Page 53 of Sinful Mafia Prince

Luca’s head snapped up at his confession, and when their eyes locked Dom’s chest tightened.

“You were supposed to repulse me. I was supposed to hate you. Instead, all I saw was a man I would do anything to get alone for an hour—or more—and it had nothing to do with torturing you. At least not in a way that would hurt.”

Luca ran his gaze over Dom’s face. “We’re alone now.”

“We are. But we won’t always be, and that’s the problem.”

Luca’s cheeks reddened. “But that’s so fucked up.”

His outburst caught Dom off guard, and Luca began to pace the room.

“So you just have to be miserable for the rest of your life? Because of some bigoted fucking rule some old Italians made up?”

“No.” Dom planned to get his pleasure outside of his marital bed.

“That’s what you said.”

“I also said I couldn’t be with a Fiore, but clearly I’m not good at paying attention to the rules because I’m about to break that one…again.”

Luca stopped, and his defensive posture and frustrated expression made Dom’s lips twitch. He was so wound up, and on Dom’s behalf, and that made him irresistible.

“Are you laughing at me?”

Dom bit the inside of his cheek in an effort to keep his expression neutral. “No.”

“Good,” Luca said before he turned away and started to look around the room. His attention caught on something hanging on the wall. “What’s that?”

Dom followed his gaze. “A weapon of mass destruction.”

“Be serious.”

“I am. I could cause some serious destruction with that.” Dom reached up for the whip artfully displayed on the wall. It’d been a long time since he’d held it in his hands, and as he ran his fingers along the crimson leather, he wondered why he hadn’t bothered to take it with him when he left.

“Have you?” Luca asked. “Caused destruction with it?”

“What do you think?”

“I think if that were true it wouldn’t be hanging on a wall.”

“That mouth,” Dom said, shaking his head as he let the tail drop to the ground. He tested the weight of it, his hand itching to let it crack. “You want me to prove it, then?”

“Well…not on me.”

“No? On someone else?”

“No. More like a can or something.”

“A can,” Dom said under his breath as his eyes caught on the vase of flowers one of the housekeepers had set by his bed. He plucked one of the stems out and handed it to Luca. “How about you take this and step out onto the balcony.”

He moved past Luca to open the double doors wide, letting in the cool night air.

“You’re not gonna whip meoffthe balcony, right?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to play, so I can’t promise anything,” Dom said. “But I will promise I won’t intentionally send you flying.”

“You’re seriously disturbed.”

“So you’ve said.” Dom spun the whip in a circle over his head, and a crack echoed off the walls as he got a feel for it again. It was a good thing his room was so big or he’d never attempt what he was about to do inside.

---