Arranged Mafia Marriage

Elsa

I peek inside the doorway, and the tension in the room hits me like a kick to the face in 47 Ronin. Jesus, it feels like a war-room in here. There are four men, but my gaze hones in on him.

He tilts his head, no change in expression on his face. He’s wearing another of those black suits he seems to favor. Expensively cut, they cling to the breadth of his shoulders. His silk tie-also black- is a contrast to his snowy white shirt. His hair is swept back from his face, and the length is a tad too long to be considered stylish. A lock of hair falls over his forehead. He slides his hand inside his pocket and surveys my features. Damn, he’s going to force me to make the first move, apparently. Not that I blame him, after what I said to him the last time we spoke.

I mean, what was I going to say? Sorry I was nasty to you the last time we spoke. Sorry I didn’t respond to your offer. Sorry I’m not sure if I could have you for my Dom. Sorry… if you were my Dom, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from getting too deeply involved with you. The thought of him commanding me, ordering me, dominating me, telling me what to do, what to wear, what to eat, and taking care of my needs in bed, sends a shiver of anticipation down my back.

No, no, no. I can’t do this. One taste of his power and I’d be addicted. I’d grow dependent on him. I wouldn’t be able to live without him, and then what would I do when he decided he’d had enough of me? How would I be able to function? How would I be able to take care of my child if I couldn’t even take care of myself?

On the other hand, if anyone can stand up to my ex, it’s him. Seeing them together had shown me how much more overpowering Seb is. Oh, Fabio isn’t a weakling, by any means. But face-to-face, Seb easily wins in the personality department. Fabio’s more classically good-looking. He seems like the respectable kind of man you’d take home to meet your mother. But looks can be deceiving. Seb, on the other hand, looks darker, meaner, and even wearing one of his suits, there’s something so untamed about him.

Next to him, Luca widens his stance.

Adrian pushes away from the bar and walks toward me. “Elsa, how are you?” He takes my hand and kisses it.

There’s a low growl from behind him. I glance around him to find Seb glowering at the two of us. Is he jealous? Surely not.

Adrian chuckles. “We were just leaving.” He turns to glance at his brothers over his shoulders. “Weren’t we, stronzos?”

“Yes, we were,” Massimo agrees. He prowls over to us. He’s the tallest and the broadest of the brothers. “I’d kiss your hand like Adrian here, but I fear my brother would have a cardiac episode if I did.” His lips twitch. He follows Adrian through the door.

Luca is the last to follow. He and Seb exchange a look before Luca stalks over to me. He jerks his chin in my direction before he walks around me and leaves.

I shuffle my weight from foot to foot. Should I go in? Should I leave, maybe? Why did I come here, anyway? “Umm, maybe this was a mistake.”

I spin around, and am about to step out of the room when Seb calls out, “Stop.”

I hesitate.

“Shut the door, then turn around and face me.”

The command in his voice is unmistakable; a shiver runs down my spine. My nipples tighten. Jesus, what is this crazy reaction to him? I’ve known for a long time I’m submissive. I’ve hung around clubs, wanting to find the right kind of Dom, but I’ve never found anyone I felt comfortable approaching. It’s always been experience-by-proxy, where I’d see Dom’s get subs off and imagine myself in that role. Even then, the sensations had been intense. But I have to admit, nothing I’ve visualized has come close to being here, knowing he’s a few feet away, ordering me to return to him.

“Princess.” He lowers his voice to a hush and a shudder grips me. “Do it, now.”

His voice fills the corners in my mind. I reach out, pull the door closed, then turn to face him.

“Good girl,” he murmurs, and heat sears my cheeks.

“Now take off your coat and place it along with your handbag on the table near the settee.”

I do as he says, noticing a velvet box on the table, then straighten.

“Come ‘ere.” He quirks his finger, and I put one foot in front of the other until I’m standing in front of him.

“On your knees,” he orders.

“What?” I swallow. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t this why you came here?”

“No, of course not.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he says in a hard voice. “Since I told you I’d be your Dom, you haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. You haven’t been able to reign in your imagination. You’ve thought of how it would feel to be dominated by me, to be controlled by me, to obey me, to be…” he leans in close enough for his body heat to envelop me, “owned by me.”

