Bound by Honor (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles, #1)

by Cora Reilly

Women in our world belonged to their husband. They were his property to deal with however he pleased.

I glanced at the now gleaming blade in Umberto’s hand and shivered.

My eyes kept drifting toward the ring on my finger. It felt too heavy, too tight, entirely too much. Luca had marked me as his possession.

“She’s mine,” Luca said quietly, sending a chill down my back with his voice, not to mention his eyes.

“I want to have a word with the men you chose to protect what’s mine.”

Luca brought the knife down and cut Raffaele’s pinky off.

deserved.

I took a step in his direction to protect her, and Father lifted his arm again. I braced myself for the slap, but Luca caught my father’s wrist with his left hand. His right hand was still grasping the knife he’d used to cut off Raffaele’s finger. Both the knife and Luca’s hand were coated with blood. My eyes widened. Father was the master of the house, the master over us. Luca’s intervention was an insult against my father’s honor.

i kinda like him already ngl

“I’m not going to take you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I can wait a few more days. I’ve waited three years, after all.”

flight was no longer an option. Nor was divorce. Death was the only acceptable end to a marriage in our world. Even if I still managed to escape Luca’s watchful eyes and those of his henchmen, my breach of our agreement would mean war. Nothing my father could say would prevent Luca’s Famiglia from exercising vengeance for making them lose face.

A bond to ensure peace.

Nobody would know how much I wanted to escape. Nobody but Luca. I couldn’t hide from him, no matter how much I tried. My body wouldn’t stop shaking and his grip on my hands tightened. As my gaze met Luca’s cold gray eyes, I could tell that he knew. How often had he instilled fear in others? Recognizing it was probably second nature to him.

His eyes bored into me, even as he pulled back. Their message was clear: You are mine.

“Make him be good to you. Make him love you if you can. It’s the only way to get through this.”

“Tonight you beg me to spare you, but one day you’re going to beg me to fuck you.”

oh my

“When I claim your body, I want you writhing beneath me in pleasure and not fear.”

gasping rn

I was grateful that Luca showed me this normal side of him. It gave me hope. Maybe that was his intention, but I didn’t care.

For something that will never happen: that you’ll want to make love to me and not take me like I’m your possession. Part of me didn’t want to settle for less; the other part knew I had to. Love is something girls hope for when they don’t know better, something women long for when they lie awake at night, and something they’ll only ever get from their children. Men don’t have time for such notions. That’s what my father always said.

Maybe we really could make this marriage work.

You can trust me, I wanted to say, because he could. No matter how much I tried to fight it, I had fallen for him.

“Your marriage to me shackles you to the mafia. Blood and death will be your life as long as I live.” “Then so be it. I’ll go where you go no matter how dark the path.”

No matter how much I tried to ignore my feelings, I knew I loved Luca. Maybe it was natural to fall in love with the person you were married to, the person you shared intimacy with. I wasn’t sure why I had fallen for Luca despite my best intentions not to let him into my heart; I only knew that I had. I knew what men like Luca thought of love. I hadn’t told him about my feelings, though a few times the words had been on the tip of my tongue after we’d laid in each other’s arms, sweaty and sated after sex. I knew Luca wouldn’t say it back, and I didn’t want to make myself vulnerable like that.

“I lied because I hate that I love you, because I hate that you can hurt me without ever laying a finger on me, because I hate myself for loving you even though you won’t ever love me back.”

Vitali was stupid to think Luca would do that, but then I watched in horror as Luca dropped his guns on the floor.

“Don’t do that ever again.” “What?” I breathed. “Taking a bullet for me.”

“Being born into our world means being born with blood on your hands. With every breath we take, sin is engraved deeper into our skin.”

“But I don’t care because loving you is the only pure thing in my life.”

“But you are my first choice, Aria. I’ll burn down the world if I have to. I’ll kill and maim and blackmail. I’ll do anything for you. Maybe love is a risk, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take and as you said, it’s not a choice. I never thought I would, never thought I could love someone like that, but I fell in love with you. I fought it. It’s the first battle I didn’t mind losing.”

I touched my hand to the tattoo over his heart, felt his heart beating against my palm. I smiled. “Mine.” “Always,” Luca said.