“I am doing what I must. Now, take your dress off. You need a bath.”
I go still. “That would mean I would have to get naked in front of you.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” His eyes darken as he approaches me. “You liked me enough to agree to marry me. Surely that means you once liked me. Once found me attractive.”
“No,” I whisper.
“You’re a liar,” he says into my ear, making me shiver. “Now, take your wedding dress off, Emma, and get in the bath or I will take your dress off for you.” He pulls back to stare down at me with his dark eyes. “This is the real me. The mafia man. And I will get the answers I am looking for. So do as I say.”
When I don’t move, Leo turns me around and rips the buttons right off the back of my dress. “You belong to me now, Emma. Don’t forget that.”
The cold air hits my bare skin as he yanks the rest of the dress down my body.
Chapter Six
Emma
The only person who has seen my naked body before is my mother and she would always scold me for my skin, saying the flesh was sinful. I wrap my arms around my breasts but I know Leo can see all of my bare back. Fortunately, I have underwear on but it’s just a flimsy piece of fabric that can easily be ripped off.
Leo doesn’t say a word behind me.
I feel his fingertips find the waistband of my panties before he pulls them down my legs. I shiver.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I whisper.
“If you won’t give me answers, I’ll have to take them from you. If this is the way, then so be it. Get in the bath. You need to take one.”
“Why do you care if I have a bath or not? If I smell good or not? You’re not my husband. Not really. You don’t care for me. You think I’m lying to you.”
“Because you’re Alessandro Greco’s daughter. There’s no way you don’t know about that. So you will tell me what you know eventually and in the meantime, I will try to get you to talk. Now, get in the bath. I want you to be clean. Call it me being generous.”
I scoff. “You were never generous. If you were, you wouldn’t have used me like this. Is that why you let me into your home? Because you knew who I was?”
“Yes. I had to know what kind of game you were playing. You’re still playing innocent, I see. We’ll see if that lasts forever.” He walks over to the tub and turns the knob, filling it up with water. “Get in, Emma.” His tone is softer. Almost kind. But I know Leo is the last thing from kind.
The basement is cold though and I feel dirty and I want to wash it all away so I get into the bath. Leo watches me the entire time. Now that he’s dropped his nice façade, I see how dangerous he looks. How intimidating. How… handsome. I’m not sure how he can continue to be handsome when I know how evil his character is.
“Wash yourself,” he commands.
“Please,” I whisper.
“If you don’t want me to do this to you, then tell me what you know, Emma. Tell me anything I can use against your father.”
“I don’t know anything because I don’t know my father. I am telling you the truth. You refuse to see it.”
He kneels down on the ground, putting his face close to mine. I inhale. For a moment, I think he might kiss me, but he onlystares back. “What I know is that you’re Alessandro’s daughter. Your mother is Valentina Greco. Your parents were there the night Giovanni, your uncle, murdered Gabriel Romano’s entire family.”
“Who is Gabriel Romano?”
“My boss and one of my best friends. I’ve helped him grow in the mafia over the years. We’ve worked side by side on everything. I feel anger for him just as much as he does for what happened to him. Your parents are not good people. Which means you can’t be good. You were raised by them. I refuse to believe you’re innocent. You can’t be.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself of that?”
His eyes widen before they darken. “You came into my home without hesitation. Most people would not do that. That either means you’re incredibly naïve or you had a plan to get close to me and find a way to tear me and Gabriel down from the inside. I have to believe the latter since I’ve only seen darkness in this world.”
“The mafia.”
“Yes. It’s a dark, fucked up place.”
