Page 83 of Where Wild Hearts Dance
I have to blink repeatedly to get used to the change in light, but it doesn’t take me long to recognize the person sitting in front of me. It’s the one person I’ve been more intimate with than anyone else in my life. It’sthe man who only a few days ago called me hisgirlfriend. But now, as he glares at me like he’ll hate me until my dying breath, it’s the one person I suddenly feel most afraid of in the world.
A tide of confusion swells and ebbs in my stomach.Is this a joke?I search his face for some suggestion he’s still playing some weird game, but I draw a blank.
His eyes are black.So black. And ice cold. His brow is furrowed, casting the whole of his face in shadow. Even though he’s sitting calmly, his knees apart and his forearms resting on them, his spine is straight, his breaths steady, the movement of his fingers as he cracks his knuckles, impeccably controlled. There’s no warmth to him at all. In fact, his presence makes me feel as though I’ve been dropped into a tub of ice and held under while I gasp for air.
I suck a terrified breath in through my nose and try to shuffle the chair backward. Benito watches my repeated poor effort at moving out of his space, then he leans forward, grasps the seat between each of my thighs, and pulls me back to him as though I weigh nothing more than a rose petal.
I try to cry out in the hopes he gives up this horrible act, but the thick tape across my mouth pins my lips together making my words senseless.
He gives a small shake of head. “Scream all you want. We’re thirty feet below the ground. No one will hear you.”
Then he reaches forward and pulls the tape off my mouth. The soft skin of my lipsburns.
I clench my teeth together. “Then why bother taping my mouth at all?”
He tips his head back slightly and regards me. “I don’t know how much of that stuff you breathed in so it’s possible you could have come round while I was getting you here.”
“And where’s ‘here’?”
His lips quirk into a cruel smile. “Oh Tess, you know I can’t tell you that. It would spoil all the fun.”
“If this is your idea of fun, there’s no wonder you’re single.” I’m shaking with fear but I can’t stop the smart comments coming out of my mouth.
He wipes his smile away with a curled fist.
I glance around the space. It’s a large room, empty but for a few boxes stacked in one corner. I try to read the logos to see if they’ll give me any clue as to where I am, but they’re too far away and it’s too dark to see clearly. What I can see, though, is a dark, crimson stain on the floor about six feet away. I almost wretch. This must be where Cristiano’s men bring their victims to torture confessions out of.
“This isn’t funny, Benito. I don’t want to play this game.”
He tips his head to one side and his eyes dance with morbid amusement. “Game? This isn’t a game, Contessa. At least, not one that I would have started.”
I narrow my eyes as if that might help me make sense of his riddle. “At what point do you bring me up to speed on why I’m here?” I sigh heavily, hoping for dramatic, but the air shivers too much as I breathe it out.
“I was wondering when you might ask that.” He stands and walks around the back of the chair. Despite his air of calm control, his fists are clenched and his jaw ticks as he grinds down on his teeth.
“But first, can I just say…” He uncurls his fists and turns his body to face mine, then brings his palms together in a slowclap… clap… clap.“Congratulations, Contessa.”
I frown and gulp down damp, frigid air.
He laughs bitterly and clasps his hands together. “You had me completely fooled.”
What?
He shakes his head again. “I even thought your feelings for me were genuine, but I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
He rests his forearms on the back of his chair and glares at me.
“What are you talking about?” I whisper. I feel a tsunami of dread fill up my core. I don’t think he’s playing around.
“You and Federico…” His tone cuts through the words like glass. The mention of my childhood best friend doesn’t feel right in this stark, empty room.
“You had me believe it was just some teenage crush on his part, that my actions forced you to sleep with him, and if you could turn back time, you wouldn’t have given him your virginity.”
“It’s t?—”
He cuts me off. “But that’s notexactlyhow it happened, is it?”
My pulse races through my eardrums. I’ve no idea what Benito is getting at but his weighted stare and aggressive stance are scaring me.
