Seen but not heard.
The perfect, dutiful mafia princess.
I don’t mind the not-talking part much because if there’s one thing I’ve learned since my power came in, it’s that all people do is lie to you.
Even the ones you don’t think ever would.
The lies used to hurt until I found it best just to not care.
If you didn’t care, their lies couldn’t cause you pain.
It became easier to break free from the chains my family constantly tried to restrain me with.
After seeing the way my ability shaped my childhood friendships, I stopped telling people I knew they were lying. The way they’d look at me when I called them out on their lies is something that’s always stuck with me. The taunts they’d whisper behind my back.
Freak.
Weirdo.
Liar.
The last one is pretty ironic, if you ask me. No one ever does, though, because they know I’ll always be honest.
They would bully me as if I wasn’t the daughter of a powerful man who would kill them in their sleep without remorse. If not them, then Dad would have killed their families for their children daring to hurt me. No way was I going to let him hurt someone because of me. That wasn’t something I could live with, so I didn’t tell anyone. It made me a bigger target because they knew they could get away with it. They never went as far as hurting me physically—that would have been their death, whether I told them or not. Sometimes, mental scars shape us more than physical ones, though.
Another zap against my skin pulls me from my thoughts as I tune back into the conversation going on in front of me.
His wife scoffs. “Your secretary just tripped and her lips landed right against your collar, did they?”
Really, Marcus?
“It’s the truth,” he splutters.
Lie.
“Oh, darling. If only I didn’t have pictures proving differently.”
The pain hidden beneath her words has me tuning out of the conversation. When will the men in this life understand how much pain they cause by stepping out on their wives? It doesn’t matter if it’s a genuine marriage or not. Vows should mean something. If they can’t keep it in their trousers, the women should at least be able to have side pieces without worrying whether it’ll cost them their lives. Fair is fair, after all.
It’s one reason I’ve rebelled so hard against this life.
And now, despite dating someone else exclusively for four months, I’m engaged to a man I know nothing about. Oh, the attraction to Konstantin is there. The moment our eyes connected at the last annual masquerade, my pussy spasmed around nothing. Embarrassingly, a fucking orgasm rushed over me right there in the middle of a crowd and my knees buckled. His thick arm wrapped around my waist and caught me to his chest before I could fall, though. His touch set off fireworks in my brain, my body went haywire, and I lost my vision for nearly thirty seconds.
Literally, lost it. Could see nothing but white.
It was the scariest thing I’d ever experienced.
My body was trembling by the time my vision returned, and Konstantin was staring down at me with so much heat in his deep blue eyes that I moaned. I didn’t miss the big-ass bulge in his trousers, either.
I grew up hearing about the flash bonds that happen between people of certain bloodlines, but I didn’t expect to get hit with one. They’re known to occasionally skip generations.
While the thought of someone being solely mine used to thrill me when I was younger, it does nothing but scare the crap out of me now. That’s a lot of power for someone to have over another person. There’s already enough about my life that’s unnatural.
I want a love that’s not. I want one that’s built organically, not produced by some force that’s not of this world.
How are you supposed to trust something like that?
Kingston warned me against continuing to date Dane. Actually, he informed me I’d be breaking up with him immediately. King should have known better because I don’t do orders. He knows this.
