Tag: Forced Marriage

Blurb

Alex Greco hates her husband.

To keep the peace between her crime lord father and the Greco mafia’s boss, she’s forced to marry his son, Roman. He’s cold and has a reputation for hurting those close to him. There is no wedding night, and the first months of their marriage are awful.

Roman doesn’t want a wife, and certainly not an outsider who doesn’t know their ways. Unlike the women he’s used to, Alex thinks for herself and isn’t afraid to tell him no. He plans to prove she isn’t a sweet innocent, and he orders his friends to seduce her to show she’s not worthy of him.

When her life is endangered, it is up to Roman to save her and the peace pact between their families. By his father’s order, he has to make this stubborn woman fall in love with him.

Her husband is not as cold and callous as Alex originally thought. He’s a monster to everyone but her, and she never expected to fall in love with him.

She didn’t count on finding out he was a liar, either. His father told him to make her fall in love with him, but how far was he willing to go?

Excerpt:

Roman was taller, bigger, and it was impossible. That diary was the last one she had written in. She hadn’t taken it to his place because she had worried he’d find it. The last entries were all leading up to their arranged marriage, and of course their wedding, the night before, at least. There was no other entry because she’d been with him, with no way of talking to her diary.

Her towel gave way, and Alex didn’t grab it immediately. The protection she had fell to the floor, around her feet.

She cried out and scrambled to get her towel, only to have Roman reach for it as well. Alex wasn’t entirely sure what happened, but they somehow managed to bump heads, and she ended up on the floor, not covered, and Roman stared at her.

Panic filled her, and she scrambled for the towel and her diary. Roman seemed to still as she got both and pulled away from him.

Within seconds, it became a tug of war as Roman grabbed the diary, and she had no choice but to turn her back and immediately wrap the towel around her.

Roman had never seen her naked.

No man had seen her naked.

Her heart raced.

“Please give me back my diary,” she said, keeping her back to him.

Her face was so hot. She had never been so embarrassed in her life.

“No.” He stepped past her. She tried to grab his shirt, but she had no choice but to keep one hand on her chest.

“Please.”

Roman turned at the door. “You’re my wife, and a Greco never begs. Don’t do it.”

He slammed the bathroom door, and Alex gritted her teeth. She wanted to call her father, to ask him to demand that Roman give her diary back, but that would be involving her father in a pathetic spat.

Roman was just being a pain in the ass. She got it, and kind of understood it, even if she didn’t completely agree with him and his asshole ways.

After stepping into her closet, she opened the drawers and pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank. It was warm, and she wished she could have head-to-toe pajamas, but that would be way too uncomfortable.

Her hair was nearly dry, and stepping out of her closet, she went to her dresser to run a brush through it. Her bed looked so inviting as she stared at it. Did she want to sink into the soft covers or fight with Roman again?

She glanced at the bathroom door and decided he had already taken way too much of her attention. Sticking her tongue out, which was completely childish to do, she stepped over to her bed, pulled back the covers, and slid right inside.

The moment she lay down and stared up at the ceiling, she closed her eyes and just basked in being back home, in her bed, away from Roman … ish. He was in her father’s home, and currently in her shower or reading her diary, but that didn’t change the fact she was finally home.

Roman’s home and apartment were all his. His bachelor pad. His domain. Where another woman had decorated and made it the vision he wanted. She was a stranger in his home and in his world.

She didn’t mind not being close to anyone all her life. Having Liam as a dad guaranteed that people weren’t her friend. She lived with it, dealt with it. It was probably the only part of her life that made it easier to deal with Roman’s world.

The shower stopped, and Alex rolled over so she wasn’t facing him. She had no idea where he was going to sleep.

Growling, she shoved her blankets off and then climbed out of bed. The man was an insufferable bastard, and he pissed her off all the damn time.

She walked back into her closet and grabbed spare blankets and some pillows.

With them in hand, she stepped back into her bedroom at the same time as Roman entered.

“I’ll be sleeping in the bed,” Roman said.

“No, you’re not. That is my bed, and you’re not sleeping in it.”

He raised a brow. “Where you sleep, I sleep.”

“We don’t sleep together at your place, and it’s not happening now.”

Roman chuckled. “You’re a spoiled little princess used to getting your own way.”

“And you’re a brute and a bully used to taking what he wants. You’re not sleeping in my bed. Simple as that.”

In response, Roman eased the towel from around his waist, and Alex gasped, closing her eyes. She didn’t see anything, and staring at her husband’s naked body didn’t appeal to her, not in the slightest.

She heard rustling, and when she opened her eyes, she saw Roman was beneath her blankets on her side of the bed, with her damn diary.

Alex wanted to scream at him. “You’re naked in my bed? Your ass is, like, making an impression.”

“My ass is nice and warm. There is enough room for both of us.”

She glared at him and then moved toward the window where she had a few beanbags from her days of being a child and not wanting to use conventional chairs.

Nudging them together, she made herself a little bed, much like she had when she was a child, and then, somehow found a way to build a bed for herself.

It was so uncomfortable, not like before when she was so young. This wasn’t her bed. It wasn’t comfortable, but it would do.

With the blanket thrown over her, she got comfortable, aware of the noise the bags were making, but eventually, she got comfortable.

The light was still on, and the only sound she heard was the unmistakable sound of the pages turning.