Page 34 of Dark Breaker

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A few dayslater Massimo drops by my room before I’m about to take the ferry to Palermo. He hands me a parcel.

“What’s this?” I ask.

He hesitates. “A dress, apparently.”

I frown. “What’s it for?” I place the package on the bed and I’m about to open it when Massimo finishes.

“Fabio wants you wear it to the fundraiser on Friday.”

I freeze. Hell no. I don’t even want to see what it looks like.

“Uh huh.” I slide the package off my bed and shove it under my wardrobe.

“You’re not going to wear it, are you?” Massimo asks me.

“Nope,” I tell him.

He follows me downstairs. “You have to dress classy. He’s going to be introducing you to a bunch of important people, and those jumpsuits of yours aren’t going to cut it. You—”

“I don’t care how ‘important’ they are,” I tell him. “I’ll wear what I want.”

“There’s a dress code,” he tells me. “You’ll stand out. Look, I promised Fabio’s father I’d help get his mayoral candidate elected. This benefits us, too, you know. If we control the mayor, we’ll have our pick of development projects across Palermo.”

“I didn’t know we cared about development projects,” I reply.

“We do now,” he says. “We have to start funneling our money into other investments. Morelegalinvestments, that is. Our shell companies have been getting a lot of heat recently. This is the perfect opportunity to expand without having the Italian Revenue Agency asking questions.”

“God forbid we invoke the wrath of theAgenzia delle Entrate,” I say drily. “Fine. I’ll dress up. But I’m not wearinghisdress.”

“You don’t have to,” Massimo says. “And thank you.”

“Sure thing,” I tell him. “I’m starting to wonder though, given how eager you are about this fundraiser… maybe you’re the one who pushed for this marriage.”

“I didn’t push for it,” he says. “Rosa, you know I wouldn’t do something like that. But I’m not so blind that I can’t see the benefits. I hope you’re not, either.”

“Yeah, sure, easy enough for you to say,” I retort. “You’re not the one who has to get married.”

I turn to go but he grabs me by the shoulder. “If you want to call it off, you can. I won’t have you marrying someone against your wishes.”

I peer into his eyes. He’s dead serious. He doesn’t want me doing something I don’t want.

And yet, I feel like this is my chance to finally pull my weight. I’ve never really been involved in the business, always leeched off of it essentially, so if I can help our family with some alliance, then I probably should. Mostly I’m doing this because I don’t want there to be any fighting between our families. I almost got Luciano killed. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if any of my brothers died because I didn’t marry Fabio.

Besides, I think I can handle him. The sex will probably be amazing—he’s one of the hottest people I’ve ever met, if I’m being honest with myself—it’s the living with him part I’ll have to work at.

I lower my gaze. “No. I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?”

I meet his eye, force a smile. “Positive.”

He releases me. “You can change your mind at any time. Up until the wedding day.”

“What about right before we exchange vows?” I taunt.

He nods. “Even then. Though it’ll be embarrassing…”