Sold by Clarissa Wild
Harper
As our lipsunlatch I lean away, wishing I could forget everything I knew. But it’s too late for that.
“What is it, kitten?” he murmurs against my red, hot lips.
I look away. “Nothing … I …”
“Spill it,” he commands. “I will not allow you to keep secrets from me.”
Bile rises in my throat. “Oh … like those secrets you kept from me?”
He cocks his head, his eyes narrowing as I move away. “Secrets?”
“You knew everything. You knew all along who my parents were. You knew who Frank and Molly were, and you knew they stole me from Igor. Didn’t you?” I growl. “And you never told me.”
He sighs out loud and turns around. Without saying a word, he undresses in front of me with his back turned to me. Tie first, then jacket. As the white shirt drapes off his shoulders that same, familiar tattoo makes my eyes widen.
“It really was you who saved me from that fire …” I mutter. “You brought me to Andrea.”
He glances at me over his shoulder, eyes blazing. “Yes, kitten. I was there that night. And I brought you to her.”
“You knew her?” I scoff.
He stands there, tall and proud, like he isn’t ashamed of ever lying to me, even though he should be. “She’s my aunt.”
Rage boils up to the surface. “You could’ve told me.”
He turns sideways, muscles tightened. “Would it have made a difference? Would you have believed me when I told you how twisted our world is?”
“You didn’t even give me a chance to understand!” I yell, overcome with emotions. “You knew who I was and you knew they were alive!”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t know Molly and Frank stole a child, and I didn’t know they were alive either until today,” he responds.
“What about my name then?” I mutter.
He blinks a few times. “You wore a bracelet with your first name on it.”
“You knew my name when you bought me.”
He stares me down. “Your first name. Not your last. And Harper is not an uncommon name. I didn’t know you were the girl I saved.”
With my hands in my hair, I look around, trying to find my bearings, but the world feels like it’s caving in on me. Everything I thought I knew was a lie, and only now is it really setting in.
“In fact, I didn’t even know it was Molly and Frank’s house when I pulled you from that fire until you first mentioned their names,” he says, his fists balling. “If I did, I would’ve gone after them myself and killed them off after what they did to you.”
Killed them? Why? No. That’s the last thing on my mind.
“No!” The sheer force of the panic filling my veins is too much. “You don’t understand. All this time, I searched for them. I wasted hours—years of my life!”
“What would you have done if you’d actually found them? Hmm?” he asks, stepping closer to me. “If they told you who you really were?”
“I don’t know,” I say, searching his eyes for the truth, but the more I look, the more lies I see. “But I could’ve tried. I could’ve done something.”
“You loved them,” he says.
“They were my parents,” I say, swallowing back the tears.
“They were not your parents,” he says.
“But they raised me!” I yell back, feeling betrayed by the truth itself.
“You just find it hard to come to terms with the real you. And I don’t blame you, kitten. It would be hard for anyone to learn they are a Russian mobster princess.”
“Don’t … don’t say that word,” I say, lifting a finger.
“It’s the truth,” Marcello says. “And I didn’t know either until Frank explained what he had done. Everything suddenly made sense.”
“Stop …” I say, briefly closing my eyes.
“No, you can’t hide from this. Your parents lied to you,” he says.
“So did you,” I say through gritted teeth.
He holds up a hand. “I never lied to you, Harper.”
“But you knew the truth, and you kept it from me!” I growl. “That’s no better than lying.”
“Knowing it won’t change what happened,” he says.
“I could’ve saved him!” I yell, balling my fists. “My real father.”
He frowns. “Igor? Save him?” He snorts. “He’s the man who put you up for auction in the first place.”
My eyes widen, and my whole body turns numb.
The auction? Igor? No … he’d never do that to his real daughter … right?
“Yes, that’s right, kitten. Your real father sold you,” he says.
“No, he didn’t know I was his daughter,” I reply, trying to make sense of this.
“Does it really matter, though?” Marcello lowers his head to look at me from underneath his lashes. “In the end, I was the one who bought you. And I have zero regrets.”
He places a hand on my hip and pulls me closer. My mind is twisting and contorting with thoughts and emotions I can’t place. It’s too much to handle. I thought I could deal with it, but I can’t. I’ve been shoving it away ever since I saw Frank alive, when he took me and I caused the vehicle to crash into the water … but the facts never stopped swirling in my mind.
And now that I’m here, gazing straight into the eyes of the mobster who knew exactly who I was from the moment I mentioned my parents’ names, I can’t stop shaking with rage.
This may be a safe house … but I am not safe here.
Not with him.
And as he pulls me closer into his embrace, I drift off further into darkness. “Don’t let this come between us, kitten. You’re far too valuable to me.”
“I am not a pet,” I say.
“You are far more than that.” He groans. “Come. This day has exhausted me. You must be tired too after everything you’ve been through. Everything you’ve learned. And our bout of sex.”
Tired doesn’t even begin to cover it.
He tries to coax me to the bed, and I let him. Tears well up in my eyes, but I push them away.
I let him because I have no choice right now. If I were to fight him, it would end in nothing but more hardship. Maybe even pain and bloodshed.
So I go along with it as he picks me up and carries me into his bed, where he pulls the blanket over us and wraps his arms around my waist, spooning me like a protective lover.
“Good night, kitten …” he murmurs, pressing a sweet, gentle kiss to the back of my neck.
But I don’t sleep.
I don’t even close my eyes.
Not as his body starts to warm up mine, not as his light snoring takes over the room, and not as he’s lulled into a deep sleep.
No, I wait until I’m sure he’s fast asleep before I nudge his arms off me and get up. My heart is racing as I put on my clothes as quietly as I possibly can. They’re still half wet, but I don’t care.
My eyes have already homed in on the only thing that matters—a key lying on his nightstand. The key that unlocks all the doors in this safe house.
I tiptoe to it and whisk it off the nightstand, careful not to wake the sleeping mobster.
Because that’s just who he is, and no matter how many times he kisses me, I must remember that. We come from two different worlds, him and me. And for a moment, I forgot that I don’t belong in his. That I can’t be a part of this kind of evil.
Even though I’ve fallen head over heels for this man … this man who stole my heart when it wasn’t something I was willing to give away.
But he did it anyway, and look where it’s gotten us.
Beaten. Betrayed. Wounded.
And he thinks I can move past all of that … just by asking me to.
I shake my head and stare at the man lying on the bed, the man who still believes I’m going to be here tomorrow morning.
“Goodbye, Marcello,” I whisper as I bite my lip, wishing I could kiss him one last time before I leave. But kisses only make goodbyes harder, and I don’t want to risk waking him up.
So I spin on my heels, and with a single tear rolling down my cheeks, I run.
###
The end … for now.
If you enjoyed SOLD, please leave a review!
Get Book 2: OWNED now!
Want to know when the next book comes out? Click here to sign up to receive a notification.
Read on for a sneak peek at OWNED!
