Unmasked Heart Read online

  “You will go to the gala. It’s not a party for appearances.” Dad eats up what little ground I’ve gained and glares down his nose at me. How can he look at me like that? My throat and eyes sting and my chest heaves with each agonizing breath. “The whole point is to announce your engagement to Cohen Decker.”

  “Dad,” I try, not ready to give up the fight even if it’s clear I’m losing.

  “No, Annie. This entire spectacle has been organized because you asked for time.” Dad’s expression twists into a cold, closed off mask that I have trouble reading. “If you don’t do as you’re told, I’ll freeze your accounts and stop paying for school.”

  His words slice me to the core, but nothing could prepare me for the latest ultimatum that cinches the noose around my neck.

  Dad inhales slowly before he continues. “I’ll do all of that, and then I’ll take you straight to the courthouse to marry Cohen before going through the rest of the contract negotiations. Consider it a show of good faith to Decker and his extended family.”

  My father could stab me with a thousand tiny needles and the pain would never compare to how he’s razed my world. I suspected he didn’t give a shit about me, but having the truth laid out like this cuts me deep. A shudder of indecipherable emotion wracks my petite frame.

  “Are we clear?” Dad narrows his gaze.

  All I can manage is a weak nod. Time to lick my wounds again. I need to come back stronger if I’m going to win.

  Swallowing past the thick taste of betrayal in my mouth, I shrug my saddle bag higher on my shoulder. I’ll escape before there’s a chance for the tears welling and sticking my lashes together to fall. Small victories.

  “Have a good day, Dad,” I mutter.

  “Bye, princess.” Dad’s angry expression melts away, and he bends to kiss my forehead.

  I stand tall as I cross the room, shoulders back and head high. Once the elevator doors close, I’ll have the privacy to break down. My pulse thumps and I hear the rush of it in my ears.

  Dad turns back to peer through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city, posture relaxed like he has no qualms about what he’s planned for me.

  There’s no way in hell I’ll play along and marry Cohen fucking Decker. I’ve done plenty Dad demanded of me over the years. But this is where I draw the damn line.

  The elevator doors close and I cross my arms across my stomach, holding the shattered pieces of myself together.

  I’m a princess all right, one kept locked up tight in my steel tower. I don’t have time to worry about my father’s shady business dealings because I’m too busy collapsing under the weight of his control—everything in my life is decided for me.

  Including who I’m supposed to marry.

  Fuck that.

  A lioness kept captive lies in wait, pacing the bars, anticipating the right moment to strike.

  Two

  Cohen

  Checking my watch for the third time with a subtle tilt of my wrist, I raise a brow. Twenty minutes. Annie is never late.

  I stretch my long legs out in the back of the spacious town car idling outside of her building and cross them at the ankle.

  Her lateness will delay me for my meeting, but Dad won’t care. He wanted me to step into the position the family prepared for me right away, but I was more interested in working my way up if I was going to take over for Dad someday. Call it my way of checking under the hood.

  Unlike everyone else in my family and my cousins—the Mastrianos—I don’t like taking things I’m given at face value.

  I’m not as involved as my cousins. My mom didn’t want Uncle Albert to have me in his employ at all, but it’s a way of life for us. She had to let me into the organization eventually.

  Dad says I’ll need to step up my game once the deal with Noble goes through, but for now I’m enjoying the way things are because it gives me more freedom to torment my prize: Annie Noble.

  At last the doorman holds the big glass door for her, but she doesn’t greet him today. I smirk as she approaches the town car without question. I’ve been waiting all morning for this thrill: the moment she realizes she’s getting in the car with her big bad wolf.

  Annie reaches the town car and gets in, distracted from the world around her. She swipes beneath her eyes and I catch a hint of wetness shining on her fingertips. I click a button on the side console and a privacy screen divides us from my driver.

  “Chilly day to forget your coat. Don’t you have classes all day?”

