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Rocco perched on the pier, his magic wrapped around him to keep him warm and hidden, watching as Emilio carefully measured the supports underneath the harbour bridge.

What was his fiancé doing? Was he planning another rope-tying/torture session in such a public location? Not that many people ventured here.

The dirty concrete road Emilio had climbed above to reach the bridge only went to an empty lot where the long-since burned-out remains of a building sat.

Even the vagrants and addicts didn’t seek shelter here.

The noise of the vehicles driving overhead and the icy winds off the harbour made it an inhospitable place to sleep.

While it was technically public land, it was ringed by properties owned by the MC, who didn’t welcome strangers.

The bridge was their supply line and they protected their access to it.

Rocco should probably be reporting this to his prez, given Emilio could be planning to sabotage them, but his fiancé was his responsibility.

When Blaze had first told him his punishment was this marriage, he’d immediately started looking for a way out.

Being hand-delivered his prey was not how he operated, even if the prey was a wolf.

The fact Emilio was just his type, and he was already feeling possessive, was going to make his plan so much easier to execute.

If there was one thing Rocco had proven he was good at, it was coming on too strong and being too much for someone.

Rocco had no intention of being forced to upend his entire life again.

He’d let the Council do it once because he loved his family.

His respect for Blaze and his gratitude to the MC for giving him a new home didn’t mean he owed them this.

With his skills, he could’ve settled anywhere.

He didn’t need to prove his loyalty to them by marrying Emilio, but he was sure as shit going to prove their asshole treasurer had framed him.

Even better if he could figure out why .

The guy had it in for him since the start.

Sure, Rocco was an asshole. But so were most of the MC’s members.

Step one was to buy himself some time by provoking the shifter into calling this whole farce off. If he could have some fun doing it, even better.

With the touch of magic he’d left just beneath Emilio’s ear the first time they’d met, Rocco could find his fiancé anywhere and listen in on what he was doing.

The soft clinking of metal he could hear coming from Emilio’s bag sounded more like aerosol cans than explosives.

On paper, Emilio was the least Mafia-like of his family.

A Lunetti who’d left his pack to travel through Europe teaching art instead of pursuing the family business.

Rocco had a soft spot for artists, given one of the specialities of his magic was creating the appearance of something that wasn’t there—painting reality with light and colour—but there was an enticing darkness to his fiancé he hadn’t expected.

When he’d followed Emilio to get a feel for the man the MC wanted to foist on him, he’d been enchanted by the beautiful rope work Emilio tied that asshole up in.

Fascination had held him hostage as the shifter drew pain from his mark like it was just another medium with which to create.

The distracting thrill of Rocco’s arousal had only become more acute as Emilio stood enthralled by the patterns of blood twisting down the body.

His puppy was far more than he seemed.

As if sensing the turn of his thoughts, Emilio paused where he stood, his nose tilting to the wind as he searched his surroundings.

A tingle of excitement spread through Rocco’s body, heading south.

Interesting. The wolf shouldn’t be able to sense him at all.

His shielding meant no sight, sound, or scent of his presence would reach him.

This shifter might actually be a worthy challenge to hunt.

Emilio’s wariness was interrupted by his phone ringing, and Rocco smirked as his fiancé growled in annoyance the longer the conversation went on.

He might not know what Emilio had been up to, but he’d recognised the voice on the other end of the line when she’d rung a few days back.

There weren’t so many air witches in the world at his level that he couldn’t identify each of them.

It hadn’t taken much to warn the woman off whatever arrangement she had with his fiancé, although she’d refused to reveal what he’d been paying her for.

If Emilio needed air magic, he could come to him . No one else was getting near him with their power. Only because it would piss Emilio off enough to end their engagement, though.

“Rocco, you asshole. Stop being a creep and show yourself,” Emilio called, somehow facing exactly where Rocco waited.

Rocco smiled and let his glamour drop before strolling along the pier and down the road to where Emilio was waiting. He could’ve used his power to float across the ocean, but it would’ve been a waste of his energy just to show off when he already had Emilio’s unwavering attention .

