Blood & Marriage (Dark Mafia Romance)
Read Blood & Marriage (Dark Mafia Romance) Online
Authors: Merikan,Miss
Blood & Marriage
Miss Merikan
--- He was not Prince Charming. He was the dragon to consume me.---
As the daughter of a mafia boss, I knew that
keeping my head down meant staying alive.
So when my father arranged my marriage to a
Sicilian mafioso, I smiled and nodded, hoping for a kind man.
But then my future husband’s cousin, Santo
Villani, appears to pick me up for the wedding, and my life turns upside down,
shattered by a kiss that shouldn’t have happened.
Arrogant, cocky, and yet irresistibly charming,
he’s exactly the kind of man I shouldn’t be reaching out for. A dangerous
mafioso who isn’t afraid to taste forbidden fruit.
I am torn between duty and passion, but my
wedding is set in stone, so no matter which one of them wins, I will fall on
their battlefield.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS:
Themes:
mafia, organized crime, marriage, forbidden love,
danger
Genre:
Dark, twisted romance / crime thriller
Erotic content:
Explicit scenes
Length:
~61,000 words (STANDALONE novel,
spin-off from
the
Guns n' Boys
series by K.A. Merikan)
WARNING: Adult
content. Contains violence, distressing scenes, abuse, offensive language, and
morally ambiguous protagonists.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of
characters to actual persons, living, dead, or undead, events, places or names
is purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or
transferred in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the
publisher. Uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any
other means without a permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by
law.
Text copyright © 2016 Miss Merikan
All Rights Reserved
Editing by Sue Laybourn
Cover design by
Natasha Snow
Table of contents
"Blood & Marriage"
is a standalone novel, but it is a spin-off from our "Guns n' Boys"
series written under the K.A. Merikan pen name. These two are intertwined and
"Blood & Marriage" takes place during the first three books of
"Guns n' Boys", so there is no way to avoid spoilers for one or the
other, though if you're considering reading "Guns n' Boys",
"Blood & Marriage" should be read after book 3 of that series.
On the other hand, maybe reading
"Blood & Marriage" first will whet your appetite for more of the
series despite knowing a few twists and turns.
Whichever way you choose to read,
we hope you enjoy the book!
I’ve always had a clear picture of what my wedding would be
like. I’d have the most fabulous dress, straight from the catwalk and designed
especially for me by my by-then-friend Karl Lagerfeld. My groom would be a
handsome man whom I’d met by chance in the most romantic of circumstances. He’d
be handsome, intelligent, and kind, a prince without a crown, and my parents
would approve. I imagined my father walking me down the aisle to this one man
who I knew would make me happy.
I certainly didn’t expect things to go so differently for me
in real life.
“Stop biting your nails.” Mona slapped my hand.
I took a deep breath and stroked the creases of my dress. I
had considered wearing something a bit more daring, perhaps my recent favorite—a
blue lipstick, but the last thing I wanted to do was make a bad impression on
my future husband. After all, I was to meet him today for the first time.
So I dressed more conventionally, in a white Chanel dress
with a heart-shaped neckline and a flowery print the color of traditional blue
porcelain. The shades went well with my blonde hair, which I carefully curled
so not a strand was out of place. Pale-blue shoes to go with the outfit, the
heel not too high, not too small. Everything needed to be just right so that I
could make my father proud.
I put homemade lemonade on the garden table on the terrace.
I made sure the gardeners were not working nearby, to not make things even more
awkward when my future husband arrived at our Calabrian home. The weather was
lovely, with the sun still warm, but not hot enough for me to sweat. It would
have been perfect if I didn’t feel so lost.
“I can’t believe Dad wouldn’t let you see a photo of him.
That’s so stupid.” Mona rolled her eyes and popped a bubble gum balloon. She
wasn’t helping as much as a sister should in this kind of situation.
“You know Dad’s ‘no’ is a ‘no’, so what’s the point in
dwelling on it?” I said, even though I had to fight the itch to start nibbling
on my nails again. Truth was, I also thought Father’s attitude was not only
‘stupid’, but also inconsiderate. If he were to marry a woman he’d never met
before, he surely would have not only requested a picture, but even shared it
with his friends, if she was attractive.
Wasn’t the fact that I was going along with an arranged
marriage enough? Couldn’t I see his photo and prepare myself? At least, I knew
that he wasn’t old, so there was that. I’d barely had my eighteenth birthday in
June, so marrying a man my father’s age or older would have been a nightmare.
Maybe that was it though? Maybe my future husband was ugly, with scars on his
face or some kind of deformity? Those things happened to men who lived
dangerous lives outside of the law.
But Father needed to make an alliance with Sicily’s Villani
family, and marriages had not become less effective as a guarantee of
cooperation with the end of the nineteenth century.
