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TWENTY-TWO
REBECCA
I sat on a silk wing-back chair in the private dressing room of a famous designer. “No.” I shook off another dress as Anthony paced in front of a window overlooking Central Park. “No.”
That damn kiss of his rocked my world off its axis. I hated Anthony, yet my pussy had quivered so hard feeling that tongue in my mouth, imagining it between my legs. Blood pulsed in my ears as a voice screamed how much I didn’t want his mouth on me. Yet, I felt myself get wetter and wetter with every stroke of that damn velvet tongue and his full lips. Desiring him like that sickened me. But what part of me hated him, if my nipples were hard as steel and my pussy was soaked?
He’d dragged me to this shop, driving us himself in his Lamborghini while Gil and Vale trailed us in my Town Car. Anthony told his guards to take a hike, but mine lingered in the designer’s hallway.
“Stop saying no, Rebecca,” Anthony growled and stomped to the salesgirl, who shirked back. “Give me those.” He waited until the girl closed the dressing room door. “Put this dress on. Now, Rebecca.”
I fingered the fabric. The smooth satin felt pleasant enough, but I remained defiant. Almost like I wanted to be punished. “Satin makes me look fat.”
He threw the dress on the floor. “Put this one on.”
“No.” I stood up. “Semper Amici, Anthony, okay?”
He exhaled and dropped the last of the dresses on the chair I vacated. “Fine, what?”
I used our St. Mary’s code on him, surprised he stood down so easily. “I know what you’re trying to do here. You want people to believe I’ve fallen for you, and Sebastien, and Giancarlo. Then you can all dump me and humiliate me. It’s a good plan, I’ll give you that.”
“Thank you, it was my idea.”
I doubted that. Sounded like something Giancarlo would come up with. He was a master at games and role playing. “I’ve kept to myself in this world. I only attended those parties you want to parade me around like a whore with my father. Word is spreading that he’s left the country. I’m the heir to his throne. Do you really expect people to believe out of nowhere I’ll just start sleeping with three men? One of them being Sebastien when everyone knows...” I choked up and turned around so Anthony wouldn’t see me cry.
He pressed his chest into my back, and I didn’t flinch away. They had their scheme. I had mine. It was a race to see who could break first. At every turn, I had to take advantage of him wanting to touch me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered in my ear, his warm breath fanning my neck.
Christ, I could crack fairly easily too. I had to be strong.
“I have dresses, Anthony.” I sniffed and turned around.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “If you’re talking about what you wore to that benefit at the Warwick last month, I could have mistaken you for a nun.”
That made me laugh. “Give me the chance to wear what I want. My point is, you want to shame me. Make me look scorned. That alone will be hard for people to believe. If I show up in that dental floss masquerading as a dress, that has coercion written all over it. And when I’m put on the stand...”
Anthony’s cheek ticking up gave him away. So easy. “Yeah?”
“That’s the endgame here, right? I’m still handing over the evidence. And you’re doing this because you know they’ll call me as a witness. I’ll have full immunity. I can say this was all under duress.”
Anthony lowered his penetrating gaze. “Open your blouse.”
He thought I was wearing a wire. I knew better than that. His guards could have stripped me at any moment. I’d gone to the men hoping to declare peace.
It starts with desire...
I’d heard that somewhere. The way Anthony kissed me and got so hard for me proved he desired me. Desire could turn into love. Reality smacked me further when it dawned on me, I’d have to sleep with him.
Stepping back, I unbuttoned my blouse. Gripping the hemline and my suit jacket, I forced both open exposing my chest.
“Christ,” he mumbled, staring at my pale-yellow sheer unlined bra.
In the mirror this morning, I caught how my breasts looked tucked into the cups, my nipples so visible. “The panties match, Anthony. Wanna see those too? I’ll save you the trouble of wondering. Yes, I’m waxed.”
Anthony stood there, his eyes burning with raw lust.