“Nice ride,” he said, jerking his head toward the Triumph Tiger parked nearby.

“Don’t get any ideas. I’m not joining your little club. The bike was payment for a job. Not a lifestyle choice, and definitely not my whole personality.”

Emilio looked surprised when Rocco laughed at the dig.

There were definitely some folks in the MC for whom motorbikes were their whole personality.

He wasn’t one of them. He probably wouldn’t have ever joined one if he hadn’t been pressured into it by the Council after everything that went down in the capital.

The Harley he rode on MC business to keep appearances up wasn’t even his favourite bike.

“What are you doing?” Rocco asked, eyeing the bag at Emilio’s feet with interest. He could just make out another twine of rope through the opening—a dark red this time.

Emilio shook his head and tucked his sketchpad and measuring tape into the bag before securing it. “None of your damn business. And fuck you for interfering with my contractors.”

“You don’t need to pay an air witch to work for you. You have me. What will people think of our marriage if you’d rather spend a small fortune than use my skills?”

“No one would’ve had any idea. I don’t understand how you had any idea. Are you hacking my phone?”

His puppy looked so fucking sexy when he was mad. The gold of his wolf flashed in his eyes, and the muscles of his forearms where the sleeves of his collared shirt were rolled up tensed, making those sexy veins he wanted to trace with his tongue pop.

“No.”

He wasn’t hacking his phone. He was hacking his body.

It was usually too draining to leave his magic on someone the way he had with Emilio for any length of time, but for some reason, it was both easier and more effective with his fiancé.

As if something in the wolf shifter was both welcoming and reinforcing the dot of power he’d left on him.

The part of him that had studied his magic obsessively until he was one of the best air witches in the world was intrigued by the puzzle of how.

“What do you want? Why are you following me?” Emilio snapped.

“Don’t you ever stalk prey just for the joy of it?”

“If anyone’s prey, it’s you.”

“You going to hunt me, puppy?” Rocco asked, eyes widening with excitement as his eyes tracked down Emilio’s body.

“Fuck off,” Emilio said, stooping down to grab his bag before heading to his bike.

“I was coming to invite you on our date,” Rocco called out.

It was half the truth. He’d planned to just turn up wherever Emilio headed and corner him, but the date needed to be somewhere public, and he was pretty sure his puppy was avoiding anywhere there were other people.

Emilio glared at him. “I’m busy.”

“The engagement announcement’s only a week away. The contract requires?—”

“Fine. Whatever. Where are we going?”

“A ride together through town and meet at Central Park.”

That should get them enough witnesses, especially as the park was in neutral territory where there should be vamps passing through.

Emilio’s eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head in something approximating assent. “If you can catch me,” he said, climbing on his bike and starting the motor.

Rocco grinned with excitement and dropped the glamour on the custom dark purple Yamaha Supersport bike he rode when he wanted to play, making Emilio glare again in frustration as he realised he wasn’t going to get a head start.

This was going to be fun.

Streets passed in a blur as the roar of their engines echoed off the surrounding buildings. The mid-afternoon traffic wasn’t too bad yet, which meant there was more space to weave between cars as they played a high-horsepower game of chase through the city.

Rocco let Emilio take the lead, enjoying the view of his suit plastered to his body by the wind and the enticing way his trim waist drew his eyes down to his muscled ass where it nestled into the beautiful machine he was riding.

Was it too soon to bend him over his bike and take him?

Would he tap out of this arrangement before Rocco got the chance?

His plan to drive the shifter away hadn’t accounted for Emilio’s enticing secrets that were begging to be uncovered, and the way he made Rocco’s dick ache more than anyone he could remember.

The path his fiancé chose for them wove through back alleys and side streets as if he really thought he might be able to lose Rocco in the traffic.

Rocco had far too much practise stalking people to let that happen.

He pulled up right alongside Emilio when they reached the park before he’d even had a chance to turn his engine off.

As the bikes quieted, Emilio turned to him in annoyance. “So, what are we doing? Promenading the park like we’re auditioning for a historical romance?”