Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
My grin stretches. She’s cute when she’s angry.
“What now?” she asks with a lift of her chin. “Anything else you’d like me to eat?”
“Dessert.”
She blinks and then pales. “You said you wouldn’t.”
I click my tongue. “You have a dirty mind, tesoro. I meant dessert as in ice cream or tiramisu.”
The color returns to her cheeks with a flush. “I don’t like sweets.”
“What do you like?”
She shrugs. “Fruit.”
“What kind of fruit?”
“Whatever is in season.”
“What’s your favorite fruit?”
“Strawberries.”
“And cream?”
“Only strawberries,” she says with a frown. “Why all the questions?”
“Just getting to know you.”
Her laugh is mocking. “Am I supposed to ask what your favorite foods are now?”
“Only if you really want to know.”
An obstinate line hardens her jaw.
As much as I’m enjoying this exchange, Giorgio is waiting, and after the unplanned scene that unfolded earlier, I’ll have to go past my place to shower and change before we head to Boston.
I stand, round the table, and offer her a hand. “Come.”
She pulls back, observing me with big, mistrusting eyes.
“You need to rest,” I say, an amused smile tugging at my lips. “I’m not going to get into bed with you.”
Ignoring my assistance, she pushes to her feet. When she reaches for her plate, I catch her wrist.
“Leave that.”
She frowns. “I was just going to pack the dishwasher.”
“I’ll take care of it. To bed with you. Now.”
She scoffs but pads to the bedroom. Once she’s lain down on the bed, I draw the comforter over her.
“You have my number,” I say. “This time, call me.”
She stares at me with a mixture of fear and resistance crackling in those whisky eyes.
Oh, my pretty treasure. How I’m going to enjoy taming you.
Bending down to kiss the top of her head, I say, “Be a good girl while I’m gone.”
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Anya
The minute the door shuts behind Saverio, I jump to my feet. A dizzy spell hits me hard. I pinch my eyes shut and open them slowly, waiting for the room to stop spinning before I go to the lounge and look through the street-facing window.
Saverio stands on the sidewalk, buttoning up his coat. He seems like any regular man dressed for a fancy office job, and at the same time, he doesn’t. There’s something different about him—a discerning, dangerous edge. With not a hair out of place and an undecipherable mask on his face, no one would guess what he’s been up to. You’d never say he just pulled down a woman’s panties and wrenched an orgasm from her body while spanking her. He gives the impression of a CEO leaving one board meeting for another.
The black car pulls up to where Saverio waits on the curb. He folds his body double to get into the back. The tinted window hides his face when he shuts the door. The driver hits the road, and just when he picks up speed, the window on Saverio’s side lowers a fraction. He tilts his face up to the building, our gazes clashing across the distance as a knowing smile tugs at his lips.
I spin away from the window and lean against the wall.
What the hell just happened?
How did our dynamic go from murderous to sexual? Saverio can call it what he wants, but the spanking wasn’t a punishment, at least not one designed to hurt. Maybe his aim was humiliation. If that’s the case, he succeeded.
My face turns hot as I recall how he made me come. I don’t understand that either. I don’t know why my body betrayed me, why the sting of his palm on my skin heated me right to my core. The idea of him pulling down my underwear and punishing me as if I were a naughty girl didn’t completely repulse me. The fact that the game turned him on was clear, and it didn’t leave me unaffected. A flame of something licked my belly, something that felt a lot like arousal, and that only makes my stomach burn with shame. How could I derive pleasure from such an act and from a man like him no less?
The reason I didn’t fight him wasn’t born from perverse anticipation. It was born from self-preservation. A part of me reckoned if I just let him finish, he’d go away and leave me alone. If I learned anything about him, it’s that he likes a fight. When I give him resistance, something unsettling sparks in his eyes. It makes him more excited. Compliance gets me further. However, I never intended to go that far. I didn’t expect him to bring me to climax and then to come all over my body.
I rub my blazing cheeks, taking a shaky breath as I face the ugly truth. Saverio turned my apartment into a prison, and he holds the key. I’m not only his hostage, trapped in the web of lies he spun, but I’m also utterly at his mercy, and he made sure I understood that.