My eyes adjusted quickly to the dark, which was good, because the stairs were slick with the light drizzle of rain that was falling. When I reached the bottom, I found a latched gate and threw up a quick prayer that it wasn’t padlocked because I really didn’t want to have to try to climb over it.
Luckily, it opened easily. I closed it again as quietly as I could, just in case someone was lurking around, so nothing would look out of place. Then pulled up the hood of my coat over my hair, which I’d pulled back into two braids to avoid any strands slipping out and giving me away. Something rustled in the brush to my left and I froze. But whatever it was, it must’ve run away.
I knew my escape was being caught on Luca’s security cameras, but I was banking on the fact that by the time someone noticed I was gone, the only thing they’d see is me walking off the property. I planned to head one direction and then double back to try to throw them off as to which direction I’d gone.
I looked up, squinting my eyes against the drizzly rain. Luca’s house clung to the edge of the rock formation that rose a good thirty or forty feet above me. From where I stood, the ground sloped steeply down to the lake. If I slipped, I could only hope that I could catch myself on one of the scraggly trees before I slid all the way down.
I thought about that for a second. Maybe escape by water would be the way to go. I seriously doubted there were any guards patrolling the side of a hill like that. But then I dismissed the idea. It was too cold, and I didn’t have any dry clothes. I’d stick to my original plan and hope for the best.
Carefully, I followed the narrow trail of even ground that hugged the bottom of the outcropping of rock Luca’s house was built on. My plan was to find the driveway at the front of the house and then follow it out to the gate while staying under the cover of the trees that covered the property. That way, if I saw anyone, I could easily step out onto the drive and use whatever excuse for being there I thought would work best. If I was found too far from the drive, it would be way too obvious that I was trying to sneak out. Plus, I didn’t know how much land Luca owned, but I would bet my life that the perimeter was protected by a wall and guards.
By the time I saw the lights from the front of the house and the paved drive, my thighs were burning from slipping and sliding on the wet ground as I climbed up the hill. Outside the circle of light, I stopped by a tree for a few seconds and caught my breath. All three of the SUVs were gone, but I made myself wait, listening for guards. When I didn’t hear anything, I pushed away from the tree and started following the drive away from the house. I kept my hands in my pocket and my head down, hoping my dark hoodie and jeans would keep me hidden in the dark. As I walked, I scanned the area around me as discreetly as I could.
My heart was beating so hard now I could barely hear anything around me as I blinked the moisture out of my eyes. I wished I’d checked the weather before I left, but then thought it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Tonight was my only chance, and I had to take it. If the skies decided to open up and drench me in a typical Texas rainfall, then that’s just the way it was going to be. And maybe the rain was working to my favor. No one would expect anyone to be out and about in this shit.
I took a quick look to either side of me. So far, I hadn’t seen anyone patrolling the grounds. Had they all gone with Luca? That would be a stroke of luck I’d never expected, and would make my life so much easier. By the time they got back to the house, I’d be long gone.
Hopefully.
I was cold and damp, but after a few more minutes my nerves began to calm and I quickened my pace, not worrying so much about how much noise I was making. It didn’t seem like anyone was around to hear it. At least not until I got to the gate. Luca wouldn’t have left that unprotected. And I had no idea how I was going to get past them, but I’d figure it out when I got there.
It was really dark now where I was. No moon or anything to help light my way. But I wasn’t afraid of the dark. The dark kept me hidden. It kept me safe.
An ancient oak tree with a trunk wider than my body suddenly loomed in front of me and I corrected my direction to go around it. Only before I could, something hard and heavy slammed into me from behind.
My hands came out of my pockets and flew out in front of me to try to catch myself before I hit the wet bark, but I wasn’t in time. The air rushed out of me in a whoosh! as I hit the tree, turning my head just in time to avoid smashing my nose. The side of my face scraped along the bark, and I hissed in pain.
A man’s large hand was plastered to the tree right beside my face, the knuckles wrapped in white bandages. A dark stain seeped through the cotton. Blood, I would imagine. A hard body pressed into my back, and I could feel his cock stiffening against my ass. A gravelly voice in my ear raised the hair on the back of my neck.
“After everything I fucking did for you, you’re going to betray me like this?”
