I immediately rush over to Marcello, who is chained to a little bed in the corner. I don’t know how long he’s been here or what they’ve been doing to him, but he is badly bruised and covered in cuts and wounds all over.
“Oh my God …” I mutter as I sit down beside him and try to touch him.
“Harper,” he says, blinking a couple of times. “Are you really here?”
His wounds shake me to my core, but I want to remain strong for him. “Yes. I’m here, Marcello.”
Suddenly, he jolts up. “Wait … what, how?” It’s almost like he’s surprised to find out I’m not a figment of his imagination but a real flesh-and-bone human being. “And what are you wearing?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, and I inspect the chains around his wrists. “Let me help you.” I fish a hairpin from my ponytail and shove it in the lock, prying it open.
“This won’t work,” Marcello says.
“Yes, it will,” I hiss, working my ass off to get it done. I won’t stop until these chains are off.
Finally, after much fiddling, the metal clicks, and I rip the chains off his wrists.
Marcello immediately lunges forward and wraps his arms around me, hugging me tight.
“Fuck, I can’t believe you’re here. What happened? And why are you dressed like this?” His hands slide along the leather as though he still can’t believe I’m real.
“I came to negotiate with Stefan, but he wouldn’t relent,” I reply.
Marcello sits up, scrunching his face to hide the pain. “With what?”
I rub my lips together and look away.
He cocks his head and says, “Kitten. Tell me what you tried to trade.” He grabs my chin and forces me to look at him while his face darkens. “Tell. Me.”
“Me.” I swallow. “I tried to trade me.”
“No,” he says, keeping my face cupped in his hands. “You cannot.”
“But I—”
“No,” he interrupts. “No fucking way will I ever, ever let you trade yourself. Not for me. Not for anyone.” He inches as close as possible. “Do you hear me? You are mine and only mine.”
I nod, a blush spreading on my cheeks. “I just wanted to do something. I couldn’t let you die all alone in here.”
“Dying is better than seeing the one girl I love in danger.”
My lips part as I stare into his soul-crushing eyes, my heart pounding a million times over.
Did he just say the word love?
Real … love?
Marcello’s lips hover close to mine. “I can see the doubt in your eyes, Kitten. But trust me, what I feel for you is more than just the desire for naked flesh.”
My body zings from the electrical zaps rushing through my body. “Marcello, I—”
He plants a finger on my lips. “You don’t have to say it.” He lowers his eyes, deepening his gaze. “Yet.”
I swallow. “What about your fian—”
His lips smash on mine so hard I can’t even finish my sentence, let alone breathe. The rawness in his kisses has my heart fluttering and my body singing with desire. I can’t even think about anything other than his mouth, his tongue wrapped around mine. His powerful kisses make me feel dizzy and light-headed. Each one of them more demanding than the one before.
Our lips only briefly unlatch to suck in some much-needed oxygen before we faint.
“I need only you,” Marcello whispers, clutching my cheek. “I would be lost without you.”
His words bring a smile to my face. How could I not fall head over heels with this man who sacrificed himself to save me?
“But now you are here, sharing the very same cell,” he adds, sighing. “I was hoping you would be kept safe by Mario and Ricardo.”
“They tried,” I reply. “But I was determined to try to save you myself.”
“Hmm … Not even they could stop my fiery Kitten from doing something reckless.” He inches closer again and pecks my lip sweetly. “What are we going to do about this situation?”
I sigh. I honestly don’t know either. Without my gun and locked in a cell, there is not much we can do but wait.
“She said this would be my last day with you.” My throat clamps up at the thought.
Marcello frowns, his face darkening even more than before. “So she intends to kill me.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head at the thought. “She can’t. She knows it would hurt me.”
“That’s exactly why she wants to do it,” he replies. “Hurt me to hurt you … because you hurt her husband.”
I swallow hard. Fuck. I hadn’t even thought about that.
Of course, she’d want to punish me for what happened to Frank.
But to punish Marcello? For saving me?
