by Ella Miles
“I think you having one piece of yourself that I don’t steal means that you still have hope. And, when you have hope that you will escape, it makes the sex that much better.”
She frowns. “I think you are lying.”
“I don’t lie.”
She nods. “You don’t lie to me, only to yourself.”
“What?”
She shakes her head. “Why do you only call me Nina?”
“Because that’s your name. Why bother spending time coming up with something else?”
“Because you care about me. Your brother calls me beautiful, sweetheart, pretty. It’s not that hard to just say how you feel.”
“I do say how I feel. I just don’t feel much. And Matteo is a better man than me.”
“So, you don’t care about me?”
“Nope. Other than I want you alive to fuck, I don’t care.”
Nina faces forward again so that I can’t see her face. She’s mad; I’m sure of it.
“I told you that you would end up fucking me today. You wasted your question. You learned nothing new, even after I answered your follow up questions, they were all a waste.”
She crosses her arms as she looks at me with a grin that I wasn’t expecting. “What makes you think I learned nothing useful? I don’t think I wasted my question at all.”
I laugh. “You’re delusional if you think knowing why I won’t kiss you is helpful at all.”
She shrugs. “Maybe the game I’m playing is different than the game you are playing.”
I sigh and watch her as she starts walking back toward the house. “Where are you going?”
“To get my question answered by Matteo.”
I frown. She hasn’t asked Matteo her question yet even though it’s been two days since we fucked.
What has she been doing? Or has she fucked Matteo again since she fucked us both?
I stand frozen as I watch her skip happily back into the mansion like she doesn’t have a care in the world. I know what game she is playing. I know why she is so happy.
She has feelings for both of us. Her obsessive tendencies haven’t left even though she’s been trying to harness them for years. They are still there, bubbling under the surface.
She cares about us. Maybe even loves us. At the very least, she’s beginning to obsess about us. That much is clear. And that can’t happen. She can’t have both of us. Eventually, she will have to choose. Not just between us but a chance at life again beyond her obsession with us.
18
Matteo
Me and my stupid games within the game. I don’t like sharing Nina—not with my brother, not anyone. So, why the hell did I bring up the idea of her fucking us for questions?
Because I was thinking with my cock instead of my head—as usual.
The only pleasure the new rule brings me is that it must be making Arlo fucking mad to have to share her with me. He’s never admitted that he has any feelings toward her, but I know that he does. How could he not?
I have fucking feelings toward her. I want her all to myself. I want to care for her. I want to own her. I want to love her even. But I have no idea how to get out of this ridiculous mess that we are in to make any of my feelings come true. I’m afraid that, no matter how this works out, I’m going to lose her.
I’m not okay with that. I won’t let her lose her life because I care about her. I don’t have any idea how to save her, but I want to save her. Almost as much as I want to win the game that my brother and I play.
I already know that Nina left my bed hours ago, but still, I glance over to her spot in my bed, hoping that she is there.
She isn’t.
I groan. What’s the point of getting out of bed then if she isn’t going to be here?
She’s probably chasing my fucking brother. I hear a knock on the main door to my quarters. I groan again. Guess she’s not off, fucking my brother. Because I’m sure it’s my damn brother at the door, coming to complain that I didn’t do something right or that I should be practicing shooting or working out or training or preparing the team for our next meeting in case it involves the use of firearms, as they all inevitably end up.
I don’t want to deal with him today. I’m already as prepared as I’m going to be for our next fight. If we are smart, we will lay low for a while before we try to push any further. They are our biggest enemies for a reason. We need time to recover, and as much as Arlo thinks he is invincible, he’s not. He needs to heal before we try to negotiate with them again.
When the knocking gets louder, I finally roll out of bed. The man never sleeps. If I’d gotten shot in the stomach, I would be out cold, recovering, for at least a week. Not my fucking brother though. He doesn’t believe in rest.
I continue to grumble to myself until I get to the door and throw it open.
My annoyance changes to joy when I see Nina standing in the doorway instead of Arlo.
“You know you don’t need to knock before entering, right? You have practically made my quarters yours. Just come in. I was in bed. You can join me if you want?”
She smiles, and her whole body lights up. I haven’t seen her this happy or healthy in a long time. A good fuck and couple of days of rest have done wonders for her.
“If I were here to fuck you, I would have just let myself in.”
I frown, not liking this at all. “Why are you here?”
“You owe me an answer to a question, if I recall.”
I sigh and nod, letting her in.
“Do you want to put some clothes on?” she asks, staring down at my naked body.
“No.”
She laughs. “Put some clothes on.”
“You’re not the boss of me.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yes.”
“Put some clothes on, or I’m leaving.”
I groan. “Fine. But I’m still going to fuck you after I answer your question.”
She shakes her head and walks over to the living room couch where she takes a seat. “That’s what your brother said.”
I narrow my eyes, not liking this conversation at all. “And?”
“And what?” she says casually even though she knows damn well what I’m talking about.
