Page 10 of Stolen Vows

She looks so happy.So does her stepdaughter.

Why can’t I have one person who loves me like that?

I push my despair down deep in my chest and wring the stem of the bouquet in my hands.The bundle is so big it sticks out into the aisle and covers half of Mario’s lap.

Which hides his hand as he slips it higher up my thigh.I jump and scowl at him despite the gun pressed against my side as he brushes his pinky over my pussy.

When he leans down to place his lips near my ear, his weight nearly crushes me.He’s too big.Too powerful.Too conniving.

I can’t make a scene here and he knows it.My father would kill me.

“I warned you fate was on my side,paperotta.Now open your legs and let me touch my future wife,” he whispers in my ear.

Heat flashes through me.My insides clench.His warm cologne and gravelly voice fill me with yearning.

I once dreamed of having him as my safe place.

Not anymore.

I lift my chin and meet his devilishly handsome amber eyes with a glare of my own.

“I’ll never be yours, traitor.Get your hand off me,” I hiss.

His smirk steals the pew from under me.

I’m so fucking screwed.

Chapter 4

Mario Luciano

Her defiance heightens my satisfactionwhile her fear fills me with hunger.I rub my pinky over her covered sex and drag my pistol down her side, challenging her response.

“I will touch you whenever and wherever I please.Capisci?”

She glares up at me in silence.If looks could kill, she’d have murdered me already.

“No, I don’t understand, and I don’t want to.You’re evil.Let me go.”

I chuckle and wiggle my pinky deeper between her legs, enjoying the shock in her eyes and the hitch in her breath.

“I may be evil, but I’m not a liar, so why don’t you be a good little girl and part these legs like I told you to?”I murmur.

She grits her teeth and clamps her knees together.

“You’ll never get away with this,” she hisses.

I pull my hand out from between her thighs, wrap my arm around her shoulders, grab her breast, and tug her harder against my side.

“Look around, Valentina.No one recognizes me.I’m a ghost.I can do whatever I want.”

“My father will—”

“Your father watched me die.He’s the reason I’m immortal.You can’t kill a dead man,” I whisper in her ear.

She shakes her head.I scoff.

“Go ahead, little one.Tell your daddy and see what happens.”She stiffens and finds the back of her father’s head in the crowd.I lean closer to her, ignoring the pain radiating through my torso, and let my lips brush against her temple as I speak.