I wanted to be a good daughter. Surely, he would not push me
into the arms of someone unkind. It was easy for Mona to be so dismissive of
all this. The future of Father’s organization did not rest on her shoulders. As
his younger daughter, she could for the most part do as she pleased, and no one
took an issue as long as she stayed within the bounds of propriety.
“Point is,” Mona wouldn’t let it go, “that you should know
what you’re getting into. If it was me, I’d be out of here in a second. No
one’s pushing
me
into marriage with some stranger.”
Easy for her to say. She was only sixteen, so despite her
womanly figure and breasts bigger than mine already, father wouldn’t be pushing
her into marriage any time soon. “I…I don’t know. Maybe it’s for the better?”
And a part of me actually believed that. It would have been easy to call our
father a heartless brute, but the truth was much more complicated than that. He
did have a tender spot for both me and Mona, as he did for my brother. So if he
thought this man who was to become my husband, Seth Villani, was an appropriate
match, I would trust him.
“Is it though?” asked Mona, and the smoky makeup around her
eyes somehow made her seem more authoritative than usual. “You couldn’t even
choose your own wedding dress.”
It was like a shard of glass stabbing straight into my
heart. Father insisted I’d wear the dress my late mother had worn for her
wedding, and while I agreed that its shape, slightly flared from the hips down
and fitted at the top, would complement my figure, I hated everything else
about it.
Well, it was a pretty dress, and it had looked lovely on my
mother, but wearing it felt like dressing up as someone else. It was too
proper, too much like a gown for a Disney princess, too...well, ivory. If I
agreed to marry the man my father wanted, couldn’t I at least feel like myself
at my own wedding? I had my sights set on a particular design. Modern, fresh,
and nothing like the one Father wanted me to wear.
“About that…”
Mona cocked an eyebrow at my, no doubt suspicious, smile.
“I was thinking if you could do me a favor.”
Mona bit back a smile. “Sorry, you can’t hire me to
assassinate your husband.”
I slapped her arm. “That’s not it. There’s a different dress
I want to wear. I’ve tried it on, I even got it fitted, and paid the advance
from my savings, and by the day of the wedding, I will have it paid in full.
Father doesn’t know, but he can’t stop me if I wear it on the day. I just…need
you to pick it up for me and bring it to Sicily with you.” My heart started
pounding at the memory of how I’d looked in my chosen dress. It was the one
thing I didn’t want to compromise on.
Mona’s eyebrows wiggled in appreciation, and she pulled me
closer, whispering into my ear as if we were two spies sharing state secrets.
“Well, well, well, so Daddy’s girl has her own mind after all.”
“Very funny,” I said but was happy to see she was on board.
Just knowing that I would be allowed this little bit of rebellion made me
relax. I could do this. As long as the man I was to marry was kind, everything
would be all right. I’ve seen what marriages of passion led to, and I was
content with not taking part in any of that.
“Just give me the details later, and I’ll pick it up for
you,” Mona said with a smile. My stomach twisted in knots as soon as I heard
steps over gravel far away.
“Do you think it’s him?” I whispered in panic and clutched
at Mona’s wrist, but she was already getting up.
“Could be father,” Mona said, but she stepped back toward
the open terrace doors. “Good luck,” she mouthed before disappearing.
Each footstep resonated in my skull, which for once was completely
devoid of anything but a bundle of frantic thoughts. No amount of shadow from
the trees and palms could cool me down.
I nervously played with the tiny charms on my favorite
silver bracelet, battling the steady sound of shoes rubbing against gravel. My
hand drifted to the table, picking up a half-filled glass of lemonade just in
time for him to see how casual and unconcerned I was with the whole situation.
I couldn’t have him think of me as some nervous filly, ready to jump back to
the stable at the mere sight of him.
But, when he emerged from behind the house, so tall and
walking so straight toward me, something inside me went soft, and the glass
slipped through my fingers, breaking at my feet into a thousand pieces.
Oh, God, there was a spray of lemonade on my pale blue
shoes.
I’d probably smell of lemons and sugar now.
He’d know right away how handsome I found him.
And he saw it. He definitely saw me dropping the glass,
because his dark eyebrows rose slightly.
This was exactly why I’d requested to see a photo of him. So
I could prepare myself. But could I ever be prepared that the man I was to marry
was so young and breathtaking?
Dressed in black, he walked toward me slowly, as if I really
was a doe, too skittish to handle a stranger’s approach. The closer he was, the
faster my heart pounded and I took in every detail of his physique.
His longish hair was slicked back, accentuating the sharp
cheekbones and strong jawline. An elegant beast in a suit jacket and a
turtleneck, his eyes were focused on me only, and all at once, I couldn’t
breathe anymore. The dress too tight, the shoes uncomfortable, the thin blazer
unnecessary with the way my whole body was aflame.