I gripped his hand and slid it up my skirt, brushing against the inside of both thighs. “No wires, Anthony. I wouldn’t go behind your back. I came to you and Sebastien and Giancarlo because I thought we were friends. Give me some credit for being honorable.” I rested his hand squarely on my lace-covered sex.
“Heat,” he whispered.
“Yes. I’m warm, Anthony. You’re tall and gorgeous. Of course, you turn me on. But I...” I almost let slip that still I loved Sebastien. I would always love him.
Giancarlo flashed across my mind and my body heated even more.
Dropping his hand, I stepped back and said, “Compromise. Give me a chance to prove I can be a good girl for you. I have a few sexy dresses. If you don’t like what I wear for you, you can buy one of these for my date with Sebastien.”
His eyes had the fury of a man enraged. No, he didn’t want my tits and ass hanging out while I danced with Bastien the Bastard.
*
ANTHONY SHOWED UP ATmy office two days later. Two days I hadn’t heard from any of them and their silence devastated me. My body screamed for release. I did my best to take care of myself, but my fingers and vibrator were no match for what I got from Giancarlo. What Sebastien used to give to me and what Anthony promised me.
“We’re going for a ride,” Anthony said, dressed in a jet-black suit, white shirt, and silver tie with blue paisley feathers.
I cocked an eyebrow from behind my reading glasses while I sat at my father’s desk. “I don’t recall you making an appointment.”
“Something’s come up unexpectedly.”
If he planned to kill me, would he show up at my office looking like a million bucks to lure me to my death? With my body betraying me, my self-preservation instincts were running on fumes, hoping there was even a chance he’d make me come.
Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do something awful to me. Make me wish I were dead. That’s what worried me the most.
“What kind of ride?” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my legs slowly to get a reaction.
He bared his white teeth like a hungry wolf. “Not that kind. Not you anyway.”
Too bad. “No thanks. Vale!”
Anthony marched up to my desk. “Shakedowns don’t happen according to your cute little calendar, angel.” He grabbed my phone.
“Shakedowns?” I asked him and held my hand up when Vale came into my office.
“You know, when I find someone not playing by the rules and they have to be...reminded who’s in charge,” Anthony said, twirling my phone in his fingers.
That was the exact part of this business I wanted to stay far, far away from. “Again, pass.”
“You want recognition as queen. What better way to show these fuckers we grabbed who’s in charge?”
“We?” I cocked my head to him. “Who are you working with on this?”
“You’ll see.”
I agreed to go with Anthony only because he made a good point about showing my face to prove I had what it took to rule. I had to stomach watching someone get beaten senseless or...I swallowed...murdered.
I sat in Anthony’s limo in silence as the ride downtown gave me time to prepare for what I was about to see. To ease the shaking down my spine, my mind wandered to Nate in Los Angeles. And if I should tell him how Anthony, Sebastien, and Giancarlo wanted to destroy me. Break me.
Nate was a rockstar who could probably convince a few roadies to help him beat the piss out of all three, but I’d be putting them all in danger. Roadies were no match for professional killers.
Oh, how I missed the simpler days when Nate lived a few blocks from me in a penthouse. I slept better at night when he was in New York. Now he permanently lived in L.A. With Lacey.
And two other men.
I stared at Anthony... No, he’d never share me with Sebastien. Or Gian.
As we turned west on Canal Street, my hackles rose. “Are we going to that disgusting warehouse where...” I sucked in a breath. I’d heard only whispered rumors that crazy-ass shit went on at the warehouse.
When I’d asked for details, Vale had blushed and said, “You don’t want to know...”
Anthony cinched his eyebrows together at me. “How do you know where it is?”
“I know a lot more than you realize.”
Anthony chuckled. “Not quite.” He answered his phone when it rang. “Okay. We’re a block away.”
“Who was that?” I asked him.
“Giancarlo.”
I shuddered, worrying Gian had secretly filmed me on my knees, him relentlessly spanking me. Not me. Whatever bad girl he wanted me to be on any given night.
