Free Mafia Captive by Kitty Thomas Page A

form-fitting. It was sexy, but classy and respectable. He’d given her a pair of brown boots to finish the look. A couple of small, gold chains adorned her otherwise bare neck.
    Angelo was the real expert on fashion, but Leo had people, and his people assured him this was understated and stylish, that it would give the impression he wanted his family to have—of a girl who belonged here.
    “Do I look all right?” She was so nervous, as if she thought he’d change his mind at the last minute before anybody got there.
    “You look beautiful.” And she did. He wished he was more like his brother—more ruthless, less conscience. Seeing her like this, with that gorgeous red hair, made him want to enforce the roles between them. “Come here.” He wanted to devour her, prey upon her, possess her, and in some deep recess of his mind he knew it was only a matter of time before she broke him and he took her like some savage beast.
    He frowned when she hesitated. This sign of his displeasure was enough to move her swiftly into his arms. Somewhere in there she had to be a sub. Leo was tempted to test it, to test her. He could have pushed her harder, he could have taken her and dropped her into the darkness with him. Every day that passed, he regretted his decision to be noble and give her space.
    “You’ll do fine,” he whispered as he held her close and stroked her hair. “Nervousness is okay. If this was real, you’d be nervous. I have a big family, and they can be intense. It’s a lot to take, even for a real fiancée.”
    Faith stiffened further at that, and he rubbed her back. “Shhh. It’s okay. I’ll tell them you’re shy. This will work out. I’ll keep you safe.”
    At those words, she relaxed against him. Perhaps some part of her believed in him. Though he was frustrated to have a beautiful captive he couldn’t bring himself to defile, he’d begun to feel oddly protective of her. He might need her to believe he’d kill her if she tried to get help from his family, but holding her in his arms, he knew he’d never be able to do it or let anybody else do it, for that matter.
    In his mind, he imagined smoothing things over so they would accept him keeping her. Surely they would approve of that outcome more than they would her murder. He could convince them he’d be kind to her. She had no bruises or marks. Such an idea was believable, especially with the way he always took care of everyone and shied from the uglier sides of the family business.
    Leo thought back to a couple of nights ago when he’d asked her what she usually did for the holidays. The look she’d given him had been blank. She’d mumbled something about going out for drinks with her friends on Christmas Eve. And then something about an office Christmas party with a store-bought cake and a game that involved gag gifts.
    And that was her Christmas experience. When he’d pressed her on her childhood, it hadn’t been much better. She’d said her family hadn’t had very much and she didn’t always get a Christmas present. Some years they didn’t have a tree. Sometimes a local charity would see to it that she got a doll or a game and a decent meal for the holidays, but it wasn’t anything like his own memories of the season. Such sharp contrast between the memories they had made him feel guilt for all he’d enjoyed while she’d suffered or barely scraped by.
    From the moment she’d told him all that, he’d become determined to give her a nice holiday. If she must be his prisoner, he would make it easy on her.
    The more he’d learned, the more he’d come to admire her, not just for the way she looked and the way she made his dick hard, but the way she’d fought for what she had. As young as she was, if she’d been left to her own devices, she would have made something of herself.
    Though her apartment and financial power might be paltry by Leo’s standards, she’d pulled herself up from the gutter to have something resembling a