Page 53 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“Brats just need you to earn it, you know,” Nico said, his lips moving against my ear in a way that was deliciously distracting.

Exactly why I didn’t like brat taming. I didn’t want to earn a goddamned thing. I took what I wanted. But maybe?—

Fuck.That’s exactly what she needed.

I groaned, and Sofia looked over her shoulder, her question unspoken but hinted in her eyes.

Nico nudged me. “She’s using sex to avoid dealing with her shit.”

“I know,” I answered softly. When had I gone from wanting to degrade her for my own satisfaction to wanting to give this woman the fucking world if that’s what she needed?

I returned my attention to the beautiful, naked woman before me. “Keep going, kitten,” I directed her with a growl. “Time to remind you who owns you.”

Her throaty laugh went straight to my cock.

Nico pushed me between the shoulder blades, then shut my door behind me. Sofia stopped just inside and reared upon her knees. I straddled her calves, allowing her to lean her head back against my pelvis as she stared at the cage in the corner of the room.

“You were sure you’d find me,” she whispered.

I hadn’t been. I’d razed the entire fucking Costa territory looking for her, but she didn’t need to know how much her disappearance had broken me. Not now. Now, she needed my strength, the inevitability of my dominance, so she could set her cares down for a short while and let someone else be the fuck in charge.

I stepped over her legs to crouch beside her. “Do you need the cage, kitten?”

Sofia shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “I want—I need?—”

Did she even have the vocabulary to articulate what she wanted? Had she ever?

I tangled my fingers in her hair and clenched hard enough to hurt.

“Yes, I need that,” she said, gasping, her nipples hard and begging for my mouth as she arched her back.

“Pet,” I rumbled, pleased she’d answered me, but especially pleased she was willing to keep playing my games. “I’m not going to punish you tonight, but I promise, when I do, you are going to regret running off.”

“You mean, I’m going to regret taking a walk that you gave me permission to take, with a bodyguard, when I should have had the freedom to do whatever the fuck I wanted anyway? I’m not here for your bullshit, Dante.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree.”

Sofia laughed softly. I liked this spitfire version of her, with no fucks left to give. My mind wandered once again to her by my side, running my empire.

“Get in the cage, slut,” I ordered, releasing her hair andpushing her forward. “While I wash the blood of your enemies off of me.”

She crawled to the cage, adding an extra sway to her hips, tempting me to ignore the jealousy that kept me from painting her with other men’s blood, then curled up on her side.

When I returned ten minutes later, my beautiful slut was fast asleep. I wrenched my eyes away from her sleeping form. Two hours later, when I shook her awake and she confessed with wide eyes that she hadn’t had a nightmare while sleeping in the cage, I forced down the warmth that spread through my chest. She might deserve the world, but I’d come to America with a purpose, to destroy Sergio Accardi.

Even if we both wanted the same thing, my affection for her distracted me from eliminating him, and I couldn’t afford to give in to that.

No matter how much I might want to.

Tommaso and Declanstood a respectful distance away from Sofia as she spoke quietly with Ana Costa. Nick and I had arranged for the house to be empty this evening, but alas, we’d captured some soldiers in another raid, and when Sofia texted the group chat wanting in on the interrogation, Lorenzo agreed before I could say no.

So I picked her up from class to take her along for the ride tonight, expecting her to change her mind as soon as the first spray of blood hit her elegant shoes.

When Sofia wrapped her elegant fingers around my hand and brought it to sit on her thigh as we drove, I let myself enjoy the comfort of her touch, her trust, beforegently removing my hand from hers. No matter how good the sex was, how delightfully she came on my face, how much anger coursed through me at the thought of her walking out of my life, she was a tool with a purpose, and that purpose was luring Sergio Accardi into my clutches. And maybe, if I kept telling myself that, I’d start to believe it.

She’d never let me see the hurt from my rejection. From calling her a slut, from humiliating her, yes, but from the deeper pain? Never. The woman had a spine of fucking steel.

I knocked on the door where Lorenzo and José held the first captive. “We found a dozen girls in the second warehouse, all sedated, covered in filth. This was one of three men that survived the raid.” I pinched Sofia’s chin between my thumb and my forefinger, dragging her eyes to mine. “I know you care about the trafficking, but getting information on Sergio is more important.”

---