Was the punishment Anthony wanted me to witness meant to scare me? Give me a taste of what they could do to me? Would he use my natural fear of pain to get me to hand over the evidence?
Or did he know about me and Giancarlo, know what my hard limits were from our time at the club? I never thought Giancarlo would reveal our secrets to anyone. We were supposed to keep our pleasure and business life separate. What a fool I was to believe that would last. Business always came before pleasure in our world.
The two men sitting against the privacy screen behind the limo driver with their sunglasses and skinny suits glared at me. Anthony’s guards, Mark and Reggie, showed nothing but loyalty to him. If he told them to shoot me, they would. But Anthony would have stabbed me himself already if he really wanted me dead.
I’d left my office with Anthony and told Vale to stand down. With Vale around, Anthony would be on his best behavior. Without my guards, Anthony would show me his true colors, giving me a better idea of what I was dealing with.
Anthony took my hand to help me out of his stretch and with Mark and Reggie trailing behind us, we strolled casually toward the warehouse. Another car, a tan late model Ford parked next to it. No driver, though. Two security guards I didn’t recognize opened the door for us with a nod in Anthony’s direction.
“Can I have more details on what this is about?” I quietly asked Anthony.
In the narrow musty hallway leading to another steel door, he pinned me to the wall and leaned his hips against my stomach. “I have what it takes to run Domenico Holdings.” He pushed his growing cock against me, as if a hard dick was part of the job requirements.
“Last I checked, I was running it,” I answered, my body craving the brutal release Gian had addicted me to.
“You won’t be. Not when you can’t look anyone in the eye after we’re done with you.”
I shook my head, his cologne making me dizzy. “My father’s captains and their soldiers will stay loyal to me. No matter what.”
“Not when I drag them here and show them who they’re dealing with.”
“And who are they dealing with?” I waved my fingers, mocking him.
He grinned. “That’s really why we’re here, angel.”
I’d been duped.
Reggie opened the steel door for us while Mark stayed in the rear. The mildewy odor choked me, and I held my hand against my nose.
The familiar sound of people struggling against bindings, rope on skin, and trying to speak with duct tape on their mouths shot through me, messing with my sense of gravity. This was not part of the business I wanted to be involved in. But I knew this ugly reality existed. Had my father often come to watch his enemies get a ‘lesson’?
Was that expected of me now? Right away, my confidence level dropped. I would have to waltz into a place like this from time to time, yet I couldn’t even take the smell.
The room was dark except for one dusty lightbulb dangling from a beam above. It shined down on three men, blindfolded and resting on their knees. Two with their pants down and around their ankles. I saw their bare asses clench. The lucky fella on the far right who got to keep his pants on was bathed in a shadow, but I could make out finely pressed dress pants and a sleeveless undershirt. The light from the overhead lamp glowed off one sculpted bicep, making his skin glisten.
Something intensely familiar rang out about him, but because of the blindfold and him kneeling on the shadowy edge, I had no idea who he was. I chalked it up to one of the many men who’d crossed paths with my father. A finely dressed one. One day you’re a partner, the next an enemy.
Giancarlo came through another door off to the side and Anthony murmured, “Gian, you’re here already?”
“My meeting downtown ended early,” he responded to Anthony, but stared at me.
Downtown... The Byrne Group’s data center was located downtown. He’d met with his tech team.
Shit.
Giancarlo strutted toward me, his face even. He stood behind me, pressing his chest into my back. Something I guessed he chose to do on his own. Anthony wouldn’t want him that close to me. It scared me and made me feel safe at the same time. Two sides of my brain warred with each other, leaving me off balance.
Warwick. My safeword. Would it work here?
I glanced behind me to find Gian’s soft eyes gazing at me. Our worlds collided. As much as he wanted to scare me, as he should since I threatened his livelihood, I caught a glimmer of love, that look a man who adores you gives you across the room. I knew that look from when Sebastien’s sable eyes sent me those signals.
Softly, Gian turned my head back to face Anthony.
Giancarlo had my back...
