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Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Looking for this?” he asks, pulling out a key from his pocket, the gold of it shining in the light of the room. I look around the room, looking for anything to protect myself with, but almost everything I could use is closer to him than me. I want to curse him, but instead I focus on keeping my mind clear, and watching him as he prowls towards me. Because there is nothing else I could call how he’s walking towards me. Like a panther; slow, steady, and purposeful. And I’m his prey.
I don’t ease away from the door, not wanting to be cornered. His mouth lifts into that dangerous smile, and his eyes flash with something heated, dark, and almost feral. He’s enjoying this little chase, and while that’s a whole other thing for me to worry, right now, I’m just trying to stay alive. I would try to head for the passageway again, but unless I find a way to cut off his hand, or knock him unconscious and drag him over there, that’s not an option. No, I need that key, which means, I need to knock him out and get it so I can get out of here.
“I can see all those thoughts moving across your pretty little face,” he tells me as I move along the wall and toward his sitting area. I manage to keep the couch between us as he matches me step for step, but not getting much closer. “What are you going to do, Gia?” he purrs. “Because you are proving to be remarkably resourceful. I never thought I’d enjoy that in a woman, but here you are.”
“I’m not doing this so you can enjoy it,” I tell him icily as I dart back to the other side of the room, making him pivot and reach for me, but I evade him. I ease toward the bathroom this time. “I’m doing this so I can get the hell away from you.”
“Hmmm, yes, I can see that. And yet, here you are, trapped once again.”
“God, you’re sick in the head,” I rasp as I stop and stare at him. He stops as well, watching me.
“I never claimed I was a sane man,” he returns with a careless shrug. “Most in my line of work can’t be to do what we do. But, I can assure you that when it comes to you, I have all my faculties running.”
“Why did it have to be you I bumped into that day?” I wonder aloud as I glare at him.
He gives me a slow smile. “Fate is a funny bitch. Perhaps she knew you were looking for a little adventure in your life.”
“Adventure?” I shout incredulously. “Are you sure you haven’t fallen and hit your head on something? Or maybe you’ve been taking a little too much of your own product, but I think you’ve lost your damn mind.”
“A man who uses his own products is a fool and shouldn’t be in a position of power,” Nico scoffs. “And yes, you could look at this as an adventure. You haven’t been wasting your life away in a sterile apartment doing the same routine day to day. No connection to the outside world except for some meager trips to the library every day, where you don’t talk to anyone but the librarian and the occasional old man.”
“Instead, I spend my days locked in a pretty prison, and the only person I get to talk to is you. I wouldn’t say that this is an adventure, Armani. This is a nightmare that I’m ready to wake up from.” I move toward the bathroom, intending on shutting the door and locking it to keep him out until I can figure out how to open that passageway door, or get that key from him, but before I can reach it, he’s on me.
I let out a cry when he grabs me, his body pressing me into the wall with a thud. His front is to my back, and I struggle, trying to get away, but he presses in tighter until I can’t move. A rumbling chuckle sounds in my ear and panic fills me, realizing that there is no escape now. I’m completely at his mercy. And that panic turns to fear when I feel how hard he is pressed against my lower back.
“Topolina, you are a handful,” he admonishes softly, his right hand settling on my hip and his other arm wrapping around my waist, holding me against him. “Now, what am I going to do with you?” I don’t answer, though my body trembles in his grip. “Anyone else, I’d lock you in the basement, be done, but you,you,cara mia, I want close so that I can see what you’ll do next. So I can hear that sharp tongue, and watch that brain of yours work as you try to escape.”
“Just let me go, and I’ll go back to my room. We’ll chalk this up to another failed attempt on my part. I’m sure I’ll amuse you again when I keep on trying,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
I still when he leans down and puts his nose to the crook of my neck, breathing me in. Goosebumps cover my skin, and I have to work on controlling my breathing. “Oh no,topolina, I don’t think I can do that,” he whispers against my skin. “First, you pissed me off earlier by comparing me to your fucking family, and then defying me. Now, here you are, trying to escape again. If I was a lesser man, I would think you didn’t like me. But that’s not true, is it, Giulia?” He moves his mouth from my neck to my ear, making me shiver at the feel of his warm breath. “I think you’re feeling things you don’t understand, and it frightens you. But that’s alright, I can work with that.”
“I don’t feel anything for you but anger and contempt,” I rasp out.
“Is that why your pulse is pounding so hard?” He moves from my ear and back down to the pulse point in my neck. He presses his lips there, making me gasp. The feel of his lips on my skin has my body going haywire as it tries to understand the sensations moving through me. “Or why you’ve stopped struggling?”
“My pulse is pounding because you have me trapped against a wall,” I manage to sneer. “And I’m not struggling because you’re double my size.”
“That’s true,” he agrees. Suddenly he spins me around, pressing my back against the wall. He crowds back into me, his hands coming up to cup the back of my head, his fingers weaving through my hair. It’s an intimate position, and I try to ignore the way my body responds to it.
“Let me go,” I order.
“I think you forget, Gia, that you are not the one giving orders,” he reminds me, his grip in my hair tightening and pulling lightly on the strands as he tilts my head back. “And that you are not in charge of this game. But you are the one losing.”
“You think this is a game? That my freedom, my life, is nothing more than a game?” I hiss, infuriated.
“Life is always a game,” he counters. “Some win, some lose, and some skate by.” He has a thoughtful look in his eye that makes me nervous.
“And in this, I’m always the loser,” I toss back bitterly.
He doesn’t reply for a moment, watching me. Suddenly, he pulls his fingers from my hair and steps back. I blink, shocked, but still wary. What the hell is he up to? “You’re right,” he says as he pulls the key from his pocket. I freeze.Wait, what?“You haven’t had a chance to win at our little game, have you? So how about you and I change the rules, Ms. De Luca?”
Oh, no, this does not sound good. “What do you mean?” I ask carefully.
“I mean, I’m going to give you one chance to escape,” he answers nonchalantly.
“You’re going to let me leave?”
