by Ella Miles
“Bragging rights.”
He narrows his eyes. “And how we will know if the other is telling the truth?”
“We will know.” I have no doubt we will be able to tell.
“Okay, I’ll go first. What is your favorite place in the world?”
“My house.” He answers quickly. My first questions are meant to be light and easy so he will play along, but I didn’t expect this answer.
“Seriously? You like your cabin? You’re not talking about a bigger house you own somewhere else?”
“That seems like a second question.”
I glare at him as his lips curl up. He’s teasing me. I like it. I’m not used to this playful side of him.
“I’m talking about my only home. The house we share.”
Share, that’s a strange word to use when we don’t share it. It’s his; I’m just a captive there.
“Your turn.”
“Why did you fall for a man like Roman?”
My mouth falls and my fingers, that were drumming along still to Demi Lovato in my head, still. I stare at him, and he stares back with the same intensity. He’s not playing games with me. He won’t ask any lighthearted questions. Only serious ones.
“Because I was desperate to be loved. I wanted an escape from the Carini family, and I couldn’t do it on my own. Or at the time at least, I thought I couldn’t. Roman paid attention to me. He offered me a chance at freedom, and I was stupid enough to think freedom was love.”
Caspian stills for a second before he nods. “Your turn,” he says as if I didn’t just bare my heart to him.
“Why don’t you buy expensive things? You make good money. Why don’t you have a mansion?”
He raises an eyebrow as if he can’t believe how easy my questions are, but this one I really want to know the answer to. “Because things mean nothing to me. I don’t need a large house to relax at night.”
“Then what do you spend your money on?”
He chuckles. “You don’t know how to keep to your own rules, do you? That’s a second question again. But if you must know, I spend it on Adela. I pay my employees more than fair to make sure they are loyal to me alone. And I use it to get my revenge.”
I swallow hard at the word revenge. I know he needs revenge the same as me. I don’t know what happened to him, but I won’t be asking him any questions about revenge today.
“Your turn.”
“What do you want in life? What’s your passion?”
“Jesus, you don’t ask easy questions do you?”
He shrugs. “This is the easiest question I will ask. It should be easy for anyone who knows themselves at all.”
I frown. “I don’t know myself. That’s my problem. I don’t have a passion because I’ve never been allowed to be anything but a Carini.”
“Do you like being a Carini?”
I smile smugly. “Now who isn’t playing by the rules?”
He doesn’t smile. He stares at me seriously waiting for me to answer. I guess it’s only fair.
“Yes. I love being a Carini. There was once a time I hated it, but I think being a Carini made me stronger. It made me strong enough to survive these last few weeks. Without it, I would have dissolved into nothing.”
He nods.
“My turn. Tell me about your first kiss.”
He chuckles. “You know how to ask the tough questions,” he says sarcastically.
I laugh and grab his hand. He lets me. This is normal. “First kiss was in the third grade on the playground with Luisa Pellegrini.”
I smile, loving his normal answer. But my smile falters as I see the look in his eyes. He’s about to ask me a question I won’t want to answer. He’s about to end the game. I can see it.
And then he smiles deviously. “Tell me who your favorite sexual partner was.”
I laugh, blushing brightly, hating him for making me answer his question he already knows the answer to.
“This smug ass who doesn’t deserve me, but managed to find all the buttons to my body within seconds because he secretly crept on me for weeks.”
“Hmm, he sounds pretty incredible. What’s his name?”
“You, you fucktard.”
His grin reaches his eyes. “Fucktard? That’s a new one.”
I try to pull my hand out of his, but he tightens his grip before kissing the back of my hand.
We continue on, asking silly questions back and forth, just trying to make each other laugh until we reach Rome.
Caspian gets us settled into our hotel room. The room is huge. He may not spend his money often, but he did tonight. I expect him to start talking to me about all the security he has installed before he leaves. I expect him to talk to me about the guards I’m sure he will have placed outside our door. Or the tracker he secretly placed inside my clothes when I was sleeping.
He doesn’t.
Instead, he kisses me on the lips and says, “Come with me to my meeting.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Why?”
He shrugs. “I want you by my side.”
There is more he isn’t telling me. But I won’t get my answers unless I go. “Okay, I’ll go with you. What should I wear?”
“Something that makes you feel powerful and strong.”
His words have me worried I’m going to need all my strength to get through the meeting tonight.
But I do as he says. I change into a scarlet dress with plunging cleavage, while Caspian changes into a tuxedo.
His eyes never leave me as we dress, and mine never leave his. We both give promises of what we are going to do to each other when we return to the hotel room. But we keep our distance, or we will never leave the room in the first place. And as much as I want to stay in and let Caspian fuck me, I also want to leave. I want to enjoy a night with Caspian that isn’t about sex, especially after our fun game in the car. I want a light, care-free night where I get more insight into his work.
“Ready, princess?” Caspian asks, holding out his arm to me as I finish applying red lipstick.
“As ready as I’ll be when I don’t know what we are doing or where we are going.”
He stills, and I know he is considering telling me more, but then he changes his mind.
