Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
“Luca,” Grace said sweetly and actually leaned forward as if she considered hugging me, but the scowl I sent her made her pull back. “Aria,” she said with pursed lips.
“I need to have a word with you,” her brother said as he grabbed her arm and practically dragged her away. Maybe he had seen how much I wanted to end his sister, woman or not.
Aria relaxed beside me, but the first guests crowded around us soon so I didn’t get the chance to ask her if she was okay. Grace tried to catch my attention several times through the evening, but I didn’t spare her a glance and her brother paid better attention to her whereabouts, making sure she didn’t come close again.
Grace got visibly frustrated with my lack of interest and in a last attempt at getting a reaction out of me, she walked up to Matteo, who had been flirting with the daughter of another politician. She gave him her best bedroom eyes, leaning in close to him. Matteo smirked, but his eyes found me above Grace’s head.
I raised my eyebrows at him.
Have a go at her.
He whispered something in her ear, wrapped his arm around her waist and cupped her ass. Before she led him away, she sent me a scathing look. Did she really think I gave a fuck? If she thought she could win me over by sucking my brother’s cock, then she was even stupider than I’d realized.
“Please tell me it’s not how it looks,” Aria whispered, looking sick to her stomach.
I squeezed her waist. “Matteo is going to get the blow job of his life.” A moment too late I realized how that had sounded.
Aria’s cheeks flushed and she stiffened in my hold, but I didn’t get the chance to soften my words because the owner of a restaurant chain we protected came over and involved me in a conversation. Aria’s face looked like it had been carved from stone the rest of the evening, and I could have kicked myself for my thoughtlessness. Aria stayed at my side, keeping up appearances, but she didn’t spare me a single glance.
Almost one hour later, Matteo returned to the party, his hair disheveled and a self-satisfied grin on his face. He sauntered over to us when my last conversation partner had left, and I sent him a warning look but of course Matteo, being an asshole, ignored it.
“Now I get why you kept her around for so long. Damn it, that woman doesn’t have a gag reflex.” That and she took it up her ass, but Aria didn’t need to know that.
She stiffened, paling. Matteo glanced at her, then back at me, dark eyebrows climbing his forehead. I sent him a death glare.
“Excuse me. I need to freshen up,” Aria said in a formal tone, stepping back from me.
I would have stopped her if Grace’s father hadn’t come over in that moment and I couldn’t risk a scene in public. Aria turned on her heel and stalked off, her head held high. I could have killed Matteo.
ARIA
I had trouble breathing as I made my way toward the restrooms. Luckily, nobody tried to stop me. I wasn’t sure I could have kept up my mask if they had. The moment I stepped inside the bathroom, I released a shuddering breath. I washed my hands because I couldn’t wash my face without ruining my makeup. Lifting my face, I regarded myself in the mirror. I wasn’t vain but I knew people found me beautiful. I had received praises for my beauty all my life, and yet the mention of Grace’s abilities made me realize that it might not be enough to hold Luca.
He loves you.
I closed my eyes and counted to ten until I felt the necessary strength to return to the party. Grace was the past.
I moved out of the bathroom and stiffened when I saw Grace waiting for me in the hallway. She smiled but it was all fake.
Resisting the urge to lower my eyes, I met her gaze straight on. She moved closer, encasing me with her overly sweet perfume. With her high heels, she was several inches taller than me, but I straightened my spine.
“I hoped I’d get another chance to talk to you. At your wedding, I didn’t have much time.”
He will fuck you bloody.
That’s what she’d said and fueled my own terror. She wasn’t that much older than me, perhaps twenty, but she had a world of experience on me.
“Maybe you think Luca is satisfied with what you can give him,” she began in a low voice. “But I’ve known him for two years, and he’s never settled. I was the only woman he returned to over all that time, because I gave him what he needed.”
Two years? Even if he’d been with other women in that time, why had he kept her around?
Grace’s smile widened. “I’ve let him do every kinky thing you can’t even imagine, Aria. You don’t look like you are willing to take his cock up your stuck-up little frigid ass.”
It was enough. I took a step toward her, bringing us too close, and narrowed my eyes at her. I was raised in the mafia world. I had grown up among predators. I had rammed a knife into a Bratva member. If Grace thought I’d let her intimidate me again, she was thoroughly mistaken. “You will stay away from him,” I said quietly but firmly. “The only reason why he used your ass was because he didn’t want to see your face. You have always been and will always be replaceable. One among many. You are nothing to him. Cheaper than a whore, that’s for sure.” I hated that her ugliness brought out my own viciousness, but I couldn’t take anymore.
She raised her palm to slap me when a shadow fell over us, and Luca’s strong hand clamped around her wrist. He shoved her back from me so she collided with the wall but he didn’t release her. His grip on her wrist made her wince, and she cowered under the force of his gaze. He looked murderous.
“She’s not worth it,” I whispered imploringly.
His mouth pulled into the cruelest smile I’d ever seen on him as he released Grace’s wrist. “You won’t ever speak to Aria again. You won’t go anywhere near her, or you will see a side of me very few have survived.”
“Luca, please,” she begged, clutching his arm, and I stiffened. “I’d do anything for you. I love you.”
He shook her off in disgust. “Don’t touch me, whore. You just swallowed my brother’s cum; do you really think I want your dirty hands on me?”
He turned to me, and some of the anger slipped away, but Grace wasn’t done yet. Her face scrunched up as she leveled her hateful eyes on me. “I wish that guy in Luca’s club had raped you when I paid him for it. I bet with roofies in your blood that was the first time you could take all of Luca’s cock inside your pussy. It was probably the only time he enjoyed fucking you.”
I gasped, but my shock lasted only a second because Luca reached under his jacket for his knife. I wasn’t quick enough. He turned and lunged at Grace, thrusting her against the wall and pressing the blade against her throat. The fury on his face halted me only a second, then I rushed toward him and gripped his arm, trying to pull it down but he resisted, and he was too strong for me. His hateful eyes never left Grace as he held the knife against her skin. I didn’t much care for Grace, but if Luca killed her here, Senator Parker would call the police, and not all of them were on the Famiglia’s payroll.
“Luca, please,” I murmured.
“You listen to me, Grace. You will leave New York again and you won’t come back. I will say this only once: you will never threaten my wife again, or you will be the first woman I will skin alive. That’s a fucking promise.” He hit his chest with the hilt of the knife, right where his Famiglia tattoo was. His gaze made me shudder, and Grace finally realized he was being serious. Color drained from her face as she nodded. “And now you will go to your fucking room, and you won’t emerge until this fucking party is over.” He released her and she ran down the corridor where her room must have been.