I followed Niccolo’s instructions and found a closed door down the hall. I knocked gently.
“Come in,” Dario’s muffled voice said.
I entered the room to see him glowering at me from behind an ornate desk. The shelves lining the walls were filled with leather-bound books and ancient marble busts.
“What do you want?” he snapped.
I held up the tray. Its contents rattled slightly in my trembling hands. “Niccolo said that… that I should come in and tend to your hand.”
Dario narrowed his eyes. “Is that all?”
“…and to say thank you. Again. For saving me.”
He stared at me angrily. “And?”
“…and to apologize. For running away.”
“For disobeying me,” he growled.
A couple of hours ago, those words – For disobeying you – would have stuck in my throat. If I’d said them at all, I would have spat them out from between clenched teeth.
But a lot had happened in the last two hours.
All I could smell was the stranger’s nicotine-stained hand over my mouth…
And all I could hear was the clink of his belt buckle as he undid his pants.
“…for disobeying you,” I whispered.
That seemed to satisfy Dario somewhat. He gestured with his head, and I walked over next to him.
There was an ottoman next to his chair. I sat down on it while I did my work.
I took his hand tenderly in mine and examined it. He had washed off the blood from my attacker, but the knuckles were bruised, scraped, and swollen.
I packed some ice in one of the towels, wet the cloth with melted water in the bucket, and put it on his hand.
He watched me angrily the entire time.
I looked up at him, then averted my eyes as I continued to apply the ice.
Finally he spoke. “Do you understand now why I didn’t want you to leave the grounds? Why I refused your request to go to a church?”
“Yes,” I murmured with downcast eyes.
“One of our enemies showed up at your café two nights ago. Now we’ve found spies just a mile from my house – and one of them was masquerading as a priest, no less. When I order you to do something, it’s not just to protect the family, but to protect you. The people who want to kill us would gladly do the same to you just because you’re staying here.”
I wanted to say, I think you mean ‘just because you’re IMPRISONED here’ –
But I decided now wasn’t the time to speak my thoughts.
“I know,” was all I murmured.
“More and more, I find the people around me are either my enemies or paid off by my enemies.”
“Don’t you have allies?” I asked.
“Not since my father died, it seems,” he said bitterly.
Neither of us said anything else for a couple of minutes.
Finally I removed the wet towel, dried his hand, and began to dab a sweet-smelling ointment on his skin. Then I wrapped a bandage around his knuckles and his palm.
The process was slow and relaxing. Eventually my fear began to subside.
His hand was huge – it dwarfed mine. And his fingers were so calloused… so rough and manly…
When I finished, I put everything back on the tray. “I’ll leave you now.”
I got up to go and was halfway to the door when he spoke.
“Stop.”
I turned slowly to look at him. My stomach was churning. “…yes?”
He smiled evilly. “You disobeyed me. Did you think you were going to escape unpunished?”
My heart skipped a beat.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I promise not to do it again.”
He stood up behind the desk. “I don’t care what you promise you’ll do in the future; I only care what you’ve already done. Now came here.”
I timidly walked back to the desk, afraid of what he might do.
“Take off your panties,” he commanded.
I stared at him. “W-what?”
“You heard me.”
“I…”
I came up with the stupidest excuse possible.
“…I can’t. My hands are full.”
“Put it down.”
I swallowed hard, then put the tray on top of the desk.
“Now do it,” he ordered.
“I… please, don’t,” I said, my eyes welling up.
He rounded the desk and snarled, “I don’t want your tears – I want you to obey me. Now take off your panties.”
I steeled myself as I imagined the most terrible things he was about to do to me.
I slowly bent down to the hem of my dress…
…pulled it up on both sides so at least my front was covered…
…and slowly pulled off my underwear and let it drop around my ankles.
Then I let go of my dress and let it fall down to my knees again.
I couldn’t look at him as I did it. My face was blushing bright red, and my entire body trembled in fear.
“Step out of them,” he said, his voice husky. He no longer sounded angry.
I glanced up at him.
There was something else in his face now as he stared at me:
Desire.
I began to breathe harder, my chest rising and falling, as I slowly stepped away and left my undergarments on the floor.
I thought of our kiss the night before, and suddenly I felt a growing heat between my legs.
But I didn’t think tonight would end with only a kiss.
Which both thrilled me…
And terrified me.
He walked over and got right up next to me.
“Pull your dress up to your thighs,” he commanded in a low voice. “And look at me while you do it.”
