Bound By Love Read online

  Copyright ©2018 Cora Reilly

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, events and places are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  Book design by Inkstain Design Studio

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  Cover design by Romantic Book Affairs Design

  contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  prologue

  ARIA

  I can’t do this, Aria. I want out. Out of this world. Out of my arranged marriage. Just out.

  Those words spoken by my sister Gianna started it all. They led to my first betrayal of Luca. I didn’t see it as a betrayal back then. I only wanted to help her, not betray my husband.

  Yet, when I made the decision to help her escape, I knew I’d have to go against him.

  Betrayal.

  Made Men were always so quick to call any word of objection betrayal. Women were supposed to take their husband’s word as law, especially I, who was married to the Capo.

  But protecting my family, my sisters and my brother, protecting those I loved against the harsh realities of mob life sometimes made it hard to obey.

  I thought Luca would understand, thought our love could brave anything.

  Luca wasn’t a man who had ever allowed himself to trust or love anyone—until me. Maybe he’d always been wary of his emotions.

  Maybe he’d always waited for something that would prove his wariness right.

  And I had given it to him.

  LUCA

  Matteo and I had been taught many lessons by our sadist of a father, all of them meant to make us strong and ruthless for the tasks expected of us. I hated the man, had hated him all my life, and hated that he was proven right with the one lesson I wanted to be wrong.

  Love is a weakness, Luca. It has brought the strongest men to their knees. Women are weak, and making us believe we could love them is their way to manipulate us because it’s the only way for them to have power. Don’t let a woman hold that power over you. You will be Capo. A Capo can’t allow himself a weakness.

  Aria made me believe those words to be a lie.

  With her kind smiles, her innocent eyes and unparalleled beauty she lured me in, and I fell into her trap. I still remembered that fucking day.

  “You are good, Aria. You are innocent. I forced you into this.” Aria had taken a bullet for me, had risked her life to save mine. My life, which was worth so much less than hers.

  Her blue eyes held mine. Those eyes, always full of so many emotions I could hardly understand. “You didn’t, Luca. I was born into this world. I chose to stay in this world. Being born into our world means being born with blood on our hands. With every breath we take sin is engraved deeper into our skin.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t have a choice. There’s no way to escape our world. You didn’t have a choice in marrying me either. If you’d let that bullet kill me, you would have at least escaped our marriage.”

  “There are few good things in our world, Luca, and if you find one, you cling to it with all your might. You are one of those good things in my life.”

  How could she say something like that? I killed so many, and enjoyed it. If there were a Heaven and a Hell, there was no doubt where I’d end up. “I’m not good.”

  “You’re not a good man, no. But you are good for me. I feel safe in your arms. I don’t know why, don’t even know why I love you, but I do, and that won’t change.”

  I closed my eyes against the love in her gaze. Aria loved me. She’d told me before. I wasn’t sure how she could after everything she’d seen me do, and it wasn’t even the worst. I was still keeping that from her. “Love is a risk in our world, and a weakness a Capo can’t afford,” I murmured. A truth I believed all my life. A truth I lived by. A truth I thought to take into the grave with me.

  “I know,” she whispered, resigned.

  Didn’t she know what I felt? Couldn’t she see? Even Matteo knew, though I’d tried to hide it from him, from everyone.

  I stared at her, my chest tight with emotions that scared the shit out of me. Scared me, even though nothing really scared me anymore. I’d survived torture and excruciating pain, had tortured and inflicted pain myself, had seen so many die, had killed many of them, and here I was scared of my own emotions. “But I don’t care, because loving you is the only pure thing in my life.”

  Aria froze, eyes filling with tears. Crying and begging had never softened my heart, but with Aria they spoke to a part of me I hadn’t known existed. “You love me?” she asked, eyes full of hope and disbelief.

  “Yes, even if I shouldn’t. If my enemies knew how much you meant to me, they’d do anything to get their hands on you, to hurt me through you, to control me by threatening you. The Bratva will try again, and others will too. When I became a Made Man, I swore to put the Famiglia first, and I reinforced that same oath when I became a Capo dei Capi even though I knew I was lying. My first choice should always be the Famiglia. But you are my first choice, Aria. I’ll burn down the world if I have to. I’ll kill and maim and blackmail. I’ll do anything for you. Maybe love is a risk, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take and as you said, it’s not a choice. I never thought I would, never thought I could love someone like that, but I fell in love with you. I fought it. It’s the first battle I didn’t mind losing.”

  And fuck, those words had been the truth. I’d thought them to be true. I put Aria first, protected her, allowed her things my family had frowned upon. I’d have done anything for her, and she fucking betrayed me. Betrayed my love and trust.

  Love.

  A weakness.

