by Kiera Silver
It wasn’t the harsh verbal slap she had hoped for, and she looked away from him. “I really do hate you, Larenz.”
“Hate’s better than love,” he said, sounding completely unconcerned as he looked away from her. They finished the rest of the ride in silence, and when they returned to his house, he made no move to stop her when she went to a guestroom instead of the room they had shared until tonight.
For most of the next week, they lived separate lives. They barely saw each other, and Grace knew that was for the best. It was giving her the time she needed to separate her hormonal reactions from the anger she experienced every time she saw him. The anger was what she wanted to focus on, and it seemed to grow naturally.
At first, she had been surprised when he had allowed her to continue with her regular schedule, including attending classes. She’d expected him to lock her away somewhere, but quickly realized he already had her exactly where he wanted her. As long as he was threatening her father and her family, she was forced to do what he wanted, at least on the surface.
It was an unpleasant surprise to come home from class that afternoon and find that Larenz was already home. He usually left early and stayed out late, presumably to manage the club he ran with his brothers, but she hadn’t bothered to ask. She didn’t really care, and she reminded herself of that whenever she had the urge to ask anything about him. She figured he would be evasive and untruthful anyway. He was probably seeing other women in that time too, though she tried not to care. After all, it was a business merger, and nothing more. She just wished she had known that going in, rather than having him twist everything around and seduce her senses into feeling like she had fallen in love with him. It would have made life easier.
She set her backpack on the chair, and looked at him with a mixture of anger and coldness. “You’re home early.”
He shrugged. “My parents want to meet you, so we’re going to a family dinner tonight.”
She arched a brow. “That sounds like torture. Why don’t you just tell them I’m sick? I have cramps or something.”
“You have to go. They’re expecting to meet you.”
She shrugged. “I don’t care to meet them, and I don’t care to help you out here. I have studying to do.”
Larenz slammed his hand down on the table, which inadvertently made her jump.
“I don’t want to go either, but we’re going! I’m not going to let down my mother when she’s looking forward to meeting you.”
She stared at him in disbelief, shaking her head. “Does your mother know the circumstances surrounding our…merger?”
He looked irritated. “Be ready at eight, and try to behave yourself.”
As she watched him walk away, she was certain his family didn’t know how she’d ended up being his wife. At least they didn’t know yet. The idea of revealing the circumstances to them made her want to giggle, and she started carefully planning her campaign as she went upstairs to finish her homework before preparing for dinner with a family of which she wasn’t part.
His parents had an opulent penthouse apartment, which didn’t surprise her. She tried to suppress any hint of nerves as she stepped inside, handing her coat to Larenz without looking at him. His mother had come to greet them, as she took the other woman’s hand and gave her a pleasant smile, deciding that she could play along, at least for little while.
“It’s so lovely to meet you. I’m Avriella, and Larenz is in big trouble for not telling us he was getting married!”
The idea of this small, slender woman being able to discipline Larenz made her laugh, “It was a shock to me too.”
Avriella swept her along down the hallway and into a sitting room where several people had gathered. Immediately, she saw Larenz’s brothers, and they truly were identical triplets. It was startling to see three copies of the same man for just a moment, though she was able to detect some subtle differences between them.
After exchanging introductions, she realized that Dante had a slightly crooked nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. The other brother, Armo, was just a little bit stockier than his two brothers, but he still looked lean and elegant. They were a lot of male for a woman to take, and she had to remind herself that she felt nothing for her husband. It helped her withstand the charm of his brothers, and she kept her expression cool as she exchanged greetings with their wives.
It was difficult to maintain her stony façade when she saw the infants held in Lilly and Katie’s arms. Both children had matching thick black curls and startling blue eyes like their fathers’.
Having the babies to focus on made it easier to avoid for Grace to avoid Larenz, which she did successfully until they moved through to the dining room, and he held out her chair for her. She didn’t look at him as she nodded in his direction in a gesture of tepid thanks before settling back in her chair and looking at the table around her. Since her stomach was rumbling with hunger, she waited until the maid had brought out the first course, and took a few bites before she broke the silence. “Lilly, how did you and Dante meet?”
Lilly blushed slightly, and she was clearly being slightly untruthful when she said, “We ran into each other at Boulevard 3.”
She nodded before turning her attention to Katie. “And how did you meet Armo?”
Katie laughed, clearly amused by the memory. “He ran me over with his car.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “What? How is that funny?”
Katie waved a hand. “It was actually my fault. I was jaywalking, trying to get to class. I don’t know why I’m laughing. Armo swept me off my feet, literally, first to the hospital, and later, into a relationship.”
She turned to Avriella, asking her the same question. “How did you meet Mario?
“He was a friend of my father’s, and when he came to our house for dinner, I told him that night that I was going to marry him.”
Mario chuckled. “I didn’t argue. I knew better than to try, and I didn’t want to anyway.”
She was aware of Larenz stiffening slightly beside her when Katie asked, “How did you meet Larenz?”
