I see half of her smile from her profile before she turns away again. “Is that so hard to believe? Luca enjoys being my slave. It’s a lifestyle choice for him. There are places to find people like Luca. We met at an establishment that caters to the wealthy and their very particular wants and needs. He wanted to find a master and I wanted a willing slave. Immediately, Luca and I knew we’d make a good match…instant chemistry.” She gives me a knowing look. “He asked to be mine and I brought him home. I provide well for him, and I could do the same for you, Ezra. He’s happy here.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you like. It’s the truth.” She turns, crossing the room to stand in front of me with a square box in her hands. “I’m going to keep close tabs on you. I don’t trust you in Anya’s presence.”
“I don’t trust you in anyone’s presence.”
“I expect you to cooperate during your training. Luca has been given permission to provide you with guidance on serving me.”
“Serving you?”
She drops the box in my lap and bends over me, grasping my chin tightly between her fingers and forcing me to look up at her. The red silk blouse she wears drapes open as she bends, leaving nothing to the imagination, and she doesn’t seem to care.
“You will serve me or you will die. If that’s not incentive enough for you, then I will remind you of all the ways I could make Anya’s life end without drawing suspicion from anyone in the four families. And I will do just that if you deny me.”
“What do you want from me? What do you need me for if you already have Luca? I thought I was here to service your bloodlust.”
“Blood taken requires blood given, yes. Don’t be mistaken, I will take from you, drops at a time.” She releases my chin and turns, moving to sit on the edge of the bed across from me. She exhales slowly and captures me with her stare. “I find the fire behind your eyes alluring.”
Okay.
Really, how do I respond to something like that?
She goes on as if she’s having a casual conversation with a friend. “I was a married woman not so long ago. Giovanni was the perfect husband for a woman like me. He was strong, capable, dominant.” A half-smile twists her lips. “He was dominant enough to handle me, if you can imagine. I was in love with him. Giovanni was my everything. We’d been seeing each other for years before we married, but I only spent a few days as his wife.” She pauses and I sense she only does it for dramatic effect. “He was murdered…gone before I even had a chance to legally change my name. It’s been two years since his death and I still grieve him daily.” Her expression melts into vengeful honesty. “Trust me when I tell you that I understand pain. I know how to use the woman you love to hurt you, and I will if you deny me what I need.”
I swallow the raw truth I hear in her tone. “So, what do you what from me?”
She stands and moves slowly toward me. She pauses in front of me for a moment before she bends, placing her palms on my knees. I jerk backward, though my ass stays firmly planted in the seat. She pushes my knees apart, creating a V with my legs and she lowers until she’s kneeling between them. I’m frozen in place, every muscle in my body hard and tense.
She tilts her head, giving me eye contact that I’d call uncomfortable at best. “Giovanni had eyes like yours…like a fire that refuses to stop burning. I miss that fire, that fervor, that all-consuming, reckless passion...the kind of passion you have for that awful girl.” I clench my fists and pray I can keep myself from pounding them against her face. “Giovanni would share me with Luca, you know. We would play together. We’d command him and enjoy each other. It would be nice to have that again.”
Ah, fuck.
Fucking heathens.
She grips my thighs and slowly slides her hands upward. I grab her wrists and forcefully remove them. “No,” I say firmly.
“Yes.” She yanks her arms from my grip and slaps her hands right back down on my thighs, digging her fingertips into my muscles.
I try to scoot back, but I’m already as far back as I can go. “Stop,” I insist. Her fast fingers tug my shirt free from where it’s still half tucked into my pants, and they quickly disappear beneath the hem. “Whoa. Fuck. Stop it.” She starts undoing the button of my black slacks and I push through the armrests to stand. She leans back when I rise and sidestep free.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asks as I rush for the door.
I press down on the handle, but nothing clicks. It doesn’t open. There’s a keypad above it.
Fuck, I’m locked in.
I spin around just as she appears in front of me and I slam my back to the door. She comes in close, too close…way too fucking close.
“You seem uncomfortable, Ezra,” she prods.
“I’m more than fucking uncomfortable. Knock it the fuck off.”
She lets out a heavy sigh. “I don’t want to do this the hard way, but I will.”
I don’t know if she’s trying to sound threatening, but I’m not threatened by her. She makes me feel uneasy, not threatened. But then she turns and walks away, going to retrieve the box that fell from my lap when I got up, and she brings it over to me.
“Put this on,” she says, lifting the lid of the box.
I laugh. It’s a black leather collar, just like Luca’s. “Fuck no.”
“I didn’t give you a choice. Put it on.”
“Fucking no.” She’s really pissing me off now.
She picks up the collar, sets the empty box onto the dresser beside me, and boldly crushes her body against mine. I draw back, but there’s nowhere for me to go. So, I do what I have to. I grab her by both shoulders and physically shove her back, pushing and walking her until her legs hit the bed and she sits to avoid falling.
I step backward, pointing a finger at her. “Stay the fuck away from me.”
She just smiles from where she sits, placing a palm on the mattress and leaning on it with a suggestive tilt. “I’m surprised at you. You’re being very forward with me considering how submissive you were with Nikolai.”
I take another backward step. “I was submissive because I had to be, for Anya’s sake.”
She pushes to stand and I turn again, jiggling the door handle uselessly. I feel her presence behind me before her hand lands on my shoulder, gentle fingers dragging down my arm. I jolt from her touch and the warning prickle that creeps over my skin.
“And you still have to be submissive, for Anya’s sake.” She hugs me from behind and it’s fucking weird. She kisses between my shoulder blades and my shoulders shrug against what feels like an attack. “I hardly gave her a second thought when she was nothing but a slave. But since she killed my brother…” She pauses and I feel both her hands on my back, her cheek pressed there, freezing me in place. “Since she killed him, I’ve spent every waking moment imagining her blood on my hands. Consider your submission a way to quench my bloodlust for her. I’ll take yours as her penance. I would enjoy slicing her open and playing with her insides. But perhaps your service to me will fulfill that need. Do you understand me?”