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I stare at our reflections in the nearby mirror. My chalk white face. Lorenzo’s savage beauty. His huge arms are locked around me and his eyes are closed as he works his teeth against me.
“I guess there’s a silver lining to this.”
“What’s that, princess?” he murmurs, almost sounding like a lover.
“Once this is over, none of you will want me again. I’ll be free.”
And yet my heart contracts painfully at the thought of Cassius gazing at me in disgust because I’m used goods. Turning away from me. Throwing me out so he never has to look at me again. It’s ridiculous that my virginity should make any goddamn difference to my value and I refuse to believe it does.
But it clearly matters to Cassius.
Lorenzo smiles against my throat. “Is that so?”
My blood freezes. I’m assuming he’s going to let me live. Once he’s finished with me, maybe he’ll just kill me. Take me out to the desert and hunt me down like game, like he so lovingly described.
Tears shimmer in my eyes. At least then I’ll be with Mom.
“Ah, princess. Am I so hideous?”
Lorenzo turns me around to face him, his hands on my waist and a smile on his lips. His blond hair is tumbling around his face and the light from the window is striking his high cheekbones and the hard line of his jaw. He’s beautiful, but he can’t hide the malevolence that shines from within.
My wrists are still fastened together. I reach up and touch his face. “Not here.”
My hand slides down his jaw, over his tattooed throat and comes to rest over his heart. “Here. This is what scares me.”
The smile fades from Lorenzo’s lips. He almost looks like he’s in pain. He glances in confusion at my bound wrists, his clothes on the floor, and then at himself.
I beg him with my eyes. Please, please realize what you’re doing and that you don’t want to hurt me.
Please, Lorenzo. Show me that you’re not a monster through and through.
He steps away to pick up his jacket and fishes around inside it. He brings out his knife, clutched in his fist, and when his eyes meet mine they’re sparking with fury.
I swallow hard. Oh, shit. Now I’ve made him angry.
“The others have told me how lush you are. Let’s see what these clothes of yours have been hiding.”
Lorenzo grasps a fistful of my top and slices through it. He does it over and over, grasps and cuts, grasps and cuts, until every scrap of fabric has fallen to the floor at my feet.
He wriggles the point of his knife beneath the center of my bra. “Aren’t you fucking perfect. I’ve been dreaming about this.”
I swallow down the burn of disappointment and force my voice not to wobble. If he’s going to strip me bare then I’ll at least keep my dignity. “I thought you said you couldn’t stand me.”
“I was fucking with you so I could win. You’re just my type, princess.” He slices through my bra with a flick of his wrist and it falls open.
“Win what?”
But Lorenzo’s too busy cutting through my bra straps and throwing the tattered garment to the ground. His hungry gaze devours my body as he works. I stare straight ahead at his chest.
If I can just get my hands on that knife. Even with my hands tied I might be able to stab him in the neck, just how he taught me. The idea of him bleeding out in seconds is the only thing keeping me going.
Lorenzo notices me glance at his knife and throws it aside, laughing. “I like my neck how it is.”
I screw my eyes up. Stupid, stupid Chiara. I made it so obvious what I was planning.
He turns his attention to my jeans and pulls them down my legs. He tugs them meaningfully when they reach my ankles so that I have no choice but to step out of them, nearly losing my balance. Lorenzo catches me around the waist and steadies me, and his fingers just slip beneath my briefs at my lower back.
“How about we make things interesting? Vinicius told me you couldn’t resist his wager. If I get these panties off you and they’re not soaked through, I’ll take you back to Cassius.”