He stood a step away from me, that inch into my personal
space so I could smell his cologne. His complexion was olive-tinted. His dark
eyelids made his bright green eyes seem cold in comparison to the warm hue of
his skin.
“S-seth Villani I presume?” I forced a smile, patting myself
on the back for only stumbling on his first name. I clasped my hands together,
urging them not to tremble.
He glanced down all the way to my shoes and back in a way
that made me want to take a cold shower.
Seth nodded with a hint of a smile. “Lucrezia Bruni.” His
warm baritone thundered through my body. This was the voice I would be hearing
every day for the rest of my life.
I stared at him, maybe a bit too long, and finally reached
out my hand to shake his. “It is...nice to meet you. Would you like some
lemonade?” I asked, already so hot on my face I knew I looked silly. How did
movie heroines manage this whole flirting thing? How did they keep calm when
faced with a man so handsome? It had to be my lack of experience. I’d only had
one boyfriend, and that had been too innocent to compare with meeting my future
husband.
“No. I’ve waited too long for this meeting to spend time
drinking lemonade.”
His eyes were fixed on me in a way that had my palms
sweating. I uttered a laugh so silly any normal man would have found an excuse
to disappear, but not him.
Would he propose now? Did he have a ring in his pocket? What
kind of ring would it be? A family heirloom—perhaps his grandmother’s—a simple,
fashionable design, or maybe something flashy and expensive, yet ugly? I would
not be Instagramming an ugly one.
He took my hand, gently tracing the inside of my palm with
his thumb, and somehow that simple touch rushed throughout my whole body,
awakening a tingling sensation that certainly shouldn’t be there in the
presence of a man I didn’t even know. Then again, maybe I should be happy for
it, if we were to be married soon? Everyone always said that ‘the spark’ was
important.
“Then what...what would you like to do?” I asked, unable to
pull anything wittier out of the chaos that was my brain. The sunlight playing
in his eyes kept distracting me.
He leaned down to me, locking our gazes, and I couldn’t help
but think that I was the luckiest girl in the world. I would become his wife,
and by the way he touched me, I knew that he felt the same spark I had.
When his lips met mine, it was enough of an answer for me.
No matter how forward it was for him to kiss me this way, or how intimidating
his height was compared to my petite frame, I didn’t back away, because there
was nothing wrong with kissing your fiancé-to-be.
When he forced my mouth open, it was like being thrown into
a bed of the softest down. For a moment it felt as if I was falling down, but
his hand rested on the small of my back and kept me safe. I put my arms around
his neck, shuddering when my nipples brushed against him, and I could sense the
friction even through our clothes, completely immersed in the havoc the kiss
was wreaking in my body.
“I-- uh,” I choked out when our lips parted for a moment,
but he didn’t step back.
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips, making him look
like the most handsome of demons. “May I have another one?” he whispered, but
his lips were already seeking mine without giving me time to answer. My body
told him all about the invitation he was being given.
I gasped and shuddered when the tip of his tongue trailed
along my top lip. His hand moved just as languidly up the front of my dress,
leaving a trail of fire all the way to my breast as he squeezed it gently.
The sensation became so intense I squeezed my thighs,
arching against him, but he grabbed my jaw and pulled me away slightly.
With one hand still on my breast, he let out a quiet grunt.
“Now open your mouth. I want to see all your teeth so I know what I’m getting.”
For a moment I wasn’t sure what he said, but when truth sank
in, my arousal was washed off by what felt like a bucket of ice cubes and cold
water. I pushed him away, with a tightness growing in my throat.
I was to be his wife. How could he humiliate me this way?
He took a step back, but a cruel smile was still on his lips.
The way his gaze licked me felt as if he were pulling up my skirt.
“Oh? Excuse me. I thought you were on sale,” he said, and I
couldn’t even scream out in fury, because I could hear steps heading our way.
Oh, no
. I could not be with a man like that,
absolutely not. Flushing so deeply he’d surely see how ashamed I was, I took a
step back, only to hear a piece of glass creak under my heel. My eyes burned,
and it was only the sight of my father that kept me from running into the
house, away from this horrible man.
“There you are, girl. I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Father’s lips widened with a smile. For a second I was afraid he would hug me,
and I could not bear anyone touching me right now, but he just stood between
us, his muscular body feeling like a wall of safety despite me knowing what his
thick hands were capable of. “Seth couldn’t make it. He’s away on business in
Berlin. But his cousin Santo will escort you, and you will meet Seth in Sicily.
But he’s probably already told you that.” Father patted…
Santo’s
back,
leaving me so utterly terrified I couldn’t help my eyes going wide.
Santo nodded, then his cool green eyes met mine, and I could
read absolutely no remorse in them. I couldn’t believe what I just found out.
Despite the relief that this...ugly human being was not my husband-to-be after
all, I couldn’t help the dreadful feeling of having been used. What kind of man
would do that to his cousin’s
fiancée
?