Chapter 3 I got home from the reception just past midnight. The house was dark, except for a pool of light spilling through the living room blinds.I knew Alessia was here before I even stepped inside-her perfume clung to the air, sugary and heavy. I sighed. She had her own fucking house. I wished she'd spend more time in it. "Welcome home," Alessia said, rising from the couch like she'd been waiting all night. She wore a silk robe in that shade of pink she loved so much. Tall and lithe, with a ballerina's frame, her pitch-black hair hung down her back in waves. She was beautiful. Had been trained to be a wife.It was midnight, and she was still wearing makeup that would be on her pillow in the morning-but her face would be flawless by sunrise because she always got up early to fix it.A worthless gesture.I didn't care. I'd known her my entire life, but I couldn't bring myself to care about anything she did. I just couldn't.But I'd made my mother a promise, and that was the only chain keeping me from throwing the whole damn arrangement out the window. "How was the wedding?"I dropped my keys on the entry table. "Fine."She crossed the room with a smile too sweet to be real. She always smiled like that-like she was trying to win a beauty contest no one else entered.Her hands slid over my chest, tugging gently at the lapels of my shirt as she helped me out of my jacket. Her fingers paused at the collar, her nose wrinkling."You smell like women's perfume.""I hugged the bride," I said flatly."Hm." She didn't push it. Just draped my jacket over a chair. But there was a wrinkle in her nose like she could smell the lie as well as the perfume.My hands smelled like Maya's pussy. I wondered if she could smell that too. She followed me down the hall as I unbuttoned my shirt. I didn't say a word. Didn't have the energy. I just wanted a hot shower and silence.But Alessia hated silence. She liked the sound of her own voice too much. She followed me into the bathroom and perched on the toilet like a pet, legs crossed, still talking as I stepped into the shower. The glass fogged instantly as the water came on."You know, I was thinking... maybe next time I could come with you," she said. "Meet your friends. You always leave me behind like I'm some secret.""Priest doesn't trust anyone," I replied. "He doesn't like outsiders at his events. Especially from different family factions."It was a lie.I just didn't want her there. I didn't want her anywhere near Maya. The thought alone made my stomach twist. Maya knew about Alessia-I'd told her enough times-but she brushed it off like it didn't matter.I suspected that was because as long as she never saw Alessia, never had to face the reality of my obligations, she could pretend she didn't exist. But reality is harder to ignore. What happens when Maya sees her?What happens when she looks her in the face and realizes the other woman is real?That she isn't just some excuse I made up to push her away-or worse, to tease her jealousy? Would anything change? Would she stop touching me the way she did?Would she stop looking at me like I belonged to her? The thought pissed me off more than it should have. What if someone else got to feel the way her hips rolled?Got to see her smile right before she said something that either pissed me off or turned me on? I leaned my forehead against the tile, letting the scalding water burn my back. I barely felt it. Fuck.I shouldn't have put my dick in her. In six years, Maya was the only woman besides Alessia I'd slept with. Now I had to live with the memory-and the pathetic hope that it might happen again.Even though it shouldn't. "You think he'll be less worried when we're married?" Alessia asked. Casual tone, but I knew she cared.I didn't answer.She kept talking. "The wife's kind of full of herself, isn't she? I saw her Instagram post. All that nouveau riche money went to her head." I shut my eyes. Drowned her out with water.I washed fast. By the time I stepped out, she was gone from the bathroom, but waiting in bed when I entered the room. She lay under the covers, bare-shouldered, watching me as I toweled off.Her eyes followed every move.It annoyed me. I often wondered why she loved me when I barely liked her.We shared few loving moments.We played together as kids, but only because we had to.Went to the same schools, but ran in different circles.I couldn't recall ever choosing her. Ever asking her to linger in my shadow. She was just... there. A constant.Maybe she loved me because her mother told her to.And she was nothing if not obedient. I knew why Maya liked me. She had an addictive personality-the kind that lands you in rehab before you're old enough to drink. She craved danger. Thrived on it.She was drawn to things-and people-that were bad for her. And I was just another one of her vices. A habit she couldn't kick.A part of me didn't want her to. She liked that I never asked her to be anything but what she was-wild, restless, always hungry.She didn't want safety.She wanted freedom.And someone who would answer with violence if anyone tried to take it away from her. I could be that.Would be that. If not for Alessia. I got into bed. Alessia curled against me like always-head on my chest, hand flat on my stomach. I resisted the urge to pull away.I didn't hate her.I just didn't want to spend the rest of my life with her. I thought I'd escaped when I left New York for Florida.But she followed.And I couldn't stop her. Her father was Capo of a powerful Staten Island family, and I'd given up the kind of power it would take to refuse him outright-at least not without my father's backing. And I'd never ask him for that. Alessia's mother had been my mom's best friend. They arranged our marriage when we were barely old enough to talk.Before she died, my mother made me promise I'd take care of Alessia.And for her, I was nothing if not obedient. So I showed up when her father called.I'd rather build his empire than inherit my own.My father had his own legacy-land, money, power. A family name older than most countries. He tried to give it all to me. I rejected it. This was my rebellion. I fucked her.Protected her.Would give her my last name on paper. But I didn't want to.And I didn't want her. Her fingers moved absently across my chest."You love me most, don't you?" I didn't answer.My jaw clenched. My body stayed still. "Raziel?" she whispered. I closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. I saw Maya. She was so fucking gorgeous it made my chest ache. Curvy in a way that demanded attention-hips that moved to their own rhythm.Breasts pressed tight against every dress she wore.Her skin was deep brown, smooth and warm. Her eyes, the same color, always looked like they were keeping secrets. I loved her lips.Open and wild when she was moaning.The way they'd curve into a smirk when she was mad.The way they got all pouty when she was teasing.She felt familiar-and I didn't know why. Even her tattoos got to me. I'd never liked them on women.But the one running up her forearm-the slave breaking chains, running barefoot through flames-said everything about her without her saying a word. Maya was soft.But she was a survivor. She carried fire under her skin.She wasn't built for moderation. But I had to... restrain myself. Restrain.That word felt weak. It wasn't enough.I had to cage what I felt. Strangle it.Bury the impulse so deep it couldn't breathe. Because wanting her wasn't a quiet thing.It was a compulsion.A fucking madness. And I couldn't afford to go mad. So I swallowed it down.Maybe I could if I'd stop lying to myself for five minutes.Or let go of a promise I knew damn well my mother wouldn't have wanted me to keep I could have her. I don't believe my mother would've wanted me unhappy.She wouldn't have wanted me bound to someone I didn't love-because of a childhood pact sealed by grief and guilt. But still-I had promised. And she wasn't here to tell me I didn't have to keep it. So I did.Out of duty.Out of fear. Even though every time Maya looked at me, I felt myself slipping further from the man I was raised to be-and closer to the man I really was. And that man wanted Maya.Wanted her messy, loud, wild, stubborn-ass self.Something about her felt too familiar to ever want to let go. I wondered what she was doing in that moment.If she was thinking about me.If she was giving another man the attention she gave me.Touching him like she did me.Teasing him like she did me. I knew that if I ever saw her like that with someone else,I'd put him in the ground.And I'd make sure she watched. Let her try to move on.I'd be waiting on the other side-With a shovel for whoever she replaced me with. Five-year-old Annie, who can understand animals, saved Landon Hawthorne, a wealthy businessman, from suicide. Now she's his whole world and he's her legal cheat-code against every villain fate throws ...