Page 14 of First Comes Blood

“You talk back. You disrespect your parents. You disrespect us most of all.” I let go of her hair, flex my hand and raise it. I’m going to enjoy this. Her tender ass is plump and bright in the darkness.

Chiara twists around and looks up at me. “What are youdoing?”

“Reminding you of your duty. Your loyalty is to your father for now, but soon it will be to us. When you become my wife, I’ll expect you to obey my orders without question.”

I land a hard spank on her ass. Chiara yelps, and my hand tingles. There’s a perfect red handprint on her ass, and her thighs are spread as she struggles to get away from me.

Beneath her, my cock thickens. The urge to keep going is strong. I want to make her a panting, crying mess and hear her swear to anything I ask for just to make it end. All I crave in this second is that heavenly sight.

But she’s not my wife.

Not my wifeyet.

I release her, and she slithers from my lap onto the ground at my feet. “That’s just a taste of what you deserve. By your eighteenth birthday, you better have learned what it means to take your place by our sides. Whichever one of us marries you, we all expect the same obedience.”

I stand up and straighten my tie, glancing toward the dining room. I wonder if anyone’s bothered to serve the main course.

Chiara sits at my feet, her chiffon gown pooling over my leather shoes. Her head’s down and her shoulders are shaking.

Pathetic. I barely touched her.

“We all have different ways of making you obey. You think I’ve humiliated you, but this is nothing to what the others are capable of. I sincerely hope you’ve learned your lesson tonight. Happy birthday, Chiara.”

5

Lorenzo

Chiara Romano sits in a crumpled heap, staring at Cassius as he strides back into the house. I’ve watched her from the shadows as she’s talked with and been defeated by each of the others in turn. Cassius seems to have destroyed her.

Get up. Don’t be broken, I urge her silently.

I haven’t had my fun yet.

Vinicius joins me in the shadows. “Cassius looks pleased with himself. I told her not to trust anyone, but she wouldn’t listen. Now look at her.”

We watch Chiara take a deep breath and get slowly to her feet.

“He went too easy on her,” I sneer. “She’s not even crying.”

“When was the last time you had a woman and she wasn’t crying or expecting to be paid?”

I bare my teeth at the darkness. “I don’t pay for pussy. Now fuck off. I want to wish Miss Romano a happy birthday.”

“She’s not your wife yet, remember that,” he says sharply, grasping my arm.

Don’t fuck the virgin, he means, because she’s not mine to ruin. I pull out of his grip. She’s mine for the next thirty minutes, and I can’t make any promises. Things might get out of hand.

I step out of the darkness and walk the perimeter of the swimming pool toward Chiara. She’s got her head down and she’s sniffling as she walks, and I can tell she’s halfway to bursting into tears.

Perfect. I’ll barely need to do a thing to have her sobbing.

Chiara stops short, and her gaze travels from my feet all the way up to my face. “Have you come to make a fool of me, too?” she whispers.

I regard her in silence. It won’t be useful to me to have the mayor in my pocket. I know that’s what the other three are looking forward to, but what I do doesn’t require contracts and permits, and I fix my own problems.

Chiara takes a shaky breath. “Whatever you do, whatever you say, I’m not going to fall for it. Your friends have shown me what cold bastards you all are, and you seem like the worst.”

There isn’t much I can do with a wife, either. She can’t smuggle things across borders for me once she bears the Scava name. I can’t make any money off her because everyone will be too scared to touch what’s mine.

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