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“As if what?”
He leaned forward, his expression questioning but also consequential, calling me on my bullshit because he and I both knew I couldn’t leave without A) having a car, and B) knowing the code to open the gate.
“I won’t be treated like a prisoner.” I almost added in my own home, but this wasn’t my home.
“It’s not a prison, Lucia. I want you to be safe. I have enemies, like your father did. They may think getting to me is best accomplished through you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
He sounded almost genuine. He sure looked it. But then again, he’d seemed different earlier too, before he’d used my body’s surrender against me.
“You’re free to wander the grounds. There are several acres of woods, so take care you don’t get lost. The house as well, only my study and my bedroom are off-limits. I’ll show you around once we’re done. If you need or want anything, all you have to do is ask. You’ll have a monthly allowance—”
“I don’t need your money.” I had my own. My family was not poor, even after the Benedetti’s destroyed us. I’d inherited everything but the house after my father died. Although without credit cards, with no way to access that money as long as I was locked away here, I was still at Salvatore’s mercy.
“Well, you’ll have it anyway.”
“I don’t want it,” I muttered.
“What are you doing, Lucia? What exactly is going through your mind right now?”
“I’m trying to wrap my brain around my new prison. First, you send me away to the fucking nuns for five years—”
“It was part of the agreement—”
“I may as well have been behind bars, and you know it!”
He just shrugged a shoulder.
“Now I’m sitting here in your house, where I’m supposed to live as your—what? Plaything?—and I’m being told the rules like I’m a child!”
“Aren’t you? Look at how you talk to me. I’m not an unreasonable man, Lucia, but I will be obeyed.”
“Obeyed? You want me to bow down to you? You’ve got another thing coming.”
“I think I have a pretty good idea of what I have coming.”
“Are we done?”
“No.”
I bit my lip, waiting.
“I have a cell phone arriving for you today—”
“I have my own.”
His jaw tightened, and he took a minute before responding. “Well, you’ll have a new one. When you want your family or a friend to visit, you’ll let me know first.”
“I don’t need to see my family, and I don’t have any friends, so I’m well and truly yours. I guess that makes you happy.”
“It doesn’t, actually.”
Why did he have to seem so fucking genuine?
It was my turn to shrug a shoulder and, needing to break eye contact, I leaned down to pick up a few pieces of the bread I’d inadvertently scattered.
“Leave it. Rainey will clean it up.”
I shook my head, feeling tears building, refusing to let him see.
“Leave it, Lucia. When I’m talking to you, I expect your undivided attention.”
I snorted, wiping my face, angry again. I faced him. “You expect so many things. Maybe what you need to do is check those expectations. You’re less likely to be disappointed then.”
His eyes narrowed, and his chest heaved as he took a deep breath in.
“Am I irritating you, Salvatore? Because you know what’s irritating me? Your…stuff…drying on my skin,” I said through clenched teeth. I stood so fast, I knocked the chair over behind me. “You’ve told me your rules. Well, fine. I have just one of my own. Leave. Me. Alone!” I turned on my heel to march off.
“Sit back down,” he hissed. “Now.”
“Fuck. You. I’m going to take a shower.”
I heard his chair scrape back, and I started to run for the stairs, all the while wondering what the hell I was doing. Where I was going. He had the key to the lock. It’s not like I could hide. What was I doing?
Salvatore caught up with me. I didn’t even really fight him when he took my arm and dragged me up the stairs with him.
“You want a shower? Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ll take you to have that fucking shower if my stuff is so irritating.”
“Let me go.”
He hauled me to my bedroom and into the bathroom. There he released me. I backed into a corner, his fury suddenly frightening.
“Get in the shower,” he said, reaching for the collar of my blouse and tearing it down the middle.
I screamed, trying to push him back, knowing it was impossible.
“You wanted a shower.”
“I’ll do it,” I said as he popped the buttons off my shorts and yanked the zipper down. “Please. Just—”
“In the shower!”
He shoved me into the shower, even though I still wore my bra and panties.
“Let me go. I’ll do it, I promise.” He stopped and brought his face within an inch from mine.
