Make Me Sin (Dark Gods #1)

Chapter 17

My eyes snap wide open and I try to look around the room to see where Seth is. My search stops as I find myself looking at a wide screen that seems to have popped out of nowhere. Seth is waiting for me there, and realizing that he's not next to me, lets me catch my breath. Still, I'm uncomfortable with him staring at me like this, even if it’s through a screen. So, I try to prop myself against the pillows and drag every sheet I can grab around me to feel safe. A fake sense of safety because as I think about it, I realize I will never be safe again.

I don't say anything back, just observe him and his surroundings. He seems to be in a hotel living room, hence the exit sign somewhere on his left. But judging by the architectural design of his location, it’s probably a different hotel from this one.

He doesn't give me time to observe further details before an unsatisfied smile appears on his lips. “You didn't let my doctors help you. Why?”

“I'm not letting myself be drugged by you.” I snap back. Okay, I realize how foolish that sounds right now, and judging with a clear mind, the doctor was probably just trying to help. But with a man like him, I can’t be too certain, and I couldn't afford the risk of being sedated.

“Do you think I need to drug you? You're already fucking mine!” Seth roars, flaring his nostrils as if he's about to come through the screen and kill me.

It's only now that I truly understand what being his means. I was expecting some physical contact, but I didn't really think about the part where he could do whatever he pleases with me. And I can see it in his eyes, that's exactly what he intends.

He instantly makes me feel sicker than I already was, but fortunately for me, he doesn't go on. It's like he's trying to hold back. And I quickly learn the reason why. I detect movement in his room, and as I look at the coffee table that's behind him, I can see two cups. Great, he's out there playing the playboy while still finding time to make my life a living hell.

A weird silence sets in. It’s as if he's expecting me to say something in return, or maybe he's just studying me, as I notice he's trying to peek at the exposed part of my skin. I have no idea if it's sexual or he's just trying to assess how badly his new toy has been damaged. But I do react in some way, trying to cover myself even more.

“A nurse will come by soon to look at your wounds, and you will let her.” His imposing tone leaves little room for negotiation.

Still, I beg to differ, “I can take care of myself. As I said, I don't need your doctors,” I retort.

“Lose the attitude. You don't want to see what I'm really capable of this early in the day. Do you?” he grunts, lighting himself a cigarette.

Again, I don't respond. Nothing good can come out of my mouth, especially since I know he's the one responsible for every little single cut and bruise on my body. But as if he is provoking me to react, he decides to play the gentleman's card—even though I know he's miles away from being one. “I know that you're paranoid right now, but you have my word, I only sent the doctors for your own comfort. To make you feel better.”

“You killed the only man who could ever make me feel better!” I choose to fight back, even knowing it's a lie. I just feel I need to say something to him, something hurtful, to get back for what he’s done to me, even if I'm not sure he cares.

“That remains to be seen,” I hear him mutter in the wickedest way possible. “But I have to correct you on one aspect. You killed him!” The screen goes black right before I can see the anger building in his dark irises.

He cut me off.

The TV starts retracting into the ceiling, clearing up my confusion about how it got there in the first place.

I have a feeling I'm heading straight for trouble.I usually have a high sense of self-preservation, trying to keep within my limits, but this time around I couldn't stop myself from being just a little bitchy. Seth deserved it after all the things he put me through, especially since I have a feeling he's just getting started tormenting me.

I feel a sense of relief now that his gaze is no longer on me. The meeting, as short as it was, got me fired up, but as the adrenaline dissipates from my veins it takes the last drop of my strength with it. I feel I'm about to faint and I'm not totally convinced I won’t do so in the next few minutes.

-the night before the heist-

I feel the blood pumping through my heart, as if it’s racing to revive even the numbest parts of me. I almost made a mistake by not being able to control myself. To be honest, I never imagined my body would rebel against my brain like this. It's amazing I still manage to surprise myself after all this time, but Serena can really make me lose it. Normally, I would be pissed off if someone had this power over me, but now I find I live for the thrill. She got me out of the tomb I felt like I'd been in for far too long, even if I was still moving and breathing amongst the living.

I can't stop myself from watching her. It’s becoming a relentless obsession, and I find myself staring at the screen of my phone more and more frequently, almost obsessively, unwilling to waste a single second away from her. I'm becoming dangerous for both her and myself, yet it's something I can no longer control. I anxiously watch her sleep, waiting for her to do her daily morning routine, even if that involves her getting into another fight with Nick. I don't understand how she tolerates the man, but what I really can't figure out is how he can cheat on a woman like her. My men captured footage of him being with a different woman on more than one occasion.