I almost laughed out loud. “Betray you?” I asked incredulously. “You’re about to turn me over to my father.” I practically spit the words at him. “When you promised me…you promised me… that you wouldn’t. So, who is betraying who here, Enzo?”
He pulled my hood from my head and pressed his cheek to the side of my face that wasn’t against the tree trunk. I could feel him trembling. His entire body shook against mine, and instinctively I wanted to try to soothe him. But then I remembered why we were in this position.
Frustration filled me as I tried to buck him off of me. I’d been so close to freedom. So fucking close. “Why are you still here?” I gritted out. “Why aren’t you with Luca?”
“Because I can’t stand to be away from you,” he whispered. “Not now.”
Kind of hard to believe when I hadn’t seen him since that afternoon when he fucked me into exhaustion. “Then where have you been all night?”
“Watching you.”
Maybe I should’ve felt more surprised than I did. Maybe I should’ve felt angrier that I was caught before I could get away. But I didn’t feel either of those things. Instead, as the tension drained from my body, I felt such an overwhelming sense of relief that I could’ve cried.
But what I felt didn’t matter. What I wanted in my heart of hearts didn’t matter. I couldn’t stay here with him, no matter how much I wanted to. To stay would only be delaying our inevitable separation. It might buy us a few more days together, but in the end, we’d still be apart, and I would be back at my father’s. A prisoner. And there was no way I’d escape him a second time. “Just let me go,” I told him.
Instead of answering me, he pushed his hips harder into my ass. I closed my eyes as my body responded with a rush of moisture between my thighs. I wanted to turn around in his arms and let him take me back to the house. But even as my body vibrated with need, my head screamed at me to run. To get away.
He rolled his hips into me again, and his breathing quickened, becoming fast and harsh.
“No,” I lied. “I don’t want you. I don’t want this.”
I felt him stiffen against my back, and I continued on, knowing I was hurting him, but also knowing I had no choice. “The only thing I wanted from you was your money so I could buy my freedom.” I paused, waiting to see what he would do. But he didn’t ease up the pressure of his weight against me. “I don’t want you,” I gritted through my teeth. “Just let me go, Enzo.”
Seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness. I started to worry I’d gone too far. But then, suddenly, he pushed himself off of me. I sucked in a deep breath of cold air and braced myself to face him. To make him believe the lies that were coming out of my mouth.
I never got the chance.
His arms came around my waist, and before I knew it, he had my jeans unfastened and was tugging them down my hips along with my underwear. Cold, wet air hit my bare ass, and I grabbed ahold of the front of my jeans, trying to stop their descent. “What are you doing?” Panic made my voice higher than normal. “Enzo. Stop!”
He shoved his hand between my legs and cupped me from behind, sliding his fingers between my folds. “You don’t want me?” he growled when he felt how wet I was. “You’re a fucking liar.”
My strength was no match for his, and soon my pants were down around my knees, and I was once again pressed against the tree with his hand on my head to hold me there as he opened his slacks. I struggled against him with everything I had in me, feeling the bark scrape my cheek and the front of my thighs. I tried to hit him, but my punches were ineffectual. I couldn’t land anything in the position I was in. And my legs were trapped in my jeans. Now I was starting to get really pissed off. “Stop!” I shouted, louder this time. “I’ll scream!”
“Go ahead and scream,” he told me. “I’ll let them fucking watch.”
No, he wouldn’t.
“Try me, baby girl.”
Sucking in a breath, I screamed as loud as I could as he chuckled in my ear and shoved his thick cock between my thighs. I pushed my hips forward against the tree as much as I could to try to escape him, but he only groaned as he slid out before he pulled my hips back again. I gasped as he worked his way between the folds of my sex until his cock was as slick as I was.
I heard men shouting from every direction and I froze, realizing what an idiot I’d been. “Enzo, please. Don’t do this.”
“You think it would really be this easy to escape from Luca’s property?” he asked me as he continued to rock his hips back and forth, sliding his sex in and out of the folds of my pussy.
Through the haze of lust taking over my body, the truth came crashing over me. He’d told them to let me go. While he hunted me himself.
Running footsteps drew closer, and I tried again to play off his possessiveness. “All of Luca’s soldiers are about to see my bare ass.”
But he only said, “All of Luca’s soldiers are about to watch me fuck you.”
