Page 58 of His to Hold

Oh, shit. He brings the belt down again, this time choosing to lay a stripe across the top of my thighs. I dance up onto my toes and wiggle my hips, crying out as intense feelings of agony and ecstasy war within me. How can this feel so bad and yet so incredibly good at the same time?

“And do you know what she told me?”

Tears prick my eyes, and I shake my head. “No.”

It’s another lie. I know exactly what she’s done. Each time I’ve seen her at the hospital, she’s avoided me. She can’t look me in the eye because she’s ashamed of letting me take the fall for what happened with Joey Gallo. She needn’t have worried. I didn’t blame her for the mistakes I made when I tried to get the photos back. I’d have kept her secret if she wanted me to.

Antonio grabs a fistful of my hair and forces me to look up at him as he crouches next to me. “My sister told me she took photos for some boy she liked and that they somehow fell into Joey Gallo’s hands. She told me she came to you for help and you promised to take care of it. Why did I have to hear it from her?”

“I don’t know.”

“I do.” The look of anguish in my husband’s eyes is too much to bear. “It’s because you don’t trust me. You never have.”

I want to throw my arms around him and tell him that’s not true, but I can’t, because I didn’t trust him to handle things without doing something that would wreck his relationship with Livvy.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t trust you then, but I do now.”

If my hands were free, I’d reach out and touch him, offer him reassurance. But I can’t do that while I’m bound like this. It’s not what Antonio needs, anyway. There’s an anger raging in him looking for an outlet.

“Punish me,” I whisper, afraid to say the words out loud. “Make it hurt.”

Antonio stares into my eyes. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he seems to find the answer he seeks because he grunts an affirmation, releases his grip on my hair and gets to his feet. He moves behind me and spanks my ass with his bare hand again. I squirm with need.

The rasp of a zipper being lowered is the only warning I get before he forces my legs wider and impales me with his cock. I whimper as he drives in deep, his hipbones pounding against my poor aching ass as he fucks me.

“That’s it,” he growls. “Take every inch of my cock like a greedy little slut. Beg me for my cum.”

If any other man spoke to me in that manner, I’d be repulsed, but this is Antonio. I love it when he talks dirty.

He fucks me ruthlessly, making no attempt to give me pleasure. My nipples harden as they rub against the stool. My pussy is drenched and my clit pulses insistently. It takes an effort not to beg Antonio to make me come.

As I writhe beneath him, Antonio takes a bruising grip of my hips. He uses me mercilessly to slake his desire. When he reaches the moment of climax, he pulls out of me. Cum spurts across my lower back. I sag against the stool.

Antonio runs a hand over my bottom, a tender gesture. His fingers dip between my legs and stroke gently, eliciting a soft moan from me. For a brief second, I think he might take pity on me and gift me a climax. He doesn’t. Huffing out a breath, he comes around to release me from my bonds, cutting the ties with a knife he grabs from the block on the countertop. He helps me to stand up straight and looks at me with a mix of lingering anger and regret.

I reach for him, desperate for a moment of connection, but he steps away. Running his fingers through his hair, he watches as I go to retrieve my clothes.

“I’m sending Olivia to Italy,” he announces.

“What?”

“Matteo will take her and stay until she’s settled with our cousins in Tuscany. She can return when she’s learned her lesson.”

I’m lost for words. Antonio’s expression tells me his mind is made up, and it’s pointless to try to change it. My heart aches for Olivia. She’s young and she made a foolish decision. But sending her away isn’t the answer. She’ll feel rejected. I know that all too well.

“And what about me?” I ask, dreading the answer.

“I’m sending you back to Westport. Dante’s waiting outside to drive you.”

My heart sinks. I don’t know if I can stand being banished again. “Why don’t you just shoot me now? Put us both out of our misery.”

“I would,” Antonio snarls, getting right in my face, “if I didn’t love you so fucking much.”

Leaving me frozen in shock, he turns and storms from the room. I’ve waited so long to hear him tell me he loves me and he spits it out like a curse?

Tears run down my cheeks as I shake myself from my stupor and get dressed. I pull on my long floral skirt and then slide my arms into the sleeves of my white silk blouse. With trembling fingers, I fasten the buttons, then I slip my feet back into my shoes.

Not bothering to fetch my purse or find a coat, I step outside to find Dante waiting for me in an Aston Martin. I know better than to expect him to be chivalrous, so I open the passenger door myself and settle myself on the passenger seat.

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