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“What?” Dom asked, feeling his rage begin to creep back in. “We made a deal. If Kat understands an arranged marriage, then I’m sure Maria will too.”

Amused, Lucca knocked his ashes in the tray. “Then you really should have specified that. The only thing I planned to do was give you my blessing and keep my father from killing you.”

“No.” Dominic hit his fist on Lucca’s big, wooden desk. “You knew exactly what I was fucking asking for.”

Lucca put a hand on his crystal ashtray, stopping it from rattling as he gave Dominic a deadly look. “If you think my sister would listen to single order I gave her, then you do not know Maria at all.”

“Oh, I know Maria,” Dominic made it clear.

“Then you know, if I forced her to marry you”—Lucca paused for a moment—“she would never, ever love you.”

I should do it, just fucking slit his thro—

Smiling, Lucca blew out the smoke from his mouth. “And that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“You know, at least we finally came to one agreement.” Dominic started pacing the room again. “Your whole ‘arranged,’ not ‘forced’ marriage bit was a load of bullshit.”

“There’s nothing to be ashamed about, Dominic. I’ve got well over half my men in love with her.”

Dominic pinched the bridge of his nose at another realization. “Jesus, Lucca, is that why you gave her that joke of a bodyguard? Ted?”

“Todd,” Lucca corrected.

“I don’t give a fuck what his name is.” Dom’s voice went cold. “You knew exactly how this was going to go before I walked through that door. You probably put the idea in her head that Kat needed a wedding dress right before you assigned Teddy to her.”

Lucca corrected him once more, “Todd.”

That was it. Dom turned, heading for the door, knowing if he didn’t walk out of the room, one of them was dying tonight.

“What are you more scared of?” Lucca taunted in a haunting voice. “That you won’t be able to get Maria to fall in love with you … or that you might find out she’ll never love you back?”

Dominic didn’t know how the sick bastard had figured it out, but since he had, he supposed there was no longer a point in hiding it. “I’ll get her to love me.” Going to the door, he opened it, making a promise to Lucca Caruso and the rest of the world as he declared one last thing. “Even if it’s the last fucking thing I do.”

Slamming the door, he didn’t even hear the “good luck” that he had been genuinely wished.

“A girl only gets to walk down the aisle for the first time once. So, it has to be designer.”

“Princess has a point.” Dominic grabbed the other arm that didn’t have a manicured hand around Kat’s. His sister might’ve not needed, let alone wanted, a fancy dress, but if the Carusos were going to make his sister get married then, by God, they were going to pay for it.

“Fine,” Kat gave in before looking over at Maria with concern. “Did you just say, for the first time once?”

“I’m thinking my third husband, after the first two mysteriously die, will be the right one.”

Dominic felt his balls wanting to shrivel up and hide inside his body. “That’s good to know.”

“Maria …” Kat waited for her to look at her before she continued, “I think I’m a little bit scared of you.”

Maria smiled. “I’m only kidding.”

Yeah fucking right. The poor soul, aka the Caruso schmuck who married Maria, he prayed had tough knees because no man, and he meant no man, was going to get his dick sucked. The only reason he didn’t fear his sister around the mafia princess was because it was obvious Maria liked her.

Maria might’ve looked at men like she wanted to stomp her stilettos on their necks, but she didn’t look at women that way. Her eyes softened around them. She looked at them appreciatively, especially when she liked what they wore. As for men, he could tell how she felt about them. When her beautiful emerald eyes turned beady, he didn’t have to be in her mind to know the single swirling through her brain …

Kill all men.

And, if Lucifer hadn’t been his father, and he wasn’t in this line of work, he might’ve been a little offended. However, Dominic was man enough to know that less women wanted to keep men around. It was no wonder women were trying to figure out how to make babies without needing the Y chromosome. Hell, after having Lucifer as a father, he truly wished them all the luck in the world.

They passed designer store after designer store until it was apparent they’d arrived at a bridal store, as everything inside was white.

Entering the store, they were greeted by one beautiful-looking man. “Maria, my love, I haven’t seen you in a while.”