She turned her head into his neck, breathing harshly. Hating and enjoying the tender motion, Mia closed her eyes when he kissed her forehead before withdrawing from her. As he stood up, she curled onto her side and fumbled for a blanket to cover her nudity. In the aftermath, recriminations set in again, and she was sickened by her actions.
“Don’t stay up all night hating yourself.” He gave her a cocky grin as he slipped on his clothes. “I know you’ll have to do your tortured victim routine in your head before sleeping, but you should give it a rest.” Coming over to her, he sat down on the bed and took her hand, holding firmly when she tried to pull away. “If it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself you have no choice.”
“I don’t.” She glared at him.
Shane winked at her. “Nope. You’re my prisoner, and I’ll do every kinky damned thing I want to you.” Bending down, he grazed his mouth across her jaw line before he sat up again. “That’s not the worst of it though.”
Mia tugged her hand free as he stood up, refusing to respond.
“We both know the worst part for you is that you enjoy what I’m doing to you, even though you hate feeling pleasure in my touch.” All teasing had fled his expression and tone. “You want me as much as I want you, and you’re going to have to admit that to yourself soon.”
She tossed her pillow at him, annoyed when he deflected it easily. “I’m not the one with the self-professed obsession, O’Mara.”
He shrugged. “Not yet, not that you’ll admit, but I’ll bet I rarely leave your thoughts for more than a few minutes.”
She barely resisted the urge to snarl like an animal. “It’s normal to be preoccupied with the criminal who kidnapped you.”
His rich laugh filled the room. “Okay, Mia. Enjoy your time in denial.” Without another word, he left the suite.
She sat up long enough to shoot a rude gesture toward the closed door. With determination to spite Shane—and because she was absolutely exhausted from the previous nights’ lack of sleep and physical exertion—she flicked off the lamp and put her head on the pillow. Mia refused to think about anything and drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes.
Chapter Six
Shane paused in the middle of shuffling papers when an edge caught a cut on his finger. He looked down at his hand, tracing his thumb over the two long gashes across his index finger before touching the shorter one on his middle finger. The glass had cut him last night more than once, but he had persisted with the lesson. He had willingly endured the pain in order to get through to her.
Did she finally understand? He questioned the wisdom of betraying his own vulnerability to her, but she couldn’t persist with fighting him. Having longed for her for so long, having stooped to scheming and machinations, followed by kidnapping when she had failed to show up at her father’s house as Vadim had promised she would, he wanted something deeper than an adversarial relationship.
Not that he minded some of her resistance. Shane chuckled as he remembered the way her eyes burned with internal fire, and the stubborn tilt of her chin when she decided to fight him. It also made her a wildcat in bed.
He couldn’t deny part of him enjoyed taming her too, and Shane suspected a part of her thrived on being subdued. It wasn’t a classical domination/submission relationship, but they were definitely engaged in a power struggle.
His groin tightened when he remembered the way she had lain absolutely still under his hand last night, fearing the glass enough to stop resisting. That was what he really wanted. Mia had him tied in knots, and he wanted her to be a willing bedmate, to explore each other with abandon, rather than her invariable resistance. He didn’t want her cowed with fear either.
He’d take her however he could get her though. He was pragmatic enough to admit that to himself, and that self-honesty had allowed him to put in motion the steps needed to make her his, whether she wanted to be or not.
If only she hadn’t been Vadim Kasilli’s daughter, things would have been much simpler. It had taken a five-minute conversation with Arvin Lovelle to discover her lineage and learn she loathed all things related to the russkaya mafiya.
It was unlikely she would feel different about those with Irish roots, and he’d vowed he would forget the little brunette who had sparked such an insistent hard-on that he’d had to jerk off in the bathroom like a callow teenager between courses. And he’d still been raring to go after the dinner had concluded, frantically taking the blonde who had been his date in the alley behind the restaurant as they waited for the driver to maneuver the car through the packed parking lot.
Yet he’d found himself returning within two weeks, a different blonde in tow. That one had ended up sucking him off in the car as he moaned Mia’s name while coming in her throat. Understandably, she hadn’t been amenable to gracing his bed after that. It hadn’t mattered, because he had soon lost interest in all women except Mia.
