Page 35 of His & Hers

“Like a car? You want toownme? Come on, Lucas, I’m not the settling type...” I shrugged, and he stroked my cheek softly.

“One could never own you, Alice. I thought if we fucked, it would go away. But it hasn’t.”

“What hasn’t?” I asked, the ringing in my ears making me almost deaf to his following words.

“The feeling I have whenever I’m not with you. I hate the way men look at you. It makes me want to kill the bastards.”

I looked at him then, and began to panic. If I allowed myself to fall, I knew it would be hard and deep. But I knew he was dangerous, and I also knew being in his world would make me a potential target. Worse yet, my family.

“My uncle wants me to meet a girl from the old country,” he said quietly, as my insides turned to ice.

“What? Why?” I demanded, my voice shrill as he looked at me sadly.

“Business. Tradition. I’m getting old now; I have to settle down. But I still want you.”

I stared at him in disbelief as he sighed.

“If you were my wife-”

Wait. What?

“Lucas,wife? What the fuck-”

“You’d be a target. If you were my mistress...,” his words trailed off as I moved from his lap, my eyes wide.

“Yourmistress?” I spat as he shot me a warning look. “While you impregnate your wife and whatever whores you get to sample, I’d be left alone unless you wanted a fuck. Right? No relationship for me.”

His eyes flashed at me as he turned to me.

“This isn’t easy for meeither.”

I sat back in silence as I tried to fight the tears that threatened to fall down my cheeks.

“Hey,” he murmured, stroking my fingers softly with his, “you didn’t want a relationship. I’m just giving you an option. You don’t have to take it.”

I couldn’t understand why I was so...furious. I wanted to scream at him to not go to Italy, to refuse to abide by tradition.

Why though? What was the alternative?

“So, you have to marry?” I asked as he lifted my hand to his lips.

“Yes. It’s just legality. The business has to be left to my wife and me, according to my father’s will. So I need to-”

“Marry me,” I said before I could think, his eyes widening as he began to chuckle.

“Alice... being a wife of someone like me is more than marriage as you have here in America. It’s a business arrangement. The girls back home are trained in the ways of our business-”

“Fine. So take me home.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes then as he grabbed my hand.

“No. I won’t. I’m taking you for dinner; then I’m taking you to my house. I’m going to fuck you until you beg me to stop, then after I’ve slept with you in my arms, I will take you home.”

I stared at him, stunned.

“Before you choose a wife.” I snapped, my anger and jealousy building up within me.

“You’re the only woman ever to capture my attention the way you have. I’d rather let all my men fuck my wife than do so much as look at you.” he breathed, making me want to weep. Why did I feel so strongly about him?