LOGIN1AVAThe car ride back to Liam’s place was quiet. I’m sat in the passenger seat, my shoes off, legs tucked up beneath me. My dress was satin and navy and clinging in all the places that made strangers stare. My skin buzzed from champagne, my ears rang with echoes of laughter and music, but more than anything, I felt Liam beside me. He felt too close. His hand gripped the wheel tighter than necessary. I watched the way his knuckles flexed and how the tendons in his forearm twitched with restraint.Neither of us said anything.What was there to say?The wedding had been beautiful. Our mutual friend Clara married her long-time boyfriend in a vineyard just outside the city. The ceremony was emotional, the wine flowed too freely, and when the lights dimmed and the music picked up, so did the gravity pulling Liam and me toward each other.I had danced with strangers. I had danced with him. But when our bodies brushed for the third time with his hand on my waist and my mouth too close to hi
7Arianna I never thought I’d get married in a dress stolen from a dead woman, but nothing about my life with Dante had ever followed rules.The gown had been tailored to fit me like it was made for my body. Silk white, low-backed and delicate lace clinging to my spind with a slit so high it whispered sin every time I moved. My hair was pinned up with jeweled combs, lips tinted rose, but I barely looked at the mirror. I couldn’t take my eyes off the window.Venice shimmered beyond it. The canal beneath our villa mirrored the soft gold of the morning sun. It was too quiet for what was about to happen. It was too quiet for my wedding. Food anyone’s wedding at all.We’d chosen to marry in secret. Just Dante, me, and a priest paid to be silent about it. No guests. No vows written on fancy cards. We didn’t need that or any witnesses at all. We had both agreed that our wedding would be a secret to avoid any threats from the people in his syndicate. They wouldn’t want him to marry out of th
6DanteI waited until after midnight.Arianna had fallen asleep in the sunroom after dinner, her head curled against the cushions. I’d watched her through the window for nearly ten minutes before walking away, because the ache to hold her had gotten too sharp. Too real.This was the part where I should’ve let her go. Not physically, she belonged to me now. But emotionally. Spiritually. If I had any shred of self-preservation, I would’ve kept her in the role I created for her: a transaction. A possession. Something beautiful and obedient to fuck, protect, and display.But she kept looking at me like I was the only thing that made her feel safe. And worse, I liked it.I stood in front of the box for nearly an hour. Custom leather, hand-stitched, with black velvet lining. A collar rested inside. Not a pet’s collar, not something humiliating or cheap. This was designed for one purpose, to bind a woman not beneath me, but beside me. A symbol of chosen submission. Of surrender.I had never
5AriannaIt happened in a blink.One moment I was walking through the manicured garden on the eastern side of the estate, sunlight kissing my skin through the gauze of my white dress. The next, I was yanked backward by a hand over my mouth, the sharp jab of metal against my ribs.“Scream and you die,” the voice growled in my ear, breath hot and foul.But I didn’t scream. Not because I wasn’t terrified, I was, but because I’d learned something since coming here. Screaming wasted time. Time I needed to survive.The man dragged me through the hedge wall, toward the waiting black SUV idling beyond the estate’s border wall. No guards in sight. My heart thundered. Had they been bribed? Killed?I twisted hard, throwing my elbow back and catching his jaw. He swore and stumbled. I made it three steps before another man emerged from the vehicle and slammed me back against the hood.“You’re worth too much to damage, little girl,” he sneered.I spat in his face. He raised his hand.Gunfire. The
4Arianna’s POV. The door slammed behind me like a gunshot.I didn’t flinch. I was too busy breathing like a caged animal, pacing the perimeter of the gilded prison he called a “room.” Velvet drapes, antique mirrors, gold-leaf trim—it was opulence dripping in control. The windows were locked. The door even more so. Dante had made sure of that.Because I ran.And he caught me.“You think you can run from me, Arianna?”His voice came from behind the door. It was calm and cold all at once. I lunged for it, fists pounding. “You said I could leave when I wanted!”“No. If I did you’d walk through the front door, bot try to run away. I said you wouldn’t want to leave.”My scream echoed off the walls. “You’re insane. You think this is love? You think I’ll ever want you after this?”The lock clicked slowly. Then the door swung open.And there he was. Dante Moretti. Dark suit unbuttoned, sleeves rolled, jaw clenched like he’d swallowed a grenade.I didn’t back away.“I don’t need you to love m
DanteShe looked too damn good in black.I had the dress made to my specifications with high slit, low back, and delicate straps that barely held against her curves. Not modest. Not subtle. Because subtlety was for men who didn’t want the world to see what they owned.Arianna was mine.And tonight, I was going to make sure everyone knew it.She sat in the back of the car with her arms crossed, refusing to look at me. The soft lighting inside the Rolls-Royce brushed against the slope of her collarbone, the silk of her dress clinging like sin. I reached across the seat and adjusted the delicate chain I’d fastened around her throat. It was a thin gold collar with no charm. Not yet.“Keep your chin up,” I said.“Why?” she muttered.“So they can see what happens to a princess who gets sold to a king.”She glared at me, but she didn’t drop her chin.We arrived at the estate outside the city just after nine. The place was lit like a palace with warm yellow lights, manicured hedges, a founta