Page 44 of Sins of the Son

Cesare took me by surprise by grabbing one of my ankles and yanking. He stretched my legs over his lap. My hips slid along the slippery surface of the leather cushion so I was now in a prone position, half lying down. He flipped my now hopelessly wrinkled dress up and placed the warm cloth between my legs.

Embarrassed, I sucked in a breath and held it as I stared up at the ceiling.

“Milana, look at me.”

“No, thank you.”

“Baby, that wasn’t a request.”

I lowered my gaze to his. As he tenderly wiped away the evidence of my arousal, he said, “I didn’t break my promise.”

My eyes narrowed. “You said no sex. If I stayed for one week, you said you wouldn’t force me to have sex. You broke your word.”

Cesare tossed the cloth aside and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck. He pulled me up until my mouth was barely a breath away from his. “I never promised no sex. I promised not to fuck you. I promised not to sink my cock so hard and so deep inside your pussy you forget to breathe. I promised to torture myself with fantasies of what it will feel like to bend you over, spread your ass cheeks and take your other virginity. I promised to wait to fill your belly with my seed until it swells with my child. But I never promised no sex.”

Good God.

The ferocity and passion with which he uttered those words was both terrifying and annoyingly arousing. There was something undeniably intriguing about commanding the intense attention of a powerful man like Cesare Cavalieri. Intriguing and dangerous.

Wait, did he say he wanted to get me pregnant?

I broke free of his grasp and shimmied away until I was able to stand up. I had to hold on to the sofa back, because my knees were too unsteady to trust they wouldn’t buckle. “I’m not having your baby, Cesare. Ever.”

Getting pregnant with a Cavalieri baby would be the end of everything. He would forever have power over me. There would be no escaping him. Through my child, he would be able to control my entire life, my every movement—where I lived, who I married, where I worked. It would be a nightmare.

Cesare stood. It was clear from the tension in his shoulders and the small tic above his cheekbone I had made him angry again.

I held my breath as he stepped close. He stopped when he had almost passed me. We were shoulder to shoulder when he leaned in close and whispered, “How do you know you’re not already carrying my child?”

My hand went to my abdomen.

He strolled back to his desk. He picked up his phone and pressed a few buttons. “Cancel the rest of my appointments today and reschedule that meeting I left… early.”

He then picked up his belt, swiped the cloth down it to remove the humiliating marks of my arousal, and buckled it after threading it through his belt loops. As he shrugged back into his suit jacket, he said, “I’m going to get the car. Wait a few minutes and take the back stairs down and meet me outside.”

I thought about arguing, but what was the point? It wasn’t like I was going to go back to my desk and face the embarrassment of everyone around me knowing the boss had just fucked me in his office. Not really, but they didn’t know that. Take the back stairs, like a whore slinking out.

“My purse is at my desk.”

“Leave it. There’s nothing in it you need.”

Nothing I needed. Just my phone, I.D., money. Of course, nothing he’d think I’d need. I swiped at the tear on my cheek. Dejected, I sat on the sofa arm and stared down at my clasped hands.

It was over. My dream of Rome, of a career, of showing this village I was not like my mother.

Sins of the mother are doomed to be repeated by the daughter.

Hadn’t my grandmother spewed that venom at me countless times when I was a little girl? I looked down, way down to hell, where that woman surely was rotting.

Well, Nonna, you got your wish.

Appearing to not notice my silence, Cesare continued. “It will still be here tomorrow when we come into the office.”

I shook my head. “I’m not coming back.”

He grabbed his car keys and crossed to me. He stroked my cheek. “We’ll take the afternoon off and return tomorrow. You can finish the permits for the Tuscany property then. I’ll clear it with the boss,” he said with a wink.

“Do you honestly not get it?”

---