When had he started following her? Not just having her spied on discreetly, with occasional security reports. No, he had started personally following her, like some obsessed stalker. Shane had known the behavior couldn’t continue, so he had taken steps to ensure Kasilli owed him, and he could freely collect Mia without inciting a war that would tear apart the three families in the city and bring the authorities down hard on their illegal, though lucrative, activities.
Now he had her, and he still wasn’t satisfied. Shane wanted to see her submit to him willingly. Not in a bound-and-chained sort of way, but to have her smile with welcome, to open her arms to him and mold her soft body to his. He’d had her body, and he still wanted it desperately, but even more than that, he wanted Mia herself. Whatever made her tick, he wanted to know. He wanted to be inside her body and her mind. His obsession hadn’t eased. It had only grown stronger.
“Fuck.” He bent his head forward, propping it on his hands so he could rub his eyes with his thumbs. A headache was building, and he could find no relief. Instantly, an image of Mia spread underneath him, his fingers dipping into her heat to prepare her for his cock, flashed through his mind.
Deciding that was better than two ibuprofen tablets, he pushed away from his desk before pausing. So far, he had managed to resist the compulsion to go to her during the day, other than for meals or brief interactions. He knew the key to managing his addiction was to ration his time with her, so he had vowed to keep her compartmentalized. She would be in her own room, and he would only visit her at night.
His resolve was already crumbling. Fucking pathetic.
With a sigh, he got to his feet, deciding he didn’t give a damn about the boundaries he had previously set for himself. It didn’t matter how much time he spent with her. A feeling of dread crept through him as he contemplated the notion that he could never get enough of her.
With a half-shrug, he walked toward the door of his study, deciding not to fear that possibility. She was his for as long as he wanted to keep her, and if that was forever, that was acceptable. Eventually, she would have to yield and admit to their mutual attraction.
He stepped out onto the second-floor landing, freezing with a muffled curse when he saw Bruno hurrying toward him. Judging from the blond giant’s look of concern, he wasn’t going to be sating his rampant lust for Mia just yet.
***
Mia looked up with surprise when her door opened without even a cursory knock. She had been engrossed in a book, having somehow maintained her vow not to dwell on Shane’s taunting words when she had woken that morning feeling refreshed. It was a bigger surprise to see Bruno in the doorway. He should have at least knocked and awaited permission to enter, in case he caught her in the middle of undressing.
“The boss needs to see you, Miss Kasilli.”
Mia thought about ignoring him and forcing Shane to come for her himself, but something in the way the man held himself warned her not to push him. He was stiff with tension, and her eyes widened when she saw the way he was fondling the gun at his side. The fe
w times she had seen him, he’d worn a suit jacket to disguise the holster, but he had taken that off. Perhaps to deliberately intimidate her with the sight of the handgun?
She hated to disappoint him, but it was hardly the first time she’d seen someone carrying a weapon. Nor was she a stranger to having one pointed in her direction as Wallace had done the other night. No, she was much more intimately acquainted with a weapon aimed at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she experienced a moment of memory, recalling the sharp bite of the barrel pressing against her forehead—
“Get a move on.” He jerked his head toward the door, and though she half-expected him to brandish the pistol, it stayed holstered.
With a sigh of annoyance, Mia bookmarked the location and turned off her e-reader before sliding off the loveseat and walking toward the goon in her bare feet. She didn’t bother with shoes, figuring he wouldn’t allow her the luxury of taking time to grab any.
Mia was aware of him a step behind her as she exited the room and walked down the stairs. “Where is he?”
“Main salon.”
Since she had no clue exactly which room acted as the main salon, she stepped to the side so Bruno could pass her. Mia didn’t let herself lag behind, deciding to save her anger for her true target. When she saw Shane, she intended to blast him for sending his goon to fetch her like a dog toy, and without even the courtesy to knock on her prison door first.
Her lips twitched at the thought, and she was having a hard time hanging on to her irritation as they stepped off the staircase. Bruno led her to a large room near the front door, and her gaze immediately rested on Shane. The words of recrimination died in her throat as she picked up on the tense set of his shoulders. Lines bracketed his mouth, and he seemed to be poised to attack. Instinctively, she knew she wasn’t the target of his ire, and she turned her head to assess the others in the room.
Mia’s heart jumped in her chest, and a chill flashed through her body when she saw Aldo Peretti standing a few feet from Shane. He had his own entourage of goons in tow, and the two hulking men stood a step behind their boss. The hungry look in Aldo’s eyes made her want to vomit. “What are you doing here?”
