Page 29 of Savage Union
He sets down his fork with precise movements. "What would you like to discuss? Your further plans to destroy my property? Your ongoing resistance to an inevitable marriage? Or perhaps your father's criminal enterprise?"
The mention of my father stings. "None of the above."
"Then enjoy the silence and the excellent food." He returns to his dessert.
I push my plate away, appetite gone. "I'd rather starve than endure another minute of this farce."
"As you wish." He continues eating, unbothered by my declaration.
I sit in fuming silence until he finishes the last bite of his dessert. When he finally sets down his utensils, I expect to be dismissed back to my room. Instead, he fixes me with a steady gaze that sends a jolt of unease through me.
"There has been a change to your arrangements," he says, voice neutral.
"What arrangements?"
"Your sleeping arrangements." He dabs his mouth with a napkin, the picture of civility. "There is something laid out for you in my bedroom. You'll be joining me there tonight."
I stare at him, certain I've misheard. "You must be kidding me."
"I don't kid." His expression remains utterly serious.
"I'm not sleeping with you." I push back my chair, ready to flee.
"The choice is simple." He doesn't move, doesn't raise his voice, yet somehow fills the room with his authority. "You sleep next to me, like a proper Donna-to-be, or you spend the rest of your days by yourself in solitary confinement."
"That's not a choice. That's coercion."
"Call it what you will. My patience has reached its limit." He stands, straightening his cuffs. "Your rebellions have consequences, Caterina. This is one of them."
A scream builds in my throat, hot and desperate. Before I can unleash it, Vito turns and walks away from the table, his movements unhurried and deliberate.
"Dinner is over," he says over his shoulder. "You have fifteen minutes to decide. After that, Dante will escort you either to my bedroom or back to your solitary confinement. Choose wisely."
He disappears down the hallway, leaving me alone with impossible options and a rage so pure it burns in my chest like a living thing.
Fifteen minutes to decide between sharing a bed with the man who murdered my father or losing what little human contact I still have. Between compromising my dignity or surrendering my sanity.
Some choice.
I press my hands flat against the table, fighting for control. Vito thinks he's won, thinks he's breaking me. Maybe he is. But if I'm going down, I won't go quietly.
If I have to sleep beside the devil, I'll make sure he doesn't get a moment's rest.
CHAPTER 9
Vito
I check my watch.Fifteen minutes have passed. As expected, Dante hasn't messaged me about escorting Caterina back to her room. She made the obvious choice. She's stubborn, not stupid.
The sound of approaching footsteps confirms my assessment. I remain seated in the armchair by the window, a book open in my lap though I haven't read a word. Appearances matter. Control matters. She needs to understand who sets the terms in this arrangement.
The bedroom door opens without a knock. Caterina stands in the threshold, chin high, eyes blazing with barely contained fury. Her hair is slightly disheveled, as if she's been running her hands through it. The rumpled clothes she's been wearing all day hang on her frame, somehow still managing to highlight her curves despite their wrinkled state. Beautiful, even in defiance. Perhaps especially in defiance.
"So this is your next move?" she says, voice dripping with disdain as she surveys my bedroom. "Forced cohabitation?"
I close my book and set it aside. "You made a choice."
"Between two terrible options you forced on me." She remains in the doorway, as if crossing the threshold would constitute a surrender.
