Page 28 of Bound to Him

“Great.” He sat forward, looking as though he was getting back to his business, but suddenly remembered something. I was already halfway out of my seat when he stopped me.

“Hang on, Hux. There was something else, about your wedding date. It’s been set.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, last night Enzo gave me a date, asking if it suited us. It’s in a month's time.”

“Cazzo! Really?”

“Yeah well, I didn’t have a reason to say no. I figured there’s no point in putting this off, Hux. The sooner you’re married to Viola, the sooner we can move on as allies of the Romanos.” He watched me carefully, managing to give me the boss treatment while still trying to be caring as a brother.

Christ. I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I thought I had time to fight it somehow, to at least try and convince Antonio that the treaty was bullshit from the start. I had no trust in the Romanos, with or without a treaty.

“I hear you, man,” I said, leaning forward onto my knees and rubbing my eyes. “I guess I just thought I had more time.”

Antonio sat back, still watching me carefully. “Time for what, exactly?”

Shit. I wasn’t going to admit that I wanted to find a way to cancel it altogether, since that was technically treacherous against my own don and my family as a whole. I also wasn’t going to admit the other reason—Olivia. I wanted more time to convince Olivia to say yes to me. Although, after last night, I figured that would never happen. I might as well just move on and get the wedding over with, so I could figure out what the rest of my life would look like.

“I don’t know, procrastination, I guess.”

He smiled, luckily buying my one-worded story. “You know it’s gonna happen either way. So try to get excited. Go take a look at the villa, plan your life.”

“The villa?”

“Did you think you were just gonna move Viola into this house and be done with it?” Antonio chuckled, shaking his head. “Looks like I’ve thought of your future more than you have. You two are welcome to take the new villa at the north corner of the property. If you want it, that is.”

Thoughts raced through my mind, deciding where to live with Viola was making this so much more real. I’d never actually thought about it as a real future for me. “Let me uh… think about it.” I smiled at him, hoping to ease his worries about me, then stood up and said my goodbyes.

I spent the day with Vinnie, driving from place to place, meeting with our guys, and loading up with news from the streets. By the evening, I was back at the club, headed to my office, and closed myself in with ado not disturbsign on my door. I used the sign when I needed to get the books done on a busy night, to stop the waiters or bartenders from inviting themselves in to ask about someclub-relatedd shit. Tonight, I had paperwork to do, but I really just needed to be alone.

I hated admitting it to myself, but I was fucking bothered. The whole arranged marriage and treaty deal was merely theoretical in my mind until this morning when Antonio gave me the wedding date as well as a house to live in, with my bride, Viola. Great. Knowing that Olivia didn’t want me, I had no reason to delay any longer. I tried to accept my fate and wrap my head around my new future.

A few hours later, I was done sulking. I’d gotten some of my paperwork done, but my mind kept going back to Olivia. Fuck sakes! With everything else going on, she should have been the least of my worries. She should have been old news, a done deal. Yet my mind kept jumping back to her. To that first kiss where I grabbed her ass and pushed up against her. Where we shared a cigarette, and she looked up at me with those dark eyes. To the red dress and lipstick. Whenever I got to the part where she shoved me away from her, my mind shut down, and I was grumpy all over again.

No, actually, not grumpy. Plain pissed. When was the last time I did something becauseIwanted to do it? It seemed like recently all I was doing was what other people were telling me to. Antonio, Enzo, Mia, Olivia. They all wanted something from me, and be it innocent or not, I was tired as shit of being a fucking footman.

I stood up and started gathering my things when there was a knock on the door. I ignored the annoyance that came with a knock when there was a very clear DND sign on my door, but since I was headed out anyway, I answered.

“Yeah?” The door opened, then closed again while I was still looking for my phone on the desk. “What do you need?”

“You.”

My whole body froze. I didn’t even need to look; I knew who it was. It didn’t take much for me to recognize that sultry voice. Slowly, I turned around.

Oh, fuck me, Jesus Christ.She was surely fucking with me again, but tonight she’d gone too far. The Italian beauty with the body of a goddess decided to wear a mini dress, and she looked fucking sensational. The little black dress was even more skintight than the red dress last night, and it had a low neckline, a very low one. It was the first time I was physically seeing her goddamn perfect cleavage. The first time she hadn’t covered it up with a high neckline.

I clenched my jaw, still looking over her body. “Olivia, what are you—”

She didn’t give me the chance to finish my question. Within two strides, she was in front of me, against me, kissing me. My cock suddenly did the thinking for my whole body, and I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up against me. We kissed desperately and deeply, she lifted her sexy legs and wrapped them around me. I moved over to the couch and dropped down, fucking relishing the feeling of Olivia seated on my very hard dick, until I magically came to my senses.

“Wait.” I stopped kissing her but held her against me with a steel arm around her waist. “What is this? You said no, you said you didn’t want this.”

Breathing heavily from our urgent kisses, her soft lips were agape, glistening. She swallowed—as she always seemed to do when she was nervous—and touched my cheek.

“This is me, showing you that I’m ready.”

“Ready for what?” I didn't know why I was even asking; our faces were already moving closer together again, and I was craving her. All of her. Olivia shrugged impatiently.

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