He clicked his tongue. “What a rude greeting. I’m here to bring you home, dear sister.”
“I’m not your sister.” She spat the words in his direction as she surrendered to instincts urging her to find safety. Before she knew she was doing it, Mia moved toward Shane. He seemed startled when she pressed her body close to his, and his shock mirrored her own when she clutched the front of his shirt. “Please don’t let him take me, Shane.”
He blinked before any emotion disappeared from his green gaze. His voice was little more than a whisper when he bent his head to her level. “I want two things from you, Mia.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What?”
He touched her cheek with his finger, and Aldo hissed his displeasure. “First, I want the full truth about why you don’t want to go with your stepbrother.”
She bit her lip before nodding. The idea of confiding in Shane was embarrassing, but she’d rather face that humiliation than go with Aldo.
A ghost of a smile graced his lips for a second. “Second, no more fighting.”
Mia glared at him, her voice a low whisper that was full of annoyance. “You can’t expect me to give in to you.”
He curled his lip. “If you’re expecting me to go to war to keep you, I expect you to be worth it.”
Mia stiffened her shoulders. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, but a quick glance at the cold anger in Aldo’s expression reminded her of what was at stake. At least with Shane, she would enjoy some of it. Or all of it if she accepted a role as his lover instead of his captive, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of her mind. Her lips barely moved when she said, “Fine.”
He stared at her for ten seconds or so, as the tension mounted in the room. With a decisive nod of his head, he turned back to Aldo. “Mia doesn’t wish to accompany you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We both know Vadim forced her into this arrangement.” Aldo’s dark eyes grew cold. “It took him several days to admit what he had done, but he finally confessed what had happened to my Mia.”
She shuddered at the possessive note. “I’m not yours.”
“You are.” Aldo scowled. “You aren’t this Mick bastard’s, Mia. There is only one man to whom you belong.”
“Get out.” Shane spoke the words softly, but with full sincerity.
“Things could get messy, O’Mara. You should think carefully about—”
Shane waved a hand. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Peretti.”
The other man swelled up like a toad, and his anger made his handsome countenance ugly. Mia had always found him ugly though, knowing what lurked inside the monster. “You might not live to regret this decision, O’Mara.”
Shane’s grin looked sharp at the edges. “I’ve lived to regret all kinds of things I’ve done, Peretti. Keeping Mia won’t be one of them.”
Aldo pinned Mia with his gaze. “You’re only making this worse for yourself, Mia.”
She couldn’t hide her repulsion. “Knowing what you want, there is nothing that could be worse.” Her words rang with sincerity, and she moved even closer to Shane. Despite the things he had done to her, he was the safest choice, and she knew he would protect her from Aldo. It humbled her to know she needed someone else to defend her, but a cursory glance at her stepbrother had revealed his sick hunger for her had only deepened over the past few years.
With an angry hissing sound reminiscent of a startled goose, Aldo Peretti turned on his handmade Italian loafers and stalked from the room, his goons running to keep up though they had longer legs.
She sagged with relief when the front door slammed a moment later, but it didn’t take long for that feeling to fade. As soon as Shane’s hand fell on the back of her neck, she stiffened.
“It’s time for a talk, Mia.”
How she dreaded the idea, perhaps even more than the thought of submitting to Shane’s sexual advances without protest. One involved baring her body, but the other was a complete stripping of everything that shielded her soul. Her stomach churned with nausea as she turned to look at the man with whom she had made this dark bargain.
As she faced him, trying to marshal her thoughts and figure out how to begin once Bruno closed the door, she wondered for a brief second if she had made the right decision. Was it better to stay with the devil she barely knew rather than face the one she knew all too well? Only time would tell, and there would be a surplus of that. Now that she had agreed not to resist him, would he ever let her go?
To be continued…
Find out what happens to Mia in the next installment of “Surviving Shane.” Preorder now. Available December 28, 2014 to buy or borrow with Kindle Unlimited.
~~~
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Cover image source: depositphotos/©romancephotos
©Raurie Saxon, 2014
All rights reserved by Dark Starz/Raurie Saxon. Any resemblance to people, places, or events is coincidental. All characters are 18 or over if engaged in sexual activity.
Surviving Shane: Volume One Page 7