  My smirk stretches when she jumps and swings a disbelieving, accusatory glare at me across the leather seat. Her eyes still glisten with the telltale hint of tears.

  “You—What are you doing here?” Annie demands.

  She’s adorable when she’s angry, all puffed up and self-important. It gets my dick hard in my dark gray, pressed slacks.

  I shrug and shift closer to her, offering her the heavy wool coat draped across my knee. “You can borrow mine today. I think you’ll look good in it. Can’t have my precious fiancée going cold, can I?”

  The change in her face is immediate as she shoves my hand away, a pinch forming between her dainty brows, her cheeks pinking, and her lips pursing.

  “Don’t call me that, you prick.” Annie flips her pretty blonde waves over her shoulder and crosses her arms as she settles back against the seat. A beat goes by before she speaks again, waving her hand to the divider. “Well? I’m already late enough as it is. Are you taking me to class or not? I’m happy to get out of this car and—”

  I click the lock button on my side before she can finish reaching for the handle. She huffs out a breath and settles against the smooth leather, glaring out the window as the car pulls into morning traffic.

  The car doesn’t make it two full blocks before she speaks again.

  “Fuck you, Cohen,” Annie mutters.

  I grin and reach across the back of the seat to play with her hair. She twitches her head away, but can only go so far in the confines of the car. I bury my fingers in her soft hair and lean closer.

  “Gladly, sweetheart,” I croon in her ear, stroking the shell of her ear. “I’m sure I can dig up a switchblade somewhere in this car. Mario always leaves a spare behind. Want me to cut a hole in those tights so you can sit on my lap and ride my cock on the way to campus?”

  She gives a satisfying, half-aborted shudder, like she’s trying to control her body’s natural response to stimulus.

  The image I’ve spun sits in my head for a minute and I shift on the seat to adjust my erection. Fuck, it would be hot to feel her thighs straddle me, to fist my hands in her skirt and direct her hips as I fuck her, to send her off to class with my come dripping down her ruined tights.

  That fantasy will definitely be one I revisit later in the shower with my hand around my dick.

  I trail my gaze down her fuzzy sweater over her tits and down to her thighs. With my other hand I tease my fingers up the inside of her leg and reach beneath her skirt with a deep hum. She’s got a hot little body that I’d love to defile before eight in the morning in the back of our swanky ride.

  Annie snatches my hand with a sharp, throaty sound and digs her nails in. She glares at me like I’m the shit stuck to the bottom of her expensive shoes. Her cheeks are tinged as rosy as her parted lips.

  “Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare,” Annie snarls, taking tiny puffs of breath between each angry word.

  My lips curl up and I gloat at her reaction. Maybe it makes me some kind of masochist to revel in Annie’s claws. She’s a sweet, venomous pit viper that I look forward to taming. Soon enough, she’ll be singing my tune and bowing down to me as her master.

  There’s nothing she can do to get out of marrying me. The deal’s as good as done at this point.

  Leaning back in my seat, I run my fingers over my lips and glance out the window. I can make out our tinted reflection in the window, Annie a bright spot against my charcoal suit and my dark hair.

  As a kid, the differences used to
get me wound up because I wanted to be just like my best friend, but now I revel in it. I love that I’m the dark shadow that will swallow her light whole. This time she won’t be able to run from me, not after I put the ring on her finger that will bind us together until the grave.

  Annie whips out her phone and I watch her without her knowledge as her thumbs fly furiously over the keyboard. My guess is she’s texting one of her vapid friends to have some support in the injustice of her charmed life. I roll my eyes. What a spoiled little bitch.

  I stopped thinking about marrying her years ago, crushing that little fantasy before it could fester. When Dad and Uncle Albert told me it was going to happen to bring the family closer together, I almost didn’t know what to do with the information.

  A wicked smile crosses my face. At least it’ll make Annie mine.

  She’s fought it for years, but what she doesn’t get about her and I? We have always been inevitable.

