| BOOK ONE OF THE VENANDI SAGA | A DARK MAFIA ROMANCE |
Teeth scrape over skin as he nips at my earlobe, "I told you..." Threading his fingers through the strands at my nape, he rolls my head to the side and his lips continue their exploration, "...
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"Eden, wait!" Skirting the edge of the oblong table, Eden dodges my second grab,"What the fuck?" and third, "Seriously, stop," clambering for the break between furnishings. Panicked, my heart races in the pit of my stomach as she evades, snatch after snatch like some maddening claw game, "Please, fucking stop!" At last, lanky limbs, bolt free of their oaken obstacle and bee-line straight for...
...Dad?
...tackling him to the chair back in a tight hug.
"I'm sorry," she rasps.
Baffled, he blinks at the top of her tousled crop; bulging emerald peers over mussy espresso to mouth, "What's happening?" and equally clueless, I gesture in vague reply.
"I don't know." Fuck it, as long as she stays...
...but just in case...
I creep for the exit, startled to find Raphe rooted firmly in the doorway, arms crossed, legs spread, and a strange expression pinned to his face. Lips pressed to a thin line and a rigid set to his jaw, from the nose down, he's the image of fatherly fury. Nose up, however, he's a puzzling mixture of relief and sudden awareness as if a lightbulb finally flickered on and relaxing, he props against the doorframe.
Wha-the...
"Eden, sweetheart," Dad coaxes, "I know these things can be scary but I think if you hear what Kole's done for you, you'll feel better about it."
Clinging to him, she whimpers, "I can't..."
"Can't?" At this point my voice is holding steady at shrill and unattractive.
"...Not until you forgive me, Kaiden," Eden croaks into Dad's chest.
"Whaaah..."
"Fo-Forgive you?" Dad sputters, "For what?"
"For everything that happened. For my part in it. I know I put you and your family in a difficult position by running... and b-by coming back. I hurt your sons and now, I've cost you one. It wouldn't be right of me to marry the other without making amends, first."
"Making amends?" Slumping to that familiar spark of recognition, "Oh...", Dad carefully extracts my doleful fiancée. "Oh, sweet girl, if anything, I should be the one begging for forgiveness. Truthfully, it's the first thing I should've done, but... it wasn't easy hearing what my boys did to you, even less seeing it up close and I'm afraid my shame caused me to behave cowardly." Chewed fingertips cup her chin turning her cheek so he can survey the sickly damage, sighing, "Haaah... Our family has wronged you in the worst ways. Ways we were not raised to behave..." Dad punctuates with a withering rebuke and a flash of disapproval in my direction, "...and you've done nothing but treat us with grace and compassion. Please forgive us, forgive my disrespect, and marry my idiot son who in no way deserves it."