“No.” My voice trembles and I clear my throat. “That’s not true.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

He laughs. Asshole actually laughs. He grips my shoulder and presses down. “Do as I tell you, Princess.”

“And if I don’t?”

He holds my gaze. Silver sparks flare to life in the depths of his gaze. A plume of heat spools off of his body and slams into my chest. I gasp and a bead of sweat slides down the valley between my breasts. His gaze darts there and stops. His nostrils flare. He raises his gaze back to my face. “Either do as I say or-”

“Or?”

“Turn around and leave.” He pulls his hand back, and I instantly miss the weight on my shoulder. “It’s your choice.”

Bloody hell. I shift my weight from foot to foot. Should I leave? Should I stay? I don’t want to have to make a decision.

“If you leave, I’ll still fight Fabio to ensure you get custody of your daughter.”

“You… you would do that?”

“And you wouldn’t have to marry me, either.”

“I… I wouldn’t?” I gape at him. “Are you sure? This doesn’t sound like you.”

“You mean, because I’m giving you a choice?” One side of his lips kicks up. “You forget that if you come into this relationship willingly, I’ll have much more control over you.”

“So, all of this is just manipulation?”

He merely tilts his head. “You can give it any name you want. You and I, we want the same thing.”

“Which is?”

“Your happiness.”

I scoff. “So everything you’ve been doing so far is to make me happy?”

“Sometimes we don’t know what we want.”

“You’re saying you know better than I do about what I want?” I resist the urge to wrap my arms about myself. I’d only be revealing just how confused I am by this entire conversation. “First, you almost blackmail me until I agree to marry you, and now… You’re telling me I can leave and you’ll still help me?”

He holds my gaze, unblinking. He slides a hand inside his pocket, and the rustle of the fabric is loud in the empty space.

“Maybe I should have a drink.” I gaze past him at the bar.

“You may, once you make a decision.”

I draw in a breath. “I don’t know what I want. I thought… I wanted to be free of you, to get on with my life, but…”

“But?”

“But now, when you give me the choice to leave, I find I can’t.”

Something hot flickers in his eyes, then recedes.

“You must think I’m pathetic.” I shake my hair back from my face. “I can’t even make up my mind what I want from you.”

He stares at me steadily.

I’ve never been able to stand silence, so my mouth starts moving, and before I know it, I’m spilling secrets. “I was ten when I stripped my Barbie doll, tied her up, put a patch on her mouth, and had her lay down waiting for Ken to do god-knows-what to her. I didn’t even realize it had anything to do with sex, you know? It was just this yearning, from somewhere deep inside of me. And before you ask, no, I wasn’t abused as a child. It’s just… I always sensed this need inside of me, but it took a long time for me to give it a name.” I fold my fingers in front of me. “Of course, once I learned to google about my cravings, I realized they had a name. Even then, I couldn’t allow myself to completely accept what I truly craved. I began to haunt BDSM clubs. I lurked around and spied on Dom-sub pairs. I used to be so envious of the subs, of how the Dom was so focused on them, of how they were high from the ministrations of their master.”

“Princess,” he interjects, “I-”

“No, let me finish.” I glance to the side, then back at him. “I did have boyfriends, and while the sex wasn’t bad, it didn’t blow my mind, either. I knew what I was looking for, but I never could acknowledge to myself just how much I needed it. Then I met Fabio and-”

“Don’t talk about other men in front of me,” he says through gritted teeth.

A flush of satisfaction coils in my chest. “Jealous?”

“Jealous?” He laughs and the sound is dark. “I am going to hunt down each and every one of the men who ever touched you, and kill them. And as for your ex…” He squeezes his fingers into fists. “If I had my way, I’d slice him from ear-to-ear and grind him into the dirt. Then, I’d throw you down in his blood and fuck you.”

Heat blooms low in my belly; my pussy clenches and my toes curl. “How very bloodthirsty of you.”

“You have no idea.” He bares his teeth. “Are you done talking?”

I nod.

“If you have anything else to say, now would be the time.”

“I…” I swallow, “I agree.”

His gaze intensifies. “What, exactly, are you agreeing to?”

“For you to be my Dom.”