  It’s a fact I accepted a long time ago, and it’s a lesson I’ve spent years trying to teach her. One that’s more important than her degree courses.

  My attention cuts to her. She has her bag in her lap now, perched on her thighs. It’s cute how she thinks that would protect her or stop me if I really wanted to fuck her right now.

  I like to lay claim to things that belong to me. And Annie Noble? She’s been mine since we were kids. My friend, my girl, and soon she’ll be my wife.

  The town car turns left at an intersection, weaving from lane to lane.

  “Were you planning on shopping for a wedding dress with your dad’s new girl?” I tip a wolfish smirk at her when her pink lips thin into a severe line. “My mom would love it if you invited her to go with you.”

  “I’m sure she would.” Annie’s voice is monied, delicate like the tinkle of crystal. It’s also coldly polite.

  “It’d be a great time for the two of you to get to know each other. I know she’s looking forward to having a daughter in her life.”

  Annie’s shoulders remain stiff and straight. A tremor disturbs the edges of her lips. Her lashes lower, almost touching her cheeks.

  Stroking my chin, I go for blood. “I’m sure she would be happy to fill in since you don’t have a mom. Well,” I lick my lips, awaiting the moment she’ll crack, “an age appropriate one. Charity Noble barely counts as an older sister, I imagine.”

  There’s a slight sag in Annie’s proud posture. A burst of victory settles in my stomach. When she turns her eyes to me, they’re slitted and fierce.

  “I hate to disappoint your mother,” Annie hisses. “She must feel like she’s lacking in happy moments with a monster like you for a son.”

  I shrug. What Annie hasn’t figured out about my mom is that she’s still Mastriano through and through. Her married name hasn’t changed that. Mom’s a tough bitch, nothing shakes her.

  “I won’t be inviting your mother to coo at me while I have my wedding dress designed.”

  I open my mouth, but she takes a deep breath in through her nose. She smiles at me, the creepy one that she pulls out for her dad. It turns my stomach.

  “But that won’t happen anytime soon,” Annie states, full of bravado that’s cracked at the edges. “You see, dear, there’s no fucking way I’ll marry you. Didn’t you get the memo years ago? You know, back when you were trying to hold me down and kiss me?” She gulps and I watch her throat work. “I didn’t want you when you were twelve and I absolutely don’t want you to touch me now.”

  Now she’s just trying to piss me off. My teeth grind together and I crack my neck from side to side. Too bad for her, this is the most fun I’ve had all week, including last night when I collected an overdue debt with Mario. Like hell I’m giving it up for her comfort. Annie will have to do better than bring up our childhood to get past my walls.

  The little princess will just have to endure until I’ve had my fill.

  “I promise you, Annie,” I say solemnly, allowing my eyes to rove over her body. “You’ll be mine. Whether you want it or not.”

  Annie’s glare intensifies in indignation. Her upper lip curls and I can’t help but appreciate the fight in her. It gets me hot.

  “You’ll have to make me,” Annie spits, stabbing a finger at me. Her hazel eyes narrow. “If you think you have the balls to go that far. Because I’ll never be yours willingly.”

  I chuckle and prepare to knock her from her prissy high horse.

  Three

  Annabeth

  I hate Cohen. I hate everything about him. I hate that his raspy chuckle and the filthy suggestion to ride his dick on the way to class makes my body betray me.

  It needs to get with the program. Cohen Decker? He’s the enemy and no amount of dirty talk will change things.

  Another chuckle rolls through him and I press my thighs together, ignoring the throb of heat.

  Of course the devil would be a sinfully attractive asshole. It’s not fair.

  Cohen moves into my personal space in one quick move, getting right up in my face. He clenches one hand in my hair so that I can’t back away and grazes his nose against my cheek. His hot breath puffs across my lips as he locks his other arm across my lap.

  I struggle to keep my eyes from widening; I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s getting to me.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Cohen promises in a rough, wicked voice.

  You’ll have to make me. Because I’ll never be yours willingly.