Honestly, I should feel relieved, but his sleazy behavior only fuels my repulsion toward the man.

Their arguments seem to be growing more intense. I can hear them fighting about the shit he puts her through, but I never expected that he would resort to violence. Not that I didn't think he wasn’t capable, I just didn’t expect she would tolerate it. I see him slapping her on the face, and instantly I leap to my feet even though I'm in the middle of the restaurant having my coffee. My staff looks at me, but I don't care. I'm ready to storm up, burst through the door, and tear that useless shit to pieces.

I'm on my way to the elevator, nearly losing touch with reality, when I hear something that stops me. Serena just threatened to leave but Nick used her agreement with me as leverage to convince her to stay.

I almost forgot about my plan, and it's not only about the heist. It's also about the latest information I have which I intend to use to get things exactly my way. The elevator doors close behind me. I have exactly 20 seconds to decide how to handle things.

Time passes at an impossible speed, and even with a nervous twitch in my arm demanding action, I decide I will deal with Nick when the time comes. It can’t be done now without jeopardizing things.

However, I can't suppress the anger coursing through me. My fists go through the elevator walls so many times that by the time I reach the ground floor, the booth is barely holding itself together.

“Someone fucking fix this,” I bark as I walk past one of my guards, then head back to my office, fighting the urge to destroy the whole building.

Of course, life doesn't cut me any slack, and another piece of valuable information comes my way as soon as I set foot in the room. One of my men is waiting there with a very concerned expression plastered all over his face.

“What now?” I snarl, feeling that shit is about to hit the fan.

“Boss, I...” he pauses like he's trying to find the words.

“I don't have all fucking day. What is it?” I hate being left in the dark as much as I hate waiting.

“We found out who Nick's team is. You're not gonna like what they're up to.” The man rubs his hands together. I just roll my eyes, waiting for him to fucking go on. “He got some lowlifes, here in town. They are skilled at what they do, but tricky when it comes to everything else. So I did some recon on my own, and overheard them saying they have another buyer.”

“They have another buyer for my fucking relic?” The degree of stupidity of some men never ceases to amaze me. Does anyone think they can take what's mine?

I'm as mad as a raging bull for a few seconds, but deep down I know this will pan out perfectly in my favor, allowing me to take care of Nick much more thoroughly than I ever imagined.

I ask my man to keep an eye on them, and give me all the details so I can be prepared for whatever they are planning. My day just got a whole lot better. Now there's no way Serena can escape from being mine. I just hope, for her own sake, she's not in on this. Because not even I know what I'm capable of when I've been betrayed.

Maybe I should be patient and see how Nick wants to handle things, but I'm afraid my temper won't let me hold back my anger for long. So, after only a couple of hours, I ask to meet with them. I want to speed things up. That will make them sloppy and ease the job of my men in finding out exactly what they're planning. Plus, I can’t stand seeing Serena with him anymore. I don't think I’ll be able to hold back if he strikes her again.

I try to calm myself down before they arrive, but the moment Serena walks through the door any power of self-control abandons me. I turn to ask Nick about their progress, but all I can really do is stare at the place where he hit her. Purple shades are starting to bloom on her cheek, and my jaw tightens the more I look at her. I feel like I'm about to go mad. I can only find the power to carry on because of the thought that I will soon make him pay.

“You have two days!” I roar at them, barely hearing what Nick has to say except that they were going to test out the field. I just needed to see Serena up close to make sure she's all right, although it has proven to be much more difficult than I was expecting.I can't seem to stop myself from staring at her bruise while my fists clench, wanting to punch Nick straight in the face, but not before I would pull his heart out through his throat.

I cut the meeting short before I do something reckless. My message was loud and clear. I need the artifact as soon as possible. In reality, I need to get her away from Nick as soon as possible before things spiral out of control.

The rest of the day is chaos, and so is my life. I don’t plan on meeting Serena again. Not until after the heist. I even make great efforts to keep myself from staring at the phone, obsessing over her every move.

I do, however, see her through the camera, coming in early in the morning, probably after carrying out a reckon at The Tiger’s Eye. She goes to bed, and I barely restrain myself from paying her any more visits, even though it would be so easy since Nick's not in the apartment with her.

I have a full agenda, and I plan to stick to it this time, especially since I have some interviews for the hotel manager position. Finding someone to lighten my workload is on my urgent to-do list.

