Page 95 of Sin & Sapphire

Valentin scoffed.

“Fine.” I pushed back from the table before dropping to my hands and knees and crawling under it, seething with resentment and hoping this would make my point, rather than cement my place in this household as nothing more than a plaything. I shoved my way between Valentin’s thighs, then reached up to unbuckle his belt.

“Ana,” he growled, and need pulsed between my legs, my traitorous pussy eager for the punishment that would follow this defiance.

I ignored him, freeing his cock from the confines of his slacks, and stroking my fingers up the hot, velvety length.

“Toy,” he warned. “Enough.”

When I took the tip of his cock between my lips, inhaling his salty, musky scent, he jerked back.

“Get out from under there,” Valentin snapped. Once again, I ignored him. His cock twitched in the air, the top glistening with my spit and precum. I moved forward and wrapped my fingers around him, gripping firmly, and took him deep into my throat. “Toy,” Valentin groaned, but stopped trying to escape me.

A hand gripped my hair and yanked me out from under the table. I screamed at the pain in my scalp and struck out blindly.

Angelo shoved my back against the wall and wrapped his fingers around my throat.

“Who’s in charge here, slut?”

I shook with terror, the enormity of my defiance sinking in. I’d thrown away days of pretending submission because my ego got the best of me. I deflated like a popped balloon, slumping against the wall and lowering my eyes. What use was fighting this?

“I’m sorry, sir,” I whispered.

Angelo tilted my chin up with his other hand, loosening his hold on my throat, but not letting go.

He brushed his lips against mine, a caress so soft I wondered if I was imagining it. Butterflies danced in my stomach at his gentleness.

“You’re right,” he murmured against my skin. “We’ve been wasting time playing with our new toy instead of defending my territory.”

The cruelty of his words burrowed deep beneath my skin. I was a distraction. I was too stupid to help. I was?—

“When we should have been torturing you for information, instead.” He met my eyes with amusement, then nuzzled his nose against my cheek. “If I edge you for hours, do you promise to tell me everything you know about your father’s businesses?”

I slumped back against the wall, closing my eyes with relief. “No torture necessary.”

Angelo continued to nuzzle at my face, the scratch of his beard as arousing as it was comforting. “This doesn’t change the rules,” he added.

I hadn’t thought it would.

“We’ll take you shopping for clothes tomorrow,” he murmured.

“If she behaves tonight,” Valentin added. “And begs for her punishment for being such a goddamned brat.”

I’d do anything to escape these walls, for something to do beside eat, sleep, and let them play with me.

The idea of submitting, of losing myself in the endless cycle of pleasure and pain, wasn’t as horrifying as had been when they’d found me in that casino a few weeks before.

Fucked up, Ana.Yeah, fine, it was. But I’d never pretended to be anything other than fucked up.

I dropped to my knees, wincing as I hit the hard tiles of the kitchen floor. “I’m sorry. I’m a stupid slut who deserves her punishment. Please, show me the errors of my ways.”

Valentin’s bark of laughter indicated I hadn’t hidden my sarcasm as well as I’d hoped.

“Come back over here,” he said, “and warm Angelo’s cock.” I crawled, injecting as much seduction into the movement as possible, prowling across the room, shivering with delight as their eyes followed my curves.

I positioned myself under the table, between Angelo’s thighs, andskimmed my hands up his legs, the expensive fabric of his trousers, erotic beneath my fingers. I unbuckled his belt, awkwardly, ducking my head so I wouldn’t slam it into the tabletop, then slipped my hands into the open fly of his pants. I ran my hands up his torso, tracing them over the coarse hairs that grew in the spot where he’d tattooed the angel.

Fierce possession burned through my veins like poison, wild and toxic, at the idea that this fierce, unhinged man was mine, that he’dalwaysbeen mine. He’d branded my image on his skin to prove it.

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