I find myself standing at the brink of an abyss. Ready to drop in and let the darkness consume me. ?Do I want to find myself here? Well, at this very moment, I can say that I honestly want to. Yet, I remind myself who I am.

I am Colton Cruz.

The heir to the Venditti Crime Family, the best damn bodyguard in the business. Whichever I choose to be today, I am not letting a bunch of Vic Stone’s thugs come and ruin my engagement party. Now is the man sour that he was not invited, guess he has not forgiven me for that little fact that I took his daughter.

Trinity Stone is mine, and I will protect her with my life.

So, ya, the shit is about to come down…and my princess is not happy.

“Colton, do you seriously have to kill them now?”

I only but chuckle at her as I slip my gun firmly into the grip of my hands, “Princess, it is not like they will agree to come back later.”

She only but grunts at me as she drops back into her chair, “Fair, just get it over quickly.”

Though one thing seems rather peculiar, they only seem to be standing there as if they are waiting for something. Six rather buff tattooed men, all dressed in black, with eyes that can pierce through your soul, have surrounded our table. They have, unlike us, drawn their guns; well, I am not about to wait for them. While I have the upper hand, I shall need to make clear, in my own way, that they have not been invited.

But then I see him coming through the door; he walks as elegantly as he demands his presence. In his designer suit, he is making his way over to our table. He seems to have grown one very brave pair, for I can remember telling the man that he is not allowed to come near Trinity. It does seem that I am not only going to have my fun with the six assholes but with the biggest one of them.

Ya, Vic Stone has decided to crash my party.

So as he so casually decides to stroll over, I watch as he edges closer and closer to Trinity. Well, not on my fucking life, “I suggest that you stop it right their Stone.”

I watch as amusement starts to play around the corners of that goddamn filthy mouth, “I will do whatever I please, Cruz. Now, can I congratulate my daughter on her forbidden engagement?”

“Ha!” I burst out in a fit of uncontrollable laughter, “Your ass does not have me fooled for one minute. You think you can come here with your little boys and take Trinity.”

“It seems that you are not as dumb as you look. Now, let us play fairly and hand over what is mine.”

As I now slide my gun to the front of my pants, I look Vic in the eyes, and as I frown from frustration, I lower my voice one pitch lower, “I dare you to come to try. I have been wanting to waste your ass the day when you told me about Alexa.” I then pause for a brief moment, “Has she made her way back to your bed?”

“You have always been a man that…”

I immediately interrupt him, “If you call me ‘A man like you,’ then I am fucking blowing your brains out.”

He only but ignores me as he then continues, “What I was going to say is you have always been a man that does not take things seriously.”

“Oh. Do you want me to show you how serious I take your intrusion?”

I watch as Trinity is losing her patience, so from completely nowhere, the goddamn girl slips a Ruger from that tiny little handbag that she was carrying. I am truly shocked to my core; it is hard to say whose eyes have grown the biggest.

Fuck.

“Trinity, where did you get that.”

She only shows for me to shut the fuck up.

If this were not so damn scary, I would have thought it is fucking hot.

But let me not say a word, for this girl seems to mean business as she is pointing…ya…

“Princess, why the fuck are you pointing your gun at me?”

“Don’t worry; daddy is next.”

Vic’s face turns whiter than all fifty shades as white as she next points it at him, then she calmly speaks, “You two are ruining my day. Now put that fucking guns away.”

“But, princess…”

“No buts here, Colton, now he…” she points to Vic. “He has five minutes before I tell Mason to whack his ass.”

Well, I do not understand what the fuck is going on, but I am not yet going to agree with a girl who has her gun pointed at her dad, then every time she turns, she has it so casually on me.

What the fuck has just happened?

Now what is happening is that I allow Vic to come closer, with my piece firmly resting under a napkin on the table; I watch him as he makes every move while keeping his six idiots in mine that has now moved to the back.

I listen to Vic, and my body cringe, as he tries to convince Trinity to come back home, “My little princess, please come back home. I promise I will let Colton visit.”

Bullshit.

The man will pump a bullet into me the first foot I set on his doorstep.

Yet, Trinity listens, and god, I can see a part of her even considering. I have said this before, I cannot, and I will not lose Trinity. She would not leave here even if she wanted. What she needs to understand is that she is mine; I will not allow her to go anywhere, least of all with her father.

