred painfully hard against the concrete, any more of his provocative words thankfully getting caught in his throat. “Shut the hell up,” I ground out.

He went to speak again, but I slapped my hand over his mouth.

He shocked me by licking my palm.

“Stop it.”

He did it again and wiggled his eyebrows.

The look on his face, the whole ridiculous situation… it had me bursting out laughing.

I dropped my hand in the process and a rumbling chuckle came from him, too.

“Wow, and what the hell is happening here?” a voice came from over by the building entrance.

We both looked out to see Julian walking in with Emilio trailing just behind him, the latter taking everything in studiously, scanning his surroundings in detail like a paranoid stoner.

Nico held up his hand to them, which had Emilio narrowing his eyes.

And then Nico rubbed my arm, telling me quietly, “I know you don’t trust easily and I also know this whole marriage complication is making all of that worse because it speaks to one of your worst fears of being a powerless traded bride in our fucked-up world. But you’re not powerless, you’re far from it. I told you before that I’d never want you tamed, that you being a force of nature is a lot of what drew me to you in the first place, so if you can’t trust in anything else at the moment, trust in that. We’re working together on this mission to prove to you that we’re on the same side. Let’s do that and once it’s done, we’ll see where you’re at. Until then, keep thisdatenotion on the table. All right?”

I took his words in and it concerned me just how deep they were actually hitting.Andhow much I appreciated them. I was actually touched by it, by him going to the effort.

It had me nodding and telling him, “Okay. It’s on the table.”

He smiled, then pulled away and gestured for Julian and Emilio to come on over now.

Julian focused on Nico fixing the hard-on in his jeans. “Well, it’s still in your pants. That’s something.”

“What was going on in here before we arrived?” Emilio demanded.

“Just talking,” Nico responded.

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