I would endure. I would not let a man break me. I would comply, but I wouldn’t allow him to reduce me to a shell of myself.

Luca’s touch was almost tender as he slowly tugged my skirt back down over my thighs, his fingertips trailing along my sensitized skin. He released my wrists and grasped my waist, carefully guiding me to sit beside him. Heated pain flared on my abused bottom, and I suppressed a grimace, struggling to keep my face calm and composed. I wouldn’t let him see how thoroughly he’d rattled me.

He rested his hand on my knee, maintaining contact. Despite my desire to escape him entirely, the temptation to find comfort in that simple touch was nearly overwhelming. My eyes burned, and I blinked rapidly to clear the haze of tears before they could fall down my cheeks.

I stared out the car window, hiding my eyes from him so that he couldn’t see them shining. The world blurred past us, the result of my disorientation rather than the speed of the SUV. We’d slowed to follow normal traffic laws; Luca wouldn’t want to be pulled over and questioned about kidnapping me.

I straightened my spine. No matter what he said, I was his hostage now. In a few minutes, I would become his wife, but I would never be anything more than a captive to my new husband.

Chapter 3

Luca

My palm prickled with the remembered heat of her round ass flushing red beneath my punitive hand. I might not want to get married, but my bride was undeniably lovely. It wouldn’t be a hardship to have her in my bed.

And the way she’d become aroused by my discipline…

Yes, my wife and I would get along well. Once she learned to obey. Once she learned that I could offer her pleasure and safety. She would have no reason to resent me if I flooded her lush body with ecstasy every night.

I took a breath and suppressed the lust that’d been threatening to overwhelm me ever since I’d taken her over my knee in the car. Now wasn’t the time to ravage my pretty new wife. That could come after the ceremony and then we could seal our union.

Elenora would be mine. For the rest of our lives. Neither of us had a choice.

A pulse of rage seared my veins, burning away some of my arousal. Dante had tried to steal my birthright from me, so I’d been forced to steal his bride. His alliance with Giuseppe Ricci wouldn’t go forward. I would’ve preferred to kill them both, but I wouldn’t start a war. Too many of our men respected Giuseppe, my father’s most trusted advisor. I wouldn’t tear apart my organization before I even took control. My father was on his deathbed, and the Russians were already circling like vultures, waiting to pick away at our territory if we showed any signs of weakness.

So, I found myself in this clusterfuck of a situation: forced into marriage years before I would’ve considered taking a bride. I’d always known I would have to secure my legacy one day, but that’d been at least a decade in the future. I was barely twenty-eight; too young to be shackled to one woman.