Page 24 of Brutal Mercy

Apparently I’m okay with Hades executing him for what he did. I never imagined I was bloodthirsty or that I would be cool with him operating outside the law. But then, laws didn’t keep my parents alive, and their killer is still at large and has never been caught.

A sinfully wicked smile curves Hades’s lips. “Noted. Anything else you want to ask me before the priest arrives?”

I have so many I don’t even know where to start. But for now, I’ll ask one of the most pressing. “Do you want kids right away?”

“I’m forty-one. I’d like to be able to rough house with my kids while they’re little. If you would like to use protection until I can provide proof that I’m not carrying any diseases, I will afford you that until we both get tested. But once the results come back, we will both stop using birth control.”

“I won’t need to get tested.” There is no way I have any sexually transmitted diseases.

“Luna, I insist on testing, for your sake as well as mine.”

I squirm on the chaise beneath his hard stare. The humiliation continues for me. He’s already seen me naked and listened to me pee. What’s another embarrassment to add to the tally? And I know it’s an unavoidable conversation, but it doesn’t make it any easier.

“No, um, you don’t understand. I’ve um . . . never had . . .” I swallow my nerves.

He cocks his head, his gaze piercing me clean through. And quietly he asks, “Are you a virgin?”

Heat rushes into my cheeks, along with a metric ton of embarrassment. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

I want to crawl into a hole and die. Admitting I’m a twenty-two-year-old virgin to a man who has likely been fucking women as long as I’ve been alive is beyond embarrassing. It’s mortifying.

Hades studies me with such rapturous attention my heart pounds. He looks like he wants to take me to bed on the spot. His eyes have turned into flaming ice. And my body responds. Heat curls and winds its way through me.

“No. It doesn’t bother me. It fucking thrills me that I’ll be your first and only lover. The things I can’t wait to teach you. Fuck,mi dea luna, I’m hard just thinking about it.”

A knock on the door interrupts our conversation. He sighs. “We’ll resume this conversation later.”

But I’m glad for the slight reprieve. I’ve had so much information tossed my way in such a short amount of time that my head is spinning.

Hades rises and swaggers to the door. I inhale deeply, thankful for the small slice of time that gives me a minute to collect myself. He doesn’t care that I’m a virgin. If anything, I think it turned him on even more. And I can’t stop the hum of excitement in my blood. This man really wants me. The attraction is not one sided.

I’m not sure what surprises me more, his desire for me or that he wants to marry me.

From the moment Diego Alvarez walked into my store yesterday, my life has gone off the rails. In the span of twenty-four hours, I went from thinking I would wind up dying an old maid to nearly being raped and abducted to getting ready to marry a man almost twice my age, who admitted that he’s not a good man. He speaks of the cartel like he has intimate knowledge of organized crime. Does that mean he’s Mafia?

But he can’t be all bad. He saved me. He’s taken care of me. And in the past twenty-four hours, he’s made me feel safer than I’ve felt for some time.

It still doesn’t compute that I’ll be married tonight. Nor that I will have sex for the first time.

At the murmur of voices, I glance toward the door. Hades’s brother and sister enter with a rotund priest in his fifties wearing black pants and a dress shirt. His ivory collar strains against the fat folds of his neck. He reminds me of a busted can of cinnamon rolls wrapped in black cloth.

“Father Rosario, thank you for coming on such short notice.” Hades shakes his hand.

“Yes, well, doing the Lord’s work sometimes means keeping indiscriminate work hours.”

Hades leads the group over to the fireplace. “Luna, this is Father Rosario. He’s going to perform our wedding, love.”

Love? The sudden endearment shocks me more than the fact that Hades can get a priest to his house on short notice to perform a wedding ceremony. At Hades’s intense stare filled with meaning. He wants me to play along like this is a love connection. It’s a lie. But the priest doesn’t need to know that, so I smile brightly, gazing at Hades as if we are in love.

Hades’s eyes warm in approval. A little thrill shoots through me. And I must have really lost my mind because, for a moment, I wonder what it would be like to be loved by a man like Hades.

“Father, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you for coming.” I shift on the chaise to stand and greet him.

“Oh, don’t get up, my dear. I wouldn’t want you to exacerbate your injury. But I do need to ask if you’re a member of His Holy Catholic Church.”

“Actually, yes, I am. I was baptized at Holy Redeemer Parrish.” Granted, I haven’t been a practicing Catholic most of my life. My parents were the Christmas and Easter mass type of Catholics. And I’ve not been anywhere near a church since my parents died. But the priest doesn’t need to know any of that.

Father Rosario’s face breaks out in a beaming smile. “Very good, my child. Now Hades, if you would have a seat beside your bride. And then the witnesses, if you could stand behind the bride and groom, we can get this ceremony underway.”

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