35

Cara

The coffee is warm and strong. It tastes good as I step out into the alley behind the diner. There isn't exactly fresh air since the dumpsters make the whole place smell faintly like garbage, but at least back here I can sit down on the concrete and get my head together.

I knew this was happening. Marrying Eros was always part of the plan.

Now it's real.

He protects me from Christopher. I provide him with some legitimacy in his family. It's mutually beneficial—and won't last forever. Someday, maybe someday soon, we'll go our separate ways.

But I keep thinking about him, about his hands on my hips and his mouth against mine, his low laughter, the way he spreads my legs. I think of being with him, being with him for real—not for some short time, not for weeks or months, but years, an entire lifetime. Could I be the crime lord's wife? Could I give him children and live in this world?

I don't know. It scares me, but it also fascinates me.

The power and the drama, the terror and the e