Page 18 of Pretty Ruthless Monsters: Complete Series

QUINN

I don’t bite him this time.

I’m tempted to, I’m really fucking tempted to.

To clamp my teeth around his bottom lip and draw blood all over again, and then maybe spit it in his face.

But his words are still heavy in my ears.

He’ll probably just enjoy it too much, and I don’t want that.

I don’t want him to enjoy this any more than I am.

Which is to say, not at all.

So I hold myself stiffly while our lips press together.

He makes a small noise in his throat and leans in a bit more, his mouth warm and firm against mine.

I don’t give him anything back, staying stiff as a board, unyielding.

But then he nips at my bottom lip, hard enough that it stings, and that sends a jolt of arousal through me that I can’t ignore.

My lips part all on their own in a soft gasp, and that’s all the opening Nico needs to slide his tongue into my mouth.

My body burns, half with outrage at his fucking audacity and half with something I don’t want to name.

And Nico presses his advantage so well. He works his tongue into my mouth, kissing harder, deeper.

Like he wants to coax my tongue into twining and twisting with his in some kind of fucked up dance.

My eyes fall closed, and I lean into it for just a second, just enough to get that heady rush of sensation for a moment, before clarity comes roaring back in.

We break apart a few heartbeats later, and I have to swallow hard once and then again.

Nico smirks at me, his dual colored eyes dark with desire that he doesn’t make any attempt to hide.

“Look at that,” he says, his voice a little husky. “I like to bite too.”

I ignore his words, because it’s easier to do that than to figure out how the fuck to respond.

I take a deep breath, trying to pull my shit together and get my head back on straight.

It would be bad if Nico could see how much that simple kiss affected me.

We’re about to be on shaky ground as it is, trying to navigate this strange new world where old rivals are now allies, and it’ll be easier for me to keep an edge against him if he doesn’t know how off-balance he makes me feel.

Around us, there’s a light smattering of applause as the priest calls the ceremony to a close.

Everyone is playing their part, but it’s clear that no one in our respective gangs is really all that thrilled about any of this.

And who could blame them? It’s a barely passable facade of a wedding.

No one wants to be here, except the groom for some fucked up reason, and everyone except the priest is probably armed under all their finery.

I know I am.

It would be stupid for the Princes to wait until Nico and I are officially married to decide to pull something, but still. Stranger, more fucked up things have happened, and I’m not taking any of this lightly or letting my guard down around them for the foreseeable future.

The priest gestures for us to walk down the aisle, and this is the part in a real wedding where the gathered family and friends would clap and cheer and throw rice or confetti.

Instead, we make our way down the carpeted aisle in near silence.

Everyone on my side watches Nico—and Atlas and Killian, who walk along behind us—with wary gazes, waiting to see what he’ll do.

The crew on the Carnage side watches me with the same intensity.

A few more steps bring us out of the main part of the church, and we come to a stop in the open space of the front lobby. It would almost be a relief to have it all done… except now I’m married to Nico.

I turn to face him and his two best friends, who are standing on either side of him so that they create an almost solid wall of muscle. None of them move to say anything, so I give them a cool smile, ready to go home and get this goddamn dress off.

“Well,” I say. “At least that’s over.”

“Oh, come on.” Nico chuckles. “It wasn’t so bad. I think you might have even liked it by the end there.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” I snap, my veneer of civility slipping. “The whole thing was an act, and we both know it.”

“A legally binding act,” he points out. “So don’t get any ideas about going back on our deal. Now that our interests are bound together, if one of us goes down, we both do.”

“I know how it works,” I say, forcing my voice to remain even.

It’s been a long day, and I’m fucking tired of this.

Atlas and Killian standing there watching it all go down like creepy statues doesn’t make it any better.

“And the fact that I agreed to this at all should show you that I care enough about my gang and keeping my people safe to put up with your bullshit.”

Nico puts a hand over his heart—right where I left the tattoo that serves as his wedding ring. “You think so little of me, wife,” he says flatly. “I’m wounded.”

“Not yet, you aren’t,” I mutter. “But I could fix that.”

He arches a brow, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Not even married ten minutes, and you’re already threatening violence.”

“Believe me,” I snap, unable to help myself. “When I decide to hurt you, I won’t bother threatening you first.”

“Careful, Nico.” Atlas’s voice cuts into our exchange, dragging my attention to him. He’s glaring at me, his hands curled into fists as if he’s ready to finish the fight we started in that empty building right here and now. “She means it. She’s a vicious little thing.”

“I can handle her.”

Nico’s smirk widens a bit as he speaks, and I take a step back, needing to put some space between us. My head is still buzzing from the endorphins of the tattoo and the unexpected heat of our kiss, and being this close to my new husband and his two friends is only making it worse.

“I’ll be in touch soon so we can start coming up with a plan,” I say, bringing the subject back around to business as our people start to slowly file out of the church, eyeing each other suspiciously.

