Page 33 of Keeping My Captive

She pulls away from me, but I catch her before she can run back to her corner to hide. “I’m going to show you, Aria.” I put my hand around her waist, dragging her out of the room. “I’m going to show you how to replace your pain with pleasure.”

CHAPTER22

Aria

ICAN BARELY breathe. Sucking a full breath into my lungs is too daunting of a task at the moment while my senses and my mind play tricks on me. I’m barely aware that Mateo is leading me somewhere. My feet are moving of their own accord. I’m too caught up in my own head to even focus on my surroundings. The thunderous music is doing a number on me, taking me back to that fateful night when Constantine Carbone and his men took me, changing my life forever.

I’m numb as to what’s going on around me until I hear Mateo’s deep voice tell me, “Look down.”

My breath catches in my throat as I glance down through the glass floor, a sea of people twenty feet below us, dancing and moving with the music. My head snaps up, and I realize the entire room we’re in is made of glass, a three-hundred-sixty view of the club with floor-to-ceiling concave glass windows.

I go to step back, but Mateo pins my front against the railing. His large hands envelop mine and place them on the cold, metal bars on either side of me. “Don’t let go,” he tells me. “There will be consequences if you let go, Aria,” he warns. “Do you understand?”

I give him a shaky nod, my grip tightening on the railing.

He disappears behind me, and I struggle to pull air into my lungs. My panic attack had come on so quickly that I barely had time to register what was happening until I was already locked in the bathroom and huddled in the corner. Mateo’s henchman banging on the door didn’t help matters, only making my anxiety-riddled mind think that Constantine really was coming for me.

My breathing begins to pick up again when I think about it, but then I hear Mateotskingbehind me.

“No thinking,cariño. Just allow yourself to feel. Focus only on that,” he commands as his hands possessively grasp my hips.

I slowly nod and lick my lips, forcing myself to do what he told me.Focus on feeling.

“Close your eyes,” he says, and I do.

His hands slowly move from my hips down to my knees. And then I feel him wrap his hands around my trembling thighs. His calloused fingers trail up under the hem of my dress, lifting it ever so slowly until I’m completely exposed to him.

I gasp when Mateo grips my thong in between his fingers. He pulls the material taut, and my hands squeeze the metal bars as the rough fabric grazes against my clit. I shudder at the feeling, my legs trembling in nervous anticipation. I know I should tell him to stop; but for some reason, I can’t. My mouth opens, but no words come out.

Mateo maneuvers the cloth, allowing it to gently saw between my lips, teasing my aching little nub until it’s driving me insane with want and need. My hands ache as I grip the railing harder, desperately trying not to cry out.

“I can smell your arousal, Aria,” Mateo rasps.

A surge of heat rushes to my core, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from moaning. Oh god, this is wrong. So wrong. And I feel like I’m being torn in two. The rational part of my brain is telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this. But then there’s another part of me that wants him to keep going, to drive me over the edge and never look back.

“Do you want more, my little captive?” he asks, his voice deep and raw.

I want to scream out yes, but I resist the urge and stay quiet. If I don’t answer him, I can pretend that I’m not a willing participant; that I don’t actually want this…even if my body is silently begging for it.

Mateo releases my thong, and I almost cry out in frustration. But then I feel him grip the strings and pull the thong down my legs until they fall to the floor around my ankles, a rush of cold air running over my now bare skin.

He lifts my feet, one at a time, until I step out of my panties. And then I hear a deep hum of approval. “Fuck, you’re so wet for me. Such a good girl,” he praises me.

And, oh god, why do those words coming from his filthy mouth turn me on so much?

He runs his fingertip from my clit up to my ass, and it takes everything in me to stay quiet. I don’t want him to know how much I want this.Idon’t even want to know. I shake my head, trying to convince myself to tell him to stop, to not let this happen. But for some reason, I want it to happen. I want him to touch me. I want him to make me come.

Mateo takes a step back, and I think for a moment that he’s done with me. Maybe this was his plan all along — to tease me just enough to distract me from my panic attack. But when I open my eyes and glance over my shoulder, I see Mateo dropping to his knees behind me. And I realize he’s not done with me.He’s just getting started.

Seeing him on his knees does something to me. I’m sure Mateo has brought many men to their knees in war, but I’m sure no one has ever brought him to his own.

But I just did.

And the very thought makes me feel powerful.

His fingers gently part my lips before his tongue touches my clit. The very first lick has my knees threatening to buckle. Oh god, it feels good.Why does it feel so good?

I don’t even get to think about that before Mateo presses his face against my center and begins feasting on me, his tongue lashing my clit with ravenous strokes, causing me to cry out. My clit throbs against his tongue while I desperately cling to the metal bars in front of me.

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