AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nod. “I always have since I was a child. It was a way to stay quiet and out of the way. My tutors and nanny would always give me something to read and make me be quiet when I was young and my father or brothers were around. They didn’t want to know I was there.”
We lapse into silence, and I blush slightly when my stomach growls, reminding me of how hungry I am. Still, I don’t reach for my food. Nico makes an annoyed sound low in his throat and leans forward to shove my plate closer to the edge of the table. “Eat,” he orders. “Or I’ll make sure you do.”
“Going to tie me up and force feed me?” There’s a slight sneer in my tone, but I don’t move toward the plate.
“Do not tempt me, Giulia. And this time, there is no way you will be getting free unless I release you myself. So I suggest you think very carefully before you open your mouth again to defy me.” I stare at him to gauge how serious he is, but from the look on his face, that would clearly be very. So I pick up my knife and fork, cut a small piece of meat and eat it. Even cool, it’s delicious. When I move to put my utensils down, he gives me a hard, warning glare, and I huff out a small sigh and continue eating. Neither of us say anything until I’ve cleared my plate.
“Happy now?” I sniff as I set my fork and knife down. “And I don’t go by Giulia. I go by Gia.”
He doesn’t reply to that. Instead, he orders, “Tell me about your uncle.”
That throws me for a loop, and my eyes widen at that. “Giovanni? What do you want to know?” Why the hell does he want to know about my uncle?
He ignores my questions. “Does he beat you as well?”
“Yes, sometimes. He and my cousins are cut from the same cloth as my father and brothers. There are no women in their line, something that my uncle loves to point out to my father.”And those tauntings usually always left me black and blue from the beatings my father would give me because of being a disappointment and of a gender he can’t stand.
“I wager your father has never read a biology book,” Nico remarks, “Seeing as it is a man who determines the gender of his children.”
I give him a bitter smile. “He knows because I made the mistake of mentioning it to him once when I was young. He didn’t appreciate it.” I hadn’t been able to eat for almost a week from the punch he landed on my jaw. Not to mention I peed blood for just as long from the abuse I took to my stomach, kidneys, and ribs. That was one of the worst, and most severe beatings I ever had, and I made sure to never repeat those words again.
“No, I imagine he didn’t. And I suppose your uncle is proud of the fact that he never sired a girl?”
“Very,” I reply bitterly. Though, I also know many secrets about my uncle that I’m not about to share with this man.
“Hmmm, your family is a puzzle. But I think I’ve had enough discussion of them. What is it you do in your spare time?”
God, this man makes my head spin with how abruptly he changes the topic of conversation. “You mean when I’m not being held against my will?” I ask derisively.
“You know, I’m starting to think I’m going to have to do something with that saucy mouth of yours,” he answers silkily. “There are many ways for a woman’s mouth to be useful, and I quite like the idea of teaching them to you.”
I swallow hard at his thinly veiled threat. “I’ll just bite it off,” I hiss at him.
He gives me a sharp smile. “Oh, now,topolina, there are a lot of things you might want to do with me, but biting won’t be one of them when I finally have you where I want you.”
“You told me you don’t force women,” I say icily, bracing to run.
“And I don’t. When you’re in my bed, you’ll be there willingly. And once you’re there,” he adds with a heat in his eyes that makes my heart pound fast and hard in my chest, “I’ll gladly show you why your mouth is useful for more than talking.”
“So that’s it, you want to keep me here so I can be some kind of sex slave or something,” I summarize in disgust. “I’m not going to be anything to you, Mr. Armani, and I won’t be here long enough for any of that to happen anyway.”
“No?” He sounds more amused than angry at my statement.
“I’ll either find my way out of here, or my father will come and get me once he figures out I’m here.”
“And you really think he’s going to take you back and everything will go back to normal? How naive of you,topolina. You wouldn’t make it home. You’d either be dead within seconds, or your father will take you to the closest church to marry you off to someone.” He gives me a cruel smile. “And if that’s what happens, this will look like heaven in comparison to what you will endure. You really think they’re going to believe you haven’t spilled family secrets? That you haven’t already given up your virginity to me? You are worth nothing to them without your purity. Before now, you held some value if only for that, but once they believe it’s gone…”
He lets that sentence trail off, and everything inside me turns to ice because I don’t need to wonder if any of that is true. Even now I could see the fury in my father’s eyes, knowing I once again proved women are worth nothing more than chattel to carry a child for them, or to look pretty on their arm in public.
I say nothing as he stands and rounds the table. I should move, make sure he can’t get too close, but I’m frozen to my seat as reality sinks in. When he stops beside my chair, I don’t look up at him, just continue to stare straight at his now empty seat. He reaches down, cupping my chin and turning it to look up at him. “Whatever plan you are hatching inside that pretty head of yours to escape, I would think twice, Ms. De Luca. Because while you are safe enough within these walls, out of them, you are easy prey, and I am not the only predator you would have to be on the lookout for. And as for why I want you here, it’s as simple as I want you here, and this is where you will remain until I say otherwise. You can either accept that and be cooperative while you’re here, or you can continue to defy me and see what happens when you try my patience a little too much. That choice is up to you.”
Then he lets go of my chin and heads for the door. I don’t move, not even when I hear the door open and shut behind him. Or when I hear the snick of the lock echo loudly through the space.
I’m not sure how long I sit here, my mind spinning as I try to come to grips with my new situation. My chest feels heavy and cold.
If I can get out of here, I’ll need to run. Run far and wide, and find a way to hide for the rest of my life. Because now it won’t just be my family after me, but Nico Armani, and for some reason, he terrifies me more than my family.
I glance up at the library area. There has to be something in there, some passage or the mention of one somehow that will get me out of here. That is probably going to be my only shot, because I know that I won’t be staying here.
