Dark Throne: A Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (Russo Royals) by Shanna Handel

Author:Shanna Handel [Handel, Shanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

9

Esme

Felicity moves around me, pinning my hair up, fussing with my make-up, readying me for my wedding, much like we did with her when she arrived at the castle.

Cecily came as soon as she heard the news. She sits beside me at the vanity table, holding my right hand in both of hers. Her knee bobs up and down as she shakes her foot, a nervous habit of hers.

She stares at my face in the mirror, every so often dabbing a tear from her eyes.

My eyes are dry.

“Oh, Esme. Isn’t there any way out of this? Just last night we were dancing and now you’re only an hour away from marrying…him.” Her nose turns up with distaste. “Luca is such a…a…brute.”

He certainly was last night.

I loved his rough touches, his aggressive kisses.

How can I explain to Cecily how my feelings toward Luca are so rapidly changing…when I barely understand myself? I give a shrug. “He’s not so bad.”

Her jaw hangs open. “Not so bad? Not so bad! Do you remember the time he put the slug down the back of your dress? Or dropped the toad in your lap? And the way he tugged on your braids every time you would walk by. He was such a bully, too. Always ready to beat up any boy that crossed him…” Her words trail off and she gets that faraway look she often gets when she’s thinking.

“What is it?”

She gives me a long stare, her expression going funny.

She goes to answer, then stops. Looking away, she shakes her head. “It’s nothing. Just a rumor I heard.”

I give my hand a tug in hers. “Tell me. What were you were going to say?”

She bites her lip like she’s holding in a secret.

One poke to her ticklish ribs and she’s laughing. “Okay, okay I’ll tell you. Gosh—I never can keep secrets from you, can I? But it was just a rumor. I heard from Annaliese who heard from Gretchen who heard from Mark Rubio—”

Mark Rubio—the creep that was always undressing me with his eyes, then one day, out of the blue, stopped. “The guy Luca got suspended for fighting our freshman year?”

She gives a nod. “Yes, that’s him. Anyway, when Gretchen asked Mark what he did to set Luca off, he said it had something to do with you. That he had made some joke, or I don’t know, some lewd comment about you. Something about you being a ripe peach and wouldn’t he like to take a bite of you—”

“Gross.”

Her nose crinkles. “Right? You know how they all are, always talking about sex and never having it.”

She blushes a little after she says it.

She’s a virgin.

She says she’s saving herself for marriage.

I think her brothers have just never let her get close enough to a boy to explore.

She clears her throat, continuing her story. “Anyway, he said Luca got up in his face and told him he’d kill him if he ever heard him talk like that about you again. That’s when Luca punched him.

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