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He uses his free hand to swipe at the wetness with the pad of his thumb. A shiver runs right through my body and centers in my core.
Oh. I didn’t realize I could feel aroused while pregnant. I don’t know if that’s normal. I’ve never known anyone pregnant before Nita, and we hadn’t gotten to the stage of speaking about intimate things like…that. The sensation between my thighs is a familiar ache, but somehow magnified a hundredfold from what it was when I was last with Rio in a sexual way.
Is that because I’ve missed him as much as I’ve feared him? I haven’t felt turned on since the day I jumped on the bus to Augusta, but I craved his powerful presence in my life every single waking moment, even when I knew it was unhealthy.
He’s my obsession. He was right when he talked in the past about love and hate being two sides of the same coin.
He must notice my reaction. It would be impossible not to when my thighs part almost involuntarily as if inviting his touch at the apex between them. My cheeks heat at the raw need that darkens his irises almost to black.
His hand on my belly tightens, and I brace, expecting him to lean in and claim my mouth with his.
I am yours, Rio. Even if I don’t want to be.We both know it.
My lips part, and I wait. But in the end, he doesn’t move toward me.
Instead, he says softly, “He’s strong. That is a good thing.”
There is pride in his tone.
Somehow, I manage a slight chuckle. “You meansheis strong. Of course she is. She has my blood. And yours.”
He grunts. “We shall see. Boy or girl, Bianca, I will be content as long as our child is healthy.”
The perfect answer.Oh my God. It’s easier if he continues being a monster. This version of Rio doesn’t seem monstrous at all, and that makes it so much harder to keep any barrier in place between us.
Remember what he said, I remind myself.
I will not kill you. Yet. I will consider your future after the baby is born.
Someone outside the car clears their throat, and the moment dissipates into thin air. I alight awkwardly from the vehicle, and two dark-suited goons step forward to grab me by the upper arms. They flank me, thereby ensuring I cannot move a step in any direction without their cooperation.
“Wait, Rio! What—”
“You know where to take her, Mitch,” he says to the man standing on my left. “You have your instructions.”
Then he turns, strides up the stairs marking the entrance, and disappears inside the building, leaving me with these two armed and expressionless strangers. Strangers who represent everything I tried to run from. Strangers who lead me through the front entrance in Rio’s wake.
When I reach the foyer, I automatically start toward the staircase, but the man named Mitch jerks me in another direction altogether.
They guide me down the long hallway, past Rio’s first-floor office and other rooms on that level, toward a small elevator near the back of the building that I noticed last time I was here but never got to explore. There’s only one level above us, so I’m not surprised when the elevator heads down rather than up. The doors open to a corridor, brightly lit with fluorescent tubing and with concrete walls and floor.
How far underground are we? I had no idea there was a whole rabbit warren of rooms and hallways deep beneath the estate. What was going on beneath my feet while I lived in relative innocence up above?
My heart is racing by the time we stop in front of an open metal door. The whole place gives off prison vibes. When I glance inside to a fully decked-out bedroom and sitting room suite with gold- and white-wallpapered walls and thick cream carpet, I start shaking my head.
“No. No, no, no…” He’s locking me, literally, in a dungeon? I joked in my mind about a dungeon and handcuffs, but I didn’t actually expect… “Over my dead fucking body.”
I plant my feet more firmly on the floor and brace my arms against the doorframe, but it’s no use. One of the goons pries my clutching fingers off the frame, and the other picks me up and carries me over the threshold to my new home.
He plonks me down by the bed and moves quickly back to the door.
“Someone will deliver dinner in a couple of hours,” the one named Mitch says, and then they’re gone.
Just like that, I’m alone in this gilded cage. Imprisoned, yet again, by a Mafia monster and his team of goons.
* * *
Rio