I only have the patience to meet with three candidates. One of them seems worthy to be considered, but I don't waste any more time with him. I just leave it to one of my assistants to test him further. I feel like my feet are burning, and I can't find my place. I want to be out for a few minutes, but as I walk across my hotel lobby I catch an image that almost takes my breath away. Through the window of one of the boutiques in the hotel, I spot the most beautiful woman I ever laid eyes on, trying on a gorgeous ivory dress.

I don't even know when I ended up next to her, but my lips murmur an undeniable command, “Turn,” and she listens to me, turning to face me like a princess ready to meet her date. This is an encounter that I don't hesitate to turn into a game of fire and ice. “I see my money is being spent for a good cause.” I want to watch her. I don't care what she may think of it,but I can’t stop the dirty thoughts piling up in a corner of my mind. I want her more than ever, even if I can't let it show.

“What are you doing in a woman’s store, Mr. Malvagio?” Serena asks, trying to guess the reason for my unexpected visit.

I don't let her catch me off guard, “Last time I checked, I owned the store. And it's Set. Mr. is for the staff.” I'm giving her a hint of my true intentions and bringing the fire part into the game.

“And I? Am I not staff?” she rushes to ask, her voice tinged with anxiety.

Only I’m not going to offer her that satisfaction. “I haven't decided yet,” but I did decide to pour some gasoline on the burning flame by slowly arranging a strap on her dress. Her breath hitches while her body trembles under my touch. I'm on the verge of losing my mind, and I know she's also close to the same shattering feeling. “Are you afraid of me because you're attracted to me, Serena?” I feel I need to raise the stakes and push her well beyond her comfort zone. She’d better be ready, because with me there will be no comfort zone. I'm in her head now, playing with the delicate strings that hold her together.

But once again, she surprises me with an answer I was definitely not expecting, “I'm afraid of you because I can feel your darkness.” Her lips murmur a sentence that makes the deepest corners of me vibrate. I want her to fear me. I want to feel that thrill of her anxiety that fills every cell of my body like the strongest aphrodisiac. I crave her fear, the same way I crave her to be mine.

I don't let any emotion show. I don't want her to know the pleasure she arouses in me. So I decide it's time to bring the ice into the game. “Then you should stop playing around its borders,” I murmur in a tone that makes her understand she's in trouble. “I'm waiting for my artifact.” I don't say anything else before I leave her standing there in the store. I didn’t think I could be next to her a moment longer before dragging her out of there and straight into my bed to show her what darkness really feels like. Fuck, all I can picture is that pretty dress discarded into a corner of my bedroom, and her legs tightly wrapped around me.

Just have patience, I try to self-impose it, but I'm starting to think I'm some kind of masochist for depriving myself of her for so long.

I feel like I'm stoned for the rest of the day. She keeps slipping in and out of my thoughts while my cock hardens in anticipation. There's only a day separating me from what is rightfully mine. I can live with that, even though every second feels like a month, and the hours pass like ages.

When it's finally time for her to enter Chen’s casino, I call a few of my men to watch from a distance, and stand on guard in case anything goes wrong. I can't have her killed over my artifact, no matter its importance.

I can't deny I'm a little anxious about the job myself. I know this is a lot easier than starting a street war, but right now I'm beginning to doubt my decision of sending her in.

I only find peace when my men call to tell me she's out, safe and unharmed. Not real peace. I know Nick isn't planning to bring her or the artifact to me. Just as I knew he would, he drives off to a motel outside town to wait for his partners. Serena doesn’t know anything about his plan, I’m almost positive about this, but that doesn't make her any less responsible. I know Nick’s kind, he would manipulate her until she would follow him around like a lost puppy.

I instruct my men to go into the motel and bring all of them to me. They’ve had enough fun. It's about time for me to have mine. I'm counting the minutes until I can begin my game, but another call from my men severely compromises my plans. Things didn't turn out the way I was expecting. Nick, Serena, and his crew jumped into their vehicles before my men got the chance to go into the motel room.

My henchmen chased them, and instead of notifying me, they took matters into their own hands and ran their van off the road. I'm going to chop off the head of whoever is responsible for this. Serena was in the fucking van they sent rolling off the road. And the worst part? I only hear about it after it’s too late, once my men have already pulled Nick and his crew from the wreckage.

My heart almost stops as I ask my men about her condition, especially since none of them can tell me if she's okay or not. “She seems to have suffered a lot of injuries.” One of them manages to babble out as I roar at them to take her to a nearby clinic where I have all the necessary contacts to keep things under wraps. They’d better pray she makes it through because if anything happens to her, all of them will share her fate.

