Page 57 of Ruthless God

“Lina is set to marry the heir of the Novikov Bratva.”

“Okay.”

I squeezed her to me. “We don’t… get along with the Novikov Bratva.”

Not getting along with those bastards was putting it lightly. I wanted to kill every single one of them. And I would. Sooner or later, New York would be mine, and the Novikov Bratva would be nothing more than a distant memory.

She frowned. “Then why would Andre set up an arranged marriage with them? Doesn’t our marriage mean there would be a truce between us and the Lombardi?”

Had she noticed she had referred to herself as a De Luca when she saidus?

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. But it’s nothing you need to worry about. But I will never allow anyone who belongs to me, who falls under my protection, to ever step foot in New York. Not while the Bratva rules over that territory.”

“And that means me?” she asked quietly. I looked at her, and she clarified, “I fall under the category of those under your protection.”

“Oh, sweetheart. You are at the top of the fucking list.”

Her breath caught.

I grasped her chin and lifted until she looked at me again. “Understand?”

“I understand. I don’t really want to attend Lina’s wedding. I don’t really want to see my family.”

“What did they do to you?” I asked darkly.

She pulled away from my grasp. “I don’t really want to talk about this.”

I opened my mouth to push her when she stopped me, placing her palm over my lips. The move was so bold and unexpected that I froze for a second. She must have realized what she was doing because she pulled away quickly.

“You should probably take a nap,” she said as a small yawn escaped. I took in the bags under her eyes, still very much prevalent.

“Sleep with me,” I said.

“W-what? I’m not the injured one.”

“I sleep better with you around,” I answered, pulling her down on the bed with me before she could respond. She was still holding the glass in one hand. I grabbed it and placed it on the bedside table before wrapping my arms tightly around her, and for the second time since our marriage, I found myself lying in bed in the middle of the day, just so my wife would nap.

Fuck me.

15

MASSIMO

I knewI couldn’t keep up the charade of being bedbound for long.

It was dawn the next day as I stood by the edge of the bed and looked down at my sleeping wife, completely unaware that a monster was watching her.

Fuck, how long had it been since I last touched her? Tasted her? She should be more than recovered from that first night.

And I fucking knew she was purposely avoiding me recently for this very reason. I let her have her way, but how much more did she expect me to take, especially with her by my side, tempting me with her scent, her alluring gaze… fuck.

I clenched and unclenched my fists just as Luna shifted on the bed, the bedsheets falling from her shoulders and exposing a sliver of skin from her delicate neck to her collarbone.

Unable to help myself, I reached and ran the tips of my fingers over the warm skin. I moved my fingers further down, beneath the fabric of the huge shirt she had on—my shirt.

I hadn’t even realized she had worn it to bed, but fuck if the sight didn’t fucking get to me in a way that had never happened before.

My cock jumped when I felt the swell of her breast, making me feel like a fucking schoolboy. Since when did I get turned on over a little bit of skin? This was fucking hell.