I renewed my efforts to get away just as six men came upon us from different directions. The ones I could see froze, lowering their weapons when they saw what was happening. “Help me!” I screamed at them, but not one of them stepped forward to do so. Stone faced, they waited for orders from Enzo.
Tired of my games, Enzo yanked me away from the tree and threw me forward. Caught up in my jeans, I stumbled and fell, landing hard on my hands and knees. One hand slipped in the wet grass, and I barely caught myself before I face planted.
“You and you. Turn around,” Enzo growled, and at first, I thought he was talking to me, but he was talking to his men. “But don’t leave. Keep an eye out. The rest of you can watch.”
Rolling over onto my back, I started tugging my jeans back up. But they were wet and stuck to my skin. Before I could make much progress, Enzo was on his knees, flipping me back over. I clawed at the ground, trying to crawl away. An angry sob caught in my throat. I wanted to hate him. Hate what he was doing to me. But I was so tuned into him, to his touch, even as rough as it was, that I couldn’t do either of those things.
He grabbed my hips with both hands.
“Enzo.” I glared at him over my shoulder with fire-filled eyes. “If you do this, I’ll never fucking forgive you.”
His dark eyes met mine, but they were nothing but pools of blackness in the dark mist. I felt the head of his cock nudging my entrance, and then he forced his way inside of me with one strong thrust. My arms buckled at the force of his thrust, but didn’t give out. He didn’t give me any time to adjust to him before he started slamming into me hard and fast, his body bent over mine, one hand hitting the ground beside my head and the other digging into my hip, pulling me back to meet him. He wasn’t gentle. He never was. But this was more than just sex. This was his way of controlling me. Of controlling the situation. Of taking out his anger because he couldn’t actually control either.
I knew this somewhere deep inside, and yet I couldn’t stop the ache in my chest from spreading that he was treating me this way, or the burn of mortification that he was doing it in front of his men. And yet my traitorous body took him hungrily inside of me, loving the way his thick length stretched me almost to the point of pain. Tension filled my womb, sparks of pleasure shooting through me with every thrust. I clenched my teeth, refusing to give into the pleasure.
“You’re mine,” he growled between harsh breaths. “Capisci cazzo, donna?” Do you fucking understand, woman? “You don’t leave me until I say you do.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t think he was really expecting one, and I wasn’t about to argue with him when he was obviously out of his fucking mind. Tears burned the back of my eyes, making them burn, but I refused to let them fall. I refused to let him see how much he was hurting me.
He thrust hard, pushing as deep as he could go. I felt him swell inside of me and heard him cry out as he came, a raw sound that tore at my heart, his come filling me until it leaked out around the sides of his cock and ran down the insides of my thighs. His weight was heavy on my back as he tucked his face into the back of my neck, muffling the sounds he made.
When it was done, I stayed silent and still as I waited for him to get off of me. My face and thighs stung where the tree bark had abraded my skin and from the corner of my eye I saw one of his men rub his palm down the front of his pants. Mortification filled me as Enzo’s lips pressed against the back of my neck, exposed by my braids falling to either side, and a chill ran down my spine. And then I felt his hand—the one that was on my hip—slide around to dip between my legs…
Immediately, I began to struggle. “No. No!”
His other arm came around my throat and he straightened, taking me with him until we were on our knees with my back against his front. He was still inside of me. I dug my fingers into his arm, trying to pull it away, but I couldn’t make him budge. All around us, Luca’s soldiers watched as Enzo shoved my jeans further down my legs and his fingers found me. “All of these men are going to watch you come,” he told me. “Hear you scream my name.”
“Fuck you! I won’t,” I swore.
He chuckled, but the sound was dark and cold. “You will.”
I tried to shake my head, to deny it, but a moan escaped my lips as he tightened his hand around my throat and pushed his finger inside of me alongside his cock, wetting it and sliding it up to my clit.
“So wet,” he whispered. “So sweet. I want to taste you on my tongue, baby. Your mouth. Your skin. Your cunt.” He pressed the heel of his hand into my lower stomach and rolled his hips. I felt him harden inside of me again. Delicious tension tightened and released low in my belly as he played me like a fine instrument, knowing exactly when to add pressure and when to ease off. In the short time we’d known each other, he’d learned my body better than I knew it myself. And no matter how hard I tried to fight it, to deny him, my body begged for release.
“I hate you,” I whispered.
