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“But you can’t tell me how much time!” I swallow hard, feeling the lump in my throat swell and choke me. “Rossi couldn’t even protect his wife, and now you want me to feel safe when you’re saying I can’t even leave this apartment?”
“Rossi is not the don now!” Luca thunders, taking two strides towards me. Before I can so much as try to dart around him, he scoops me up into his arms as if I weigh nothing at all, bridal-style. The irony of it isn’t lost on me, and I wriggle in his grasp, trying to squirm free as he carries me up the stairs. Halfway up, I almost manage to get loose, and Luca growls with frustration, a sound that sends a shiver down my spine that isn’t entirely unpleasant.
What the fuck is wrong with me? Why do these fights turn me on?I’m not winding him up on purpose—or am I? Luca’s anger both scares and arouses me, and I don’t understand it. It’s almost as if a part of me wants him to take control the way he did the night before our wedding, to make me feel the things I can’t allow myself to feel with him.
“It would serve you right if I pitched you over the side of this staircase,” Luca snarls, setting me down briefly. I think for a moment that he’s going to let me walk the rest of the way up. Instead, he just scoops me off of my feet once more, tossing me over his shoulder so that I’m draped over his back, staring at the gleaming hardwood stairs as he starts his ascent once more.
“Put me down!” I shriek, slamming one fist somewhere in the range of where I think his kidney might be. My legs flail, and I hope vaguely that one might connect with his balls, but Luca wraps an arm around my knees, holding them firmly to his chest. Something about that sends another shock of pleasure up my spine. I can feel to my horror that I’m starting to get more than a little turned on, the thin fabric of my panties clinging damply to my skin as my body flushes with heat.
“Not a chance,” Luca says flatly, carrying me straight towards the double doors that lead into his bedroom.
He deposits me unceremoniously onto the bed, and I spring up immediately, strands of my hair coming loose from my ponytail and floating around my pink face.
“I’m not fucking you again.” I lift my chin, hoping I look more sure about it than I am. I’m painfully aware of the huge bed behind me, the empty penthouse, and the fact that Luca could do anything he wanted to me—has theright, in his own mind, to do anything he wants to me. And watching him shrug casually out of his suit jacket isn’t helping. His muscular forearms flex as he rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, and I feel my mouth go dry as he undoes the top button of his shirt, revealing a sliver of chest that makes my knees feel a little weak.
I’m suddenly reminded vividly of our wedding night, of him circling around behind me as he started to undo my dress, of how different it could have been if I hadn’t told him to get it over with. What would he have done if I’d let it be something else? Would he have used his hands on me, like he did when he bent me over the couch? His mouth?
Oh god.Just the thought of that sends a wave of something I don’t totally understand through me, a tight feeling in my stomach that makes my skin prickle and flush.
Luca probably wouldn’t even do that. He likes having you under his power, not giving pleasure without getting some back.
“I’m not asking you to,” Luca says, raising an eyebrow, and I feel a flush of sudden embarrassment.
“You didn’t ask the first time, either,” I snap.
“Well, I’m not telling you to. Is that good enough for your virginal sensibilities? I thought I fucked those out of you last night.” He smirks. “Sofia, like I said in the hospital, I’m not interested in a poor lay. If I want to get my dick wet, I’ll do it with someone who actually knows what to do.”
And just like that, my humiliation feels complete. I don’t even bother trying to work out why his rejection feels worse than his demands. All I know is that my husband is, for some reason, pretending that he doesn’t even want me now that he’s had a taste, that one night with me turned him off completely.
“Then why did you drag me in here?” I cross my arms, glaring up at him in an effort to conceal the riot of feelings tangling up inside my chest. “What was the point?”
