Sold to a Marseille Don, So He Knelt at My Father's Grave novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: The Rope
Vannina's POV
I brought my father's rope up to the top room on the first Wednesday of December.
I laid it on the bed between us.
It was an old mooring line, worn soft by forty years of salt and hands.
It had hung on a nail in the atelier since the week he died.
Antone looked at it, and then at me.
"What is that?"
"His," I said. "The line he threw from the boat every morning."
I sat on the edge of the cot.
"I want to know if it's good for anything else."
He did not touch it.
"Vannina."
"You said you didn't want me because of who I was," I said. "You said it on the roof."
"I did not say that."
"You said it with your mouth on my neck. You're still saying it every time you stop."
He took a breath.
"You priced yourself," he said, flat. "At the table, in front of everyone. You took your uncle's price and made it yours."
I had waited a month for him to say it again.
"I priced myself so your father's gift would not be sold to my uncle twice," I said.
"You think that's greed. It's the only thing I've ever done that my mother would have called sense."
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then something in his shoulders let go.
"I heard it as greed," he said.
"I know," I said.
"I was wrong to."
"I know that too," I said.
I picked up the rope and put the end of it into his hand.
His fingers closed around it, and I watched them learn the weight.
"Show me," I said, "what a man does with a line."
His eyes went dark.
He stood and drew me to my feet.
He turned me to face the dormer window.
He pulled off my sweater and my skirt and everything under it, until I stood bare in the cold light from the street.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Sold to a Marseille Don, So He Knelt at My Father's Grave are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend