Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) by Nora Ash

The wine both looked and tasted expensive, though, so he probably hadn’t meant for me to have it.
    “ It’s not good for the baby,” he said, his lips flattening in disapproval.
    I blinked. Even if he had no idea about the stash of birth control pills I’d sneakily stuffed into my bag when we went to my flat, it wasn’t like we’d even had condom-less sex yet.
    “ I’m not actually pregnant,” I reminded him pointedly. “And this is good wine. Want a glass?”
    “ You will be soon,” he said with a small growl, as if his plans to knock me up when he deemed me healed somehow meant I had to lay off the wine right this second.
    “ Yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes and put my plate down so I could get up from the sofa. My feet ached when they connected with the floor, but they were already much better than they had been earlier. “Why don’t you sit down? I made enough dinner for you too. Do you like CSI?”
    He shot me an indecipherable look as I hobbled over to the kitchen counter where I’d left a plate with his food under some tin foil, but I heard him sink down on the couch a moment later.
    Good. Perhaps he wouldn’t be a broody pain in the arse all night, then. I poured another generous glass of the fancy wine before I returned to the couch, bottle in tow.
    Marcus wasn’t watching the TV, though, I noticed when I put the plate and glass down in front of him—he was watching me, with an intensity in his stormy gaze that made me feel self-conscious and awkward. I sat down next to him and released my hair from the messy bun so it could cover the splotch of wine on my top.
    “ So… how was your day?” I asked, partly to make him stop staring at me and partly because I wanted to make up for the less-than-stellar start to the evening. While he’d been gone, I’d had plenty of time to think about what would happen to me if he grew tired of our arrangement and left me to fend for myself. It had left me with a stern resolve to be the best companion he could ever want, because I much preferred spending my days taking care of Marcus like some parody of a housewife than running into my former employer again.
    Unfortunately for me, Marcus wasn’t much of a small talker. He simply grunted at my question and then turned his focus to the pasta, grabbing his fork to dig in.
    “ Any news about Brigs?” I pressed, opting instead to try and pump him for news about the man who would undoubtedly be gunning for us both now.
    Marcus, who had been mid-way through chewing his first bite of pasta, coughed violently and I saw him try to mask a grimace as he forced himself to swallow. He reached for the glass of wine and downed half of it in one go.
    I felt my cheeks heat from his obvious distaste of my food. “I’m sorry. I suck so bad at cooking, I know. I’ll do better.”
    “ No, it’s fine,” he said a little too quickly, turning his gaze back to me. “Thank you. For leaving me some.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him, pretty sure he was lying. But why? If Marcus was anything, it was big and gruff and not at all the kind of guy who would lie about my horrible cooking to try and save my feelings. Right?
    But as I saw him take another careful bite and almost succeed in masking his distaste as he chewed it, it was obvious that that’s what he was doing. A small measure of warmth spread in my chest and I offered him a genuine smile. “Of course. It’s part of the deal, isn’t it? You protect me and I take care of you.”
    “ Hmm,” he hummed, taking another swig of the wine.
    “ So, Brigs?” I pressed, filling up his glass once he’d put it down.
    “ You don’t need to worry about it,” he said. “We’ll take care of him.”
    “ ‘ We’ being your family?” I asked.
    “ Mmhm.”
    I frowned. “And you’re okay just trusting your dad with this? I mean, it was your dad on that video, wasn’t it?”
    Marcus’ face darkened, and for a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer. But then he nodded, not