  I know better than to stoop to his level and play his mind games, but I forgot myself when he goaded me with Charity.

  Tipping my chin up as much as his hold allows, I level him with a cold stare. I hate him.

  Cohen loosens his fist in my hair and skims his palm down my face, cupping my jaw, swiping his thumb over my cheek. He flicks his gaze own to my mouth and pulls at my lip with the pad of his thumb. He meets my eyes again.

  I’m surrounded by him, the sharp scent of his expensive cologne and his warmth bombarding me.

  My breath catches in my throat. Cohen leans in. Is he going to—?

  He stops before kissing me with a hair’s breadth between us. A beat passes. A yellow cab lays on the horn and a bike messenger cuts through traffic, nearly side swiping the town car. Cohen snickers and leans back, leaving me cold without his body heat invading my senses.

  “Not today. Let’s save the kissing for the wedding.”

  I swallow. My body doesn’t know what it wants. I’m torn between chasing him to his side of the car to claim that missed kiss and tucking and rolling into New York traffic. I should jump out of the car. The last thing I want is to give Cohen the satisfaction of kissing me after he stole my first one.

  Cohen turns me into a complete mess with a few choice words and his devil’s grin.

  Mustering all of my boarding school etiquette to save face, I smooth a strand of hair into place. The car rolls to another stutter stop. We can’t get to the Columbia campus fast enough so I can get as far away from Cohen as possible.

  I miss the days when we were younger. Things were simpler then. He was one of the few childhood friends I was allowed to play with. I remember he was still a little shit back then. Once he pushed me into the mud in Central Park while something distracted our French au pairs. All because I wanted to play with his fire truck.

  We were still inseparable. We had to be since our fathers were in each other’s pockets. It was either get along or be bored out of our minds while the adults conducted business.

  That all stopped when he was twelve and I was eleven. He always lorded it over my head that he was six months older, like it made him superior because he reached milestones first. He was a big kid, way taller than me. I was a late bloomer.

  Once again, Cohen had pushed me down.

  Except, instead of letting me up, Cohen had jumped on top of me, holding me on the ground. I remember the way he stared at me with wide eyes. He squeezed my shoulders. There were freckles on his nose and his hair was long, overdue for a cut.
It touched my forehead when he swooped down and kissed me—my first kiss.

  He didn’t ask, he just took.

  That’s how bullies operate. Cohen never changed, so I stopped hanging around him. I would choose mindless boredom than be his friend.

  I pretend he wasn’t my first kiss. He doesn’t get to keep that, too.

  Cohen’s still a bully. Only now instead of pushing girls into the mud, he likes to swoop in for a subtle attack. His favorite is to whisper in my ear so I’m the only one that knows the kinds of filthy things he says to me.

  Everyone around us thinks he’s being sweet, since we’re promised to each other. But Cohen’s no different from my father. He doesn’t care about me—he sees me as his toy to show off.

  At last, the town car nears the campus. I squeeze the straps of my saddle bag, my whole body tense with the eagerness of escaping this car.

  Marrying Cohen means accepting what my father chooses for me. I refuse.

  I’m the one in control of my future.

  Four

  Cohen

  I frown as the car approaches the spot where Annie will get out for her morning class. I want more time with her. I’m not quite ready to let her slip through my fingers for the day.

  Maybe I’ll give Dad the slip so I can drop in on her later.

  Beside me, Annie vibrates with awareness, straining toward the door as our driver pulls up to a lucky spot that opens up. She can’t wait to get out. I scrub a hand over my mouth.

  “Not so fast, little bird,” I interrupt as she wraps her fingers around the door handle. “Don’t fly off yet.”

  Annie sighs and glances over her shoulder, eyebrows raising in silent question.

  I smother a grin. I want her to learn her place and accept that she’s going to marry me. But I can’t lie…part of me hopes she never loses all the fiery attitude.

  “Do you want me to have Gino pick you up when your classes are done?” I caress a line down her back.