My body went hot and cold as he prowled toward me like some kind of beautiful nightmare. His dark eyes were focused in on mine, and they burned with so many emotions I didn’t know how he kept from spontaneously combusting. I saw now why he hid behind those dark glasses. Everything he felt—every want, every need, every fear, every raw desire—showed themselves in those eyes. They hid nothing from me. Internally, he was on fire. And what he burned for right now was me.
And it both excited and terrified me all at once.
I didn’t know if it was all the whiskey he’d had that night or if he was always like this, but I tried again to get through to him. ‘Enzo, please. Don’t do this.’ How I’d ever thought it was a good idea to give my virginity to this man, I didn’t know. I was terrified of unleashing all of that burning energy inside of him on my innocent body. And I was afraid to tell him how innocent I actually was for fear that it would only excite him more. ‘Please. Let’s talk about this. I’m sure we can work something out.’
‘We’re done talking, Sera. I made you an offer.’
‘One I didn’t accept.’
He stopped so close to me that if I took a deep breath, my breasts would touch his chest, but there was nowhere else for me to go. I swallowed hard as his eyes traveled over my face, from my hairline to my chin, before they finally narrowed on mine. ‘It’s the only offer you’re going to receive from me. And it wasn’t really up for debate.’
‘That’s not an offer at all if you won’t accept my decision not to take it. It’s a demand. Which makes you no better than my father.’ I took shallow breaths, trying to ignore the way his scent surrounded me. He smelled like trees under the moon, cloaked by mist. My pulse raced, making me lightheaded, and nerves fluttered in my stomach.
But other things were happening lower.
I flinched when he raised his hand toward me, but he only wrapped one of my pigtails around his fingers. ‘Such a sweet little thing,’ he murmured. ‘Ever since I first saw you, I’ve imagined what you would look like on your knees, this perfect mouth stuffed with my cock. I can’t stop thinking about it.’
‘Enzo, please.’ I kept my voice low and quiet, hoping to calm the beast within him. ‘Don’t do this.’
His eyes traveled over my face, and I thought for a moment that I was getting through to him. But then he wrapped his other hand in my hair and forced my head down until I had no choice but to sit on the bed. It was that, or have my face scrape down the front of his shirt and pants. Once I was sitting, he released my hair and removed his shirt, revealing powerful shoulders and arms, with tattoos on the left side over his pec and shoulder and down his arm. My eyes wandered along slabs of hard muscle that rippled down his flat stomach to the ‘V’ that dipped between his hips. Then he undid his slacks, pushing them down his hips, along with his black boxer briefs until his long, thick cock was free. A thick vein ran along the underside, and I had the sudden urge to run my tongue along it until I reached the swollen, purplish head.
His hands were gentle as they smoothed my hair and cupped my cheeks. ‘I can’t get you out of my fucking head, Sera. Trust me, I’ve tried.’
A surprising shock of jealousy whipped through me, heating my blood. What did that mean? He tried? How? With who? I had my answer with his next words.
‘Do you know how many times a day I find myself locked in a bathroom fucking my fist until my cock is raw because all I can see is you in that fucking excuse for a dress you wore when you showed up at my door?’ He laughed, but it was an ugly sound. ‘But this shit you’re wearing tonight…yeah…you just gave me a new fucking fantasy to obsess over.’ He paused, and I could feel the weight of tension around us. Electric currents pulling us together even as we both tried to fight it. ‘I gotta get you out of my system, baby girl. You’re too distracting. And it’s dangerous for me to be distracted. Not just for me, but for the man I work for.’
He gripped himself in his one hand, breathing hard as he slid his fist up and down its thick length. My lips parted as I watched. I couldn’t seem to get enough air.
‘Get on your knees and put me in your mouth, Sera.’
A tear slid down my cheek even as the deep muscles of my womb tightened and released, sending a rush of moisture between my thighs. I wasn’t completely ignorant about sex. In this day and age, it would be ridiculous for anyone to make it into their mid-twenties without exploring that side of themselves. I saw movies. I had the internet. I’d explored myself in the darkness of my bedroom at night. But I’d never had the opportunity to be this intimate with another person.