“I can’t let her hurt you,” I say, grinding my teeth. “There must be something I can do?”
“No,” he says resolutely, but then he places a hand on my belly, and the look in his eyes softens. “I would die before I ever let them lay a hand on you or our baby.”
I shake my head, realizing that even if Marcello fights for me, he will be no match for Molly’s endless stream of guards and torture devices. It’s no use. I already tried to talk my way out of this mess. “It won’t work. You can’t win. She wants our blood.”
Marcello clutches my arm and pulls me close. “Stop. Don’t think like that.”
“What if this is really the end?” I ask.
He pushes me away with both hands, holding me tight to make sure I look at him. “Then we will make this a night that will last an eternity.” He grabs my waist and tugs me over his lap, setting me down right in front of him.
We inch closer, and my heart begins to beat rapidly as his lips purse and my head tilts back. He buries his face in my chest, planting delicate but hungry kisses in the valley between my breasts. And when he reaches for my hair and grabs a fistful, pulling my head down even farther, I gasp. His other hand snakes down into the dress from the top, pulling out my boob to squeeze and pinch until my nipples are taut, and a moan almost escapes my mouth.
“What about the guards?” I mutter as he covers my nipple with his mouth.
“Let them watch. I don’t fucking care,” he retorts, pulling my other boob out as well.
“What if they stop us?”
“Let them try,” he groans, sucking the other one too until that one is all hard as well.
“But anyone could—”
He twists my nipples so hard a squeal leaves my mouth. “Enough talking, Kitten. Let me enjoy this last feast.”
When he buries his face in my chest again, I’m lost to his kisses, lost in his touch as he positions me right on top of his tented pants, and I begin to ride him. His hand slides down the leather until he’s between my thighs, his thumb circling my clit like he’s famished.
“The fact that you let another man see you in this outfit,” he whispers, his voice hoarse, strained. He grabs my wrist and pins it to my back. “It enrages me.”
I swallow hard, knowing I did something to anger him. I had good intentions, though, and he knows it.
“This leather …” He swipes his eyes up and down my body like he’s savoring every inch. “It suits you well.”
“Thank you,” I reply, trying so hard not to be overwhelmed by the way his thumb rolls around the fabric that covers my pussy. “I had hoped it would help to entice—”
“Do not tempt me to punish you for it, Kitten,” he interrupts.
A smirk spreads across my lips.
“No one touches you but me,” he says.
His thumb circles my clit faster, his eyes never leaving my face as though he wants me to know that I belong to him and only him. He doesn’t stop even stop when I’ve soaked straight through my panties. Even though it feels so wrong to do this right now. Even though anyone could be watching us through the cameras in the corner, through the window in the cell door, through the patch on my skin.
“Wait, I—”
I haven’t even told Marcello yet. And I don’t know if I can. If it even matters.
Because right now, all that matters is him and me, loving each other with our last, dying breaths.
“If I cannot live another day in this life, then at least let me have you, Kitten,” he murmurs against my chest.
His cock pushes up against my pussy as I gyrate on his lap, desperate for his touch, his ragged kisses, and the hunger that has settled in his eyes when he looks up at me. I could stare into these deep, dark, twisted eyes all day, every day, if it meant I could feel this way every second of this dangerous life.
His lips cover my nipples as he slips his fingers into my panties, circling my wet clit harder and faster until I reach the edge. Right then, he takes my nipple between his teeth and tugs. Hot and devilish pain zaps up and down my body, culminating in an explosion between my legs. I moan out loud from the sheer pleasure, riding his finger like I’m truly a whore.
But then he takes his fingers out and rips down his zipper instead, pulling away the button of his pants to reveal tented underpants, which quickly makes way for a bouncing cock that, when erect, still makes me want to giggle.
“You’ll stop giggling once I bury my cock deep inside you,” he growls, and he quickly grabs me by the waist and sets me down right on top of his cock, taking no time to even issue a warning before ramming straight into me.
