MATTEO
Maybe it was the chaos of the meeting with my father. Maybe I just didn't give a fuck about the consequences anymore. But as I walked toward the stage, the rest of the world just… disappeared. The lights, the people, the loud music...it all faded into a blur. All that existed was the hot, desperate need to stop her performance and make her look at me.
I reached the edge of the stage and stretched out my hand. A single, commanding gesture.
Her movements froze mid-grind. The music seemed to die in the background. A silence so thick it felt like electricity settled over the room. Everyone was holding their breath.
"I need you now," I said.
My voice cracked through the silence like a whip hitting bare skin.
Inside my head, the storm finally broke loose. I could feel my pulse jumping in my neck. The taste of smoke and desire was sharp on my tongue. I wondered if she could see the violence in my eyes. I wondered if she could feel the dominance bleeding off my skin like heat from an engine.
The truth was, my family was a goddamn circus. A father who only liked you if you were a killer. A mother who looked at me like I was her biggest mistake. Brothers who I'd gladly bury in the dirt.
So yeah… fuck them. I was going to find my peace in her, no matter what it cost.
"Who the fuck are you?" a voice barked from the side.
I ignored it. The idiot she had been dancing for was on his feet now. He was puffed up, trying to look tough, reeking of cheap cologne and fake courage. He thought he was someone. He thought he had a say in what happened next.
I exhaled through my nose, forcing myself to wait. I didn't want to kill someone in the middle of the club. Not tonight. Not when I was this close to her.
I looked up and locked eyes with Sin. My hand was still out, a challenge she couldn't ignore. Her eyes were dark and daring. She looked at my hand, and then she looked at me. And she didn't move. She didn't take it. She just stood there, defying me in front of everyone.
That raw defiance...that quiet refusal to just bow down because I had money...it was a drug. It was better than the whiskey. It was better than the power.
I chuckled, a low, dark sound. Maybe that's what I loved about her. She was begging to be forced into submission.
The man beside me muttered something else, his voice shaking with drunken pride. I didn't even bother listening to the words. My mind was already busy sketching out a hundred different ways to make him disappear from the face of the earth.
Then… CRACK.
A fist slammed into my jaw.
My head snapped to the side. The impact was hard, but I didn't stumble. I didn't even move my feet. The whole room let out a loud gasp. You could hear the terror in the air. People knew what happened to men who laid a hand on a Ricci.
I stayed still for a second, feeling the sting. I reached up and wiped a small drop of blood from my lip.
Then I looked at the man. And I smiled.
It was a slow, dangerous, deliberate smile. The kind of smile that promised a brutal reckoning. The kind of smile a wolf gives a sheep right before the first bite.
The control was gone. And I was going to enjoy every second of what came next.