  A weakness I would no longer allow myself.

  chapter 1

  Before, ARIA

  My shoulder still occasionally hurt when I moved my arm too fast, but the Doc had pulled the stitches out yesterday and told me the pain would soon fade altogether. I touched the red scar below my collarbone. It was still tender. My first scar.

  Luca came up behind me, towering more than a head above me, and rested his hands lightly on my shoulders, gray eyes dark with anger as they settled on the scar. He was completely naked like me after our shower, but his body was covered with countless scars. I searched his face, wondering if perhaps it bothered him that I was no longer perfect. Made Men carried their scars as testament to their bravery—and there was no braver man than Luca. But I was a woman; a woman handed over for her beauty. “The Doc said it’ll fade,” I whispered.

  Luca raised his eyes to meet mine in the mirror, dark brows drawing together. He turned me around and tipped my chin up. “Aria, I don’t give a fuck if it fades or not. The only reason your scar both
ers me is because it reminds me that you risked your life for an asshole like me, and that’s really the last thing you should ever consider doing.”

  “I’d do it again,” I said without hesitation.

  Luca grabbed my waist and hoisted me up on the washbasin. “No,” he growled, bringing his face close. His eyes burnt with anger, and others would have cowered under the force of it. “No, do you hear me? That’s a fucking order.”

  “You can’t give me an order like that,” I said softly.

  He released a harsh breath. “I can and I am. As your Capo and as your husband. You won’t risk your life for me ever again, Aria. Swear it.”

  I stared up at him. Perhaps he thought it was as easy as that. Luca was used to controlling everyone around him, used to having his men obey his every command, but even he had to realize that some things were out of his control, that even his power had limits.

  “Aria, swear it.” He spoke in his Capo voice, the voice that made his men follow him and had his enemies cowering in fear.

  I curled my hand around his neck, playing with his black hair, and brushed my lips across his. “No.”

  His eyes tightened. “No?”

  “No. Have you never heard the word before?” I teased him as I repeated the words I’d said to him on our wedding night.

  “Oh, I hear it often,” he said, playing his part.

  My face broke into a smile, but his remained dark. “Aria, I’m serious.”

  “So am I, Luca. I protect the people I love. You’ll have to accept that.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t because you act without thinking whenever you act out of love.”

  I shrugged. “That’s how I am.”

  He rested his forehead against mine. “I won’t lose you because of it.”

  “You won’t lose me,” I whispered, my palm pressed against his Famiglia tattoo over his chest.

  Born in Blood. Sworn in Blood.

  Maybe I hadn’t made a blood oath, but what bound me to him was stronger than any oath. I was bound by love. “I’ll always be at your side.”

  His eyes softened. “Let’s go on our honeymoon next week.”

  Surprise washed over me. “Really?” I asked, excitement bubbling up. We’d been married for two months and there had never been talk about a honeymoon, in the beginning because our marriage hadn’t been one of love but of convenience, and later because I thought Luca was too busy.

  “What about the Bratva? Won’t they attack again?” Their attack on the Vitiello mansion in the Hamptons two weeks ago cost several of Luca’s men their lives, and almost cost me mine. I’d lost my childhood bodyguard Umberto, had seen him get shot in the head, and writing the letter to his widow and children had broken my heart.

  “They will attack again, but not soon. They’ll have to recuperate after losing Vitali. I can’t be gone for long, but my men can handle things without me for a week. Matteo holds almost as much respect as I do. He can take over for a while.”

  I couldn’t stop smiling. “Where will we go?”

  Luca kissed me before he straightened with a smile of his own. It was an expression he reserved for me, and it made my heart swell with love. “My father had a yacht in the harbor of Palermo and now it’s mine. We could spend a week yachting along the Mediterranean Sea.”

  I searched his face to see if his father’s death bothered him, but even though the man had died only a few weeks ago, Luca didn’t show a hint of sadness. Salvatore Vitiello had been a man who’d instilled fear but not admiration or fondness in others. I didn’t know him well enough to be sad about his death, and if I had known him I definitely wouldn’t have been either.

  “That would be amazing,” I said eventually. I’d never been to Sicily, and I would love to see where Luca’s family came from.

  “You were in Italy before?” he asked.

  “Only once,” I said with regret. “Father took us to Bologna for his uncle’s funeral, but we only spent a day there before we visited Turin and Milano. It was beautiful. I always wanted to return, but Father was too busy being Consigliere and he didn’t allow us to go without him.”

  “Then that’s settled,” he said. “A week to ourselves.”

  “I can’t wait,” I whispered, my mouth finding Luca’s. I tightened my hold on his neck as his tongue slipped in. His hand trailed down my shoulder, then my side and over my thigh. I shivered at the gentle gesture.