She gave the woman who was technically her sister-in-law a sweet smile. “He rescued me from a handsy friend, who wasn’t really a friend. I was in Mexico for spring break, and I had nowhere to stay, so he kindly offered me a room in his suite.” She waited until he had exhaled, relaxing slightly, before she continued, “Of course, I didn’t know at that point that he was manipulating me into marriage so he could get my father to end some investigation against your criminal family.” In the deafening silence, she took a sip of her wine before nodding to Avriella, ignoring her mother in law’s stunned expression. “This wine is excellent.”
The silence was shattered a moment later as they all began talking at once. She was most tuned into Larenz, so she heard him curse long and low, which made her smirk. She took another sip of the wine while she waited to hear the fallout.
“What’s Grace talking about, Larenz?” asked Armo.
Larenz muttered something before raising his voice to be heard over the others. “I told you I had a plan, and she was it.”
Avriella shook her head. “Don’t tell me you tricked her into marrying you?”
Grace answered for him, enjoying his discomfort. “Oh, absolutely. He wined and dined me, seduced me, and convinced me that he couldn’t live without me. We eloped at the end of spring break, and I didn’t learn the truth until last week, when I overheard him threatening my father into calling off the investigation. To be fair, he also threatened to kill my father if I didn’t cooperate with our little merger.”
Larenz was clearly angry, glaring at her. “You call this cooperation?”
She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I don’t see the problem, Larenz. Clearly your whole family is in on the whole mob thing, so I’m just being upfront about your plans. It’s good for business.” She finished her glass of wine, hoping that the maid would return to refill it quickly. Despite her cool exterior, she
was a bundle of raw nerves, and the wine was helping to relax her.
“That’s terrible,” said Katie, glaring at her brother-in-law. “How could you do such a thing, Larenz?”
He snorted. “I did it to protect you as much as any of the rest of us. Don’t think I don’t know that you were trying to get Armo to run away with you and start over somewhere else.”
Armo held up a hand. “Hey, I said that in passing, not to complain about the idea or have it thrown back at me.”
Katie turned her ire on her husband. “You told him what I said?”
Armo looked flustered. “I did, but I was just telling him because I wanted him to see how concerned we all were. I didn’t know he was going to take this route.”
Larenz slammed his hand on the table and Grace rolled her eyes at his theatrics as she reached for his glass of wine, downing half of it in one long swallow. Lack of food was starting to catch up with her, and her head was swimming a bit, but the wine was also providing a boost to her confidence, and she had no intention of stopping before she’d finished at least the second glass.
“You’re all being naïve. What choice was there? I had to find a way to call off Faulkner, and his perfect little daddy’s girl was his weakness. Any of you would have done the same.”
She held her breath, wondering if they would disagree or agree. She was unsurprised, though slightly disappointed, when both of his brothers nodded. Anger spurred her to ask, “Would you have tricked me into marriage by convincing me you were in love with me or something? Or would you have just been blunt about it and told me that if I didn’t marry you, both my father and I were probably going to meet unfortunate accidents?”
Lilly was the next to speak. “Dante would have told you bluntly. He would have structured the deal whatever way was most advantageous for him, but he wouldn’t have lied to you about things he didn’t feel.” Lilly definitely understood why Grace was so angry. That was clear from her sympathetic tone and the hard glare she darted in Larenz’s direction.
Grace turned her attention to Katie and Armo, waiting for one of them to answer. Armo was the first to speak up. “I probably wouldn’t have told you the full truth, but I would have maybe tried to keep it friendly.”
Katie snorted. “He wouldn’t have told you unless he absolutely had to, but I don’t think he would have tried to trick you into marrying him under the pretext of being in love with you.”
She shot a look at Larenz, struggling to hide the swell of victory she felt. “I think it’s clear that they agree you did a shitty thing, Larenz.”
Before she could finish the glass of wine she’d stolen from him, he took it from her fingers and brought it to his own lips, deliberately sipping from the same spot she had used. “If you hate me, why do you care about how I got you into the marriage to start with?”
She glared at him. “Because you lied to me. I would have preferred that you just approached me and laid out the facts. I would have been blackmailed or coerced into the relationship, but at least I would have gone in with my eyes open and known exactly what kind of man you were from the start.”
He looked unconvinced. “But you still hate me, right?”
She plucked the wine glass from his hand again, swallowing the contents in one sip. “More than anything,” she said with conviction as she slammed the delicate stemware onto the table hard enough to make Avriella wince.
Chapter Six
After that disastrous family dinner, Larenz seemed to go out of his way to avoid her, which suited Grace just fine. She occasionally felt lonely in the huge house, but she wouldn’t have sought out Larenz for company anyway. She tried to settle into a routine, and she had visited her father twice, both times to assure him she was fine and encourage him to continue to cooperate.
It was clearly having a stressful effect on him, and he looked his age for the first time that she could ever remember. She was worried about him, but she didn’t see a solution at the moment. She was trapped as Larenz’s hostage/wife, and her father was forced to do his bidding. Until she could find a way around that, the best she could do was to reassure her father that she was just fine.
