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“Since when did you start drinking vodka?” “Since you said you wouldn’t kiss me if I drank whiskey.”
“But I’m going to take you anyway, and then I’m going to ruin you.” I blink. “What?” “It’s only fair,” he says, tone devoid of emotion. An awful sense of dread creeps over the planes of my shoulders and squeezes the nape of my neck. “Why?” I breathe. He doesn’t miss a beat. “Because it’s only a matter of time before you ruin me.”
“They tailor made you to my liking, Queenie,” he murmurs. Then his tone sours. “Of course they fucking did.”
I dragged her onto this yacht with bloodied hands, with every intention to ruin her before she did me. And yet, one stray tear has got me in a chokehold, wondering if shit like chocolate and hot water bottles will stop another from falling.
“All my other fuck buddies call me Penny.” Violence hits me like a lightning bolt. “And all your other fuck buddies will be six-feet-under if you mention them again.”
“He means, he gets why Rafe is obsessed with you now. You talk almost as much shit as he does.”
Busted knuckles with a feather-light touch. Silky Italian wrapped around callous words. Slow licks, racing hearts. Sweet and sour, hot and cold; contradictions pull at my nerves in a game of tug and war. I hate that I love every second of it.
Bad things don’t last forever.
“Fuck,” he hisses, letting my arms fall. “Did you just bite me?” I look at him seriously. “You know what they say. Eat the rich.”
Even though she’s brought me to my knees and set my world on fire around me, I’m not letting her go anywhere.
“I don’t care how lucky you think you are,” he murmurs. “To me, you’re the unluckiest girl in the world.” Instinct pulls me away from him, but he only tightens his grip on my neck. “But you’re also the prettiest. The funniest. The fucking rudest. You’ve ruined my life but I’m not strong enough to stop you.”
“My Queen of Hearts,” he rasps in fascination, more to himself than to me. “My beautiful demise.”
We look nothing like the King of Diamonds and The Queen of Hearts. Just two fucking idiots in love.
“If I drown, you’re drowning with me. If you burn, I’m burning too. Pick your route to hell, Rafe. The destination and the company are the same.”
Lust burns. Love cuts. But betrayal? It fucking incinerates.
“You must have really liked her to give her the watch Mama gave you when you opened Lucky Cat.” I’m too distracted. Can barely hear him over the pounding in my ears. “I didn’t give it to her; she won it.” “Did she win Mama’s necklace, too?”
I KNEW IT
He moves up to my throat again, smiling against it. “No? Then what do you want? Diamonds? A car? Two cars? An island, Queenie? A Birkin in every color? Fuck,” He licks the sensitive spot behind my ear. “I’ll give you the world in every color if you want it.”
“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. “Sorry isn’t good enough,” I whisper back. His eyes flash. “Then what will be, Penny? Because one thing’s for sure; I’m not walking this earth without you.” He laughs bitterly, running a paw over his chest. “I tried it. Didn’t like it.”
We’re just two idiots who don’t know how love works.
I absentmindedly brush my fingers over my necklace. I can’t believe the woman who gave it to me was his mother. Now, my memory of her in that dark alley is tinted rose pink. She’s not a nameless guardian angel, but Maria Visconti: the woman who gave birth to the man I’m ridiculously in love with.
“I have a trash can you can use. You can throw yourself in it too, if you’d like.”
“Because even though I’m unlucky with you, I feel even unluckier without you.”
Through blurry eyes, I meet his soft, green gaze. “I’m your hotline now, Queenie. All your mundane thoughts, all your ramblings: they’re mine. I want them all, no matter how trivial. Do you understand me?”
I’ll be here forever—I know it. Shackled by his chains, blissful in his cage. For all I care, he can lock me up and throw the key into the Pacific. I’m in Raphael Visconti’s trap, and I never want to be freed.
“Fuck, I think I’ve finally found a fetish: you spending all my money. There must be a name for that, right?”
“I love you,” she whispers when she reaches my ear. And that? That’s enough to set my skin on fucking fire.
My heart has caught fire, and I’m in love with the Queen who lit the match.