“And…did he fuck you?”
She grins and twists a strand of her hair around her finger. “That sounds like you have a question of your own. I’m tired of answering questions when I have to work so hard to get my own questions answered.”
I growl. “I’ll put clothes on if you answer my question. Did you fuck him?”
“No,” she says, grinning like she just won.
She did.
My nostrils stop flaring, my heart stops pounding, and my body stops shaking the second the word leaves her mouth. She has a lot more power over me than I like. It’s not going to end well if she has all the power and none of the information. She can’t be in control.
I walk to my bedroom and throw on sweatpants and a T-shirt before returning to find Nina stretched out on the couch. I lift her legs up and take a seat before placing her legs on my lap. It feels so natural to have her legs on mine like this. This is how normal couples behave.
But we aren’t a couple. Or normal.
She’s my family’s slave. I can’t have feelings for her. It would only lead to heartbreak.
“So, what’s your question?”
She opens her mouth and then closes it.
I huff. “You know I don’t have all day to sit here while you think of what question to ask.”
She raises an eyebrow as she folds her arms across her chest, becoming more closed off. “Oh, really? You could have fooled me. It seems like you sleep all day while your brother does the real work.”
I shrug as I put my arm around the back of the couch. “My brother works too hard for his own good. I work when I need to. But I make sure I get good rest in between the hard work I do.”
“So, what work…” She trails off, stopping herself. She takes a
deep breath. “Why do you never call me by my name? Why do you always call me sweetheart or beautiful? Why do you kiss me?”
“That’s your question?”
“Yes.”
“You know, technically, that’s three questions.”
She glares at me, making me laugh.
“But, fine, I’ll answer all three.”
She couldn’t have given me more of a softball question if she tried. But it doesn’t take a genius to realize why she is asking the question. My brother. She wants to know why we are different. If either of us has real feelings for her. But that’s impossible. Arlo is far too ambitious to care for a woman who would affect his career, and I don’t take life seriously enough to let a woman into it.
“I never call you by your name because that makes you a real person whom I have to show respect. I prefer beautiful or sweetheart because it groups all of you together. I don’t have to remember your name or think of you as anything but property.”
Her face doesn’t change as I speak. I thought she would slap me for talking about her like property, but she doesn’t. And, if she’s angry with me, she is holding it inside well.
“And why do I kiss you? Because I can, and I want to. Same reason I do anything else in my life.”
She again doesn’t say anything or move.
“Why haven’t you slapped me or yelled at me, saying you aren’t my property or slave?”
She sighs. “Because I’m too busy beating myself up for asking you a question I already knew the answer to.”
“You thought I would say it was because I owned you?”
“You and your brother are pretty predictable.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She nods.
I don’t like being predictable. And I know Arlo doesn’t like it either. If she thinks we are predictable, then she doesn’t know us very well.
“Do you want more questions answered since you asked such awful ones?”
“Do I get to ask questions for free?”
“No.”
She looks away from me while she decides. She doesn’t want me to know how she really feels, but it’s clear to me, no matter how hard she tries to hide her feelings. Turning her head away won’t make me not notice how her breathing has grown heavy, her cheeks have flushed pink, and her eyes have darkened at the thought of me and Arlo fucking her again. She can pretend it’s payment all she wants, but she enjoys it as much as we do.
Last time, she couldn’t hide her cries of joy. She didn’t try to hide her moans. Her wetness. Her cum. Everything we did to her, she enjoyed. She begged for more.
And just the thought of us doing it again is getting her excited.
“I think I need more time to figure out what questions to ask before I earn them.”
She licks her bottom lip as she looks at me. I don’t think she realizes she did it, but I do. I notice everything.
“You can earn another question whenever you want.”
“Two questions,” she clarifies.
I nod. “Yes, two questions. From me and Arlo.”
Her eyes darken, and her lips part. She thinks she has control and power but not when it comes to sex. She loses a little of her power every time she willingly gives herself to us. She knows it. It’s why she tries to resist. But her body betrays her. She doesn’t have the strength to resist. Especially both of us.
“Arlo!” I shout behind me down the hallway to where I’m sure my brother is lurking, trying to decide what his next move is.
He walks down the hallway that leads to my guest rooms. I raise an eyebrow when he enters my living room. I didn’t see him enter my quarters, but I knew he was here even though he shouldn’t be. But then again, he thinks he owns everything in this house. Including me. So, I’m not that surprised he entered without an invitation. I am surprised that he snuck in, unnoticed.
I don’t bother to show my disgust. I have other more important things on my mind. And, from the look in Arlo’s eyes, he has the same thing on his mind.
We both look at Nina; she has the same look.
“We are going to fuck you,” I say even though it’s really a question. If she says no or stops us, we will stop.
“Yes,” she breathes.
19
Nina
I saw Arlo enter before Matteo even realized he was there. I shouldn’t have. He was silent as he opened the door, and if he wanted to, he could have easily disappeared down the hallway before I ever saw him. But I felt him near before he opened the door. And he couldn’t help but stare at me before he snuck down the hallway.
