Page 52 of The Rise of an Heiress

Bash is behind him, and he slaps the back of Dante’s head as they exit.

“Looks like my brother is taking a liking to you,” Enzo says as we both leave. Nico grunts like a caveman, not too far behind.

Chapter Sixteen

Nico

Icame down to the basement to get some work done in the security room. When I heard her and Dante in the gym, my mind wentthere.

To say I was relieved they were just fighting would be an understatement. I’ve never been jealous like this before. Ever. And we’re not even hooking up. A part of me needed to find Andrew ASAP so she could be off on her way, but the other part of me wanted to stall to keep her close longer.

Fighting her was every bit exhilarating as I thought it’d be. It was quick but so worth it. I just wanted a reason to touch her. I can’t wait to do it again.

After dinner, I ask Anya to take a walk around the property with me. She agrees tentatively, but I think she’s been itching to take a look around. She hasn’t strayed too far out. The property is several acres, though, and easy to get lost in, so she was wise to not go off on her own.

“The property is surrounded by smaller cabins the soldiers live in. There are eight total that make a circle around the mansion. Well, they’re more like houses; each has four or five bedrooms, but we’ve always called them cabins.”

“It’s stunning,” she says and stops to look around.

She closes her eyes and breathes in deeply. I can’t help but admire her. We stop underneath a large tree centered in a clearing just outside of where all the cabins are. It fans out, looking like one of those picturesque ones you’d see in a pop-up book. Surrounded by tall trees, it allows for some privacy.

This is new for me. I never just talked to a girl. Ever. Hell, Anya and I barely spoke the first time I took her.

“We also have an area fenced off for target practice. You can shoot whenever you want, just not alone,” I tell her, and she nods, eyes still closed.

“I don’t want you to train with anyone else unless it’s me, one of my brothers, or Dante.”

She opens one eye. She looks at me and raises an eyebrow.

“You didn’t look too happy today when I was training with Dante,” she teases, opening her other eye.

“If it were up to me, I wouldn’t let anyone touch you,” I answer honestly. “But I’m compromising.”

“It’s cute that you think you get a say.” She narrows her eyes at me.

“I’m only going to tell you this one time, princess. If anyone else touches you, I will chop off his fingers right before feeding them to his family and drowning him in acid,” I promise.

She pauses, then crosses her arms.

“Fine. But just so you know I’m only agreeing because I don’t want a bunch of random men touching me, not because you said so or because you threatened to kill someone. I couldn’t care less if you take out your own men.” She lifts her chin in defiance.

She is so damn cute.

I walk up to her, and she slowly backs up until her back hits the tree. Damn, she’s tiny. Leaning down, I grab her waist, and I want to kiss her. I can tell she wants to kiss me, too, with the way she’s breathing and staring back at me.

“I wasn’tjusttalking about my men,” I say, making it very clear the rules still apply when we leave here. What am I even saying?

“Are you really not mad I killed your men?” she asks, surprising me with the change of subject.

“They didn’t disable the cameras. I would have had to kill them myself.” I let out a sigh.

“Would you have enjoyed it?” she asks, eyebrows coming together.

“Yes,” I say shamelessly. I’m a killer, and I don’t need her approval.

“I think I enjoy it, too.”

“You like killing people?”

---