Ch 8

Alessandro's POV

“I’ve never done this before.”

Those words echoed in my head like a slow, haunting bell. I’ve never done this before.

I walked down the hallway of my mansion, footsteps cracking against the marble floors. Luka followed quietly behind me, he always did, but I could feel his gaze fixed on me, heavy, like he was trying to read the chaos unraveling behind my silence.

The truth was, I didn’t even know what was going through my own head.

The moment she’d said those words, something shifted inside of me, inside of my whole being.

I couldn’t stop replaying it.

A virgin? Rue?

It didn’t make sense. She was stubborn, fierce, and defiant, like a woman who would stare death down just to prove a point. Women like her didn’t come untouched. They came scarred, hardened, and fire-forged.

But she had looked at me when she said it. Looked at me dead in the eye. There was no trembling voice, none of those manipulative softness.

Just a blunt, unwavering truth. Delivered with more weight than anything else she’d ever said to me.

I should’ve called her bluff, but I know she wasn’t bluffing.

I had been with enough women to know the difference, the way fear is faked, the way innocence is performed. Rue didn’t perform, she swallowed fear like someone who had lived hand to mouth her entire life.

She wasn’t just innocent, the right word would have been helpless and yet, she had stood up for her father against me with the conviction of someone who had nothing left to lose.

How could someone like that be untouched?

“Boss?”

Luka’s voice tugged me back.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t, my mind was full of questions I had no business entertaining. Not when my father had summoned me and I have to face him in a few minutes.

The car was already waiting. I slid into the backseat without a word. Luka climbed into the front. The gate creaked open behind us, and the car rolled into the night.

City lights bled past the windows in a blur of blue, steel, and shadows. But all I saw was Rue.

Her face. Pale and her eyes wide with vulnerability she tried so damn hard to hide. It makes my dick hurt.

And the way she said it… as if it physically hurt to let the truth slip out.

“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath.

It didn’t take long to arrive at my father’s estate.

Old money, unlike mine.

Ancient and fucking arrogant. Unchanged by time or decay. Marble columns flanked the entrance like silent sentinels.

The massive iron gates stood wide open, like the mouth of a beast ready to welcome home its beloved son.

I stepped out with my jaw tight and my chest heavier than I wanted to admit.

The smoke met me first. Thick and bitter, clinging to my lungs.

My father sat in his usual spot on the veranda, when he is not in his office, a cigar clenched between his fingers. Three of his old cronies flanked him, scotch glasses in hand, laughter loud and slurred from too much power and too little consequence.

The moment he saw me, his laughter cut off like a blade through silk.

“Alessandro,” he said with a brutal nod. “You picked her, didn’t you?”

I bowed slightly. “Yes, Father.” There was no need to lie, He would find out anyway, this was more than a debt collateral, I didn't need to marry her to prove any point.

He blew out a dense cloud of smoke, eyes narrowing through the haze. “I have a bad feeling about that girl. She will be your ruin. I see it.”

“She won’t be,” I replied quickly. “Just like I said before, I will civilize her.”

One of the old men chuckled low in his throat. If we weren't in front of my father, I would’ve ripped out his fucking tongue out of that mouth of his.

My father extended a hand. “Rise.”

I straightened.

He handed me a thick envelope, sealed in black wax.

“Your new assignment.”

I cracked the seal without hesitation, scanning the contents. Contracts, names, numbers. A list of foreign business associates to negotiate with, and deals to finalize. A few pressure points and leverage.

Familiar terrain, my specialty.

“Get me my money,” he said calmly, dragging from his cigar. “No mistakes.”

“No mistakes,” I echoed.

There was no need to ask questions. This was our way. He commanded. I executed. I was the only one who could deliver results. Titles meant nothing. Clearly, it doesn't matter to him. Only profit margins, and the number of lives lost if I failed.

I stood, ready to leave.

Then his voice stopped me cold. “Oh. . . and Alessandro,” he said, flatly.

I paused mid-step. My spine straightened instinctively.

“You will see to that cunt,” he said, his tone laced with disgust. “Give me an heir and then dispose of her. You might as well make use of her while she’s around.”

I turned slightly, just enough to meet his eyes.

“What?” I asked, my voice low and controlled.

“You heard me,” he sneered. “You’ll give me an heir with her. Let her serve a purpose. Let her benefit the empire.”

My jaw tightened, and my muscles twitched.

But I said nothing. Just one sharp nod, then I turned and walked away.

The ride back was quiet.

Luka didn’t ask questions. He never did. That was part of why I kept him close.

Still, I could feel him watching me, sensing the tension radiating beneath my skin.

“Something troubling you, Boss?” he asked, eyes fixed on the road, not even glancing at the rearview mirror.

I hesitated.

“She said she was a virgin.”

His brow ticked up slightly in the mirror.

“She?” he asked, though we both knew exactly who.

“Rue,” I confirmed.

Silence stretched.

Then Luka gave a low whistle. “That explains a lot.”

“No, it doesn’t,” I snapped, sharper than I intended. “That’s what pisses me off. It doesn’t explain anything. Someone like her? With that fire? With that mouth of hers? I would have bet every damn dollar I’ve got she wasn’t innocent.”

“Maybe that’s why she is,” Luka said with a small shrug. “Some people fight because they’ve had to. Because no one ever protected them.”

I scowled, my gaze narrowing at the back of his head.

“Don’t psychoanalyze her.”

He chuckled softly. “You already are.”

I hated how right he was.

But no matter how much I tried to dismiss it, the image of Rue curled up on my bed refused to leave my mind, small, silent, and lost in a storm no one else could see. That wasn’t the same girl who had pointed a gun at me the night we met. That wasn’t the same woman who had challenged everything I said.

And yet… maybe it was, maybe all of it was real. Maybe her strength was armor, and beneath it, just like I thought, she’d been breakable all along.

And now, she was mine, my wife, my property.

The one who would bear my heir, I leaned back in the seat, letting my eyes shut for a moment.

I will tame her, I had told my father.

But taming Rue was like trying to grasp fire with bare hands.

And I couldn’t decide. . . Did I want to hold her back?

Or let her burn me alive?

But I know, she is very dangerous! But why am I not afriand of getting burned.