Page 32 of Heartless Sinner

Marla nodded again. She still just poked at her food, and I noticed that she shifted around in her chair a bit, like she wasn’t quite comfortable on her seat.

“That’s good,” she finally said. “I asked my mother, and she gave me some interesting information on my brother. She said that he got into spats with people all the time, usually over women.”

I arched a brow. “You think this might be personal and not a larger mafia thing?”

“I’m not sure,” Marla said with a shrug. “But it’s something that I think is worth exploring.”

I finished eating and stood up to take care of the dishes. “You really went all out tonight, candles and everything.”

Marla blushed. “I’m not good at this… um… at this whole wife thing. I don’t know what’s expected.”

“Hmm.” I rinsed the dishes and stacked them into the dishwasher. “But you’re making a lot of effort, so that’s admirable.”

“You have no idea.” Marla stood up and I heard the rustle of clothes—and when I turned around, she’d dropped her dress to the floor.

She wore a set of red lacy lingerie, the bra a push-up, all of it just see-through enough for me to get a glimpse of her nipples underneath.

Jesus. After talking to Toby, I was still suspicious of her and her motives, but my cock sure as hell didn’t care. My mouth went dry. She looked insanely fuckable.

Looking completely unaffected by her seduction attempt took effort, but somehow I managed to keep my reaction indifferent. “You really need to get better at this whole… subterfuge thing,” I told her.

Marla sucked in a quick breath, then flushed, faltering a bit before regaining her composure. “What do you mean?”

I stalked towards her, trying to read her expression, which held its own suspicions. “You really think one nice, cliché romantic meal and some fancy underwear is going to get me to tell you whatever you want? And here I had hopes for you.”

“Can you blame me?” Marla hissed at me, and drew herself up, which only made her breasts more prominent beneath the lace. “Do you know who had a beef with Dmitri? Your own brother. How do I know this isn’t some scheme to cover your own tracks and your own brother’s mistake?”

“I should ask you the same thing,” I shot back as I stood a foot away from her. “You put on a very pretty show, making me think that wooing you was all my idea. When did you decide to try and climb the ladder? Was it before or after your brother’s death? Are you just an opportunist, or are you a murderer as well?”

Marla looked outraged. Her body trembled with fury. I had to admit, it was pretty damn hot.

“You think I would’ve killed my own brother? Just to marry you?” She scoffed, her chin tipping up haughtily. “I hate to break it to you, hotshot, but you’re not special enough for that.”

“Oh?” I was angry, and confused, and my dick wasn’t helping matters by being hard as a goddamn rock. “All those orgasms I gave you say otherwise.”

“Those weren’t anything special, either,” Marla snapped angrily.

Oh, that was the wrong game to play. Whatever else she was, she was a puddle for me in the bedroom. I knew that much.

“Is that so?” I grabbed her by the hips and yanked her against me. Marla gasped in shock, and I felt her tremble. “Or are you just telling yourself that so you feel better about begging for me, about spreading your legs so easily for your mark?”

“You’re not my mark,” Marla said, and she sounded truly offended at the suggestion.

“But you don’t deny the attraction…” I mused.

I slid my arm around her waist, everything in my body thrumming with the desire to put her in her place, to make her call me ‘sir’ and promise to be mine, to admit that I was the best she’d ever had, to get a promise of her loyalty.

Marla’s hands seized the front of my shirt in a grip nearly tight enough to rip the fabric. She pushed at me, but I didn’t budge. “And how’d you come to this brilliant conclusion that I was a sociopath, huh? Who gave you the idea?”

I smirked at her. “Why, scared I figured it out?”

“No.” Marla bared her teeth like a furious, pissed-off wildcat, and my cock throbbed harder in my pants, clearly turned on by this woman who was ready to fight.

“I want to know who put such an asinine idea in your head, so I can rip them limb from limb and show them what I’m really capable of when I’m angry,” she said, her voice rising in pitch. “But no matter how mad I was at my brother, I would never kill him. No matter how ambitious I was, I would never murder him. I wanted out of this damn world. I wanted out of the mob, and now I’m stuck, married! To you!” she yelled, jabbing her finger into my chest. “You boorish, brainless, insufferable—”

I seized her mouth in a kiss, gripping the long strands of her hair with my free hand and tugging her head back so her lips aligned with mine. So she was forced to take my tongue when I pushed it into her mouth. Marla moaned, and she pressed her body closer to mine, her hips hitching ever so slightly against me, like she wanted to roll them against my cock but was holding herself back, not wanting to give in.

“You can’t go back now and act like being with me is such a chore, sweetheart,” I warned her, the both of us breathing hard as I broke off the kiss. “Not after this morning. Not after last night.”

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