Ties That Bind Us

by Nicole Knight

  My plan was to pretend like I was going along with the arrangement. I’d show my dad my dedication, and how badly I wanted this role and responsibility. I would be the perfect gentleman in front of him and Alessandro, but the second I was alone with the girl, it would be a different story. I would be cold and calculated, ignoring her completely and making it nearly impossible for her to stay. I gave it three weeks, a month tops, before she was running back to her daddy’s house. I’d play the part of the dutiful son doing everything he could to protect his family, and she would be the one calling the whole thing off and refusing to marry me. It was perfect. And once this little inconvenience was taken care of, I could start my search for Ava again. I was a man obsessed, what could I say?

  I followed a crowd of people inside, waiting to let the hostess know that I was here. I had never been here before, but the smells coming out the kitchen were heavenly. Nearly every table was packed with older men, and I got the feeling it was a usual spot for after-hours business meetings. It was dark and smoky, and the deep booths provided just enough discretion.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  I whirled around to find Ava standing in front of me, wearing a tight, long-sleeved black dress that put her perfect body on display. Jesus Christ, she was a smokeshow. Her outfit left just enough to the imagination, and I was certainly imagining.

  “Such a dirty mouth for such a pretty girl.” I grinned. “Do you greet everyone that way?”

  She glared, narrowing those beautiful eyes at me. I prayed Moretti and the girl didn’t walk in right now because she was all I could focus on. “You know I was kidding about the stalking thing earlier, but now I’m not so sure.”

  I shrugged. “I believe I was the one here first, which would mean you’re stalking me. If you wanted to see me again, all you had to do was ask.”

  “Oh please.”

  I reached out, stroking her cheek softly and leaning my head in so I was only a few inches from her. “Please what, baby?”

  She flinched under my touch but couldn’t hide how it affected her. Completely hot and bothered, she tried to move and backed herself right into a corner. I shouldn’t even be thinking about her as I was about to meet my future wife, but I couldn’t help myself. This would be my last hoorah for a while. Something about my impending meeting had me all riled up.

  A group of people had stepped in front of us and had their backs to us, shielding us from view of anyone. We were in our own little world in the corner of this crowded restaurant, and it was fuckin’ hot.

  “Nick . . .” She nearly moaned my name. God, I loved the sound of that. “You can’t do this. I’m meeting my dad for dinner.”

  Without a word, my fingers played with the hem of that short dress and I dragged the tips purposefully up her inner thigh as she gasped. I inched closer to the feather tattoo she had on her upper thigh—I remembered that well. I’d traced it with my tongue ten times over during our night together.

  She moaned, leaning into my touch. It was a dare to go further. She pressed her lips to mine, ravishing my mouth with as much hunger and temptation as she had that first night. Fire ignited all over my body, and I had to remind myself we were in a public place.

  Fuck. What was I thinking? I couldn’t do this to her. Was I really that selfish? Leading her on like this when I was currently promised to another woman? It wouldn’t always be like that, but right now it was. And one thing was for sure, I was not a cheater, and I was not going to let Ava believe I was available right now.

  “Ava,” I whispered harshly. “I’m engaged.”

  She ripped away, looking at me like I was growing another head. “You’re what?” Her voice was pure venom.

  “Wait, let me explain.” I jumped to my own defense, but she was having none of it. For a second I thought she might reach out and slap me, but instead, the bells on top of the door clanged, signaling the arrival of another group of people. We were separated briefly, and I tried to move through the crowd so I could explain this to her.

  “Ava!” A man at the back of the group greeted her. Shit, was her father here already? “So sorry to keep you waiting, darling.”

  The man leaned down and planted a kiss on her cheek. To her credit, Ava put on a brave face, like nothing had been going between us just seconds earlier.

  “Hi, Daddy.” She smiled warmly, slowing her breathing back down so he wasn’t suspicious.

  “Let me just tell the hostess we’re here, and then you can fill me in on your day.” He turned quickly, and when I saw his face my jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

  Alessandro Moretti.

  “Nick!” He greeted me warmly. “Great to see you, is your father here yet?”

  “Hi, Mr. Moretti. Uh, no, he’s not. Should be any minute, though.” I stared back at him in utter shock. Did this mean . . .

  “This is my daughter, Ava.” He moved aside and gestured to Ava, who was standing a few feet away still scowling. “I’m so glad the two of you could finally meet.”

  A wicked grin spread across my face. Ava was Alessandro’s daughter, the girl I was supposed to marry. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ava.”

  She scoffed, turning away from me as Alessandro shot her a harsh look.

  Oh, this was definitely going to be more fun than I originally thought.

  Chapter 7

  Ava

  Something fishy was going on. In all of my life, I couldn’t think of a time when my father had involved my mother in his business, let alone one of his daughters. He liked to keep us as far away as possible from anything to do with his endeavors. Until tonight, Gio Caponelli had been an enigma to me. I knew who he was, and I knew he and my father were not the greatest of friends, but that was about it. I certainly had no clue that he was the father of the guy I’d hooked up with randomly several weeks ago. Oh God, did they know about that? Was that why I was here?

