Page 60 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

“What do I want to know,sir,” he corrected.

“What do you want to know, sir?”

“What’s he like as a man?”

I tried to pull away, but Dante wrapped his fingers in my hair and held me tightly, narrowing his sprawl until his thighs brushed against my arms as I knelt between them.

“Slut, I asked you a question.”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “He’s the type of man who’d knock up a woman so her family would force her to marry him. And the type of man to force a woman to marry him so he can control her assets.”

Assets I didn’t know about until Dante shared what he knew. Pain slid through me, dark and insidious, at the reminder of my father’s betrayal. We hadn’t had a reckoning for that yet, but we would.

“The type of man to beat his girlfriend?”

I scoffed. “Yes.”

“Did he beat you?”

I shivered at the danger in Dante’s voice.

“Yes.”

“You have shit taste in men, kitten,” he said, skimming his fingers over my cheekbones, his voice once again gentle, making me wonder if I’d imagined the violence a moment before.

“Present company included,” I shot back, desperate to regain my equilibrium and sense of self in front of this man who overwhelmed my senses.

He hummed. “Open your mouth.”

When he placed his thumb on my tongue instead of a chocolate, I froze. I should’ve known better than to think I could wrest control of the conversation from him.

I hated how much I wanted to close my lips around him and suck, to make him lose control like he did to me. But instead, I waited patiently, resting on my haunches, my eyes closed, with his thumb on my tongue.

“Suck,” he ordered. Freed from the need to pretend I didn’t want to, I did exactly as he commanded, running my tongue over the rough pad of his skin and then sucking with hard rhythmic pulls, as if it were the tip of his cock between my lips instead of his thumb.

“Good kitty,” he rasped, tightening his grip on my cheek with his other fingers, and I flushed with pride.

Fuck.

I stopped, angry with myself, confused.

A breath of air escaped Dante in a huff as he laughed. I didn’t have to wait long for the humiliation I knew would follow my refusal to play his game. He tangled his other hand in my hair and lifted me to my feet, bringing tears to my eyes.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he snapped, using his thumb to push me backward step by stumbling step, our bodies out of sync and our movements awkward until cool glass pressed against my back.

“Turn around, slut, and don’t open your eyes,” he said, whisper-soft. The curtains to his hotel suite must have been wide open, revealing the floor-to-ceiling windows looking over the city.

I shuddered. “Dante, the whole city can see inside this suite.”

“Sir, the whole city can see,” he corrected me before smacking me hard on my ass.

“Sir, the whole city can see me,” I breathed.

“That’s right,” he agreed amicably. “And the whole city is going to see me turn that gorgeous ass of yours bright red in a moment for using my name instead of calling me sir.”

As my breathing sped up and my heart raced, I told myself we were too far up for anyone to see my face.

“Sofia,” Dante said, his voice silky and dark. “Put your hands on the windows.”

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