Page 11 of Twisted Temptation

"I don't need a moment. The answer is no."

"Then your father dies tonight."

The words have the exact effect on her that I intended.

She flinches and steps back. “You wouldn’t…”

I reach into my jacket and pull out my gun. The moment she sees it, her eyes widen and all the spark drains from her. Shit just got real, and she realizes I’m not here to threaten—I’m here to take payment.

I walk around the desk and press the barrel to Joseph Meadows' temple.

Joseph stumbles backward. "Please, Mr. Di Zaro, not in front of my daughter."

"No! Get away from him!" Sunny cries with raw, animal terror. If she didn’t believe I was going to do it before, she believes it now, and it changes everything in her. "Please. Please don't hurt him. He's all I have."

I look at her. At the tears she's fighting. At the way she's straining toward her father with every muscle in her body.

"Then say yes," I tell her.

"You can't do this," she sobs.

"I can, and I am. Say yes."

Her glare is murdering me a hundred times over, and dammit, it feels nice.

"If I say yes," she says, her voice raw with fear, "you let him go. You clear his debt. All of it. And you never come near him again."

"You're in no position to make demands, Miss Meadows."

She clenches her teeth, trying to control her emotions as she stares me down.

"Okay, I'll do it," she says. "Just don't hurt him."

"Good to see you've come to your senses."

"You didn't give me much of a choice."

"We all have choices, Miss Meadows," I say. "You marry me, and his debt is cleared."

She fights back her tears, and she’ll do whatever it takes to keep them from falling in front of me. I can see the determination in her glittering eyes.

"Is that a promise?" she asks.

“I am a man of my word.”

“Excuse me if I don’t put much stock in your integrity right now.”

God, I like this firecracker.

"You'll have the paperwork before the wedding," I say.

She bites her lower lip and nods. “Okay,” she says softly. “I will marry you.”

I hold her gaze for a long moment, then lower the gun and step away from her father. "Then we have a deal."

Joseph collapses forward over his desk. Sunny moves to him immediately, places her hands on his back, and brings her mouth close to his ear to whisper something I can't hear. Something comforting meant only for him.

When she straightens, she lets her tears spill silently down her cheeks.