It had been almost two weeks now that she had been married to Larenz, and nearly that long since she’d shared his bed or even glanced at him with desire. She couldn’t deny there were nights when she woke in a sweating, gasping heap with sensual images of Larenz still dancing through her mind, but she hoped that the longer she went without contact, the sooner they would dissolve completely, taking any remnants of lust or deeper emotions with them. She didn’t want to feel anything for Larenz, and she hoped she was well on her way to doing that. It was a constant struggle to remember to keep her heart hardened to him, but she was confident that it would soon feel completely natural to do so.
She was in the pool that evening, relishing the feel of the warm water and the privacy of the evening. It was also a time of day she usually had to herself and didn’t have to worry about running into Larenz, since he was supposed to be at the club. Whether he really was or not wasn’t her concern, and she always reminded herself that whenever she experienced a surge of jealousy at the idea of him with another woman.
Despite telling herself that so often she had almost started to believe it, the sight of him entering the house with another woman was enough to send her anger skyrocketing. She watched in stunned disbelief as Larenz stood with his arm around the waist of a gorgeous blonde. Her hair was stacked artfully atop her head, and she had breasts that had clearly been created in a surgical theater.
The woman was hanging all over Larenz, and a surge of anger shot through Grace as she moved from floating lazily on her back to a rapid breaststroke that took her to the nearest ladder. She pulled herself out of the pool, grabbed a towel, and strode into the house just in time to see the blonde plant a kiss on Larenz’s mouth. He pulled away instantly, but Grace still felt anger, and an unexpected pain, blast through her at the sight of them.
“Get out,” Grace said to the woman through gritted teeth.
Larenz didn’t jump away from the other woman, although he did turn his attention to Grace.
“Larenz, who is this?” asked the other woman in a purr as she placed her palm against his chest, slipping two fingers between the buttons of his shirt to stroke the skin of his chest. Larenz stepped away from her again, but that didn’t appease Grace.
“I’m his wife, and it’s obvious that you’re his mistress.”
“Not yet,” Blondie said in a sultry tone. “But the night is young.”
“Claudia ran into some trouble at the club and I gave her ride here since it was closer for her friend to come get her,” Larenz said calmly.
Right.
But sure enough a few minutes later a young man was there to pick up the blonde. Claudia looked as surprised as Grace at his arrival.
Larenz shrugged. “I called him and told him to come get you, even though you’d told him you didn’t need a ride. Like Grace so eloquently pointed out, I am married.” He all but spat the word.
Claudia, embarrassed at being caught in a lie, was mad now at both Grace and Larenz. Grace could care less.
“Stay away from my husband,” Grace muttered as the other woman walked by haughtily and out the door.
Taking a deep breath, she turned back to face Larenz, who stood where he had been before. She strode closer to him, crossing the distance between them. “You are such a bastard! I don’t care who you bang, but you’re not going to do it in the home that I’m forced to live in.”
He arched a brow. “I’m not banging anybody. And it’s my house, and not yours.”
She glared at him. “Wrong, dear husband. You didn’t have me sign a prenuptial agreement when you swept me off my feet. Everything you own also belongs to me, including this house.
His eyes narrowed.
“And I’ll tell you my sister is married to the best divorce attorney in the state,” Grace continued. “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Car
men Firenze, but she handles high-profile cases, and she has a very successful return rate. I’ve consulted with her, and I truly do own half of everything you have. We were a little fuzzy on the criminal endeavors, but I’m content to lay claim to just your legitimate business, along with this house.”
His mouth tightened, and all hints of amusement fled. “You’ve been discussing me with a divorce lawyer?”
She nodded, feeling smug. He didn’t have to know the meeting had occurred with Carmen, Grace, and her sister over coffee as part of their usual weekly meeting time. Brenda had gone for drinks, so she still had no clue that Grace was married to a mobster, but her sister knew that the marriage was already in trouble. “Carmen assures me that if we end up divorcing, I’ll definitely get half of everything you have, but she could probably get me even more. If we had a kid, I’d get so much that you’d be crying, but that’s never happening.”
He glared at her. “It might, since I never bothered to use a condom.”
She rolled her eyes. “I might’ve been completely immersed in a miasma of hormones, but I wasn’t that far gone. I’m on the pill, and there won’t be any little Moretti's coming from me. You lost that chance.” A sharp pang went through her as she realized this marriage to Larenz meant she would probably never have children of her own, unless he fathered them, and that was never happening.
She lifted her chin defiantly. “The reality is this, Larenz. You might have me over a barrel, so to speak, so I can’t leave you. I’m stuck as your wife. You’re also stuck as my husband, and as my husband without a prenuptial agreement, which I wouldn’t have signed anyway; you’re also over a financial barrel. Not to mention, things could get messy and public. I’m your wife, so I can’t be forced to testify against you, but I could always choose to do so. So if we’re stuck in this arrangement, it needs to be mutually beneficial, and we both need to realize we have leverage over the other.”
