Page 40 of Velvet Cruelty

Doc clicks his fingers. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”

“Why would I sleep with any of you? You’re holding me hostage.”

Doc’s eyes narrow. “Do you want nice baby Bobby to get in first?”

“No, I said I don’t want any of you.”

He swaggers closer to the bed, lip curled in a sneer. “If Basher’s the one you want, that’s okay with me. I’m happy to play second string. In fact, I prefer it.”

My brain melts a little. He can’t be telling the truth. Guys don’t like it when you’ve slept with anyone, even I know that.

“Or maybe it’s not Bobby,” Doc says slowly. “Maybe you want it to be Adri?”

I pull my knees into my chest. “Go away.”

“I heard your confession, remember?” He clasps his hands to his chest. “I should be kinder to the man who cleans my dance studios. I should say hello to him even though I’m so scared.”

He gives a loud echoing laugh. “Did you imagine him following you down some dark hallway and making you sit on his big, tattooed cock?”

I want to grab Doc by his pretty blond hair and scream in his face. But if I touch him, he’ll be free to touch me, and then I really might lose my virginity in this basement. I think of Zia Teresa. She saved me from Eli. How would she deal with Doc? The answer is obvious. But I don’t have a spatula to hit him with.

“Hello? Earth to virgin?”

I meet Doc’s eyes and channel every ounce of my inner, disapproving Zia. “Domenico, if I have to be trapped in here, could you maybe, maybe, not be so gross?”

He snorts. “You didn’t answer my question, January. You wanna get fucked by a tattooed murderer?”

“Do you mean Adriano? Or you?”

He smirks. “That’s pretty good, Tesorina. Live and you might develop a personality after all. But enough fucking around. You want to die?”

“Excuse me?”

He drops onto the end of the bed, making the thin mattress bounce. A swatch of his thick hair falls into his eyes. It’s not fair that someone so insane should be so good-looking. Eli is gorgeous but he’s also elegant and can pretend to be nice. Everything about Doc says he’d kill you for dropping a coffee cup.

“Have you realized you’re never gonna see your family again?”

All the air rushes out of my lungs. I’ve avoided thinking about what might happen to me because I thought it meant dying. But Doc’s right. Even if I can leave the basement, why would they let me go home and risk telling everyone who abducted me?

A warmth falls on my hand and Doc pushes his fingers through mine. I should pull away, but the feel of another person’s touch is too nice to refuse.

“You need to let this all sink in,” he says roughly. “But once it does and you’re ready to leave the basement, I think you should come dance in my clubs.”

“I… what clubs?”

He raises his blond brows.

“Strip clubs?” I ask, my heart sinking.

“Yeah. Good money. Safe as fuck.”

I imagine Doc surrounded by beautiful naked women and prickly feelings mix into my panic. I bet he sleeps with the dancers. I bet he flirts with them all psychotically. I bet they like it.

“I’ll put you in white lingerie just like your wedding shit. Get you some angel wings and tell the clients you’re a virgin. They’ll go fucking crazy.”

I listen with the same disbelief as when Anita told me I could model. I can’t be a stripper. I’ve never worn a miniskirt before. And will I even be a virgin by the time I leave this cage?

Doc reads my mind. “I don’t know if I should fuck you or not. The smart thing would be to keep you pure. Let you work the pole, then auction you off. That way we’d pay for your kidnapping four times over.”

---