  Because of my injury, Luca had been careful when we’d made love, and again his touch was excruciatingly gentle as he parted my legs and stroked me with expert movements. I held his gaze as he entered me with two fingers before he replaced them with his length, his tip nudging my opening. I wrapped my legs around him and took him in, still marveling at the fullness. Our mouths moving over each other, Luca thrust into me at a slow pace. I could feel his entire length as he slid in and out, and tension began coiling in my center.

  Luca drew his mouth away and rasped in my ear, “Come for me, love.”

  I moaned as he angled his thrust upwards. Then his mouth was back on mine and his tongue caressed me in a delicious dance. His gray eyes bored into mine. He didn’t touch me like he usually did, and I moved my hand to reach between us to touch my clit and send myself over the edge, but Luca gently pushed it away. “Let’s try to make you come with my cock only.”

  I’d never managed to come without additional friction, but I was willing to give this a try. He linked our fingers and pressed them to the marble surface. He thrust into me again at the same angle as before, and I gasped at the pleasure that vibrated down from the sweet spot he hit. My eyes were wide as I held his possessive gaze. Every time we made love, he seemed to brand me as his anew. Luca was one of the most possessive men I knew, and I had grown up among Made Men.

  He hit the same spot and I gasped. It felt wondrous but I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to come like that, yet Luca was in no hurry as he targeted the same spot over and over again with slow, hard thrusts.

  “How does it feel?” he rumbled thickly, sweat glistening on his chest as he slammed into me again, shoving my ass back on the marble counter, but his hand dragged me back to the edge and held me in place for his next thrust.

  I licked my dry lips. “Good,” I gasped out as the pleasure spiked again. My toes curled and my walls began to spasm.

  “Yes, love,” Luca growled. “Come for me.”

  His tongue dipped between my lips as he hit my sweet spot again and I arched up, eyes shutting tightly. I ripped away from Luca’s mouth, my head falling back as I cried out my release. Luca tensed, slamming into me harder before he let out a guttural groan and came inside me. I shook against him, my orgasm intensifying as his length twitched within me.

  When I could talk again, I whispered, “Wow. That was incredible.”

  Luca smirked, his eyes dominant and pleased. “It was. I love that you can come with only my cock.”

  I frowned. “Is that not normal?” A hint of insecurity slipped into my voice. Luca and I had been sleeping with each other for over a month, but I was still far from being experienced.

  Luca cupped my cheek and pulled me closer for a sweet kiss. “You are anything but normal, Aria. In every regard.” I didn’t stop frowning. He chuckled. “It’s a good thing, trust me. I love that you can come like that. Many women need to have their clits touched, and even then some don’t find release during sex.”

  “Oh,” I said, surprised. I couldn’t imagine that any woman wouldn’t come during sex with Luca, but I didn’t want to think about other women with Luca. He was mine alone.

  Luca kissed me again before he slowly pulled out of me. “I’d better prepare everything for our honeymoon.”

  I grinned. If someone had told me before my wedding that I’d be this ridiculously happy with Luca, I would have declared them insane.

  LUCA

  I had a hard time focusing on Matteo’s voice. All I could think about was Aria and all the ways I wanted to make her come on our honeymoon
.

  “Luca, why don’t you leave and we stop pretending like you give a fuck what I’m saying,” Matteo said with a grin as he lounged in the armchair in my office in the Sphere, one leg thrown over the armrest.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m listening. You don’t have to ask me about every little detail. You can make your own decisions and you’ll have Romero’s support. Don’t call me every fucking day with annoying questions.”

  He shook his head. “You are Capo.”

  “And you are Consigliere. I’ll be gone only one week. You can control our fucking family that long. Our uncles and cousins won’t risk an attack yet. They all want to become Capo themselves. They won’t work together.”

  “I’m not worried about them attacking. I can control your soldiers and our family, but I can’t promise I won’t end up killing one or two of them.”

  I rolled my eyes. Matteo was too hotheaded. “Then at least kill the troublemakers.”

  “Aria must have a miracle pussy to keep you under her spell like that, or does she give head like a goddess?”

  I didn’t think. I lunged and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him against the backrest. His body was tight with tension, and his right hand rested on his knife, which he hadn’t pulled. With anyone but me, that knife would have been buried deep inside my chest. I unfastened my fingers and stepped back, sucking in a deep, calming breath as I glared down at my brother who rubbed his throat, brown eyes keen and cautious.

  “Wow,” he rasped. Red finger-shaped marks were blooming on his skin. “Always wondered how our dear cousin felt when you crushed his throat. Never thought you’d give me a taste.”

  I didn’t apologize. Running a hand through my hair, I went to the liquor cabinet beside the desk and poured us both drinks, then carried the glasses over to Matteo and handed him one before I sank down in my armchair. He took it from me and downed the whiskey with a hiss. He had straightened but was still watching me.