Page 25 of All’s Fair In Love & War (The Bulgari Cartel #2)

God, his voice was insufferable. Dallas spoke with the unshakable confidence of a man who had never been denied anything in his life.

Every word rolled off his tongue with arrogance and control, and he spoke as if my compliance was inevitable.

He didn’t talk like someone who was aware he was crossing a line.

He spoke like someone who believed the line never applied to him in the first place.

He was too confident, too cocky, and entirely too sure of himself. They were calculated and dangerous in a way that whispered instead of screamed, and what made it worse, what unsettled me more than I was willing to admit, was the way my body responded to him.

I liked it.

Not in a casual, surface-level way. This wasn’t a harmless crush or a passing thought I could shake with time.

It was deep, it was wrong, and it went against everything I’d been raised to believe in.

Dallas Veneto wasn’t just a bad idea—he was the enemy.

Our families had been rivals at war, and he was Tatum’s ex-fiancé.

Entertaining him wasn’t just reckless. It was disloyal —the kind of betrayal that couldn’t be explained away or swept under the rug.

And yet, I couldn’t stop myself.

A simple phone call where he’d taken charge and gone out of his way to see me had me willing to risk it all.

I hated that my pulse sped up at the sound of his voice, that my thoughts became a blur of fantasy the second he said my name, and I hated that he knew it.

He could hear it in my silence, sense it in the way I didn’t hang up the moment he made his demand.

That kind of control wasn’t something I gave easily, and certainly not to someone like him.

But here I was, holding the phone tighter, staring at the boutique’s side exit like I was waiting for the rest of the world to fall away.

Part of me wanted to walk out there and shut him down once and for all—to remind him who I was and who he wasn’t.

I wanted to protect my family’s name, my own pride, and the years of loyalty that couldn’t be undone with one forbidden conversation.

But the other part?

The part of me I kept locked behind steel walls?

She wanted to know what it would feel like to fall just once.

To ignore the rules. To reach for something forbidden and feel the danger ripple beneath her skin.

Dallas wasn’t safe, and he damn sure wasn’t good, but he was temptation wrapped in power, and every second I stayed on the phone with him, I felt myself slipping deeper into something I wasn’t sure I could crawl out of.

And I didn’t know if I wanted to.

Instead of popping off at the mouth, I exhaled slowly and replied, “I’m coming out. You have sixty seconds to say whatever the fuck you need to say. If I don’t like it, I’m putting a bullet in your ass. I hate when my time is wasted.”

There was a short pause, then… “I’m parked out back. Black Maybach. Come now, or I come in.”

“Do it, and I guarantee you won’t be walking out of here without injury.”

“Wanna bet?” he asked, and I closed my eyes, tilting my head back as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.

This was a deadly game—one I should’ve walked away from the moment he spoke, but when I felt that heat crawl under my skin, I knew… I couldn’t… not yet.

“Don’t move,” I said before hanging up.

I paused just long enough to confirm that this was truly what I intended to do, then moved quietly down the hallway on tiptoe, careful not to alert the girls.

When I reached the back exit, I hesitated for a brief moment, then pushed the door open gently and stepped out into the crisp, refreshing air.

And there it was.

A gorgeous, black Maybach sat at the curb, engine idling, windows pitch-black. The back door opened before I could even approach, and I saw Dallas sitting inside, his legs parted, and one arm resting across the seat like a man with nothing to lose.

“Get in,” Dallas ordered, his gaze sliding over me slowly.

I didn’t move, letting him take in the whole sight of me. “You’ve got exactly sixty seconds to tell me why you’re stalking me, or this is about to get ugly.”

He smiled, an infuriating, slow, knowing smile. “Get in, or.... You won’t have to worry about getting ugly. I’ll do it for you.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Now, Sophia.”

“By now, you should know your threats don’t move me. I do what I want, when I want, and no one can tell me otherwise.” I crossed my arms over my chest, purposely giving Dallas a hard time so he wouldn’t think I was easy.

He leaned back into the seat, his gaze never leaving mine, one hand resting lazily across his thigh. “You don’t always have to be so dramatic,” he said, smirking. “But fine, I’ll play your little game.”

He nodded toward the open door. “Get in. I won’t try to fuck you, and you don’t have to talk. Just to listen. Three minutes of your time, and if you still want to walk away afterward, I’ll let you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You can’t ‘let’ me do anything.”

He shrugged, unbothered. “So you say.”

I stared at him for a moment longer, weighing my options. Then, without a word, I stepped forward and slid into the backseat. The leather was warm from the sun and smelled faintly of his cologne—dark, expensive, and smooth with just enough bite to remind me of who I was sitting next to.

The door clicked shut behind me, sealing me in with him, and the silence that followed was heavy. Dallas didn’t speak right away. He just looked at me, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly like he knew he’d already won.

“Good girl,” he said finally, voice low.

“Careful,” I replied. “I’m already teetering on the edge. You don’t want to piss me off.”

His laugh was quiet as he shook his head. “You really gonna threaten me after you just climbed into my car?”

“If I didn’t, you’d start to think you had the upper hand.”

He leaned closer, not enough to touch me, but enough for me to feel the heat radiating off his body. “Sophia,” he murmured, his voice as smooth as velvet, “I don’t need the upper hand. I’ve got the only hand that matters.”

I rolled my eyes, shifting to face the window. “You got me in the car, Dallas. Say what you came to say.”

Dallas reached into the armrest and pulled out a small silver flask, offering it to me like we were old friends, and I stared at it, unimpressed.

“No, thank you,” I declined, pushing his hand away.

Dallas smirked again before taking a long sip and screwing the cap back on. “Just trying to loosen you up. You’re tense.”

