“Ladies, welcome.”
“Arturo!” Mother said, walking toward him. He came out from behind the desk and they kissed.
But that wasn’t what had my full attention.
No, it was the grinning bastard standing next to the desk.
He was as handsome as I remembered, if not more so. Everything that had happened the night before came flooding back to me in that moment as his cocky grin burned right into my face.
Lucas Barone. The man from the night before. The man I had married on a whim. The man I had been thinking about nonstop since I’d laid eyes on him.
“Lucas,” Arturo said, “this is your new stepsister, Natalie.”
“Natalie,” he said, his smile delicious and so infuriating. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
My jaw dropped.
What was I supposed to say?
There were no words. My emotions were a bomb inside me, a roiling mess of conflicting desires.
I wanted to slap him. I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to strip him down and finally feel his hard cock between my legs.
I was so fucked, so deeply screwed.
Instead of doing any of that, I turned and left, slamming the door behind me.
Chapter Six: Lucas
I watched, unable to hide my amusement, as my wife stormed out of my father’s office.
Arturo and Camille looked confused, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s funny?” Arturo asked, annoyed. “That’s your stepsister.”
“I know that, Father.”
“Well, if she’s uncomfortable, make it right.”
I nodded, grinning like mad, which only served to piss Arturo off even more.
“And don’t forget what I said to you the other day,” he added. “Settle down or else.”
Camille looked at him. “What do you mean? Lucas seems like such a sweet boy.”
If only you knew, tramp, I thought to myself as I walked past them.
“Nothing, darling,” Arturo said. “Now, let’s talk about our plans for later . . .”
I left the room, not interested in listening to some inane discussion of their celebration feast or whatever they had planned.
I jogged up ahead, turning right at the hall, and stopped as I saw Natalie leaning up against a wall, looking down at her phone.
“Hey, sis,” I said to her as I approached.
Her head snapped up. Her expression was pure hatred and anger, and it almost made my cock hard. I loved how strong-willed she was, how interesting and smart. It was dangerous, but I wanted so badly to tame her.
“You knew,” she said softly.
I held up my hands. “I promise that I didn’t.”
“You knew. You had to have known. That was why you picked me, why you wanted to marry me. It was all some elaborate prank.”
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning hugely at her, which only made her even angrier.
“This isn’t a joke,” she snapped.
“I know, I know,” I said. “Look, I promise I didn’t know who you were. Truthfully, I only found out about your mom and my dad yesterday, just before I left for Vegas.”
“So you did know.” Pure disgust. I wanted to tip her head back and bite her lip, press her up against the hardwood door and slip my fingers down against her tight cunt. I wanted to make her say my name.
“I knew about your mom but not about you.”
She bit her lip. “I don’t believe you.”
“Nat, why would I marry my stepsister? Do you have any clue how dangerous this is?”
She cocked her head, suddenly unsure. “Why would it be dangerous?”
“You don’t know what we do,” I said softly, laughing. “You haven’t heard of my family.”
Uncertainty passed across her expression, and I knew it was the truth.
The Barones weren’t exactly famous, or at least not famous in the conventional sense. But if you had any money or power in the Chicago area, or really anywhere, you had likely heard our names whispered in some dark corners. We worked hard to keep our name out of the national media, and so it didn’t surprise me that Nat had no clue who we were. But still, it was almost adorable how naïve she was.
“Mom said your dad was a businessman,” she said after a second.
“He is, in some ways.” I leaned up against the wall next to her. “But you have to be wondering about all the security.”
“I thought it was weird.”
I cocked my head at her. “Do you want to know what you’re mother dragged you into?”
“Not really,” she said, breathless, “but tell me anyway.”
“The Barones are mafia, sis. Old, powerful mafia.” I paused, grinning hugely. “Welcome to the mob.”
She stared at me for a second and then began to laugh. “Yeah, right. Come on.”