She's still unconscious when she arrives at the clinic. I asked the doctor to keep me on speaker since they brought her through the door. A few minutes of silence follow and the darkest thoughts cloud my judgment hearing the staff fussing around but no one really telling me anything. They're still assessing her condition while one of my guards tells me that the guy responsible for throwing her off the road just ran away. The man must really have a death wish, because there's nothing holding me back from ending his miserable life. I call the shots. I decide what and when happens, especially when it comes to such a great risk.

I finally hear the voice of the doctor who is taking care of Serena. My girl is going to make it through. She’s a fighter, just as I suspected. The majority of the wounds on her body are superficial with just a few more significant ones, nothing life-threatening but enough trauma to make her feel like she's been hit by a truck.

The doctor asks me for time to clean her wounds, but my insanity overrides any thought of having her comfortable. She's alive. That's enough for me. Now it's about time for her to face the consequences of her actions. She would have betrayed me for Nick, and that's not something I can let slide so easily.

I only ask the doctor to take care of the major wounds on her body, and leave the rest to me. I have doctors in my hotel, and the ones from the clinic can pay her a house call a little later, but first, she’ll have to taste my own kind of medicine.

My men bring her in almost an hour later. She's still unconscious, so they have to carry her to me. My heart jolts when I see her, even if I don't want to show any kind of reaction in front of another living being.

She's a mess. A beautiful mess. At this point, I feel like she is my creation. I still have work to do on her and I will enjoy every second of it.

Secretly, I want to run and take off her bloody clothes and check for myself each one of her injuries, but I can't do that. It would make me look weak, and I already seem weak in front of my men because of my outbursts regarding her. She must look like a trophy, nothing more, and if I know what's good for me, I should also apply this to my personal life. But I know I won't be able to.

I try to seem in control, even though my hands tremble with the urge to touch her. I have to remind myself of her betrayal. That helps me go on with my plan. I signal my guards to bring Nick and Giovanni in.

Focusing on what's really going on right here helped, maybe too well, because I feel some evil part of me coming to life, the thirst for blood kicking in with an insatiable intensity.

“Wake her up,” I order my men who use salts to bring her back to her senses. Her eyes flutter open and shut a few times until she manages to regain consciousness, and let that light shade of blue I like so much emerge through thick eyelashes. “Good evening, Serena. It was about time you joined us.”

I can see her almost jolting at my words, and I can't keep a devious grin from my lips. My body is drawn to her like a magnet, and I move in her direction without even realizing it as if the whole world just faded, and it's just her and me.

Her fear is so intoxicating, I can barely resist the urge to taste her. She's too scared to even look at me, and that makes my hand stray under her chin to raise her head from the ground and regain eye contact.

She should have run to me the second she found out about Nick's plan, and that's a thought I can't dismiss so easily. The idea is beginning to invade my mind, and I can't help but blame her for being so weak. “You knew you shouldn't cross me, Serena, didn't you?”

Almost holding my breath, I notice hers quicken, and that vein in her neck begins to pulse frenetically, begging my hand to wrap around it. My fingers respond, getting a tight grip around her fragile neck. I can only imagine how I would feel inside of her, playing with her on that delicate line between life and death.

Fuck, I want to hurt her so badly and hear her moan through every second of it. My imagination takes over, and it becomes impossible to release my grip . I want her to pay for what she’s done, and for her to understand that from now on, I am the master when it comes to her life. It's becoming more and more difficult for her to breathe. I can see that from the tears that are beginning to roll from her eyes. Still, I can't stop myself. The monster inside me is taking over, and I'm one step away from treating her no different than I would treat any other person in this room.

It's one of those moments of insanity that decide the difference between life and death. Luckily, for both of us, I hear the door open behind me and pull myself back before I do something I regret.

Lawrence and Canelli were brought in by my men. They were in the second car, so it took my guards longer to catch up with them. It's fine with me; I didn't have the time to deal with them anyway.

Now, I feel the thrill of death surge through my veins, and I don't hesitate to order my man to blow Lawrence's brains out, sending Serena into full-blown panic. I don't know what gets me off most—seeing the blood of the one who betrayed me spilling on the floor or seeing my girl trembling like a leaf as she fully grasps the depth of my powers.

It's like I can't tear my eyes away from her. The fear trembling on her shivering lips turns me on as badly as her beauty. I block out all thoughts of the men present in the room, and try to focus solely on her. When it comes to her, it's much more difficult to know what she's thinking. It often happens with the people I am closest to—for example, my brothers. Still, I can hear one of her most ardent desires roaring loudly enough for me to pick up on it.