“Whoever’s been coming after Carnage and Enigma is still making moves, so we need to do something to show that we’re a united front.

Now that your ‘conditions’ have been met, I expect you to live up to your part of the deal.

We have each other’s backs, and we take the threat down. ”

I don’t wait for Nico or the other two to say anything, instead turning to speak to my men for a moment. I tell them to keep activity low for the next few days while we figure out our next move, then I dismiss them all.

As they start to leave the church, I follow, slipping out the front door and heading toward my car. The only thing I want right now is to get this damn dress off and maybe to sink into a hot bath so I can scald the surrealness of this day off my skin.

But before I can get very far, Nico emerges from the front door of the church and stops me, reaching out to grab my arm.

“Hold on,” he says.

I whip around, irritation rising in me as I wrench my arm out of his grip. “What?”

He folds his arms, pinning me with a look as Killian and Atlas take up their positions by his sides again. “We’re not done here. Not yet.”

“The hell we aren’t. You wanted to get married. We’re married.” I draw aside the plunging neckline of my dress so he can see the tattoo he put on me not twenty minutes ago. “It’s done, Nico.”

“The wedding is, yeah,” he agrees. “But not what comes after.”

I raise my eyebrows, choking back a laugh. “If you say something about a honeymoon, I swear to fuck, I will cut your dick off and feed it to you,” I hiss. “We’re not doing that shit.”

“I’m not talking about a honeymoon.” He shakes his head, ignoring my threat. “I’ll have some people come to your place to pack up your things and bring them to our headquarters. How much time will you need to get ready?”

I blink. “What?”

“You heard me.”

My eyes narrow. “Yeah, I heard you, but I don’t understand what you mean. Why the fuck would anyone need to move my stuff?”

Nico lifts a brow, giving me a look like he’s surprised he has to spell it out for me. “Because you’ll be moving in with us.”

The bottom of my stomach feels like it drops out as he says that. The wedding was bad enough, but I had no idea he planned for us to live together after it. I should have known he was going to pull something. Should’ve known that it wasn’t going to be this easy.

I take a step closer to him, anger radiating from me.

“That wasn’t a part of the deal,” I bite out. “I never agreed to that.”

Nico is glaring at me too now, irritation finally winning out over his smug indifference.

He leans in closer to me, and I’m painfully aware of our height difference as he looms over me.

It’s interesting, how he switches from being an arrogant shithead to putting on the attitude of a domineering leader in a second flat.

Or it would be interesting if I wasn’t practically shaking with rage at him.

“What did you think was going to happen, mia cara?” he growls, using the same nickname for me that he did back in the church. “Of course we’re going to have to move in together. That’s what married people do.”

“Yeah, married people who actually want to spend time in each other’s company,” I shoot back. “That doesn’t include us.”

“I already told you we’re not doing this halfway.

” He drops his gaze to my tattooed chest for a moment before finding my eyes again.

“If we’re going to be allies—real allies, not just on paper—we actually have to join forces.

That means living together, sharing space. No room for secrets. No room for lies.”

He’s in my space now, so close that I can see the little flecks of blue in his green eye and the hints of green in his blue one. His brows are drawn together over those infuriatingly gorgeous eyes, and he’s staring at me with an expression that makes it clear he’s not going to back down.

Fuck .

My heart is still racing from the visceral response that shot through me when he told me his men would come pack up my stuff so I could move in with him and the others at their clubhouse.

The truth is, that reaction isn’t just from the shock of his sudden new demand, but from the panic that shot through me at the idea of moving out of my home.

I don’t want to leave that house. It’s where my dad lived, where I grew up. It’s one of the strongest tangible reminders that I have left of him, and I can’t give that up.

Setting my jaw, I avert my gaze a little, looking past the three men. I don’t want them to see the flash of vulnerability in my eyes at the thought of my father, knowing it’s a weakness they’d probably be only too happy to exploit.

“I’m not moving out of my house,” I say, my voice just as hard as Nico’s was. “That’s not negotiable.”

He doesn’t respond for a long moment, studying my face like he’s trying to read my thoughts. I keep my expression as blank and impassive as I can, which is difficult considering how close to the surface my emotions have been today.

Finally, Nico nods. “Alright, mia cara. You win. I’m a modern man, so I have no issue being the one to move in with you. If I have to have people moving shit anyway, I can get them to move my stuff, and Atlas and Killian’s, to your house instead.”

There’s a short-lived flood of relief at his concession that I won’t have to be the one to move in with him. But then the rest of what he just said fully registers with me, and my jaw drops.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand.

He can’t be serious. It will be bad enough to have just him in my space, but Atlas and Killian too? That’s too fucking much.

Nico just shrugs, looking darkly satisfied. “It’s a compromise. Like I keep saying, I don’t trust you yet.”

“You can’t just?—”

“Atlas and Killian have my back,” he says, cutting me off. “So where I go, they go. Which means you’d better get ready to have three new roommates, wife.”