Page 24 of Ruthless God

When we neared it, he placed me on my feet. I looked down, taking in the white comforter and the fluffy pillow encased in the white silky pillowcase. The red rose petals stood out in stark contrast against the white. I swallowed hard and looked at him.

He didn’t give me time to think. His hands reached behind my back and messed with the buttons of my dress. I felt the fabric slowly loosen around me.

He was right. He was more adept at taking off a woman’s clothes than helping them dress, considering how quickly he was able to unbutton my dress.

I barely had time to process what was happening.

A part of me wanted to tell him to slow down, that I was feeling overwhelmed, and the other part was afraid I would lose my nerve entirely if he gave me time.

Finally, he reached the last of the buttons. He pulled the zipper on the side down and pushed the white dress off my body until it pooled around my feet. I looked down at the expensive dress, which was now nothing more than a mess of fabric containing the remnants of my innocence, and that was all.

He helped me step out of it, leaving me in nothing but the modest three-inch heels and white lingerie Mom had specifically picked out for the occasion.

I grimaced and shook away the thought. The last thing I wanted to think about was my family at this time, and Massimo’s heated gaze made it easier to ignore thoughts about anything or anyone who wasn’t him.

I resisted the urge to cover myself as he took in his fill.

“Fuck, I have been waiting for the chance to get you out of this dress since the moment I helped you into it.”

“You have?” I asked, my breath coming out in stuttered pants.

“I have,” he said roughly, moving closer. He pressed his hands on my shoulders and pushed me down until I was lying on the bed. I closed my eyes when he lifted one leg up and took off my heel. Then the other one.

I flinched when I felt his hand’s weight on my stomach.

“This will be easier if you relax,” he said smoothly. My eyes opened at his words. There was a strange look in his eyes, but he didn’t seem mad or impatient with me.

“I’ve-I’ve never done this before,” I said.

He nodded. “I know.”

Idiot. Of course he would know that. That was a part of this deal between the two families—an alliance being made between the two most powerful crime families in the country, and Massimo would be getting an untouched bride as a part of that.

I was nothing more than prized cattle to be traded off. I would do well to remember that, no matter how Massimo looked at me.

“Do you want to stop?” Massimo asked.

I blinked in surprise. He was asking me? That had to be a trick question, wasn’t it? I searched his face, wondering if I could find the answer there somehow. And even if I had been adequateat reading other people’s faces, my husband seemed to be a master at disguising his thoughts and emotions.

But he seemed… sincere when he asked it.

Slowly, I shook my head. I didn’t want to stop.

A satisfied look formed on his face, pulling on his scars. More monster than man.

He moved back and began to undress. A heavy feeling came over me, and I couldn’t tell if it was apprehension or excitement over the prospect of seeing a man naked for the first time.

Perhaps both.

He pulled off the suit jacket first, throwing it on the floor behind him as he tugged on his tie. My legs rubbed together at the image, and his eyes moved down to them. He smiled a little, and I didn’t know why, but it didn’t matter because he let the tie drop on the bed and was now unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it down.

My breath caught at the sight of his sculpted muscles.

He didn’t have many tattoos, not like how I had expected made men to have, especially since Emilio’s men seemed to have nothing but full-body tattoos—at least, from what I could see.

There was a black geometric tattoo that took up his right bicep, and across from that, one with a dagger pointing down vertically through two snakes—the “unofficial” symbol of the De Luca Famiglia, and what seemed like a garden of flowers that took the right side of his neck. Down to his left ribs, in cursive black script, were the wordsLa morte mi trovera vivo.

Death will find me alive.