It was…intoxicating.
I slid off the bed and landed on my knees in front of him. Despite my body’s reaction to what he was doing, I didn’t want to do this. Not because I wasn’t attracted to him. I mean, fucking look at him. But because he wasn’t giving me a choice. However, I was afraid of what he would do if I kept refusing him. Would he hit me? Rape me? Jade told me he’d never done those things to her. But she’d also never told him no.
I turned my face away. This was not the way I ever imagined my first sexual experience would go. And maybe I was naive and making more of the situation than what it was, but if he wanted me to suck him off, he would have to put that gun to my head.
‘Put me in your mouth, Sera,’ he growled.
I kept my eyes averted and shook my head, silent tears sliding freely down my cheeks as I struggled with what I knew was right and what my body craved. My back began to ache from holding myself so stiff as I waited to see what he would do next.
Seconds ticked by, and I could sense his own inner struggle. Then, with a sound like something I imagined an animal would make, his free hand wrapped itself in my hair and he forcefully turned my head until the head of his cock rubbed my lips. I kept them pressed shut, refusing to take him into my mouth as he stroked himself.
‘Eyes up here,’ he ordered. His voice was low and strained. When I didn’t immediately comply, he tightened his grip in my hair until I winced from the pain and opened my eyes.
As soon as they met his, he bared his teeth in a snarl and his fist started pumping his cock faster. I watched, fascinated by the waves of pleasure and pain and…was that shame?…that burned within them. I saw his frustration. His fury that I wouldn’t do what he wanted. What he needed. His breaths came faster and harder, his mouth falling open and his chest heaving. The tribal tattoos covering his left pec and shoulder seeming to writhe across his skin as the muscle underneath tensed and released with his grip on my hair.
And the entire time, he held my eyes with his, drawing me into the act whether I wanted to be there or not. My nipples hardened and rubbed against the material of my dress, and there was an ache between my thighs, somewhere between pleasure and pain, that made me want to squeeze them together. I kept my hands fisted at my sides, refusing to touch myself, even though it nearly killed me.
I felt moisture on my lips, and without thinking about it, I licked it away, tasting the musky saltiness of the pre-cum dripping from the slit at the tip of his cock. I moaned when it coated my tongue, wanting to taste more of him despite my own stubborn refusal to do so.
Enzo clenched his jaw so hard muscles popped out at the hinge, the fire in his eyes searing my very soul as he slid his fist faster and faster up and down the length of his cock. The head jabbed me in the mouth as he rocked his hips and pulled my head forward as if I was sucking him.
Unable to take the intensity of his gaze any longer, I dropped my eyes just in time to see his stomach muscles tighten and release repeatedly as my name escaped his lips. A second later, I shut them tight as something warm, thick, and wet hit me in the face, covering my mouth and chin to run down my neck and drip down my chest into my cleavage.
When it was done, I thought he would release his grip on my hair, but he didn’t. Instead, he held my head still as he smeared his cum across my closed lips with his fingers. Then he pushed his thumb between my lips until he pressed against my teeth, forcing me to taste him again. He rubbed it into the skin of my jaw, my throat, and across my chest, dipping his fingers into my cleavage before bringing them back up to my lips.
‘You’re mine, Sera.’ The words were whispered, and there was a slight tremor to his voice, almost like he was afraid if he said them too loud I would up and disappear right out from in front of him.
He let go of my hair, and I blinked my eyes open, staring at his hands as he zipped himself back up into his pants. He went into the bathroom and came out a few seconds later with a fluffy white hand towel.
