Page 13 of The Players

“And what’s that?”

“You know the life. Don’t act like you don’t know how this is going to end. If you don’t belong to a man with power, you will belong to a lot of men with power.”

He let those words sink in, his gaze making clear what he meant to say.

Carmen turned chalk white as she started to get his drift. Then she took a deep breath. “If you’re proposing what I think you’re proposing in exchange for your protection, that’s never going to happen. I'm not having sex with you.”

“Who said anything about sex?”

She snorted. “You can wipe that innocent look from your face. Sadly, Idoknow the life. I know that if a man offers you his protection, there’s always a price. So, tell me, Vincenzo, what’s the catch? What is it that you want?"

I want to heal you.

But do to that, he first had to break her.

“The catch is that you will give me three IOUs.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I owe yous,” he repeated. “Three times you’ll do as I say, no questions asked. You will also move in with me until the Morelli and Keegan situation is resolved.”

Her hands clenched and, for a second, he thought she would deck him. Part of him wished she would. He wasn’t sure how he would react the second their skin touched. Would he be able to hold himself back? Doubtful. Would he grab her wrist and press her up against the wall? A more likely scenario.

“Never! I will never give you that kind of power over my body.”

He cocked a brow. “Who said anything about your body? My proposal is simple. For me to protect you, you will live with me and Sy. Your whip already met him the other day.” He probably should’ve mentioned that last part before, but she already looked ready to bolt. “I’m saying I’ll protect you if you promise me three I owe yous. As far as sex is concerned, I’m not going to touch you unless you initiate it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He stepped closer. So close that he could see the little flecks of gold in her hazel eyes and the slight tremble of her luscious body when he nearly touched her.

“It means that I won’t fuck you unless you ask me to. The second you do, all bets are off.”

“Too late,” she whispered. “I asked you for that years ago and you declined. Then another man took with violence what I wanted to give to you freely.”

Her words were like bullets grazing his skin. Something dark and volatile entered his mind. He wanted to dig Franco from the grave and kill him all over again.

“Living with me and Sy won’t be easy. We’ll push you.”

“Push me into granting you three wishes,” she joked, but he could see the fear in her eyes. “Just out of curiosity, when exactly will you put these wishes into play?”

“Whenever I want. However I want.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you. Me being your slave? Catering to your every whim? You are no different than Franco.”

Hearing his name mentioned in the same sentence as that lowlife made him see red. She was lucky she hadn’t yet agreed to his proposal. Otherwise, she’d been tied up with a gag ball in her mouth, taking at least ten whips.

Trying to convince her he was nothing like Franco was useless. From an early age, Carmen’s brain was hotwired to believe she was merely a pawn in the lives of powerful men. Words were meaningless to her, but he could show her.

“I’ve told you my conditions. Take it or leave it.”

She took a step back. “I will leave it, just as you once left me."

He ignored that jab. Instead, he started to tell her what would happen to her when either Morelli or Keegan would get their hands on her. Every little, gory detail. He drew a colorful map, and the more he explained of what she already knew, the paler she grew.

He felt like a bastard for scaring the shit out of her, but it was something that needed to be done. The only reason she had been able to hold on to the casinos so far was because she was Gio Detta’s sister-in-law. There weren’t many men who dared to take on their family. But, as ever, things changed in San Fran’s underground belly. And even though they were no longer in the old family business, Detta Enterprises still had a few fingers in the pot in some gray areas. Areas they needed to stay a player in order to protect their business interests, but that came with lurkers on the prowl. Every now and then, those lurkers turned into enemies, ready to pounce on them. War was brewing, and if Carmen didn’t watch her back, she was going to get caught in the middle of it.

After he’d finished his story of horrors, she took another step away from him. She was always doing that, it seemed.

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