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Who will undoubtedly be forced to marry someone from another family, just as I have been. We’ll use her to keep the Salucci house strong, I realize, because that’s the way these things have always been done. If anything, perhaps my father was a bit of an idiot. He didn’t marry me off sooner. He didn’t cement his house with another. If he had, maybe that family would have protected my dad from Ian.

Maybe my father would have been kept safe from a villain who wanted revenge.

I say nothing for a long time. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be sad about my dad dying. A normal person would be devastated. A month ago, I certainly would have been.

That was before Ian entered my life like a hurricane, though. He came in, tearing down walls and destroying all of the things around me, including my preconceived ideas of what a husband and wife should be like. If was being honest, Ian and I were the least likely pairing I had ever considered when it came to a potential future.

Here we were, though.

I was officially an orphan.

A married orphan.

It didn’t feel good or bad. I wasn’t particularly scared, but I probably should have been. It was that lack of fear, perhaps, that made me offer up a request to Ian.

“We’re going to be married a long time,” I said slowly as the limo cruised down the road to the mansion.

“Forever,” he corrected me with a dark chuckle.

“And my father is dead, which means I don’t need to worry about him hurting me.”

“He still has enemies.”

“I’m sure they’re more scared of you than they were of my father,” I point out the obvious. “If you were man enough to take out the Amato family in one fell swoop, I don’t think anyone is going to fuck with you.”

It’s the most Ian and I have “talked shop” in some time. He still occasionally asks me questions about my father, but so often, I’m unable to give him real answers. Ian is so demanding, so intense, that I know I let him down a lot when it comes to revealing information. It’s not that I’m hiding things from him.

It’s just that...

Well, I don’t always know.

“Perhaps,” he says. “Why don’t you get to your point, Rose?”

So, I’m not being as sneaky as I thought I was being. One of the reasons Ian is so good at what he does is that he tends to see right through people. This is no exception.

“If I don’t have to worry about my dad or his henchmen anymore,” I take a deep breath. “Then I want a job.”

Ian stares at me. A single eyebrow quirks up as he looks at me, considering this asinine request. Apparently, he’s not impressed with this request. He also doesn’t seem angry, so I plunge forward, speaking at record speed.

“I was working with animals before, you know, well,everything, and I really love animals, Ian. I’m good with them. I’m good at dance, too, but that’s not something I want to do for a job. I want a job working with animals. I can go to the shelter I was at before, but it was closer to my dad’s house and well, you live a little far. Maybe I could get a job at-“

Ian holds up a hand, cutting me off.

“Catch your breath,” he says. I’m not sure if I’m detecting a hint of amusement in his voice or not. I stop talking and suck in a breath. Then I remember to let it out. I realize that he’s correct. I do seem to be hyperventilating at this point, but it’s really not my fault. I just feel very passionately about animals and I think that I should be given the chance to work with them.

I’ll be so, so good at it.

“So, you’re saying that you don’t want to sit around the house waiting for me to come fuck you?” Ian’s voice goes deep, and all of a sudden, I feel like I’m going to melt into a pile of goo right here on the seat.

“I...I want that, too,” I admit. The idea of being his little sex toy turns me on more than it possibly should. I’m not going to go so far as to say that Ian hasawakenedsomething within me, but he’s definitely made me appreciate different kinds of sex and different kinds of pleasure.

He’s rougher than anyone I’ve been with. He’s meaner. He likes to dominate me and humiliate me. He loves making me hurt. This is a problem because Ienjoyit. I love the way he hurts me. I love the way he taunts me and teases me and makes me feel like my heart is going to explode.

Perhaps it’s because I didn’t have an orgasm last night or maybe it’s just the excitement of the wedding, but I feel myself growing wet and horny right here in the limo.

The fear of Ian murdering me has subsided. Even though he’s now killed my father, I don’t think he’s going to come after me the way I used to think that he would. For some reason, Ialmostfeel safe with Ian. It’s like the act of him killing my dad was something he did to protect me, and I’m accepting that as fact.

“Do you?”