Page 5 of Throne of Sin

Dante growls, “Fuck, Demi!” His hips swirl and he shoves himself impossibly deep inside of me as he releases himself. We’re both left panting into the crooks of each other’s necks.

Placing a soft kiss on my cheek, he slowly pulls out. I watch in fascination as a small drop of cum drips onto my car before he tucks himself back into his pants.

“Here’s two hundred bucks.” He slaps the money into my hand and I flinch like I’ve been slapped. My eyes are wide; my heart has no time to slow. I jump off the hood of the car, straightening my destroyed dress.

“Fuck you! I’m not taking your money, Dante.”

He gets right into my face. “The fuck you’re not. If your mother forces you to whore yourself out, it might as well be to me.” My stomach drops and I think I’m going to be sick. I didn’t fuck him for the money.

Anger washes over his hard features and he suddenly looks so much older than nineteen. “This is my life, Dante. None of us can avoid the road we’re set upon. You think Iwantedto do this tonight? To sell my body for money? It sickened me. I thought maybe out of everyone, maybe you would understand since you know me so well.”

He snorts his stupid response, refusing to say anything. It makes me even angrier.

“What the hell were you doing out here tonight, anyway?” I ask.

He digs into his front pocket and places a small gold bracelet into my palm. “Happy fucking birthday.” He turns on his heels, leaving me standing by my car with his cum dripping down my leg.

I hold up a beautiful, thin gold bracelet with a small key pendant. He remembered it was my birthday. The last time I got any type of gift, I think I was seven, and it was a stuffed animal from my mother. With blurry vision, I look at the bracelet once again. It’s the most beautiful gift I’ve ever seen. I clutch the delicate chain in my palm and hold it to my aching chest.

I refuse to make a sound when tears start to pour over my lashes and down my cheeks. I weep for the life I was never privileged enough to have, and for always wanting more. The hope of a better future seems like an ugly joke which continues to dangle in front of me, yet is always just out of my grasp.

Dante walks away with powerful strides, his sculpted back rippling beneath his t-shirt. I hold my breath, hoping for him to change his mind and come back to apologize. It's that hope I cling to, but when he lets me down, well, that squeezes my heart. He never once looks back.

I turn toward my rusted car, forced to step over a used needle to get to the driver’s door. In this world, I’m the only person who can make my life better. The fairytale of Dante is exactly that, a foolish dream I can’t afford to have.

I vow to myself that I'll graduate with honors and make a life I love that’s far from the drain of this side of the tracks. I’m done with suffocating in this town. I’m going to make something of myself, and hold my head up; proud of the life I’ll build for myself. When people remind me what I had to endure, I’ll look them in the eyes and tell them I survived then ask how their life is going in the same town with the same people, while I was lucky enough to have escaped.

I can’t get hurt if I refuse to give people that kind of power over me. I’m going to get out of this town one day, and I’m going to show everyone that there’s more to me than they all think.

Chapter 3

Dante

Present day

Iwalkintomystrip club and find two of the girls dancing on center stage in the middle of the room.

“Hey, boss man,” Sienna, my head bartender, greets me. She’s the only woman in this room I don’t own.

“I heard Savio is having a huge birthday bash for his wife. Think you can get me an invite?”

I lift a brow. “Why would you want to go?”

She wipes down the counter in front of her. “I’m all about who you know, not what you know. That party is going to be filled with contacts that could be useful in the future.”

I place my hands in my pockets. “Sure. I’ll place you down as my plus one.”

“Perfect!” She comes around the counter and places a kiss on my cheek. My body tenses at the contact. “So, there’s been some girl coming around here looking for a job.”

I take a seat on the stool and she moves back behind the bar to pour a glass of water for me. “She owe us a debt?” I ask, confused.

Anyone who knows my reputation stays far away from this place and me. The only women who come to me for work are insomekind of trouble, the kind of trouble that doesn’t accept a payment plan. When I hire them, I pay their debts on day one, no questions asked. In return, I own them, which means I protect them as long as they show up to work and stay out of trouble, until every cent is paid back. That’s how I’ve gotten all of my staff, except Sienna.

“Nope. Never heard of the girl. Her name isn’t in our ledger. I asked around, but she’s a nobody. Looks clean too.”

I take a sip of the water. “Then why the hell would she want to work here?” I know the rumors of this place. Everyone knows once you start here, you never leave. I will own you for life.

“I tried to talk her out of it,” she says with a shrug. “Twice. If the girl is stupid enough to come a third time, I think we should give her a shot.”

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