My mouth makes an o-shape as he fucks me hard and fast, using my thighs as love handles to hold. There is pure, unbridled rage and lust mingling in his eyes, and it’s like he wants to fuck it all out of his system. But he was right. The sheer size of him inside me, filling me to the brim, replaces that giggle with a long-drawn-out moan.
“That’s it, Kitten. Take it like a good girl would on her last day on this fucking earth,” he groans, his fingers digging into my skin as he plows into me. I can barely hold his shoulders, so I wrap my hands around his neck and lean over until my breasts are in his face.
He doesn’t seem to mind as he takes one of them into his mouth and sucks hard while I bounce up and down on his lap. If this is the last time, I might as well make it one I’ll remember forever.
“Just like that, Kitten. Fuck me like it’s the end of the world.”
His words put me in a trance as I fuck like there’s no tomorrow, and I lean over to kiss him on the lips, drunk on his love and dirty fuckery. A few more thrusts and I’m high on another orgasm, delicious waves rippling through my body.
He moans out loud and buries himself deep inside, a jet of warm seed spurting inside me, filling me to the brim.
When he’s completely spent and breathing ragged breaths, I slide off him and go to my knees so I can clean him with my tongue, just to see that look of satisfaction on his face. That one grateful smile fills me with glee, knowing only I can do that to this man.
This man … who just professed his love to me while we’re locked in a cell, waiting for our deaths.
“Oh, Harper … what did I do to deserve you,” he murmurs.
I lick my lips and look up into his content eyes, watching the happiness wane from them with every passing second. I know what he’s thinking. I feel it, too, deep down in my bones. No matter how much we try to avoid the topic or how many kisses we share, nothing will change the fate awaiting us outside that door.
Rage coils around my heart. “I don’t want to die here.”
I’ve been through too fucking much just to give up now.
Marcello reaches for my face. “Harper …” He quickly zips up and pulls me back up to his bed, where he holds me tight.
“Don’t lie to me, Marcello,” I whisper, clutching him hard like I’m afraid I’m going to lose him if I don’t.
He sighs. “I will try my best to get you out of here.”
“Don’t,” I say, burying my nails in his skin. “If I can’t get out of here with you, together, then I don’t want to get out at all.”
He pushes away from me and looks me in the eye, gently touching my chin with his index finger and thumb. “You would give your life to be with me?”
“I don’t want to lose you,” I reply, pain stinging my heart. “I need you.”
He leans his forehead against mine and smiles so warmly that it sets my heart ablaze. “I know that now. It took me some time to realize. Too much. Too late. But I will do my best to make it mean something.”
I lean back and grab his shoulders. “I am not gonna give up.”
“I’m not either, but I don’t think we have much choice,” he replies.
“That’s not what I mean. I—”
My eyes land on the cameras in the top corner of the room again, and I realize I can’t say everything I want to say without Molly and Frank finding out too. It’s too much of a risk to tell Marcello, no matter how badly I want him to know that we might make it out alive after all.
“Marcello,” I say. “I need you to trust me.”
He frowns, confused.
So I say it again, raising my brow. “Trust. Me.”
He narrows his eyes, but then a gleam appears as I squeeze his shoulder and nod a few times … and when he nods too, I know he understands.
Because right now, someone out there is fighting for us, willing to risk his life to come and help us out.
Our last trump card.
Mario.
“And I need you to be the Marcello I know you can be,” I say, grinding away. “This isn’t just about you and me anymore. There are more people here waiting for you to save them. Helpless. Defenseless. Claudio. Melanie.”
“Melanie?” he mutters.
“A girl I was in the auction with.”
“Oh …”
“She’s in one of the cells down here. We have to save her.”
Suddenly, the door opens, and I jolt up from Marcello’s lap, pushing down my dress to try to get rid of the evidence that we were fornicating even though I know they could see through the cameras. But the guard who enters doesn’t even seem remotely interested in the fact that we were doing something naughty.
He just stares at Marcello. And the unlocked chains that are no longer around his wrists.
Then his vicious eyes turn my way. “You.”