“The point, Sofia, is that you won’t have your own room any longer. You’ll sleep in here, with me, like a good wife should and where I can keep an eye on you. I can’t make certain that you’re safe if you’re down the hall. So you can move whatever things you like in here today, and leave the rest in your old room. They can stay there. The room won’t be used by anyone else.” He clears his throat, looking at me sternly. “If you sleep, it’s in here. If you take a shower, it’s in the master bathroom there. If you—”
“I get the idea,” I say quickly. “So what? I’m supposed to just stay locked up here, never leave, sleep next to you and be fine with it?”
Luca’s eyes glitter dangerously. “That’s exactly what I expect you to do, Sofia,” he says, his voice low and dark as he walks towards me. “Because I’m keeping you safe. I’m the don now. This family is under my control. I will doeverythingI can to ensure that nothing like what happened at the hoteleverhappens again. But I can’t focus on that if I’m too busy making sure my little hellion of a wifeobeys my fucking orders.” He grinds the last words out, punctuating each one, and I can see his anger rising.
It terrifies and excites me all at once, and I don’t understand it at all.
“I’m not one of your little soldiers,” I hiss, unable to resist the urge to fight back. “I don’t take your orders.”
Luca takes one more step forward, bringing his body very close to mine, and he looks down at me with that chiseled face, his green eyes dark and furious. His hand flies out, grasping my chin to tilt it up so that I can’t look away, and even though his touch isn’t painful, there’s no questioning the meaning behind it. “You will take my orders, Sofia. Or maybe you’d rather take something else?” He smiles coldly. “If fucking you into compliance is what I have to do, then perhaps it’s a duty I’ll have to take on. Just like protecting you. Unpleasant, but necessary. Maybe we should find out if your mouth is any better at pleasing me.”
He’s lying.I know he is. I’d felt him inside of me, felt the way he’d lost control at the end, his mouth devouring mine as his hands roved over my body, his cock hard and throbbing as he came. Iknowhe enjoyed it. But for some reason, he’s bent on insisting that he doesn’t want me, that sex with me is distasteful to him.
“No.” I swallow hard, wrenching my chin out of his grasp and backing away. If there’s one thing IknowI don’t want, it’s Luca fucking me while acting as if he doesn’t want it. That would make it so much worse. It’s confusing enough the way he makes me feel without complicating it even more. “Fine. I’ll stay here until the Bratva is no longer a threat.”
“Good.” Luca straightens, his expression pleased. “Now that you’re my wife, Sofia, and I’ve taken on my new responsibilities, it’s important that you know the high-ranking members of the family, their wives, and their positions. I’ll leave an iPad for you that Carmen can upload all of those details to—study it the way you would for an exam,” he adds, “because I’ll expect you to know every word. It’s important that you not embarrass me at any events we might have to attend together. Charity galas and the like.” He frowns. “I hope you aren’t going to argue with me about that?”
His voice is cold again, reserved and formal, and I swallow past the lump in my throat. My husband has so many different sides to him, and I don’t understand any of them—what makes him switch from one to another.
“No,” I say quietly.
“That’s good to hear,” Luca says, looking sideways at me as he strides to the closet. “I have a great deal of responsibility now, Sofia. I need a woman who can be at least adecentwife to this family and me.”
His cutting tone tells me everything that I need to know about how much faith he has that I can do that. And the truth is that he has every reason to feel that way—I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be his wife at all, let alone agood mafia wife. But for some reason, the way he said it made me feel even worse than before.
I sink onto the edge of the bed, sitting there speechlessly as Luca gathers up his suit and goes into the bathroom to change. When he emerges, he barely even looks at me. “I’ll have Carmen send that information for you to study. I’ll ask you about it when I return.” He glances over at me then, his expression flat and emotionless. “Don’t try anything stupid, Sofia.”
And then he strides out, leaving me there without another word, a goodbye, or anything else. It underscores more than ever what a sham this marriage is, how behind closed doors it’s nothing but a lie, one constructed to protect me that might not even be able to do that now.
When I hear the front door shut and I know I’m truly alone, I can’t help myself. The weight of everything that’s happened in the past days comes crashing down, and I roll over onto my side on the bed, burying my face in my arms.
And just like that, I burst into tears.
