Page 25 of Venomous Vows

“Are you?”

“As long as I get what I want.”

Zane stares at me and I see the apprehension and curiosity looming in his green eyes. “Dare I fuckin’ ask what the hell that is?”

“You already know the answer to that question.” And I’m not going to tell him again. Besides, this agreement is between her and me, not the other way around.

“There’s plenty of women who would marry and love to be your wife, Adrian. Why make her do it?”

“Why not? She needs something and so do I. It works.”

“But she has to put in five years of hard labor with you.” I roll my eyes, but it doesn’t stop Zane from protesting on behalf of his alleged best friend. “I hardly see how that’s fair.”

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” I ask in challenge and I’m not sure what I’m going to do if he tells me that he has some unspoken feelings toward her. I can’t marry her knowing that he wants her and I hate to think that the guilt would eat me alive.

Nonetheless, I have an organization to run and Zane knows that. But he’s right, in the sense that I could ask anyone else. I could have anyone else.

“Like what?” Zane presses back, lifting an ankle on top of his other knee. “Elena and I go way back.”

“Which means?” I close the top of my laptop and give him my full attention.

I don’t want to miss a thing. Any flinch, awkward movement, or averting of eyes. I need to see if my brother has a thing for my future wife.

“You know I never liked when you fucked with her,” he claims calmly. “However, I understand why you did it. Elena doesn’t see it that way. You bullied her because you didn’t know how to talk to her.”

“She never listened.”

Elena would purposely defy me just to get a rise and I grew tired of it quickly. Patience was never one of my virtues, so there shouldn’t be any surprise there. She’s just lucky that Zane does have patience and that he was there.

However, if he wasn’t, it probably would’ve favored me better because she’d stop coming around the house.

“You two are going to kill each other,” my brother says more confidently than anything else I’ve ever heard him say. “Except you’re the one whoactuallydoes it.”

I’d roll my eyes, but I hold back the theatrics. “I’m not going to kill my wife.”

“She might push you. You’ve never had a wife.”

“It can’t be that hard.”

Zane eyes me like I’m a fucking idiot. “Then why don’t I get one?”

“Because you don’t have to.”

“No, because I don’twantto,” he replies with emphasis. “There is nothing alluring about having the same woman over and over again. Especially since she’d probably slit your throat at night.”

“Elena has her own room.”

My brother sighs. “How romantic. I have no qualms about you keeping that woman around for the full five years you two morons plan on staying married.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I wave a dismissive hand in his direction. “I’m done talking about this.”

“You know you have to sleep with her to have children, right?’

“No shit.”

“I don’t want you to lose your mind on me. I need you present and operating. You know I don’t want to take over the Bernardi Band.”

This motherfucker.

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