Page 45 of Passion and Revenge

My body twitches with aftershocks, and for the longest while, I can’t move, my limbs too heavy and worn out.

I blink my drowsy eyes open and see him staring down at me with an intense expression. As soon as my eyes meet his, he glances away, releasing my hands from the restraint and climbing out of the bed.

I’m too tired to do anything but stare at the ceiling with a dopey smile. That is until I hear the glass doors beep.

My head snaps to where a fully dressed Alessandro is about to walk out the door.

“Y—you’re leaving?” I stammer, sitting up hurriedly.

He glances over his shoulder at me. “This is your prison, not mine.”

I flinch. “Well, aren’t there rules against fucking the prisoners?” I ask snidely, hoping for the words to cut him the way his words did to me.

He turns to face me, his eyes like two blocks of ice. “A good jailer takes care of his prisoners. My prisoner needed servicing like a bitch in heat, and I offered my service.”

I suddenly feel cold, so I drag the duvet up to cover my nakedness while amusement causes his mouth to quirk up.

“I—I d—didn’t—” I trail off.

“You didn’t want it?” He raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t drop your towel and beg me to fuck you?”

“It was mutual!” I roar at him. “Don’t act like you didn’t want this, too.”

“Of course I wanted it, Sienna.” His voice is pitying, and it makes my skin crawl and my stomach clench uncomfortably. “I’m a man in his prime, and you’re a willing, eager woman. The daughter of my enemy notwithstanding.”

Horror causes my jaw to drop open.

“I’ll be happy to give you a repeat performance,” he adds.

“Get out,” I scream.

“We both know you’ll bend over and let me do whatever I want with you if I ask.” He chuckles. “You can leave the fake loyalty to Ivan outside this building where it belongs. I’m a monster, remember? Monsters don’t judge other monsters.”

I freeze at the words, and it’s only when the door shuts behind him that I gain control of my limbs again.

I grab the vase from my side table and hurl it at the glass door. The sound of it shattering into a thousand pieces does nothing to distract me from the shame.

I race into the bathroom, turn the hot water as high as it will go, and scrub every trace of him off my skin until I’m scrubbed raw. Then I curl into a little ball at the corner of the shower and stare into nothing, curiously dry-eyed.

CHAPTER 15

Alessandro

“Gonzales, I was sorry to hear about your son,” I tell the man standing before me. A fake platitude if I’ve ever heard one.

I don’t like Eric Gonzales, and he can probably tell, but in our world, liking someone isn’t a prerequisite to working with them. If it were that way, I’d probably be a one-man show because I don’t like most of the fuckers in this business.

Gonzales has been married six times in the span of eight years and has a multitude of kids. The man’s dream must be to start up an army of sons.

He shakes his head, his expression stiff. “These things happen.”

I hold back a snort. Neither he nor I are going to lose any sleep over one of his twenty-three sons being kidnapped for ransom and eventually killed when the kidnappers realized not a cent was going to be forthcoming.

“I hear you’ve been absent from the city.” The man’s brown eyes are razor sharp, even though he’s pretending like the conversation doesn’t bother him in any way.

The sly bastard probably wants to know if I’ve started making new alliances that can affect ours.

I shoot him a tight-lipped smile. “I didn’t take you for one who listens to idle gossip.”

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