My body was stiff. My attempt at moving was blocked by something—no—someone. His arms were wrapped tightly around me when I woke up. I looked down at his forearm at my torso, then his leg on top of mine locking me in place. No cuddling, my ass. He was the one clinging to me like an octopus—not that I was complaining. The more I stayed in that position, the more aware I became of him, his pulse against my back, his gentle, slow breaths at the back of my head, his morning wood pressed firmly against my butt. A blush crept up my cheeks. Luckily, he was asleep. I used the chance to gently peel his arm off me. It weighed like lead. After several failed attempts, I gave up and decided to catch a little more sleep—as much as I could get with his cock prodding at my ass, that is. I closed my eyes and ended up stirring, unable to fall asleep. My mind was flooded with all kinds of thoughts, none that had anything to do with what I wanted to think about. Instead of thinking about my strategy
CurtisI would explode if I stayed within the same space as Angelica for a second longer. Whether in anger or desire, I wouldn’t know until it happened—not that I wasn’t halfway there already. For a woman whose existence I wasn’t supposed to notice for the next six months, she was more infuriating than Siren. It wasn’t lost to me that she had gawked at me the whole time and my reaction to her was even crazier. I had almost shut her up with my lips. The fact that I even considered that was proof that I should keep my distance. So it wasn’t such a bad thing that I had a meeting scheduled with Lance today. He was yet to arrive at The Pearl when I did. I hated to wait for anyone more than I hated whiny women. If he wasn’t the CEO of Arciero Industries, I would have walked out. I glowered at him when he finally wobbled in ten minutes later, out of breath. “I’m sorry. My wife kicked a fuss about me having a business meeting. I almost couldn’t make it out of the house in one piece, I ha
The ViperI stared at the pictures in my hands for several seconds before tossing them off, sending them flying across the floor. “Does Curtis Arciero have a golden dick or something?” I growled. I wasn’t asking anyone in particular but I got an answer from Enzo anyway. “Would you like me to find out?” I glared at him. He was my right hand man but sometimes he forgot his place and assumed he was my equal. This was the problem with having the same minions for years. He picked up the pictures and inspected them even though he was the one who had brought them. “Do you think she likes him?” I sneered. I knew that look. I had seen it on several women’s faces. Women were only useful before some knight in shining armor swept them off their feet with false promises of rainbows and unicorns. Then they became a liability. It was why I had chosen a vengeful eighteen-year-old with enough hate to override every other emotion and made sure she remained that way for the four years I kept her
AngelicaMy skin felt hot and it had nothing to do with how long I’d danced. I looked up at Curtis who was as stunned as I was. “Would you believe me if I said that was an accident?” I averted my gaze from him. “Not a chance in hell.” He swiped a wisp of hair off my face and replaced it with his lips, shocking both of us.He pushed himself off the bed and straightened his suit jacket, but not before raking his eyes all over me like he wanted to devour me. “Get dressed. We are going out for lunch.” He ordered. What made him think he could tell me what to do? More importantly, “what’s wrong with what I’m wearing? It’s a beach city. Everyone is wearing shorts and crop tops.”He looked down at me. “The last thing I want is the whole city getting a front-row view of my wife’s tits spilling out of her top.” My retort was cut off when I looked down at myself and caught sight of my left boob nearly all the way out of my top. Oops. I shoved it back down, ignoring his shocked glare. In m
Fourteen years ago, Spider was only four. He was too young to remember much of what happened that day, and only knew most of it from what he was told growing up.But his tone still haunted me.‘I don’t want to lose you too, Angel.’ I shook my head. He was using my guilt against me. I shouldn’t fall for it.That was what I was thinking about when I returned to our suite. Curtis was scrolling through the movie catalog and looked up at me when I walked in. I had slid The Viper’s gift into my pocket but it was only a matter of time until Curtis saw it. We were sharing a room, after all.So instead of trying to hide it, I sat beside him and placed the switchblade on the coffee table. He glanced at it then at me. “Spider’s wedding gift?” “Not really. He gifted me what must have been the store’s entire stock of cheerios. He thinks everyone loves them.” I tried to smile and failed. What was there to smile about? I had to kill my husband tonight. It shouldn’t matter nearly as much as it d
Fourteen years ago.“Angel!” My sister whimpered when I swiped the tiara off her head. She burst into the master bedroom where Papa had just finished dressing up. “Papa, Angel took my tiara!” I heard her cry just as I followed her in. Papa picked her up with a grin. “Why would you do that, Angel?” Because Lyra cried to Papa about everything. That, and because I didn't like being copied. Mama and Papa had let us chose whatever we wanted to wear for their vow-renewal ceremony today and the tiara was my idea…until Lyra decided she wanted one too. I loved my sister but I didn’t like her doing everything I did in the name of looking up to me.He put Lyra down and picked me up. “Don’t bully your sister, Angel.” He punctuated his words with a kiss to my forehead. “You are getting taller and heavier by the day. One day, I won’t be able to carry you up anymore.” “That’s not true. You are the strongest man in the world. You can even carry Mama up the stairs.” I countered and wrapped my arms
Curtis Seeing Angelica cry did something to me. I had never talked about Hyacinth—Lyra—whatever her real name was. No one knew the real reason why I kept the necklace except Giancarlo, but that was only because he was there when it happened. I disliked talking about the past. It brought up memories I was better off not thinking about. I didn’t only tell Angelica about it because I wanted her to understand why mother thought her name was Hyacinth. I felt compelled to, not that I would ever admit it. After that conversation, we watched a movie—well, I watched her watch a movie—then I ordered room service. She only ate a few bites before she pushed the food aside and said she needed some rest. So I let her sleep, only for her to look up at me with those big, gorgeous eyes and ask me to lay with her. So here I was, holding a woman in my arms while she drifted to sleep. It had only ever happened once—when she was so restless from her nightmare and the only way to stop her from moving a
This honeymoon wasn’t going to be so bad after all. Something had changed between us. Angelica wasn’t so opposed to being close to me. It was almost amusing how little it took to make her change her mind about someone. She had decided to stay as far from me as she possibly could long before our wedding. If I knew bringing the surgery forward would change her impression of me so much, I would have done it ages ago. Or not. Her closeness was a double-edged sword. My dick wouldn’t go down for a damn second and my right wrist was starting to hurt. The culprit didn’t know what she was doing to me. Breaching the invisible boundary between us had made her forget she was getting dangerously close to a man. Like right now, she was clinging to me for dear life as she screamed about some fictional monster in the horror movie we were watching. “Is he coming?” She asked, her face pressed against my chest so hard I didn’t think she could breathe. She was sitting so close to me she might as well