I have taken my place as the head of the Venditti Crime Family as of only but a day ago, Vic Stone has become my biggest rival, the man that I have grown to hate. If I let her go, then I will never see her again. So it is with somewhat burning ears that I continue to listen to their conversation.

But the skies have just burst open, and the rain is pounding hard on the roof, and the deafening sounds of thunder are filling the air.

I cannot hear a word that Trinity is saying.

Then next…

She pulls her father into a warm hug, and all of my fears come tumbling down and consume every moving cell in my body. Do I dare even want to know?

Something that I can say for certain is that life will knock you when you least expect it. It is not kind; it is brutally unfair; it has created such a thing called fate that will take your life in twists and turns and throw whatever it can at you in an instant.

Does it trouble me that Trinity is standing with Vic in her arms, and they are smiling for what seems way too much for me to handle?

Do I feel insecure?

Fuck yes.

Do I feel somewhat jealous?

Fuck yes.

I am, after all, just a man; it does not matter how powerful and ruthless I will get; I still have that tiny little nagging thing called a heart. And it is that little heart that is experiencing this suffocating feeling for every second that Trinity is in Vic’s arms.

Now can I tell the man to leave?

“I think it is time for you to leave Stone. I need to remind you that you have set your foot on my turf.”

He only but looks at me with much surprise on his face, “So you have…”

“Yes, I have. Now can you please leave, and let me remind you, do not ever fucking pull shit like this again.”

With that, I watch as a slightly defeated yet fuming Vic Stone turns around and leaves. I am pretty convinced that this will not be the last time that I will see him. We still have a rather big score to settle. I am preparing myself for that day, for only one of us will be walking out alive.

Once Trinity takes her seat, the room finally relaxes to the jovial atmosphere we had before the intrusion. So I pull Trinity close.

“Come here, princess.”

I stare into her deep brown eyes; I cup her cheek, which is now slowly turning red. I smile at her before I slowly lean into her. My hand is shaking slightly; my heart is beating so loud that I cannot concentrate. It feels like I am going to explode. I so desperately want to claim those lips.

"Can I kiss you, princess?"

I start moving my lips, breath by breath, closer to hers.

"Colton,” she can barely utter.

“Ssshhh, princess. Just a minute.”

I move my lips wink by wink, closer in slow agony.

She closes her eyes, and I can see she is getting as much pleasure as I do from it. She leans her head back and lets me roam her neck. I cannot keep it in anymore. I crave her; I want to take her body to a height of pleasure.

As my lips run slowly down from the tip of her ear down the bare of her neck to the edge of her shoulder, I can see her body slightly shiver. I know it's not from the cold of the night but the intensity of my touch.

My lips roll down her shoulder to her collarbone; I stop and take a deep breath. I part my lips and slightly let my tongue out to lick her. I gasp as her sweetness fills my mouth; my god, how good she tastes. I can hear her moan as I do it again.

"What are you doing, Colton?"

"Kissing you, princess."

I slowly move in and press my lips against her plump, velvety ones. The moment our lips touch, the world vanishes in an instant. Her lips are softer than I can remember, and she tastes even sweeter than heaven. My lips are firm against hers, but the kiss remains soft, gentle, and slow. We hold it for a few seconds before our lips begin to move in perfect sync. My eyes fall closed, and all I can feel is her. Her warmth, her touch, her being.

I place my hand at the small of her back and pull her closer.

The kiss goes on, our lips moving in perfect sync. The kiss is becoming more passionate by the second. Her right hand flows onto the open skin of my sculpted chest. My hand slides smoothly onto her arm. I can feel the heat flowing throughout her body.

The kiss is growing greedier; our mouths are locked together tightly. It feels like I am walking on air. Nothing around us matters; it is as if the world has fallen away.

Unable to contain myself anymore, I pull her into a fiery and passionate kiss. All my thoughts are obliterated. I can feel the hunger grow inside me, the pleasure building towards a peak. I pull her even tighter into my body.

For a brief moment, I pull away; with a shaky breath, I whisper, "Trinity." Prolonging each letter as to savor it. "What did you say to your dad?”