I stared into his dark, terrible eyes as I bent over and slowly pulled up my dress to my thighs.
His hand reached down and grabbed the hem of my dress.
“Please – ” I said, frightened –
“Be quiet,” he said, his voice a low growl.
I closed my mouth, though my lips quivered with fear.
He watched me, and I stared at him…
And I felt his fingertips graze the inside of my thighs, light as a feather.
“Oh,” I half-gasped, half-whispered.
“Has anyone ever touched you here before?”
My mouth was dry, and I could not speak. All I could do was shake my head no.
“So I’m the first,” he murmured.
His fingers slowly traced their way up the inside of my leg.
I whimpered in fear and shame.
The fear was understandable.
The shame came from letting a man do this to me –
Of letting il Mostro do this to me –
And me wanting him to do more.
His fingers got all the way to the top of my legs… and then paused.
I stared into his dark eyes and felt like I was drowning.
I wanted to scream Stop! –
…but another voice inside me whispered, Keep going… PLEASE keep going…
It was the whisper that he listened to.
His finger touched the hairs on my sex, tickling me, stroking me –
And then suddenly the tip of his finger found wet, bare skin.
I gasped.
He glided slowly along my lips until he reached the top…
Where his finger found a swollen pearl of desire.
He began to slowly circle it…
The gentlest of touches…
And I began to moan.
I had never felt anything like this before.
No one had ever touched me there –
And I had certainly never done anything like this myself.
It was sinful pleasure –
Lust and desire and all the things I had been warned about forever –
And I loved it.
But I tried to resist…
I truly did.
“Stop,” I whispered as his fingertip slowly caressed me down there.
“No,” he growled softly into my ear.
He began to circle me with slightly more pressure…
And the pleasure inside me doubled.
“Oh please… stop,” I moaned.
His lips brushed against my ear. I shivered as he whispered, “No.”
His finger began to stroke up and down.
The little button of pleasure between my legs grew hotter and hotter. I felt an incredible need, a terrible urge for something to fill me up – for something to come inside me, deep inside me –
“Please stop!” I sobbed – not with tears, but overwhelmed with pleasure and emotion and feelings I had never even imagined.
“No,” he said in a guttural growl.
His other hand reached up to the front of my dress and found my right nipple, hard and stiff beneath my bra… and he began to stroke it, too.
Between my legs, his finger began to rub faster – harder –
As his other fingers lightly pinched my nipple –
And it felt like my legs might give way beneath me.
I grabbed onto his muscular arms and held on for dear life.
The most pleasurable heat imaginable rolled through me like a wave from my thighs up into my body.
My eyelids fluttered and closed involuntarily – I could no longer keep them open.
“OH GOD!” I cried out as pleasure filled my entire body.
Waves of ecstasy took hold of me. Muscles I didn’t know I had fluttered in my belly.
My legs gave way beneath me, and my ass collapsed back against the desk.
Suddenly his mouth was on mine, his lips pressing hard against mine.
I kissed him desperately as the heat and pleasure inside me reached a crescendo.
My fingers dug into his arms as I pulled away from his kiss and screamed like I was dying.
A few seconds later, his finger began to slow down…
And the pressure began to ease off as he gently circled the tiny pearl of desire between my legs.
Still, wave after wave of pleasure rolled through my body.
Not as powerful… not as intense… more like water lapping on the beach after a giant wave has crashed on the sand.
Finally it was over… but I stayed there, my eyes closed, not wanting it to end.
I felt his hands move away from my thighs and my breast.
Seconds later, Dario pulled me upright and set me on my feet.
My eyes fluttered open and I stood there in a daze.
Dario was staring at me. He looked insane…
Or consumed with maddening hunger…
Like a starving wolf just seconds away from devouring a fawn.
“Get out,” he said hoarsely.
I stared at him, confused. “…what?”
“That was your punishment. Now get out.”
I frowned. “But – ”
He leaned down in my face and said angrily, “Get… OUT.”
I stumbled away from him, suddenly ashamed of what had just happened…
Ashamed of the wetness slicking the inside of my thighs…
Ashamed that I wanted more.
I knelt to grab my underwear from the ground –
“Leave them and GET OUT!” he thundered.
I stumbled out of the room, tears flowing down my face.
I hurried back to my room, where I collapsed on my bed and wept…
…both for my lost innocence…
…and at his bewildering cruelty.
