“Get dressed,” I said, buttoning my jeans. “Breakfast is ready.”
“I need a shower.”
I shook my head. “Like I said, you’ll wear it all day.” I slapped her hip twice. “Let’s go. I’m suddenly ravenous.”
5
Lucia
I hated him.
Salvatore sat across from me with a huge grin on his face, chomping on a piece of sausage. I tore my bread into pieces and glared at him. He was gloating. Fucking gloating.
“I hate you.”
I hated myself more. How could I have done what he said? How in hell had I enjoyed it? He’d made me come three times. Three times! I’d felt… Fuck, what had I felt for him? The man had made me come, that was all. Any feelings were physical. Sexual.
“You liked me just fine a little while ago.” He bit into a piece of Nutella-smeared toast, a little of the chocolate paste sticking to the side of his mouth. He wiped it with his thumb then made a show of licking it off his finger.
Frustrated, I grabbed an apple out of the bowl of fruit and threw it at him. He caught it like a baseball and bit into it.
“Thanks.”
I fisted my hands at my sides at this infuriating man. Rainey came by with a pot of coffee.
“More, ma’am?”
“No,” I said, tacking on a “thank you,” as I folded my napkin. I forced myself to take a deep breath. “I’m done.”
She stepped away, nodding, and I made to rise.
“I’ll have more, Rainey,” Salvatore said.
I shoved my chair back, scraping the legs along the hardwood floor.
“Sit, Lucia,” Salvatore said as Rainey poured. She avoided looking at either of us.
“I’m done.” I set my napkin on my plate.
“I said sit.”
His tone made me meet his gaze. He wiped his mouth and pushed his plate back, all joking gone from his expression. For a moment, we battled in silence, me standing, willing my legs to move, the limbs refusing. Him watching me, intently waiting to see what I’d do.
Rainey, who had left with the coffeepot, returned, saw us, and disappeared back into the kitchen. You could slice the tension in the dining room.
Salvatore raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to sit. I thought about my options. I was in his house, in a town I did not know, miles from the next house, without a vehicle.
I sat, folded my arms across my chest, and jutted my chin out.
“Your sister does that.”
“What?”
He stuck his chin out to show me. “Stubborn. I guess it runs in the family.”
I adjusted my position, sitting up straighter, lowering my stupid chin. He was observant, I had to give him that. He must have seen it at my father’s funeral.
“She and I are very different people.”
He raised an eyebrow but apparently decided not to pursue it. He shifted his position, pushing his chair back and folding one leg over the other. He took up a lot of space. Too much.
“Let’s go over the rules of the house now that you’re finally here.”
I waited in silence. I’d hear him out first. Tell him to go fuck himself after.
That thought took me back to an hour earlier, to him standing over me, his big naked body, his thick cock in his hand pumping, pumping…
I shook my head, forcing the image away, and looked at the floor littered with the bread I’d torn up throughout breakfast. I’d made work for Rainey in my anger at Salvatore. I’d pick it up when we were done.
“First rule, you are not to leave the grounds without my permission, and you are never to go anywhere alone.”
I snorted. “As if.”
“As if what?”
He leaned forward, his expression questioning but also consequential, calling me on my bullshit because he and I both knew I couldn’t leave without A) having a car, and B) knowing the code to open the gate.
“I won’t be treated like a prisoner.” I almost added in my own home, but this wasn’t my home.
“It’s not a prison, Lucia. I want you to be safe. I have enemies, like your father did. They may think getting to me is best accomplished through you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
He sounded almost genuine. He sure looked it. But then again, he’d seemed different earlier too, before he’d used my body’s surrender against me.
“You’re free to wander the grounds. There are several acres of woods, so take care you don’t get lost. The house as well, only my study and my bedroom are off-limits. I’ll show you around once we’re done. If you need or want anything, all you have to do is ask. You’ll have a monthly allowance—”
“I don’t need your money.” I had my own. My family was not poor, even after the Benedetti’s destroyed us. I’d inherited everything but the house after my father died. Although without credit cards, with no way to access that money as long as I was locked away here, I was still at Salvatore’s mercy.