I grab his arm. “I promise it will be a pleasant surprise.”
This has me even more intrigued, but I don’t ask. I will find out soon enough.
Caspian leads me out of our hotel room, and to my surprise, no guards are sitting outside waiting for us to leave. We head down only one floor to where the hotel restaurant sits below our penthouse.
“Mr. Conti, your guest has already arrived. I’ll show you to your table,” the maître d’ says.
Caspian leads me through the beautiful restaurant. At least I’ll have a nice dinner in a gorgeous place.
Caspian leans down and whispers in my ear as we walk. “You want your freedom. After last night, I think I can give you a tiny piece of freedom. Revenge is freedom.”
I don’t understand what his words mean until we approach the table, arm in arm looking like the king and queen. I recognize the man at the table, and I realize immediately what Caspian is offering when he says I can get revenge.
Because sitting at the table is one of the men I hate most in the world.
Roman.
“Roman,” I say, letting his name hang in the air.
Roman looks up at me. He recognized my voice, but he doesn’t recognize the woman standing in front of him. I’ve been tortured, beaten, and raped. I should be weaker, but Caspian showed me how strong I am. And tonight, Roman is going to understand as well.
Caspian pulls out a chair, and I take a seat. Caspian takes his own seat.
“Gia, what a wonderful surprise to see you,” Roman says, looking from me to Caspian. There is no fear in Roman’s eyes, but there should be.
“I didn’t realize you owned any women, Caspian,” Roman says, using Caspian’s first name instead of his last, like I’ve heard all of Caspian’
s other business associates address him.
“I don’t,” Caspian answers.
Caspian’s answer shocks the hell out of me, but I don’t let Roman know. If Caspian doesn’t own me, then what the hell are we doing?
Roman chuckles. “Whatever you say. I’m glad you brought us some eye candy while we discuss our deal.”
“I’m not eye candy,” I say, glaring at Roman, trying to figure out how I’m going to kill him. Right now, cutting out his tongue so he can’t speak to me like that is my first step.
“Really? Because that is what you look like to me,” Roman says.
I don’t wait for Caspian to give me any permission to start a fight with Roman. I can’t wait.
I slam my heel into Roman’s groin.
He cries out, like I just stabbed him, and grips his balls in pain.
I smirk. It feels good to cause him some pain. My eyes see Caspian out of the corner of my eye, looking at Roman like he’s scum. I guess we won’t be doing much eating after all.
Caspian gets up and grabs Roman’s arm while he’s still writhing in pain. He pulls him toward a back room while I follow. I’m not going to miss a second of Roman’s pain.
When we get to the back room, Caspian slams the door shut behind us as he tosses Roman to the floor.
Roman takes his time getting up, still not realizing what danger he’s in. It will make it all the better when I kill him.
“Our deal is off. I won’t pay you anything to protect me when you let your whore disrespect me like that,” Roman says.
“Gia didn’t disrespect you,” Caspian says, his eyes red.
I stomp toward Roman, knowing he could strangle me, snap my neck, or pull a gun on me before I realized what was happening, but I need to be close to him to say what I need to say.
“I am not a whore,” I say, kicking Roman again.
He cries out but doesn’t fight back. Why doesn’t he fight back?
I glance behind me and see Caspian has a gun pointed at Roman. I smirk. This is where Caspian and I understand each other the most. In the darkness.
“I am not yours. I never was. You didn’t own me. You didn’t have the ability to sell me.”
I kick him again and again after each sentence, needing to get my frustration and anger out on him. He lets me and takes each punch and kick with a grunt or a groan. I watch as the blood slowly pours down his face.
“You are a fucking coward. A weak, shithole that didn’t have the balls to hurt me yourself. So you sold me. You sold me and pretended it was just a business transaction. That it didn’t bother you what happened to me next.
“Well, guess what? I was raped. I was beaten until I couldn’t move. I was violated until sex became torture. My life was threatened every day because of you.”
He cowers on the floor beneath me, curling up into himself.
“You are nothing to me. Fucking nothing!”
I take a deep breath, trying to get oxygen in my body as I keep yelling.
“You think you won. You got your money. You sold me, and I was no longer your problem. I told you I would come after you. I said you would pay for what you did. Today is that day.
“You think I’m weaker because of what you did, but I’m stronger. I’m your fucking nightmare.”
I kick him again, watching the blood spill from his eyes where my heel clipped him.
My body shakes with anger. I thought I wanted to torture Roman, make him suffer for hours or days, but he isn’t worth my time. I want him gone.
Caspian steps forward when I’ve finished all I need to say.
I think Caspian is going to shoot Roman. Eliminate him. Wipe him from my nightmares with one bullet.
Instead, Caspian thrusts the cold metal into my hand. I stare at the gun for a second. I don’t know if Caspian realizes how dark I am. The things that I have done in my past. He calls me princess, but I’m not a princess. I’m just as evil and twisted as him.
Roman won’t be my first kill. Not by a long shot. But I will remember this kill forever.