I thought I would have more time to make a plan before we had sex again. Not just to prepare more questions. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what I ask for at least the next week or two. I just want them to let their guards down and start answering me honestly. Then, I can hit them with the questions that I really want.
I thought I would have more time to recover from the last time. I thought I would have more time to prepare my mind. And, more importantly, my heart. I thought I would have time to figure out how not to let me fall any more than I already have for either of these men. But it seems my time is up because I can’t say no.
I don’t have the strength.
I didn’t have time to think before Matteo asked me.
And the word just fell from my lips.
I open my mouth to lay down the law. Have some sort of rules for what I want. But both men move far too quickly for me to come up with any.
Arlo grabs my mouth, covering it so that I can’t speak, until I can barely breathe. He scoops me up under my arms, and Matteo grabs my legs, lifting me up.
They quickly and efficiently move me without speaking a word to me or each other about what they are doing. It’s how they work together, I realize. They each know exactly what the other is thinking. Whatever they do when they aren’t trying to fuck me must make them an inseparable team.
I don’t squirm as they carry me. They hold me so firmly that I’m not sure it would do much good even if I did actually want to escape from them. My eyes widen a little when they don’t lead me to Matteo’s bed. Instead, they carry me out of his quarters and into the hallway where anyone could see us.
Not that it matters. I’ve already discovered that the staff doesn’t care about what the family does to me. So, wherever they are taking me, even in the precarious position I’m in, they won’t even bat an eye.
What if they want to fuck me in a public place?
My heart speeds up at the thought of any of the staff walking in on us. I’m not sure that I’d care if anyone walked in on us. Both men would keep too much of my attention for me to notice anyway.
But the Carini brothers don’t stop at any of the places I expect. Not the living room or study. They don’t turn down toward Arlo’s quarters. Or up toward my room. Instead, they carry me all the way across the house…
My heart stops when I finally realize where they are taking me. And I won’t have it. I don’t know what kind of game they are trying to pull or if I trusted them when I absolutely shouldn’t have, but there is no way they are getting me to go into Enrico’s quarters.
I start fighting.
I try to kick Matteo with my legs, and I dig my nails into Arlo’s arms, doing everything I can to get him to let me go. Arlo’s hand is still covering my mouth, but I try my best to scream for help anyway even though I know screaming won’t help me at all.
Matteo tightens his grip on my thighs, and Arlo’s hand squeezes my nose shut as well as my mouth, silencing my moaned attempt at screaming.
I can’t breathe while Arlo’s hand is covering both my nose and mouth. I fight harder, digging my nails until I draw blood, ripping at his skin. I fight until I feel myself about to pass out from lack of oxygen. That’s when Arlo finally lets me breathe again.
I only get two breaths in before he covers my mouth again, but this time, he leaves my nose uncovered. I try to focus on my breathing as they carry me through hallways and down
to Enrico’s bedroom.
My eyes search the room for Enrico. He must be here somewhere. That’s why they are bringing me back. I haven’t asked the question yet because I already know the answer. That Enrico is definitely the head of the household. That Matteo and Arlo will do anything that he tells them to. It doesn’t matter if they care about me. It doesn’t matter if they don’t want to. If Enrico tells them to, it will be done.
He controls everything.
And I’m done with being controlled.
My eyes keep darting around the room, looking for him to be lurking in the shadows somewhere, but I don’t see him or any of his guards that he used to control me.
“He’s not here. He’s gone,” Arlo says, answering the question in my eyes.
I close my eyes, trying to get the nightmares that are overwhelming me to disappear. But, every time I open my eyes and see something else that Enrico used on me, I panic, and they come back. I don’t know what they are thinking, bringing me here. But I won’t let them fuck me here.
“You said yes. You can do this. Let us do this. Let us help you,” Arlo says.
Arlo’s words are calm and strong. He’s not asking me; he’s commanding me, as he always does. It’s what I need. For him to reassure me. I’m not sure why, but I trust him. I’ve always trusted him. That’s why I ran for seven years. I knew he was telling me the truth. That I needed to hide for as long as I could.
His eyes are the last things I see before a blindfold goes over my eyes, blocking everything from me.
Why he couldn’t do that before he brought me into the torture chamber, I don’t know. But I take Arlo’s eyes with me into the darkness.
His hand is gone from my mouth, and then my body is placed on the bed. My first reaction is to run, to fight. Because, even though I do trust Arlo and even Matteo to keep me safe, I don’t want to be fucked again in this room. Even if I agreed to be fucked, I don’t want to be fucked here.
The second their hands leave my body, I make a run for it. I jump off the bed and reach for the blindfold. I feel their hands back on me in an instant. I can’t help from fighting. Hard. I elbow one of them hard in the nose, making him let me go. But the other one grabs me and drags me back to the bed. I feel the cuffs going on my wrists and ankles, just like before.