  I tried to ignore Nick’s grazing eyes as best as I could, but that was proving harder and harder to do as I could feel them wandering over me. So far, this dinner had been unbearable. Gio and my father, and occasionally Nick, discussed a few work things vaguely, but it was mostly just pleasantries. I was on edge the entire time trying to figure out why I had been included, especially since no one had really even spoken to me after the introductions. Could it be because they were in trouble with the law? I wasn’t a lawyer yet, but I certainly knew my way around a courtroom. Maybe they needed my help.

  “So,” Gio said turning to me with a huge grin on his face. “Ava, I’m so glad the four of us could get together tonight and discuss the details of our arrangement. I trust your father has explained to you while we’re all here?”

  “Actually, I haven’t had the chance.” My dad interrupted Gio before I could get a word in edgewise. He was antsy. Another thing that caught me off guard. I was used to my dad being the pillar of stoicism. “Ava has been busy with school, and I haven’t seen much of her since we came to our agreement.”

  Gio pursed his lips slightly but moved on. “Right. Well, your father and I have come to an agreement. We would like to move forward with a treaty between our two families.”

  As Gio spoke, his words whirled right over my head. A treaty? As far as I knew, my father didn’t sign treaties with anyone. He thought it was better to keep his circle as close as possible. It was definitely odd he would agree to something like this with them. They probably wanted me to draw up some kind of contract to bind everyone together.

  I was a little taken aback, but as it sunk in, I felt kind of excited. This was exactly what I had wanted when I went to law school. I wanted to prove to my father I could be valuable to him, that he could use my skills instead of just passing me off to someone and holing me up like my mother and sisters. And although I didn’t like the fact that that meant I was going to have to work so closely with Nick, I was ecstatic, nonetheless.

  “That’s wonderful.” I smiled but tensed up the moment I fe
lt Nick’s knee graze mine underneath the table. I shot him an icy, frustrated glare.

  “I know we haven’t had a chance to talk about this, sweetheart, but it is really for the greater good. It is safer for all of us, and I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if it wasn’t necessary. You know I don’t like involving you girls in any of this.” My dad spoke directly to me now. His face was forlorn, and I started to get the feeling this wasn’t just about a treaty. “You understand how important the safety of the family is, right?”

  “Of course.” I agreed, nodding. Did I? Honestly, this was the first I had really ever heard of it. I always assumed we were safe; I didn’t know why now was any different. How was a treaty with another family, one my father historically hated, going to do to help?

  “Your father is right, Ava. This would normally be the last thing we would do, but with the Russians moving in—”

  “She doesn’t need to know the details.” My father cut Gio off before he could explain any more, glancing around the room to make sure no one had heard. We were in a pretty remote corner of the restaurant, but it was still packed with people. It was unusual for them to be discussing business in a setting as public as a restaurant.

  “What exactly do you need me for?” I asked curiously, the anticipation burning a hole in my chest.

  My father sucked in a sharp breath. “Ava, Nick is Gio’s oldest son and set to take over the Caponelli family. You are going to marry him.” A smirk spread across Nick’s lips as my dad spoke, and I felt a wave of nausea crash into me. What?

  “You . . . you want me to get married?” I stuttered, looking back and forth between all three men. “To him?”

  Nick

  If I had any doubts that Ava knew about any of this before, the look on her face told me everything I needed to know. That motherfucker hadn’t even warned her. He was marrying her off and hadn’t even given her the courtesy of letting her know it was happening.

  The fury on her face hurt me at first. I guess I had some half-baked idea of what this would be like in my mind. In my fantasy, she would be elated with the deal. She would be excited at the prospect of marrying me and we’d ride off into the sunset together. That was before Alessandro had royally screwed everything up. Now, she was going to take some convincing. I’d have her either way because of the treaty, but I would prefer her to marry me willingly. I was all for domination in the bedroom, but forcing a girl to do anything against her will wasn’t my thing.

  “Yes,” Alessandro said without any further explanation.

  “You can’t just write a treaty and be done with it?” Ava’s breathing hastened, and I could see it was taking all of her strength to maintain her composure. It was impressive, really. I tried to imagine being in her shoes—hearing this without any kind of consideration or even a warning—and I would have lost my mind.

  “No,” Alessandro answered adamantly. “Your marriage is the only way. It’s not open for discussion.”

  My father and I both cringed at the way he spoke to her. Alessandro had next to no respect for his own daughter, and it was infuriating. Women in our family were treated as equals, but apparently Moretti didn’t have that same philosophy. From what I had seen of Ava already, I fully expected her to lose her mind. She didn’t seem like the type to take any of this lying down. What happened next, though, shocked me.

  Ava opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. I was waiting for her to yell, to cause a scene, to have a loud and pointed reaction—it was that fiery spirit that drew me to her. Instead, she took a deep breath, refusing to meet my eyes. “Okay.” The meekness in her voice was new to me, and I realized it had everything to do with her father. She didn’t want to rattle his cage in any kind of way, and her submissiveness didn’t sit right with me. She was almost emotionless. Eventually, I’d get to the bottom of it, but for now, I needed to put my attention on the arrangement being set forth.

