Page 20 of Beauty and the Bosshole
He sits opposite me on a leather sofa, a coffee table between us, which I’m grateful for because if that fucking snake comes anywhere near me, I’ll stomp on it.
“I didn’t fly out to meet you, Leon. I have business in town.”
He smiles at me, and it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Ah, yes, the spring range shoot. Important to get that one right.”
I don’t like it that he knows so much about my business. The man needs to keep his nose in his own affairs.
“I hear your model had a little accident.”
He caresses the snake’s body, and the snake sticks its tongue out, sensing the air.
“It’s none of your damn business.”
I aim for a nonchalant tone but my mind’s reeling. The model was a no-show, but Declan didn’t explain what happened. I don’t know how the fuck Leon knows so much about my business, but it makes my gut ache as well as my head.
“I like to keep myself informed,” he says as if reading my mind. “Since we’re going to be family.”
I grit my teeth and vow to kill my mother the next time I see her.
“We’re not going to be family, Leon. I’ve told you before, it’s not happening.”
Leon leans forward, and the snake slides down the front of his shirt and over his knee.
“And I’ve told you, Reese, breaking the engagement could cause problems with your supply chain.”
“There was no engagement. You and my mother cooked up this little alliance, but for there to be an engagement, there has to be a proposal, and there was no proposal. I did not propose to Daniella.”
Leon waves his hand dismissively. “In the old country, a marriage contract was decided between the parents of the betrothed.”
The snake slithers off his knee and onto the coffee table, its tongue darting out as it tests the air.
“Felicity’s hungry,” Leon explains.
If he’s trying to intimidate me, it’s working. I hate fucking snakes, and Leon’s just unhinged enough to have the thing bite me. But I won’t let him see that he’s getting to me.
Despite the venomous creature on the table, I force my gaze off it and fix Leon with a steely look.
“This isn’t the fucking old country, Leon. This is Las Vegas, USA. In this country, marriage is consensual between the two parties. If you want the old ways, I suggest you fuck off back to Italy. I’m not marrying your daughter. No matter what you and my crazy mother agreed.”
I’m not even sure Leon is really Italian. There’s nothing Italian about his surname or his looks. Rumor has it he married an Italian woman so he could legitimize his ideas about what he thought a mobster should be.
He smiles, his eyes darting to the snake. I force myself to wait a beat before I look down. The fucking thing is over my side of the table with its head raised as it sniffs between my legs.
I stare at it, wondering how big your balls swell after being bitten by a viper.
Leon reaches across the table and wraps his hand around the snake. I catch several dark puncture marks on his hand. The man must get bitten all the time and he still plays with the damn things.
The snake coils itself around his arm and slithers back to its perch around his neck.
“I’m going to ignore that insult to my daughter.” He sits back on the sofa and closes his eyes as the snake coils around his neck. “We both know Daniella’s a prize most men would kill for.”
He’s not wrong. Daniella is beautiful, rich, and from a powerful family. But she’s also spoiled, demanding, and comes with a parent that might just be more eccentric than my own.
There was zero chemistry when I agreed, after hounding from my mother, to take her on a date. But thanks to the meddling of our parents, that date seems to somehow have turned into a marriage contract.
“Come on, Reese. You were desperate enough to advertise for a bride, and I’m offering you Las Vegas’s most eligible woman. It’s a perfect match.”
He strokes the snake, and the creature turns its head toward its master. Leon puckers his lips and kisses the top of its head.