Page 49 of His Stakes (His Obsession 2)

Giving him a nod, I turned to Veda. “Take off your cover up.”

Her eyes swung to mine behind her sunglasses. “What? No.”

“Take it off now,” I ordered.

I saw the tension in her jaw and the way her hands trembled—With fear? With rage?—as she pulled out first one arm and then the other before lifting it over her head and letting her arms fall back to her sides, her cover up bunched in one hand. Her chin lifted in a defiant move, and she wouldn’t look at me as she focused on Gino. “As I said, the pleasure of Veda’s company is not an option. She’s Mario’s, and I need her.” Seething with rage that I was forced to do this, my body nearly vibrated with the need to hide her away from the shocked gazes all trained on the “M” carved into her chest. I hated that I had to cause her such embarrassment, but there was no other way around it.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Even Gino couldn’t believe what he was looking at. “What did she do to deserve that?”

I bristled at how he talked about her like she wasn’t standing right there in front of him. “She did nothing to deserve this,” I answered truthfully. “But this only goes to prove to you that my brother is an extremely fucked up individual. And therefore, he’s not the person we want running this family.”

Gino’s eyes lingered on Veda’s chest, then wandered down to her nipples and stomach and lower. I took a step toward him, my hand going into my pocket for my knife so I could cut them from his head. Only Tristan’s hand on my shoulder brought me back to myself. Taking a few deep breaths, I managed to lower the heat in my blood to a simmer. “Are we done here?” I asked him.

His eyes wandered back up her body, and he shook his head with regret. “You’re right. I don’t want a secondhand whore, especially not one who has a reminder scarred into her skin.” His eyes wandered over once more. “It’s a damn shame.” Dismissing her, he turned to me. “Twenty percent. And you can have my boys as guests at your club.”

I stepped forward, my hand extended, just wanting to get him the hell out of here before I did something stupid. “I hope you’ll join them anyway,” I told him as he shook it.

“Maybe. Maybe. We’ll see.” We both stepped back as our men released our boats and started the motors. With a wave, I watched them pull away as we idled where we were. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.

Without a word, Veda kicked off her shoes and dropped her cover up. Before I knew what she was about, she launched herself into the water just as the boat began to move.

“Veda!” I yelled as she went under.

She popped up out of the water and started swimming toward the shore, her sunglasses floating behind her.

“God fucking dammit.” Shucking off my shoes and shirt, I yelled for Enzo to wait and dove into the lake after her. Swimming with long strokes, I caught up to her easily.

“Let me go!” she screamed when I reached her.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Where the fuck are you going?”

“Fuck off!” The bottom of her foot hit me in the chest as she kicked away from me.

I was on her again before she got very far. Grabbing her ankle, I pulled her toward me. Her face went underwater, and she came up sputtering and coughing. Wrapping one arm around her chest, I began to haul her back to the boat. “What the fuck are you doing?” I raged at her.

“Getting away from you!” she yelled back as she started to fight me again.

But we were already at the boat and Tristan was there to take her from me and haul her onto the platform. For the first time, I noticed what she was wearing as I lifted myself out of the water. Or rather, what little she was wearing. I got to my feet as an animalistic growl began deep in my chest when I saw my friend’s hands on her bare skin. “Let her go,” I gritted out between my teeth.

Knowing I was hanging onto my temper by a thread, Tristan dropped his hands immediately and she stumbled forward into my chest. I grabbed her arm and hauled her toward the cabin. “Go!” I told Enzo as we passed him. “Straight back to the dock. And keep everyone else the fuck out.”

“Got it,” he told me as the boat picked up speed.

Veda yanked her arm out of my hand as soon as we got below, and I let her. She spun toward me, her gray eyes dark with fury. “You were going to give me to that man!”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“You were! I was there! He called me a whore…” Her voice broke.

Closing the distance between us, I grabbed her chin and pulled her face up to mine. “No one touches you but me. You’re MINE, Veda.”

But she shook her head. “You were bargaining me like a piece of property.” But some of the venom had left her voice.

“You’re mine,” I told her again. “And why the fuck are you wearing something like this in front of my men? Do you want me to have to kill someone?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she pulled away from me. “It’s a bathing suit! What the hell did you expect me to wear on the lake?”

I knew she was right, but logic didn’t matter to me right now. The only thing I could think of was that every single man on my boat, and Gino’s, had seen way too fucking much of her gorgeous body. Every single one of them would probably be jacking off to her tonight.

I bared my teeth. “You’re strutting around looking like that in front of my men! In front of Gino and his sons! Were you showing off out there when I couldn’t see you? Was that why he was suddenly so interested in you?”

She stared at me in disbelief. “Oh,” she huffed. “Fuck you, Luca.” She shook her head, her mouth twisted in disgust. “I had no idea this little outing was going to involve so many fucking people, and you know it. Don’t you dare try to turn this around on me!”

My blood rushed through my veins and my cock swelled until it was painfully hard. “I’ll do whatever I fucking want to you, Veda.”

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