Lahat ng Kabanata ng Blood Bound Vows: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 37

The car didn’t stop smoothly.It braked too hard, tires biting into concrete as the garage gate slid shut behind us with a metallic scream that echoed through my bones—the engine cut. Silence rushed in—thick, suffocating, unfinished.Dante was out of the car before I realized we’d arrived.The door on my side opened, and his hand appeared in front of me, palm up. Not gentle. Not rough. Expectant.I stared at it for a second too long.“Isidora,” he said.Just my name. Nothing else.I placed my hand in his.The moment our skin touched, something inside me fractured again. His grip tightened instantly, grounding, possessive in a way that had nothing to do with ownership and everything to do with survival. He didn’t pull me out. He shielded me—his body angling between mine and the open space of the garage as if someone might still be there, watching.The doors locked behind us. Bolts slid home. Cameras whirred to life.The penthouse elevator opened like a mouth.We stepped inside. Dante k

The first thing Dante said when I sat down was, “You look like you are deciding whether to forgive me or stab me with the fork.”I picked up my napkin and laid it across my lap. “If I were going to stab you, I would not warn you with my expression.”“That is disappointing,” he said. “I like honesty.”“Then you picked the wrong night,” I replied.The restaurant was private in the way only Dante’s world understood privacy—no other diners. No staff hovered close enough to overhear. Candlelight reflected off crystal glasses and polished wood. It should have felt romantic. Instead, it felt like a negotiation wrapped in linen and wine.He lifted his glass. “You came.”“I did not say this was a date,” I said.He took a slow sip as he watched me over the rim. “You did not cancel.”“I wanted answers,” I said. “Not ambience.”The corner of his mouth curved slightly. “You always want answers.”“And you always avoid them.”“That is not true,” he said calmly. “I choose timing.”I exhaled and looke

Luca’s voice was hoarse and stripped to a raw I’d never heard from him. “I am already here,” I said. “So you can either communicate with me or pass me off as furniture.” He stood with his back to me, hands braced on the edge of the table like it was the only thing keeping him upright. The room reeked of antiseptic and metal, something darker down below. It stuck to the walls no matter how much anyone attempted to scrub it away. “She never meant to betray him,” Luca said softly. I did not answer right away. I had understood that silence in this house was never vacant. It demanded. “She just wanted out,” he said again. “Matteo told her that if she told him the routes, she would be free. New papers. New life. No longer looking over her shoulder.” I swallowed. “And you believed that.” “I believed her,” he said, snapping and finally pivoting toward me. He was red-rimmed, wild in a way that made him feel simultaneously younger and far older. “I thought by loving her, I would be able t

My back hit the bedroom door with a soft thud as Dante’s mouth claimed mine again when we entered the bedroom. There was no gentle lead-up, no sweet prelude. Just the hard, possessive crush of his lips and the slick, hungry slide of his tongue against mine. The taste of him—expensive whiskey and dangerous intent—flooded my senses. I moaned into his mouth, my hands fisted in the black silk of his shirt.He broke the kiss just long enough to growl, “I’ve been thinking about fucking you like this all goddamn day, Isidora,” before his mouth was on my neck, his teeth scraped the sensitive skin where my pulse hammered.A shiver, hot and liquid, shot straight down my spine to pool between my legs. “Yeah?” I breathed and arched into him. I felt the rigid line of his erection press against my stomach through our clothes. “What exactly were you thinking, Dante? Tell me.”He pulled back, his dark eyes burned with a fire that had nothing to do with affection and everything to do with raw, unfilte