Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
What is with you, following this guy around like a little lost puppy?
I didn’t know. I didn’t know.
What was happening to me?
I reminded myself that I didn’t love Ettore. I told myself that I didn’t even know the man. He and I were not soulmates. We were simply a consequence of poor fortune.
Don’t forget well suited.
Ettore pointed out the rooms around us, but I didn’t hear a word of it. I was too engrossed with his mouth. So sullen. So petulant. I wanted to kiss his pout away. My lips would touch his and he would lose sight of everything else. Like magic, his woes would fade away and he would fall in love with me. Given half the chance, I knew I would be a good wife.
I only had to prove myself.
Up the stairs we walked. My ears stopped buzzing when he pointed out certain rooms. “This one is where the boys stay. And Ella is down the end of the hall.” My breathing turned choppy when he stilled in front the room at the end of the hall, slowly turned around to face me and said gruffly, “You know which room this is, don’t you?”
I did. The last on his list. It was the master bedroom.
The apples of my cheeks turned pink and I averted my eyes as I nodded lightly.
“Good,” he responded, stepping into me. Crowding me. “Earlier, I asked you if you were sore. This was mere curiosity. You know that nothing would stop me from having you again, don’t you?” My stomach turned wildly. It went out of control when he gripped my chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted until his mouth was a whisper away from my own and said, “You are never too sore for me, are you?” My nerves were out of control. When I didn’t respond, he moved my chin from left to right, and then I was shaking my head. “When I want you, I will have you. Isn’t that right, wife?” He then moved my chin up and down, slowly. He played with me a moment. I wanted the kiss so badly. I stretched for it, but he hovered just out of reach. A slow smirk lifted in the corners of his mouth, pleased by my unconcealed desire. “Perfect.”
Still facing me, he reached behind and opened the door, stepping back through it, revealing the flawless bedroom. At my uncle’s house, I slept in a modest and lonely queen bed. In front of me now was a Californian king with an aged black wooden sleigh frame that held a comforter without a single crease and plush pillows that begged to be slept on. The open door of the walk-in closet showed it was bigger than the bathroom I used at home. Decorated charismatically. It was everything I wished for, and – God willing – I got to share it with Ettore Scala.
I was so lost in its charm that I didn’t hear Ettore approach from behind until the fronts of his legs were flush against the backs of my own, my ass nestled in against his strong thighs. I struggled to breathe knowing what was coming. I could hear his satisfied smile when he lowered his lips to the shell of my ear and taunted on a whisper, “I can hear your heart beat.”
My legs buckled when, with a rough shove, I fell to my knees. My hands splayed on the floor, my hair fallen over my face, he slowly walked around me and began, “We are going to play a little game. For me, this will be fun. For you? Well, that all depends on how good you are. I am going to make a statement,” he crouched down in front of me, his hand seized my throat tightly enough to cause discomfort, and he forced my head up as he growled, “And you are going to tell me exactly what I want to hear.”
He used his free hand to push away the hair draped over my face, looking me dead in the eye as he began his game. Without an ounce of emotion, he uttered a severe, “You are mine.”
Debased, I held his cold eyes and grudgingly muttered quietly, “I am yours.”
Ettore’s eyes hooded in contentment. “You belong to me.”
Even quieter. My lips trembled. “I belong to you.”
He did not like the falter in my volume. I know this because he moved swiftly and as one hand curled around my throat, the other came around to hold me at my nape and he shook me slightly, demanding, “Tell me I own you.”
My eyes closed as he jostled me. My breathing hitched as I whined pitifully, “You own me.”
“’Til death and beyond.” His wild eyes flashed at my hesitation. His lip curled as he thundered, “Say it.”
Breathing heavily through my nose, I took a defiant moment before caving. My jaw ached as I said the shaking words. “’Til death and beyond.”