I hadn’t moved. I was still on my knees beside the bed with my hands clenched into fists and my back screaming from fighting him. Enzo kneeled in front of me and gently wiped away what semen remained on my skin. I wouldn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even cry anymore. I was horrified at what just happened. Embarrassed. And in some weird kind of post-traumatic numbness or something. But in the back of my mind, I felt how wet I was and how sensitive my nipples were, aching for him to touch me. I’ve never had a man react like this toward me, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Nothing in my life had prepared me to be the recipient of such raw, animalistic need.
‘I want to go home,’ I whispered when I found my voice, still keeping my eyes down. My face was on fire. I needed to be alone so I could process what just happened and how I felt about it, because while a part of me was embarrassed and disgusted and felt used, another part of me was more turned on then I’ve ever been in my life. If he asked me right now to strip and lie on the bed so he could lick me all over, I honestly didn’t know that I would have the willpower to keep fighting him.
He rubbed his hand gently over the top of my head, smoothing my hair as I felt his eyes search my face. ‘Sera…I…’ He paused. ‘There’s no need to feel ashamed.’ When I didn’t respond, he helped me to my feet and held out his hand. ‘Come on.’
I allowed him to help me up, my mind racing. Was he going to let me leave? Or was he going to lock me up in this hotel room?
Instead of taking me out of the room, he sat me on the bed. And as he turned to sit beside me, I could see that he was still hard. Quickly, I averted my eyes, staring down at the navy-blue carpet.
‘I would like you to listen to the terms of my offer,’ he told me. ‘Sera. Look at me.’
Slowly, I turned my head and met his gaze.
His brown eyes had lost a little of their fire, but not all of it. He still looked at me like he was a starving man. Like he owned me now. ‘You’re in my blood. And even after what happened here tonight, I want more. I want you to be mine, and only mine, until we can get…whatever the fuck this is…out of our system.’
‘What if I don’t want you?’
One side of his mouth lifted in a hint of a smirk. ‘Am I ugly to you?’
I wanted to lie and say yes, but I couldn’t. Not with him looking straight through me the way he was. ‘No,’ I told him.
‘Are you attracted to me physically?’
I knew what my body had felt when I was on my knees in front of him, even as waves of humiliation surged through me. ‘Yes,’ I told him honestly. ‘Or at least I was before tonight.’ I couldn’t resist adding that little dig at his behavior, even though I didn’t know why I would’ve expected anything more from him. From what I’d heard, he was a made man. Not born into this life. He’d had to work harder, fight harder, to get where he was. And as I knew well, mafia men took what they wanted with little thought to the consequences of their actions. Why would he be any exception?
I wasn’t expecting him to own up to what he’d done, but again, he surprised me. ‘I told you, I couldn’t get you out of my fucking head, Sera.’ He sounded angry, but I wasn’t sure if it was at me or at himself.
It wasn’t anywhere near an apology, but it was probably as close as I was going to get.
His tone had gentled again when he said, ‘I’m not always a gentleman, Sera. But I swear you’ll be safe with me. No one will hurt you while I’m around to protect you.’ He waited a moment for me to take that in. ‘I know you stand up for yourself. It’s gotten you this far, and I respect that about you even as it drives me completely insane. But you don’t really want to go back to your father, do you? So he can marry you off to some stronzo who’ll parade you around in front of his friends and beat you when you don’t have dinner ready on time?’
I shook my head. ‘No,’ I admitted, finally bringing myself to look at him. ‘I really don’t. But I also don’t want to trade one prison for another. You can’t just throw money at me and expect me to have sex with you.’
‘Why not? That’s what you were here for the other night, were you not?’
Yes, that’s exactly why I’d been there, but still… ‘That was different.’
‘Why?’
Why? ‘Because it was my choice to be here.’
Reaching over, he took one of my hands in his and brought it over to his lap where he rested our joined hands on his thigh. ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you the choice. So, here is my offer. If you agree to stay with me, I won’t tell anyone that you’re here. Not even my closest friends. I’ll keep you safe. And, when things have run their course between us, I’ll give you the money to go wherever you want and start a brand-new life. I’ll help you change your name, buy you anything you need, and you can forget all about me and your father and everyone else in this world if you want.’
