Page 134

Gianna’s words suddenly filled my mind.
Because you’ll fall in love with her. And she won’t love you back.
Well, Jesus H. Christ. Gianna was right.
Fuck. This was inconvenient.
I tapped my pen on the desk, leaned back, and refused to reply to that ridiculous statement. Tony laughed, and I gritted my teeth.
“Finally, the black-hearted Russo knows what it’s like to be whipped.”
I gave my head a small shake. “There’s a big difference between you and me, Tony. Whipped or not, I’m not a fucking doormat.”
Tony’s gaze hardened, but he only lifted his feet onto the coffee table.
“Jenny pulls you around by your cock and you let her. Might as well buy her a strap-on.”
“You know,” he said, “I could live without you saying her fucking name.”
“And I could live without your shoes on my coffee table.”
He left them there, smoothed his tie, and rested a bandaged hand on his stomach. “I got a hot date tonight.”
“I think ‘hot’ loses its steam after every man in a ten-mile radius has had a piece of it.”
His jaw ticked. “I love my sister, Ace, but it’s not like you’re getting a cherry with your fiancée either.”
Annoyance unfurled in my chest, and his gaze flickered with pleasure when he noticed he’d gotten to me.
“If you want to sit around and talk about me fucking your sister, be my guest. Brings back good memories.”
He picked a piece of lint off his suit jacket. “If it was up to me, I’d never have let Elena stay with you until the wedding.”
“Good thing not much is up to you,” I said dryly. “New York would burn under one of your massive tantrums.”
“If I lit fire to the city
, it would deserve to burn.”
I let out a half laugh. “More likely a man tossed your girlfriend some quarters and took her for a ride.”
He pulled on his collar, his gaze heated. “She’s not a fucking hooker.”
“Coulda’ fooled me. If I gave her the watch off my wrist, she would’ve done anything I asked of her.”
“Any woman would. You look like a tool walking around with that thirty-five-thousand-dollar watch.”
I would’ve easily agreed with him before I met Elena—the any woman would part, not the fucking tool comment—but now I couldn’t imagine her giving it up for a large sum of money. And it wasn’t because she already had plenty of it.
Jesus, we hadn’t even gotten to business yet and a headache already bloomed behind my eyes. “Maybe we could get this over with?”
“Sure thing, Ace. But I gotta say something first.”
I tossed my pen on the desk. “Can hardly wait to hear it.”
“For whatever reason—most likely Stockholm—Elena chose you, and I respect her choice. But if you hurt her, I’ll have to kill you.”
I laughed. I was pretty sure I’d rather cut off my left arm than ever hurt her, but fuck if I was going to let him know she was my biggest weakness.