Sweet Temptation by Cora Reilly

I stepped close to Andrea and ripped the tape off. “Now we’ll talk.”
Andrea spat against my chest. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Oh, there is.” I grabbed his throat. “How long have you been fucking my
wife?”
Andrea smiled grimly. “She’s been mine before she was yours.”
“What does that mean?” I shook him hard.
His eyes rolled back briefly before they met mine. He’d lost a lot of blood,
was losing more with every passing second. He wouldn’t leave this basement
alive. “We’ve been together since Gaia was fifteen. We’ve been fucking since
she was sixteen.”
Rage boiled up in me like an unstoppable wave. “You’re lying.”
“Why? Because she bled your first time together?” He laughed nastily.
“There are doctors for everything.”
Almost eight years. That was how long Gaia had been cheating on me. I’d
been faithful even when she hardly tolerated my presence most days and had
only slept with me once or twice per month. I didn’t care. I kept my marriage
vows, and she trampled on them from day one. I trusted her and Andrea, had let
him become her only bodyguard because she asked me to. I didn’t give a fuck
about what had happened before our wedding night, if she’d been a virgin or not,
but every betrayal since then cut me like an acid-coated knife.
My hands balled to fists.
“Remember the bikers,” Faro said, but I barely heard him. “We need info.”
Andrea swallowed. “If you want an heir, you need to keep Gaia alive
because Daniele and Simona aren’t yours. They are mine.”
Static rushed in my ears. I threw myself at him, raining punches down on his
face, his chest, his stomach. I beat every inch of him I could reach.
“Cassio, stop!” Faro gripped my shoulders, but I shoved him away with a
roar, more animal than man. He collided with the wall and crumpled to his feet.
Then I whirled on Andrea again. His gaze said he knew he would die.
My fists burned with every new punch. I hit flesh and bone, even the floor
beneath us in my blinding rage. I punched and punched until I couldn’t breathe
anymore, until my knuckles throbbed with pain, until my ribcage ached under an
invisible weight. Shoving away from the corpse, I sank down against the wall,
chest heaving. My knuckles were split from impact with the stone floor.
I gasped for breath and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was
calm. Andrea was a bloody mess. I didn’t have to check for a pulse to know he
was dead. I’d killed many men with a knife, gun, hammer, razorblade, but never
with my bare hands. I didn’t let rage dictate my actions. Today I had.
Faro sat across from me, eyeing me warily. “You all right?”
I stretched out my blood-covered arms. My shirt and pants were drenched.
My fingers ached when I wiggled them. I smiled wryly. “My wife has been
fucking her half-brother our entire marriage… Daniele…” My words died in my
mouth, throat becoming dry.
Faro got up with a wince. He stepped over the corpse and almost slipped on