“Dario.” Emmanuelle sat up straight, glaring at him in protest.
“Some men have certain needs, Emme,” Dario said, shrugging. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t, and I won’t apologize for who I am. Arranged marriages for business or otherwise rarely work for someone like me because the woman isn’t going to like who they get. I’m just being honest.”
“You’re suggesting that Elie go out to a kink club the night before he marries. Is that very honorable?” Emmanuelle demanded.
“It’s a moot point,” Elie interrupted the argument.
Emmanuelle was the tie that bound the two men together. Elie regarded her as a sister. He had grown up an only child, moving from one household to another in his native France. Elie and Emme had clicked some years earlier and everyone expected them to marry when he’d come to the United States. Emmanuelle’s heart was already taken by Valentino Saldi, Dario’s cousin. Elie loved Emme but there had only ever been a sibling relationship between them.
Dario had come to love her through his relationship with Valentino. Who couldn’t love Emmanuelle? Dario wasn’t an easy man to be around. He had served as Valentino’s bodyguard for years. He rarely talked to anyone outside the circle of people he accepted as family. Elie felt lucky to be included. The Ferraros had a way of taking over those they chose to bring into their inner circle and Dario, like Elie, had found his way in when Emmanuelle had married Val.
“A moot point?” Emme repeated, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
Elie held up his left hand, where a ring circled his finger. “Technically, I’m already married. The lawyers took care of the paperwork and we were married by proxy yesterday. I signed here. She signed in France. So, no kink club, but thank you for the offer, Dario. It was considerate. I don’t cheat on my wife.”
“What does she look like?” Dario asked.
Elie shrugged. “I have no idea. The lawyers took care of it. I didn’t even look at the papers. I signed on the dotted line and walked away. I presume she did the same. She’ll be here tomorrow and we’ll have a very brief private ceremony just for the sake of photos and formality, but the paperwork is already done.”
Emmanuelle brushed her hand down his arm. “Congratulations, Elie. I hope she makes you very happy. I know you believe you can make this work.”
Dario’s dark brows drew together. “Won’t understand you in a million years, Elie. This complete stranger comes into your life. You don’t know a thing about her and you expect your marriage to work. Emme is one in a million. Maybe one in a billion. Odds could be even higher than that. Val is so fuckin’ lucky, he doesn’t even know how lucky he is.”
He stated his opinion without looking at Emmanuelle and he spoke in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. “I’m aware a man like me is never going to find a woman who can put up with my . . . proclivities.” He shrugged. “But then I don’t trust anyone enough to have more than an hour encounter with them and only on my terms, especially now that Valentino forced me to take over this idiotic role in the family. He’s only made my suspicious nature worse.”
“Your point being?” Elie said.
“You’re like me.”
Elie couldn’t deny it. Maybe he wasn’t exactly like Dario. He wasn’t nearly as dark. He didn’t know too many people who were. Dario had demons. Elie liked his way and he knew how to get it. He already knew he intended for his bride to learn that lesson about him very quickly. He’d been honest in every answer he’d given to the questions asked of him when filling out the pages and pages of very explicit material needed for his arranged marriage. He had her answers and she had his. She should know that about him and what he expected of her.
He had read her answers dozens of times and knew what she expected of him. He had her sexual answers laminated and put up on the master bedroom wall right over the bed to remind her of what she said so there were no mistakes. His were there beside hers. Supposedly he would be matched with the perfect compatible woman to give them the highest odds of a successful marriage. Divorce for shadow riders was nearly a death sentence. It would mean the end of shadow riding. He wouldn’t, for one moment, put up with that.
Shadow riders had a unique ability to utilize portals within shadows to travel from one place undetected to another. They were required to begin training as toddlers in order to acquire the necessary skills to become deadly assassins to mete out justice to the criminals who managed to escape the law.