Page 56 of Sin & Sapphire

ANA

I trembledunder the weight of their gazes, sipping my coffee, trying to absorb the humiliation of my situation, naked and on my knees, letting them feed me, and then stupidly accepting the gift of a coffee like a fucking treat I’d earned by perfectingsitandstay.

Like a puppy.

Angelo absently stroked his fingers over my hair while he and Valentin conversed in rapid French about the attacks on Costa properties in Yorkfield.

The Russians were attacking our properties? That didn’t make any sense. The truce between the Russians and the Italians was over a decade old.

“Tchérnov stopped his attacks in France, but he wants something in Yorkfield,” Valentin mused.

His attacks? I rocked back on my heels, my mind churning as I worked through the implications of what he’d said.

“Linking his trafficking empire with my father’s,” I said, unthinkingly. “And opening the market up to Russian guns so he could compete with Dante Oscuro. That’s why he wanted to marry me in the first place. If he can’t get it through an alliance, he’ll take it by force.”

Valentin flicked his whip across my nipple. I shrieked with pain and scrambled backward. Angelo’s fingers tightened in my hair, impeding my flight.

“Did we give you permission to speak, princess?” Valentin purred.

Hurt sliced through me, unexpected and unwanted. I’d let Angelo’s warm embrace and their care feeding me lull me into thinking I was something other than a set of warm, wet holes for Angelo and a skinsuit for Valentin to beat. Angelo hadn’t even fucked me yet. Goddamn it.

Furious tears pressed behind my eyes. I lowered my eyes to hide the emotion filling them—betrayal, hurt, and most of all my outrage at myself.Stupid, stupid Ana. Always believing if you’re a little bit more perfect, give them a little more, men might come to love you.But they never did.

“Pardon, maître,” I said, a tear streaking down my face, even as I swore I’d find a way to escape.

Angelo’s fingers massaged my scalp, a cold comfort when my heart was breaking again. They’d told me what they wanted. Why couldn’t I make myself believe it? Why would I think they might be interested in the knowledge and experience I brought?

Because I was a fucking idiot, that’s why.

We sat in silence, and I grimly exalted in cutting their conversation short.

“What does a spoiled slut of a princess know about the business of importing guns and drugs?” Valentin asked, finally, his voice derisive.

Was he fucking kidding me? Women in the world I inhabited didn’t have the luxury of ignorance. We might be traded like cattle, but I’d seen as much blood and violence in my household as any of my father’s soldiers. More, if you counted the beatings I’d suffered.

“Nothing,maître,” I responded, my anger getting the best of my good sense. “I don’t know anything about how money flows through Yorkfield. I didn’t pay any attention to the business deals I helped my father make. I never used my smile and my tits to gather intelligence for my family. I don’t have a master’s degree in fucking finance. I’m just a brainless whore that exists only for the pleasure of men.”

Angelo’s bark of laughter surprised me.

As did Valentin’s sigh. “Up,” he commanded.

I scrambled to my feet.

“Hands flat on the table.”

I bent over, placing my palms on the wooden surface.

A drawer opened, utensils jangled, and the drawer shut. Three stinging strikes against my ass later, I was weeping, not just with pain, but because I’d allowed myself to hope for a few moments that these men might find value in me outside of sex.

Valentin held up a wooden stirring spoon so I could see the object that caused me such great pain.Stupid, stupid Ana, thinking that these men might want anything different than any other men—a beautiful ornament, available when they want to fuck, and silent otherwise.

“The first one was for disrespect,” he murmured. “The second two were because I can’t wait to see the bruises bloom on your skin.”

“Yes,maître,” I whispered, hating how much I wanted to lower my head and submit, to give in to their commands and let them wipe my mind blank, taking away the need to think, to calculate my every move, even as I hated them for reducing me to nothing more than an object.

That’s what they wanted, though. I’d refused to obey my father’s dictates about dating and my virginity and my body. Why did I want to give them everything, even as they disrespected me? What the fuck was wrong with me?

Angelo slipped his hand between my thighs, as I waited for their next order, my chest heaving as if I’d run a marathon, adrenaline spiking through me. He ran a finger through my folds. God, they were assholes, but I couldn’t stop my hips from twitching, desperate for friction.

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