“I’m tense because I’m sitting next to someone I should’ve killed the moment he showed up.”

“Then kill me,” he said softly, turning his head toward me. “Go ahead. Right here. Take me out. But if you don’t… I’m taking you out.”

“Wait! You’re what?” I asked, confused. “How the hell did we go from A to Z that fast?”

“Easy. We have this thing between us that you don’t want to exist. I get that, but it does. It’s here. It’s loud. It’s in every damn breath we take when we’re in one another’s presence.”

“I don’t know what you think you’re feeling, but it’s not mutual.” The lie was bold, but I let it hang there, daring him to call my bluff.

Dallas grinned like he could see right through the front, and maybe he could. I had heard that he was a master of reading weakness and of sensing blood in the water. And judging by the look he was giving me, perhaps that was true.

He let my words flatten between us, then reached into his jacket pocket and set a battered envelope in my lap.

“Open it,” he said.

I hesitated, eyeing it like he might’ve slipped a bomb or a tracking device inside, but curiosity always won. I cracked the seal, slid out the folded document, and my heart gave three quick kicks against my ribs when I scanned the heading: APPLICANT CONFIRMATION — EROS.

My mouth went dry, and Dallas watched me, clearly enjoying the slow horror suffusing my features.

He had my application. He knew.

“How—” I could barely get the word out, “—the actual fuck did you get this?”

Dallas’ expression didn’t change, but he lifted his chin, a smug little tilt that told me he lived for this shit. “You’re not the only one with connections,” he drawled. “You should be more careful about covering your tracks.”

I snapped the envelope shut, shoved it into my bag, and glared at the side of his face. If my hands hadn’t been shaking, I might have clawed his eyes out.

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m making you an offer.” His tone had all the patience of a man giving a toddler two flavors of poison. “Give me one night where we act like normal, decent people for three hours. After that, you can go back to pretending you hate me, and I’ll keep your big secret between me and you.”

I wanted to lunge at him, rip his tongue out, but instead, I kept my head and played the game. “First, you threaten me, and now you’re using blackmail.”

He clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment like I was letting him down. “It’s not blackmail. It’s leverage. Don’t act like you’re not fluent in the difference.”

I pressed my nails into my palm, holding his gaze so he’d know he hadn’t scared me. “What’s the catch?”

Dallas smiled wider. “No catch, no strings. Just one night—a real date, somewhere discreet.”

I snorted, but in truth, his proposition was disarming. I scanned his face for a tell—something that would expose this as a trap, but his expression remained unreadable.

“And if I say no?”

“Then I’ll have to hand the evidence I have of your extracurricular activities”—his finger tapped his suit pocket casually— “directly to your brother, and you know how he’ll get if he hears of it from me. Everything I do puts him in a bad mood. Imagine something as big as this.”

Just like that, the walls I’d built around my secrets started dissolving faster than an ice cube in a bullet wound.

Naeem finding out about my budding side hustle, or worse, about me cozying up to a man who basically wore a target pinned to his designer lapels, would end not just my freedom, but me.

The only thing surface-cold about my brother was his stare.

Every other part of Naeem burned and destroyed everything in his path.

I forced myself not to look away from Dallas, not to let anything show but apathy. However, he must have seen it anyway because his eyes flashed with something predatory and satisfied.

He leaned in, his hand grazing my thigh, deliberate and testing. “So, are we doing this or what? All I need is one night, no bullshit.”

I glared at his hand on my thigh, weighing what would happen if I broke his finger in three places versus what would happen if I gave him what he wanted.

Either option ended with me surrendering a part of myself, but at least with the date, I could set the terms. Naeem would never know.

My secret would stay mine, and I’d get to see what it looked like to own Dallas Veneto for a night and then walk away.

“One night, three hours, you hand over all your evidence, and you never mention this shit again,” I said, voice even. “That’s my deal.”

He grinned, slow and infuriating. “You got it, princess.”

“Don’t call me that.”

He squeezed my thigh, a little pressure just to prove he could, then let go and brushed an imaginary speck off my knee. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at eight. Wear something that makes you feel sexy.”

“Everything I own makes me feel sexy, muthafucka.” I slid out and slammed the door behind me without looking back.

Dallas’s engine purred, and the car rolled off smooth as a panther, his taillights winking at me as he disappeared down the alley.

The second I turned around, the exit flew open, and I nearly collided with Tatum and Riley.

They both stood in the open doorway, Riley’s phone in her hand mid-text, Tatum’s gaze sharp enough to cut glass.

I stopped so abruptly my heel caught on the threshold.

“Who was that?” Tatum asked, her brows drawn tight as her eyes shifted from the alley to my face, then back again.

I kept my tone light. “My new boo. He wanted to see me,” I said with a playful wiggle of my brows, though I knew she could smell the bullshit before it left my lips.

Eyeing me skeptically, Tatum folded her arms, one hip cocked to the side. “He’s bold as hell, pulling up on you like that in broad daylight. Does he know a move like that could get him killed?”

I shrugged, hoping the motion looked more casual than it felt. “Yes, but maybe I like bold.”

“Hmm.” Her eyes narrowed as she studied me closely. “That may be true, but I know you, and something about that was giving stupid.”

“You’re right, and I won’t let it happen again. I promise,” I replied, making a cross over my heart.

“Thank you,” she said, turning around to head back inside the boutique.

I could Tatum didn’t believe me, not even a little, but she let it slide, for now. As for Riley, she either bought the lie or decided it wasn’t worth the energy. She just rolled her eyes and tugged Tatum’s arm, steering her back into the store.

Damn, that was close. Dealing with Dallas was already hitting too close to home, and if I didn’t get things under wraps fast, he would definitely cause me more trouble than he was worth.