Like any offer, this one sounded too good to be true. I had to ask, ‘And what exactly do I have to do in return? Will I be locked in this room for you to use whenever you want?’
His eyes narrowed in warning. ‘You won’t be locked in this room unless you force me to do so. I’d like this to be an agreement between us, Sera. You’ll be allowed to live your life, as long as you are careful. You can continue to work at the club if you’d like. You can have your friends. You can even stay wherever you’re living like you’ve been doing because I can’t always be here at night, and no one would think to look for you there. However’—his eyes clashed with mine—’on the other side of it, you will make yourself available to me whenever you’re not working. I’ll expect you to answer your phone when I call. I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing. And I’ll give you a burner phone to use when you talk to me. And when I summon you here, or anywhere, you come without question. And you won’t pursue the escort business. I do not share, Sera.’
No, he was too possessive. I could tell that already. And it raised a lot of red flags. ‘And what will you do with me while I’m with you?’
‘Whatever the fuck I want to,’ he said darkly. ‘But I promise you, it’ll be pleasurable for you, too. If you allow it to be. I won’t beat you or sell you out to other men. As a matter of fact, I have no qualms about cutting off the hands of any man who dares to touch you, with or without your permission.’
I wasn’t even shocked by that statement. Not because I didn’t believe him, I did. But because even locked in my father’s home, I overheard things. I knew how men like Enzo worked. ‘And for how long will I need to do this?’ I thought this was a pertinent question. He still frightened me, but I could also see the honesty of what he said in his eyes. And if he truly meant what he was telling me, it didn’t sound like the worst arrangement in the world. Especially if it would get me out of the reach of my father. Enzo would tire of me sooner or later, and then I would be free.
I thought I detected a pause, but then he said, ‘As long as it takes.’
‘For what? For you to rape me every night?’
Enzo cocked his head, then shoved his hand under my dress and cupped my pussy over my ruffled panties as I tried to push him away. ‘I can feel how wet you are, Sera. I saw you squirming for my touch even as you held yourself so fucking stiff while you watched me get off. I heard the sounds you made when you tasted my come. Don’t try to pretend that you’re not aching to have my cock inside of you.’
He was right. There was no use lying about it while my legs were spreading apart of their own accord to give him more room to maneuver. But instead of giving me what I needed, he gave me a squeeze and pulled his hand away.
I clenched the bedspread and tried to slow my breathing. Fine. But just to knock him down a few pegs, I asked, ‘And what if, after, we…’ I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. ‘I decide I don’t want to continue with this agreement.’
I watched, fascinated, as the corners of his mouth turned up and creases formed along his cheeks, revealing strong white teeth and crinkles around the corners of his eyes. His smile took the breath from my lungs and made my heart pound.
‘That won’t happen,’ he told me.
I scowled at his oversized ego. ‘You seem pretty damn sure of yourself.’
‘I’m good at what I do. At everything I do. You won’t regret allowing me to fuck you, Sera.’
My eyes wandered over to the gun on the nightstand and I mentally counted how long it would take me to grab it and insert the clip, but I quickly discarded the idea. And not just because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to it before him, but because I felt strangely guilty for having the idea to begin with.
Tearing my eyes away from the weapon, I looked back over at Enzo to find him watching me, his expression completely blank even though he had to know what I’d just been thinking.
‘So, what do you say?’ he asked. ‘Do we have an agreement?’
My mind raced. I didn’t want to agree with this. Making a deal with Enzo felt like I was turning over my body to the devil himself. But it wasn’t like he was giving me a choice. It was either play along with him on his terms and have a little freedom or be locked in this room. Because let’s be honest here, sending me back to my father wasn’t really even on the table, no matter what he said. For whatever reason, Enzo wanted me for himself, and when it was done, I would be rid of my virginity, and I’d have money to start over wherever I wanted to go.
There was really only one answer I could give here. But first, because I was a practical girl, I had a question. ‘How much money are we talking about, exactly?’