“No, you don’t.”
He shoved two fingers inside of me, stretching me wide, sliding them in and out with his cock, and I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t cold anymore. As a matter of fact, I wanted nothing more than to strip off my coat and the rest of my clothes and writhe naked in the mud in front of these men.
“Unzip your coat and lift your shirt. I want to see you touch your breasts.” His voice was low. Commanding.
A tear slid down my face, my body moving, straining toward the pleasure his fingers promised. I was about to deny him, but I knew it wouldn’t matter. He would still get what he wanted, one way or the other. I let go of his arm and unfastened my jacket and raised my shirt and pulled down the cups of my bra, exposing my bare breasts to the damp, wet air and the hungry eyes that silently watched us.
“Touch yourself, Sera.”
My head fell back against his shoulder as I found my nipples, hard and sensitive in the cold air.
“Show me what you like.”
His fingers were still inside of me with his cock, his thumb slowly circling my clit. With shaking hands, I palmed my breasts, giving them a squeeze before I took my nipples between my thumb and forefinger and tweaked them hard then pulled, encouraging them to get harder still as I rolled them between my fingers.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice strained. As my reward, he moved his fingers back to my clit and imitated what I’d done with my nipples.
I cried out as the tight waves of pleasure deep in my womb intensified, growing closer and stronger.
“My name,” he growled. “Say it.”
I didn’t want to obey him. But it didn’t matter. “Enzo!”
I felt his entire body shudder. “Tell me what you want.”
“Please.”
“Please what, baby girl?”
“Please make me come,” I whispered.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Make me come,” I cried. “Please, Enzo!”
“Good girl.” His fingers dove inside of me again and then he was back at my clit. He whispered in my ear, telling me how beautiful I was and how much he wanted me. How he wanted to fuck me everywhere, so there wouldn’t be a single inch of me that didn’t know him. “But right now, I want to watch you come, Sera. I want to feel you squeezing my cock and fall apart in my arms.”
I whimpered at his words. I was so close.
“Come for me NOW.”
My body responded as if it was only waiting for his command, the pain and pleasure of it too much, and I cried out his name as he demanded. His hand tightened around my neck until I couldn’t breathe, but holy fuck. And I decided right then and there that if I was going to die, this was the way I wanted to go.
He released me and I fell forward onto my hands and knees, waves of pleasure still shooting through me. Enzo gripped my hips and pumped in and out with strong, deep strokes, coming inside of me again as my climax still shuddered through my body.
As I fought to catch my breath, he pulled out of me and lifted me from the ground back onto my knees. Gently, he fixed my bra and pulled down my shirt, then helped me to my feet. “You won’t run from me again,” he said quietly as he got my underwear and jeans back up. He didn’t bother to fasten them.
I felt his eyes on my face, but I couldn’t look at him. My lower half felt wet and sticky inside my jeans. A reminder of what had just happened. Rage and humiliation burned inside of me, but I didn’t dare act on it, lest one of his guards react in a way that wouldn’t turn out well for me.
“Leave us.” He shouted the order to the men, and they immediately dispersed, going back to their posts. Probably to jack off.
Hurt and humiliation washed over me. I wanted to sink into the ground and bury myself in the wet earth. I wanted to hurt him as he’d hurt me.
“Sera.”
I wondered how far I would get if I made a run for it. Probably not far.
“Sera, look at me.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t. I’d never be able to look at him again.
He grabbed my chin and forced my head up. “Open your eyes and LOOK at me, or so help me God, I’ll—”
I lost it then.
My fists came up, and I flailed at him, hitting him everywhere I could as the dam broke, and angry tears burst forth, obscuring my vision. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in my ears. I screamed and cursed. And hit him. Over and over and over until my voice was nothing but a raw whisper and my fists and arms were tired and sore.
When there was nothing left inside of me, I dropped my arms to my sides and took an exhausted breath.
“I deserved that this time,” Enzo said quietly. “But if you ever raise a hand to me again, I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” I demanded dully as I stared down at the ground between us. “Rape me in front of your men?” I couldn’t keep the venom from my voice.
He was quiet for a long time. “Sera,” he said quietly. “Look at me. Please.”
Fighting back tears, I slowly raised my eyes to his, and a fresh wave of pain exploded inside of me when I saw the horror and determination in his at what he’d done.
