all because i kissed a man

Jade

I could see the light bulb go off in my father’s head. This was an easy way out, an opportunity he wouldn’t pass up on. “I’ll have Bella come up right now, we can talk about the details of your engagement—”

There was no way I was letting this madness happen. I’d rather he left here with my head instead of my sister as his bride. 

My hand shut up in the air, interrupting my father. “I’ll go with him. He wants a bride, then he’ll get a bride.”

“Jade–”

“He can take me as his bride, up until Bella comes of age.” That will buy me some time to figure out how to save Bella before she gets married to the Devil. I turned back to Salvatore with a swirl in my hips. “I hope you don’t mind, we look pretty much the same. In a couple years you can have her, a respectable man like yourself should be able to wait.”

His lips turned up at the side in a smirk. “A respectable man? I thought you said I was an evil whore?”

“These are the terms of your marriage, take it or leave—” My words were cut off by my father’s heavy hand landing on my cheek.

“Fucking keep quiet. Must you show your foolery in front of our guest?”

My cheek stung. I struggled to keep the tears from spilling out of my eyes. He’d thrown objects at me when he had a fit, but my father had never raised his hand to hit me.

Salvatore stood up slowly, the amusement gone from his eyes. He stalked towards me, anger rolling off in waves around me. 

In that brief moment I saw the killer that the entire Italy was weary of, the planes of his face hardening like walls drawn up to keep humans out. I half expected him to strike my other cheek. Instead, he stopped in front of me, putting his fingers under my jaw. 

It made me freeze in fear. 

He used his free hand to caress the cheek my father had slapped, his brows furrowed in deep concentration. “Does it hurt?”

“What?” I blurted out. 

“Did I stutter, pretty boy? I asked if it hurt.”

“Y…y…yess.”

My heart almost jumped out of my chest when he leaned into me. The tip of his nose grazed the side of my face, like he was inhaling all of my scent. My heart started to race uncontrollably. 

“This means you belong to me for the two years it’ll take Bella to become legal?” His voice had turned soft as he whispered against the shell of my ear. I tried to convince myself that the shiver that had raked through me wasn’t a result of the sensual drawl in his voice or the feel of his hot breath. I was drunk after all.

“There’s no need to listen to him,” my father tried to tell him. “We can have the wedding this summer, whatever you want.”

Salvatore’s eyes remained trained on mine. “Why have one offspring when I can have two?” His hand went down to the collar of my shirt, he gripped it tightly. “You belong to me now, body and soul. Let’s see if you’ll make for the perfect bride. I’ll need to have a taste to make sure you’re of the finest quality.”

I didn’t understand what he was saying until he bent down and captured my mouth with his.

My first kiss had been sloppy, wet, and a battle of clueless tongues. It was with my first girlfriend, Lucy, we’d just started high school and I was curious.

Even after I grew up and got together with Gracie, I still hated kissing, I always avoided it. It didn’t matter to her because she was there for the money and not the intimacy. 

That was why I froze when I felt his lips on mine. They were warm, soft, which was unusual for someone who grew up in violence. I felt his hand wrap around my neck before tilting my head to give him better access.

All I could taste was cigarettes and bubble gum as his mouth moved with precision and practiced perfection. There was a reason he was popular among the ladies.

The air grew warm and heavy with the heat that was starting to grow inside me. It had to be the alcohol. Lord, let it be the alcohol.

He grabbed my hair, pulling me closer to him. I didn’t mind that it hurt, or that he had deepened the kiss, his tongue now searching, deep and hungry inside my mouth.

It felt like he was consuming me and at the same time stealing my breath while giving me nothing back. He was unleashing a storm inside me, igniting a fire that now coursed through my veins. I felt desperation where there should’ve been resistance. 

The tension between us snapped like a gunshot. A moan slipped out but he swallowed the sound, his lips growing demanding, unforgiving, as though he was punishing me. 

It wasn’t until I was gasping for air that I realized his tiny slimy snake had taken the place of his hand and was curling itself around my neck. Salvatore watched with an evil glint in his eyes as I struggled for air.

“Say that you’re mine,” he drawled out.

“I…” I couldn’t do it. It was one thing offering to take my sister’s place, it was another thing admitting to a mafia boss that I belonged to him.

“Please…” I tried to get the snake off but the slimy bastard only wrapped itself tighter around my neck.

“Come on, you’d rather die than be mine?’

I looked at my father with pleading eyes, but he couldn’t care less what happened to me. I was alone in my troubles. Except, I couldn’t die if I was going to protect Bella. 

“I am…” I struggled to come to terms with the words. The black dots in my vision started to grow, and everything started to fade away. “I am yours.”

The smug look on Salvatore’s face made me want to strangle him.

“Come here, Nero.” The snake started to loosen up before slittering back to Salvatore’s wrist. “That wasn’t hard now, was it?”

I bent down in a coughing fit, trying to drag in as much air as I could into my lungs. The first thing I'll do when I get to be alone with that snake would be to cut it into a thousand pieces.

Salvatore turned to my father. “It’s settled then. If I’m satisfied with his…” he dragged his eyes over my body, “performance…then I might overlook your debt. There’s one tiny lesson I must teach you though.”

He walked slowly to where my father stood behind his huge mahogany desk.

“Your hand.”

My father looked confused for a bit before thrusting his hand out for a handshake. Except it was far from what the devil had in my mind. 

Before any of us could process what the two horned monster was doing, he had pulled out a dagger from his pocket and sliced my father’s fingers clean. I shrieked as all five severed fingers dropped to the table in a pool of blood.

He casually put the bloody dagger back in his pocket. “This will be the last time you lay your filthy hand on my wife.”