Page 39 of Toxic Love

“Well, itwouldget you out of marrying him.”

I laugh as she takes a sip of her drink and then grins.

“Come on, I know a place we can hide out.”

9

DANTE

“This is fucking insulting, Dante!”

I resist the urge to tell Silvio that what isactuallyinsulting is showing up to my engagement party uninvited, especially after being told in no uncertain terms to stay the fuck away from my sister.

I haven’t the slightest fucking clue how a second-rate dumbfuck like Silvio Bonpensiero managed to convince Bianca to go out with him in the first place. It’s actually so difficult to imagine at times I’ve worried that coercion or drugs were involved, except for the fact that my sister doesn’t do drugs and has never done a thing in her life that could be held over her head as blackmail.

In any event, Silvio and Bianca dated casually for a little bit about a month ago before she came to her senses and called it off.

Silvio, however, is having areallyhard time getting the message about that.

Since my sister ended things, the fucker has showed up looking for her at her school, her apartment, my own houseandtheplace I keep in the city, and even Club Venom—as if I would ever in a million years let Bianca go there—where he made a scene at the door until I finally came down and told him to go get fucked.

Usually, I’d have donefarworse by now than use strong language with Silvio for continuing to creep after my sister. Except unfortunately the little shit is the son of Frank Bonpensiero, the head of one of the top tributary families of the Amato family. His mother also happens to be Luciana Amato’sniece.

That makes mailing Silvio to various points around the globe in separate little boxes a no-no.

Lucky little douchebag.

“Youknowwho my father is,” he whines in my face. “And yet here you are, treating me like?—”

“Likewhat, Silvio?” I hiss. “Like an intruder? Like apest?”

His face turns bright red. “Howdareyou! Howdare?—”

“Yes, Silvio, I’m quite aware of who your father is.” He gasps as I grab his collar in my fist. “But I needyouto be equally aware that that is the only reason I haven’t cut off your balls andchoked youwith them,” I snarl right in his face.

I release his collar and step back. The second I do, his head swivels to the ballroom inside, and when I follow his gaze, my jaw clenches.

Notjustbecause he’s eyeballing my sisteragain. It’s because when I follow his gaze to Bianca, I also catch a flash of a glimmering silver gown, black hair, and soft, pale skin.

Tempest.

Tempest, at whom I should be glaring with as much malice as I was at Silvio. Except when I look at the meddling little sneak who just royally fucked up my plans, it’s not malice I feel.

It’s something darker. Illicit.

I’m not looking at Tempest Black and fantasizing about putting her in a hole in the ground. The fantasy is more like me putting heron her kneeswith those sassy, vitriolic lips of hers wide open and waiting for my cock as I tangle that hair in my fist.

I suddenly realize I’m staring at her. Worse, she’s staring right back.

Fuck.

I shake myself back into reality, grabbing Silvio’s collar again and yanking his head away from staring at Bianca.

“Out of respect for your father, and who he answers to, I’m inviting you to leave on your own accord. This offer has a time limit, though, Silvio. In one minute, the invitation to walk out on your own two legs turns into Lorenzothrowingyou out. And for every minute you overstay your non-welcome, I’ll tell him to go up another flight of stairs in my homebeforetossing you out of it.”

Silvio glares death at me. But there’s not a real “tough guy” bone in his body. Silvio is pure spoiled mafia princeling, through and through.

“Do we understand each other?”

---