Marked For Love (Mob Romance) by Cristina Grenier Read Free Book Online Page B

from the room. There was little more than the bed, a dresser, a single chair and a hairbrush.
    Giovanni had said that she hadn’t moved around much during his shift, while Matteo had cited hearing her shifting on the bed every ten minutes or so. Now, things were quiet once again, and Vicente wondered: was she sleeping? Stretched out across the queen sized bed in her scant silver dress, her lovely dark locks fanned out on the pillow as she slipped into an exhausted slumber?
    It would be nothing to unlock and slip through the door adjoining the two rooms – to indulge himself and watch her as she slept, tempted by the heaving of her bosom and the soft invitation of her breath…
    Biting back a groan, he turned onto his side, willing away the erection that had begun to tent his silk pajama bottoms.
    Now was not the time. They had two more days before they were set to leave to Italy, and Grace couldn’t possibly remain in his keeping if he couldn’t control himself.
    Control.
    Vicente’s life was a series of tightly controlled scenarios. He controlled who he was with Giorgio. He controlled how he acted in his role as assassin and enforcer. He controlled all of his captives and those who worked beneath him; but now, he found himself struggling to control his body. He hadn’t had such a trivial problem since he was a boy.
    He would have to take measures to resolve the problem; the first of which being that goddamned dress. Tomorrow, he would have one of their female contacts buy Grace some more suitable clothing – something that wouldn’t attempt to burn itself into his mind every time he laid eyes on her lush, mouthwatering form. Then, of course, there was her penchant for unexpected bursts of laughter.
    That had come completely unexpected – high and almost desperate – at the news that they planned to ransom her.
    There is no way my father is going to pay anything for me . She had been so vehement – so much so that he almost believed her. But, how was a girl like her to know? Fathers were often so enamored of their daughters that they let them walk all over them – anything to gain their respect.
    Trellis would pay, and that was a fact. He would pay, or his daughter would die.
    In Giorgio’s world, things were that simple – and Vicente lived in Giorgio’s world.
    He turned onto his other side, on the cusp of drifting off, when a soft, feminine sound reached his ears. Stiffening, Vicente sat slowly upright in bed, pressing his ear to the wall at his right to listen more closely. At first, he thought he might be hearing Grace talk in her sleep, but the harder he listened, the more that he realized her hitching breath and whimpers were very obviously the sounds of her grief.
    She was crying.
    Soft and reserved, but weeping nonetheless.
    It was something he’d never seen in anyone they’d ever kidnapped – not even children twelve and thirteen years of age. They were little princes and princesses, used to getting what they wanted, and Vicente and the others were always charged with keeping them happy and healthy. Elder captives tried to charm their way out of undue harshness, never showing weakness they feared in themselves.
    But Grace, it appeared, was an entirely different breed. She was quite obviously frightened, and Vicente found himself faced with a powerful urge to belay that fright. However, instead of going to her, he merely rose from bed to leave the room, blocking the sounds from his consciousness. It was nearly four in the morning, and time for Matteo to start his second watch. Perhaps in the living room, away from Grace’s influence, Vicente might be able to sleep better. At least, that was what he hoped.
    The last thing he needed right now was a woman he couldn’t shake – not with half a million dollars of his stepfather’s money on the line.
     
    He passed a restless night, and the next morning, Vicente longed for proper Italian espresso to galvanize his alertness. Of course, he had to settle