Page 53 of Her Keeper
God, the man was going to drive me insane. He really wanted to talk right now, while he was so close to finding his way inside me?
“So what’s this idea, then, if it’s so important?”
He spread my ass cheeks, repositioned himself, and slid into me, holding me and forcing me to take every inch when I tried to squirm. Then he held absolutely still, my body squeezing around his and already starting to spasm.
“I was thinking,” he whispered. “That you should marry me. I never want you to be out of my reach again. I want you always at my fingertips, ready for me. I don’t want to ever think about living without you. And as far as I can see, the best way to do that is to make sure you’re mine for the rest of your life.”
All the air went out of me, and I forgot about the tension growing in my lower back, my orgasm imminent.
Michael Rossi wanted tomarryme.
And he’d said it in the most Michael way possible.
“You know if you marry me, it means you’re mine for the rest ofyourlife too, right?”
He slid his lips down the back of my neck, the breath of his laughter brushing me lightly. “That’s the idea. So what do you think?”
I did my best to shrug. “Spend the rest of my life with you? I guess that would be okay.”
He slid out of me so quickly that I almost didn’t register it and had me on my back a moment later, staring deep into my eyes in the morning’s dim light.
“Tell me something true. Do you love me?”
Well, that was an easy one.
“Yes.”
“And will you love me forever? No matter what? Have every adventure with me and never leave me alone?”
That one was even easier.
“Absolutely.”
* * *
I’d just gotten dressed when I heard Michael’s phone ring, and I walked out of the close tot see him frowning ferociously at it like it had just delivered the worst news he’d ever heard.
My heart sank. We’d been so happy when we got out of bed that I hadn’t thought anything could bring us down.
But I’d only thought that because I’d forgotten, for just a moment, that Michael was a Rossi, and we were at the start of a war we didn’t yet understand.
“What?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.
Michael looked up at me, his eyes haunted and angry. “That was your brother. Someone just called him and asked whether he’d consider leaving the Rossis for someone else.”
My knees went weak and I dropped into the chair behind me. “And I assume he said no.”
“He asked them what they meant. And they offered him millions to leave my family and work for someone else.”
“And you think it’s more than just a job offer.”
He nodded. “I think it’s part of this war against the Rossis. Alf isn’t high enough in the family to really damage us, but he’s valuable in other ways. Good contacts, a good reputation as a lawyer. My best friend. I think... I’m sure now that someone is trying to destroy our family, but I’m starting to think it might be bigger than that. And I’m starting to wonder about the method to their madness. This doesn’t feel like something the head of the family would do. This isn’t being done in a traditional way.”
Right. Of course not.
“What does that mean?”
His eyes hardened. “It means I think someone other than the head of a family is doing this. And that makes it even more dangerous, because they aren’t following the rules. We have to find them before they destroy everything this city is built on. Before they destroyus.”