of his jacket, with no loose material to spare. Same with the way his slacks molded to his thigh muscles. I could see the way they tightened and rippled with every step he took.
Not that I was looking. Not at all.
I was merely commenting on his tailor’s skills.
“Trust me, pretty boy,” I snapped. His eyes reflected amusement at my returning the nickname favor. “Your bed is the last place I’ll ever find myself.”
The realization that he thought us having sex was a foregone conclusion just because I’d gotten backed into a corner and pressured into a semi-arranged marriage really grated on my last nerve. I was on the brink of losing my shit over pushy men who thought they could muscle me around like I was some kind of strategy tactic instead of a real person.
And one of those men was my own father.
Well, adopted father, but he was the closest and only thing I’d ever had to a parent. To me, he’d always been my real father, just like I’d always been his only child.
“I’m going to have a hell of a good time proving you wrong,” Nico chortled. “You’ll be amazed by how quickly your ice will melt.”
I shook my head in astonishment. “Are all the women you sleep with usually drunk when you get them into bed? Or are they just that easy? Because I can’t believe anyone would actually fall for your bullshit.”
He chuckled as he straightened his cufflinks. “That’s because the only place you’ve felt my mouth is on your cheek.”
I felt my face flush. But I couldn’t tell if it was from my rising temper or from the fact that I was talking about very intimate things with a man I didn’t know. Which wasn’t usually my style. Nico was already getting under my skin in the worst way.
“You can stop prattling on about how good you are in bed,” I said. “In my experience, the men who puff out their chests the most do it to make something else look bigger.”
His eyes shot to mine, his jaw clenching. The anger I saw briefly flicker to life was quickly snuffed out. “I’m sorry you have such a piss-poor sexual history,” he murmured, feigning sympathy. “No wonder you’re so prickly. I suppose a string of disappointingly small dicks will do that to a woman. Lucky for you, mine is anything but disappointing.”
Okay, now I knew it was anger that had heat suffusing my cheeks. “How dare you—”
He took an abrupt step closer, shoving his face into mine. “And in my country, men who brag the most are usually the ones who have reason to brag. Think about that while you’re packing your bags, wife.”
With a sharp turn on his Italian loafer, Nico strutted out of my father’s study and never looked back.
Thus concluded my wedding ceremony.
Pretty sure we just made William Shakespeare roll over in his grave.
Holy Christ, she was absolutely the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in my entire life.
Which was saying something, considering I’d stuck my dick into so many beautiful, nameless faces over the years, there had never been a point in trying to keep count.
But this one happened to be my new wife.
Wife.
I, Nico Rossetti, was a husband.
Jesus, every married individual in the world should have been offended. We just made a sham—a complete mockery—of the whole institution. Which was one of the many reasons why I’d steadfastly vowed to never bind myself to such subjugation as marriage. Everything was so much damn easier when you didn’t have those shackles around your ankles. When you weren’t responsible for another human being. When you weren’t accountable to anyone else except yourself.
As a single man, shit in my life ran smoothly. Seamlessly. I could do whatever I wanted because I didn’t have anyone else to answer to, and that’s the way I’d always wanted it to be. Always planned for it to be.
Until today.
Until my new father-in-law made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
And now I’m speaking in fucking movie clichés.
Mafia-related ones, no less. Perfect.
Storming inside the guest suite at the enormous Russian compound I’d been staying in for the last twenty-four hours, I beelined for the antique credenza along the wall where two glass decanters sat. Knowing what the clear liquor inside the first one was, I swiped up the one filled to the brim with a beautiful amber liquid and sloshed a healthy amount into the closest tumbler glass. Lifting it to my lips, I knocked half of it back