Caspian steps back, knowing I don’t need him by my side to do what has to be done. Roman needs to be killed, if for no other reason than to protect other women from the same fate.
But that’s not why I’m killing him though. I kill him for me.
“Goodbye, Roman.”
I pull the trigger and watch the blood spill. The light in his eyes leaves, and then he’s nothing.
I watch him a second longer before I walk back to Caspian and hold out the gun to him.
“Keep it,” he says.
I don’t question him. I put the gun in the back of my dress and underwear. And then I kiss Caspian with everything I have. I’ve never needed a kiss so much in my life. This kiss is everything I’ve ever needed. I need it more than air.
My stomach grumbles, and Caspian pulls away. “I should feed you.”
I smirk. “No, you should fuck me.”
15
Caspian
Gia Carini is a badass.
That’s all I can think about as I carry the sexiest woman I’ve ever met back to our hotel room. Her heels are digging into my side. Heels that she used to kick that son of a bitch in the balls.
It was amazing to watch. I always knew she was strong and fucking incredible. But I never realized just how fucking badass until now. I know Gia’s brothers didn’t let her get too involved in the business side of things. They wanted to protect her and for good reason. So I doubted she would kill Roman when I handed her my gun.
I knew she was angry. I knew she needed revenge, but I thought if she found the strength to pull the trigger, she’d miss and I’d have to finish the bastard.
She aimed right for his heart and killed him without a second thought. She’s more like me than I could have ever imagined.
She was just dark and dangerous, but earlier in the car she was the sweetest, funniest woman. And that makes her even sexier. One moment she could live out my fantasies, and the next she could kill me. Especially since I let her keep the gun.
She won’t use the gun to kill me. I know her well enough to know that. Her feelings for me are too strong. She’s not pissed at me like the others, even though I’m just as much of the reason she is in this mess as Roman or Dante is. I’ve hurt her the same. So if she does decide to use the gun against me, I deserve it.
But she needs the gun for her protection. Now that I know she is capable of proficiently using a gun, I trust her with it. She could kill an intruder as easily as I could. And it will make her feel better protected now that she is starting to make enemies.
I’ve planted the story that Roman stole her back. He was the one that stole her from Dante. Dante will be looking for her with a greater intensity now. And I’ll be the one to find her. She will want to help me.
I can’t focus on Dante now. Now I have the sexiest, most incredible, amazing, awesome, badass woman in the world. And I plan on making good use of her wanting me while I have the chance.
We burst through the door of the hotel room I sprung for. I never buy anything this expensive, not anymore. I only told a half-truth when I told Gia why I don’t have anything nice or expensive. I don’t find much use in more expensive things, it’s true, but I also don’t feel worthy.
I got this hotel room for Gia. She’s worthy of a penthouse. She’s worthy of a lot more.
Her hands claw at my neck, desperate to put the adrenaline and high she is feeling to use. And she wants to use me.
“Slow down, princess,” I say as she kisses my neck and starts undoing my tie.
“Why?” she purrs.
“Because I want to savor you.”
“You can as long as it’s dark and dirty, as fucking messed up as it was last night.”
Last night was incredible. The best night of my life by far when it should have been my worst. I’ve never gone that far with a woman before. No woman has ever been able or willing to take on the sadistic side of me. The controlling asshole that lives in
the dark.
But she craved it, same as me. And now she wants more.
“Be careful what you wish for, beautiful.”
She grins. “I want everything. All of your darkness. I want to feel it all.”
Her words are what I’ve wanted to hear all this time. I’ve needed to hear them for so long, but no woman has ever measured to her. Now the woman of my fantasies finally exists. She’s real.
She rips my tie off. “I want to know all the darkest parts of your soul.”
I smile. “You already do.”
She cocks her head to the side and whispers in my ear. “You haven’t found my darkest places yet. So find them.”
Damn, my cock is hard.
I’m the one who is going to need to fucking slow down. I’m still holding her in my arms, and we both grow wild at the same time. She rips off my tie, and I kiss down her neck, hungrily until I reach her cleavage, which is far too exposed in this dress for going in public. I want her to myself. I don’t want to share, even a glimpse of her.
My tie is off, my shirt is unbuttoned, and my cock strains against my zipper about to burst through my pants. I remove the gun from the back of her dress, toss it to the nightstand, and let our bodies fall to the bed. I don’t have any of the dark toys I had before to play with her, but that doesn’t mean this session is going to be light. I don’t know how to go back into the light with her.
Her nails dig into my chest, and I know that she is still in the dark with me. If I don’t tie her up, she’s going to be just as rough with me as I am with her. I welcome it.
Last time, I needed control. This time, I need her with me.
I grab her dress and rip it down the middle, the sparkly sequins scattering to the bed as I rip.
She glares at me. “I loved this dress. Why did you ruin it?”
“Because you can’t wear it in public anymore now. I can’t stand to see other guys looking at you in it.”
She blushes. I think she’s going to scold me. “Are you jealous, Caspian?”
“No, jealous would imply you look at other men in a room. You don’t. I’m infuriated with any man that looks at what’s mine.”
