Page 14 of Brutal Vows

If only I had other men to compare him to. Thethought alone sends heat rushing to my face which I attempt to hide, but his hand grabs my chin, preventing my eyes from focusing anywhere but on him.

“Unless—” he pauses for a moment, his eyes widening before something dark glitters within his brown depths. “You’ve never been with a man.”

I’m not responding to that, and he doesn’t press me, but I can tell her already knows the answer to his question.Mio Dio, is he going to try to sell me? Will he bestow the same fate my father had planned? I may be naïve in matters of sex but not in what Italian men like my father deal in.

Flesh.

Human trafficking is one of the largest ways my father makes his money. Money that goes to the Don, Salvator De Luca, the man he sought to sell me for more prestige and power. Is Vitali like his uncle? Does he deal in humans the same way?

“Where did your mind go, Gia?” he murmurs, stealing me away from my darkening thoughts. His eyes soften as he stares down at me, one of his large, calloused hands coming to rest on my waist.

“Nowhere.”

Vitali studies me for a moment longer before he gives me a brief nod and moves past me to step into the shower. The steaming hot water cascades down the rigid planes of his body, the sight causing a stir lower in my abdomen.

The shower is enormous and lined with shower heads and spigots. It’s more like a luxury spa than a guest bathroom.

He reaches out his hand and I take it, letting him draw me under the spray without protest. “You are still weak from hypothermia and starvation. Keep hold of me.”

I stand frozen, watching as he picks up a blue bathsponge, its texture rough and familiar. He uncaps a bottle of body wash, the scent of fresh citrus filling the air, and squeezes a generous amount onto the sponge. Without a word, he closes the gap between us, his movements deliberate and confident. I feel the firm pressure of his body against my abdomen, the warmth radiating from him unmistakable and intimate. Is he going to make me have sex with him now? In the shower?

Slowly, he turns me around until my ass is pressed against his erection. One arm snakes around my body, holding me flat against him while the other runs the sudsy sponge against my skin. He starts at my neck, slowly working his way down. The softness of the sponge and the slickness of the body wash feels like heaven against my skin. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to bathe in anything close to warm water.

He runs the sponge over my breasts, circling my sensitive nipples, slowly leaving a sudsy path lower and lower. I’m not sure what this feeling is. I’m dizzy, and I ache. I can feel his erection between us. Pleasure coils inside of me, and I’m torn between feeling ashamed and wanting more.

“Listen to me well, Gia,” he whispers in my ear. “You belong to me now. Your brother signed you over to me the moment he tried to take my life.” I cry out when the hand he is using to hold me moves to pinch my right nipple. It hurts, but the pain eases when he releases it, the burn fading to a dirty pleasure that travels right to my clit. “I will take what I want from you when I want it. You will answer all my questions. Heed my commands. If you are a good girl, you will be rewarded, but if you are naughty—” he pauses. For dramatic affect no doubt. “you will be punished.Is that clear?”

So he’s not going to sell me? He is keeping me for himself?

Not knowing what to say and still trying to process everything, I give him a small nod.

“You need to understand something,piccola ceria,” he continues, turning me so that I am facing him. “If I want you to ride my cock in the middle of a meeting, you will do it. When I tell you to sit on my face, I don’t care where we are or what we are doing, you sit on my fucking face. When you wake up with my mouth eating your cunt for breakfast, you will thank me for it. Do you understand?”

Santa merda.I manage to swallow down the lump that has lodged itself in my throat. I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel about his sudden declaration, but I doubt my vagina is supposed to be pulsing. There is nothing left for me to do but nod because my mouth is dryer than a cotton mill, I doubt I’ll be able to answer anyway.

What would I say?

Vitali gazes down at me for a few more seconds, one beat, and then another passes, before he pulls me tighter against him. “Consent doesn’t matter here, Gia. You are mine to do with as I please until I get what I want. Obey me and I will bring you the greatest pleasure you will ever know.” His voice darkens. “Cross me and I will tie you to my bed, whip your pussy until you beg me to come and then I will leave you there, dripping in your own release so that you realize the mistake you made.”

He doesn’t require me to answer him, which I’m thankful for, because the vision he’s planted in my mind has my heart galloping and my body shaking. Vitali abandons the suds-filled sponge and tips my head back under the hot spray, letting the water soak my hair. He pours shampoo inhis hand. Despite his threatening words, his touch is gentle as he massages it into my scalp.

This is a trap, I know it. He’s lulling me into a false sense of security, and it is working. I am putty in his hands, soft and malleable.

Vitali tips my head back to rinse the shampoo, running his fingers through the soft tresses. He leans toward me, his lips dropping to the column of my neck. I tremble at the feel of his tongue licking a path up my neck until it lands just below my ear. He takes my earlobe between his teeth and bites down.

Arousal sweeps through me, and I can’t help the desperate moan that flies past my lips.

“Bellisima,” he growls against my ear. He runs his fingers through my hair one last time before straightening me.

“I’ve got things to do, Gia,” he tells me. “Everything you need is on the counter. When you are done, there is food waiting for you in the other room. Eat as much as you can and then go to bed.”

Easy enough. Maybe while he is gone, I can find a way to escape.

As if he is reading my thoughts Vitali adds, “There is no escape for you, little deer. I’ll be watching you, even when I’m not with you. Remember what I said about being naughty.”

A chill sweeps up my spine at his reminder. I watch silently as he steps out of the shower and dries himself off. Vitali obviously has no idea that he oozes sex appeals. A true Adonis if ever there was one. He wraps a towel around his waist, shoots me a warning glare, and steps out of the bathroom.

For the first time since he took me, I canbreathe.

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