Page 14 of The Vatican
My ears rushed with blood and my head felt cloudy with words I was sure I misunderstood. “Excuse me?” I managed to get out, but my voice was low, raspy, and unsure.
Francisco reached out and twirled a strand of my brown hair around his finger. His eyes never leaving mine. “You’re mine, Fiore,” he repeated. “You’ve always been mine.”
Panic started to grip me. My ears heard him just fine, but my mind couldn’t register what he meant. “What does that mean, Benetti?” He dropped the strand and took a step back. But, even then, his presence still felt imposing. He was almost a foot taller than I was, and twice as wide. He could crush me if he had a mind to.
“It means that when I was twelve, Dad pull me aside and told me I could do what I wanted, but the end game was you and me. Married.”
All the air left my lungs.
He was lying.
He had to be lying.
I shook my head. “You’re lying,” I accused.
One black brow lifted. “When have I ever lied to you, Fiore?”
No.
I refused to believe it.
“No way,” I told him. “There’s no way…there’s no way our parents would arrange that without telling me.” Francisco didn’t comment. He just remained stony. “My parents…”
“It was arranged way before we were even born, Fiore,” he said. “We were always going to end up together.”
“No,” I replied, a little more forceful this time. “There’s no way my parents wouldn’t have told me. Oraskedme.”
“No?” he taunted.
And then, I remembered.
I remembered the night I took Trent Hendricks’ life.
I had always found it odd that my father hadn’t been the one to drive me over, or even Uncle Luca. I had been surprised when it had been Francisco who picked me up, but I figured it was just part of his growing process within the organization.
“That night…” I whispered, anguish at everyone’s betrayal clear in those two words.
His nod was sharp and confirming. “That’s the reason I was the one who drove you to the funhouse.”
Anger was making my vision foggy. “It’s the reason you were the one who…”
He smirked, and I wanted to claw the look off his face. “The reason I was the one who took care of you afterwards?” He posed it like a question, but that’s exactly what he had done. He had taken care of me, and in more ways than one.
This was the first time we’ve ever spoken about that night. It was the first time we’ve addressed what happened between us, and, suddenly, I was hurt enough to turn his help into an act of betrayal.
“Is that why you fucked me that night?” I lashed out. “You had your property naked, and so why not take what you’d been given when you were twelve?”
His lip curled, and he looked pissed. “I fucked you because you needed to be fucked,” he growled. “You had been out of your mind with violent emotions you couldn’t control or understand, Fiore. And since I didn’t have another body handy for you to destroy, I gave you another way to exercise those vicious emotions.” He stepped to me, and anger lined every curve of his stunning face. “And don’t act like you didn’t like it,” he snapped. “You came all over my dick even after you were bleeding all over it.” I wanted to rail at him, but he wasn’t lying. I had cum all over him, and more than once. “You let me fuck you like an animal because you trusted me to give you what you needed. Don’t downplay what happened between us.”
I was hurt.
I was angry.
I felt betrayed and insignificant.
I was enraged, and I was nowhere close to done.
“Really?” I sneered. “Well, then, if I’m yours and what we did that night was so damn special, where have you been since then, when other men have been fucking me?”
