Page 2 of Fierce Vows

Chapter One

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Rafe

Isit in a chair inmy father’s club, my arm around a pretty girl’s shoulder.The collar at her neck displays more ownership than the matching ring on her finger.Both were put there by force.Neither are worn without consent.

Most of the time.The corner of my mouth works up.Willow would add her own narrative to that, but as I stroke her back beneath her silky raven black hair, her presence soothes me.

Bad shit has always happened in this club, the beginning and the end of so many of my stories.My melancholy can’t be lifted by my wife’s company alone, but she calls to my beast who settles, seething still, but residing quietly inside me.Cyprus is officially my territory, my father’s passing leaving all the entire Gallo Empire in my hands as Don.

A mantle I was born to shoulder, even if I never coveted the power like so many others I knew.Like Konnor.And tonight’s meeting with my lieutenants was pathetic.All the ass kissing you could ever want, all the glances and twisted smiles.The promise of everything and nothing all at once.

Bullshit, lies, and death.

My father’s club stinks of it.That, and sex.

The next meeting needs to flow smoothly else this club will know more blood than my father ever flooded it with.

My last two visits to this place, once when I met my wife, and once with Dom when I thought at the time I had cemented my relationship with my best friend.

One worked, one fucked up.

Third time’s the charm.

Perhaps tonight will be ...different.

Tonight, we will set down house rules in our own style.

For the first time I sit in my father’s club without my best man by my side.Dom stayed with Thalia in Rhode Island, managing his own demons.I hope to fuck I have a house that isn’t blown to shit before we return home from this trip, though Cyprus’ landscape is undermined with its own mortal dangers.That’s what this life is.Willow leans into my shoulder, snuggling gently in the slinky, turquoise sequin beaded dress that leaves her sinuous curves and slivers of bared flesh beneath flickering and flashing with the smallest movement.

“You can’t drop it, can you?”

I curve my fingers in her hair, rubbing into the scalp, and she lets out a small, but appreciative moan.“As beautiful as the day I met you here.No regrets, Willow.Not one.”I finger the platinum collar I clamped around her neck the day we married.That she’s never asked me for the key swells an obsolete organ in my chest.I shake my head, staring down at her into those forest green eyes that threaten to unman me.“Tonight has been difficult, and I won’t be gentle with you,” I warn her softly.Willow’s head tips back, exposing the pale column of her throat to me.My cock thickens rapidly, and I force my breaths to be even.“But I promised you a present.Are you ready for that?”

She pants a little, her lips parting in a way that makes me want to use her in front of everyone.“Here?”Her eyes widen with a dual shot of arousal and fear.“Rafe?”

Her gaze flickers around the room, and I know what she’s thinking.

Our first encounter here was a one-night stand before I knew she was my forced intended.

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