Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) (24 page)

Marcus blinked, clearly stunned by my rant. “I… didn’t hurt you? But… you cried.”

I rolled my eyes—I just couldn’t help it. “You mean in the basement? I cried because you finally let me in behind the darkness and it was the most raw and beautiful moment of my life. And then you went and ruined it by thinking you knew what was best for me instead of bloody
asking
me.”

He stared at me for the longest time, seemingly taking forever to process what I’d said. But I’d had enough of waiting. Rising up on my tip-toes I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his, reveling in the warmth of his mouth as we kissed, long and gently.

“What about the monster?” he whispered against my lips when I pulled back for breath some time later. “The darkness. It’s a part of me. Pretending like it’s not is pointless. You deserve so much more than that.”

I smiled and drew against him as he instinctively held me closer. “I kind of love your monster. Haven’t you noticed that all it wants to do is protect you and the people you care about? I don’t want
more
than what you are, Marcus, because you’re already everything I could ever want and more.”

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead he just looked at me with clear amazement written across his impossibly handsome face.

“What?” I asked.

The gentlest of smiles spread slowly across his mouth, lifting up the corners and making me gasp at the pure, unadulterated love shining from his silvery eyes. “I love you. From the first time I saw you, I’ve loved you. And I will love you with all that I am until the day I die.”

I smiled back at him. “I’m glad, because I’m not letting anything come between us ever again. Not even you, you hear?”

The smile slipped off his face. “Loud and clear, my love. But I just have one question. It dawned on me I never asked you.”

“Asked me what?” I said, frowning at his serious expression.

“Will you marry me?” Marcus grasped my hands and knelt down, wincing as he did. When he was resting on one knee, he looked back up at me, and the emotion in his eyes made my heart throb hard and fast behind my ribs as a grin spread on my face.

“You arse! You had me all worried!”

He simply smiled, stroking his thumbs across my knuckles in a gentle caress. “Will you?”

“Yes. I will marry you, Marcus.”

* * * *

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Dangerous
, book 1 in the Made & Broken series.

DANGEROUS

Killer. Heartbreaker. Husband…?

Blaine
I hurt, break and kill for a living. The Family point, I deliver.
But this time, they ask too much. This time, they want me to marry the one woman who knows my secret. She has reason to hate me, I know, but I'll take her, I'll break her, and I'll make her mine.
That's the only way I can keep my secret.
Mira
When I ran away eight years ago, I thought I’d escaped the underworld I'd always known.
I made a life for myself. I thought I was free. Then my past came knocking at my door.
Now I’m marrying the son of London’s biggest crime family. A man who hates me as much as I hate him. He’s ruthless, brutal, and dangerous—everything I’ve always feared.
He's taken away the life I built, he's taken my freedom. And now, I fear he's taken my sanity, too.
How else could I have ended up pregnant with his baby?