  That was the last that was spoken of our marriage over dinner. Dad and Alessandro carried on, and I interjected a few things here and there, but I spent most of my time studying Ava. She refused to meet my eyes, no matter how desperately I tried to get her to look at me, but I could see the wheels turning in her mind. She was blindsided and hurt, and this was not the way I wanted to start things off with her.

  “Who wants dessert?” my dad asked, scanning the menu once we were finished. Ava had picked around her meal most of the night without taking so much as a bite. She wasn’t taking this well. The Ava I knew was not the weak and obedient girl sitting in front of me, and I hated this side of her. I could only imagine what her life had been like to think that this was her place in the world, what Alessandro had put her through to make her react so submissively to him.

  This was certainly getting more complicated by the second. I hadn’t been able to convince her to like me again when we weren’t engaged; now it was going to be nearly impossible.

  “Actually, I think I’m going to head home,” Ava said suddenly. “I have to be up early tomorrow, and I’m exhausted.” She stood up and grabbed her purse, not giving anyone an opportunity to object. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Caponelli.” She smiled and extended her hand to my father. A smug smile blanketed Alessandro’s face, sickeningly proud of how polite and obedient she was being, just like he had groomed her to be. Personally, I wanted to shake the politeness right out of her and find the girl I had first met.

  “It was wonderful to meet you, too, Ava. I am looking forward to getting to know you,” my dad said as I stood up next to him.

  “Nick.” She gave me a tight-lipped smile and offered me her hand stiffly, as if she hadn’t held my package in it a few weeks ago.

  “Let me walk you out,” I offered, setting my napkin down on the table.

  “That’s not necessary,” she said quickly and defensively. I knew the last thing she wanted right now was to be alone with me, but she needed to know that I had only found out that I was to be part of an arranged marriage this morning, and that I’d had no idea she was Alessandro Moretti’s daughter until I’d walked in here tonight. She needed to know that I hadn’t set her up.

  “It’s late, Ava. Let him walk you to your car, you never know what is lurking around this side of town. I’ll see you at home,” Alessandro said, the discussion over just like that.

  She huffed discreetly and turned to the door. It took me a few paces to catch up to her.

  “Ava, please, just wait,” I called after her as she rushed through the door.

  “You knew about this, didn’t you? When you told me you had a fiancé?” she asked, big, angry tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

  “I knew that I was here to meet the girl my father wanted me to marry, yes. But I had no idea it was you. That you were Alessandro Moretti’s daughter. I mean, fuck, Ava.” I ran my fingers through my hair roughly. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  “Because that’s not something I go around bragging about, Nick. And besides, it didn’t seem to matter to you whose daughter I was when I was naked in bed, now, did it?” she snapped. There was that fire I loved so much.

  “Look, I had no idea this was going to happen, and honestly, I don’t like it any more than you do.” Sympathy was not really my thing; I wasn’t sure how to pacify her.

  “Oh, I’m sure you don’t!” she hissed. Several people in the parking garage were looking at us now. I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the way she was speaking to me. Normally, I wouldn’t tolerate it, but after all the revelations tonight, I knew she needed someone to take her frustration out on. I could be that for her if that was what she needed.

  I grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward her car. “Would you keep your voice down, please? I’m not the one you should be yelling at. I had nothing to do with this and am being forced into it too.”

  “And you expect me to believe that after you’ve just miraculously showed up at different places I’ve been the last few weeks?” She folded her arms over he
r chest, a deep scowl on her face. “How long have you known?”

  “Ava, I swear to you. I had no idea about this marriage until this afternoon, and I had no idea who you were until I saw you with your dad earlier.” I put my palm to her cheek and rubbed my thumb along her skin. I expected her to flinch but she softened just slightly under my touch. “I know these aren’t the most ideal circumstances . . .”

  She scoffed and rolled her eyes dramatically. Anything I said right now would fall on deaf ears.

  “Why don’t we just take this day by day and see where it goes?” I suggested, hoping to ease her mind just a little bit.

  “There is no seeing how it goes, Nick. My dad isn’t going to change his mind.” A few tears trickled down her face, and the pain in her voice stung us both.

  She was right, of course. There was no backing out or changing the plan. We were going to be married and there was no changing that. She had even less choice in it than I did.

  “Why don’t you go back in there and tell him you want one of his other daughters? You could have Angie. She’s already married but she’ll do whatever my father tells her. Or you could have the beautiful and charming Bella, but instead you get Ava, the wild child. The one who can’t do anything right. They’re both much more suitable to be wives than me.” Ava’s eyes welled with heavy tears. Her vulnerability broke my heart, and I hated the way she was talking about herself as if she was some sort of consolation prize, never quite measuring up.

  I put my hand to her chin, lifting gently so she had no choice but to look at me. “Ava, this is ridiculous. You’re the one I want, I think I’ve made that pretty clear over the last few weeks.”

  “You want me for the chase.” She folded her arms over her chest, clenching her jaw.