Deceit (Hollows Bay Trilogy)

Prologue

Sofia

Imagine what it would be like if you were invisible. Would you be happy to spend your days floating through life like a ghost, ignored by almost everyone?

Or would you hate it?

Would you yearn for just one person to acknowledge your existence and see you for who you were? See you for more than what you were destined to be?

Let me tell you.

Being invisible sucked.

Not necessarily because I was lonely. Sure, I often grew tiresome of my own company, but that wasn’t the sole reason being invisible was so damn soul-destroying.

It was because no one cared.

My papa certainly didn’t care. There were only two things in his life Papa cared about: his organization and my twin, Rafe. As long as I was an obedient daughter and never questioned him about the future he had laid out for me, then he didn’t have to acknowledge my existence.

As for Rafe, he was one of the few who saw me for more than what I was.

If it hadn’t been for him, I would have given up on life when my mama was killed ten years ago.

But since turning sixteen, Papa had begun including Rafe in more areas of the family business, and his mind, along with his presence, had been elsewhere.

I hated it.

As did Rafe.

But this was the life we were born into, whether we wanted it or not.

The only other person I could rely on was Kat, my childhood friend. Her parents were on my papa’s payroll, and we hit it off the minute we met on our first day at a private school years ago.

We were the best of friends, but of course, Papa had tried his hardest to ruin that. He shipped me off to Italy when I turned fifteen, claiming that being educated in an Italian Catholic school would improve my chances with future suitors.

Despite the distance, we stayed in contact. I often envied her life; she was as invisible to her parents as I was to Papa, but the difference was, she wasn’t under their control. She could live her life however she damn pleased, and she lived it to the full.

I lived vicariously through the stories she regaled, of parties she’d been to, guys she’d hooked up with, and experiences I’d never get to sample.

Kat knew my papa dictated my every move, which is why she came up with the crazy plan that led me to doing something incredibly stupid. Like using a fake ID to get into a sex club when I had only just turned seventeen, and while in a city I wasn’t supposed to set foot in.

But I was invisible, so who cared?

“I told you this place was incredible.” Under the dim light of the room, Kat’s face was lit up in astonishment.

As was mine.

She wasn’t wrong. I’d never seen anywhere like it before. More astonishing, though, was that no one seemed embarrassed that right in front of us, a sex act was taking place. An act that should have had me clutching my pearls, and yet, I wasn’t.

I was in awe.

In awe of the naked couple on the stage who were unashamedly fucking each other’s brains out as a small crowd watched on, and from the look on the woman’s face, she was in total ecstasy.

I wondered what it would feel like to be her.

To be bent over a velvet bench while the man behind her thrust relentlessly inside her pussy, his hips pistoning with power.

What would it feel like to have an audience watching in your most intimate moments, brought to the verge of orgasm?

Seeing you.

I couldn’t imagine. Not just because I was invisible to most, but because I was a never-been-kissed virgin, who was practically banned from talking to men, let alone getting to know them enough to reach a point of intimacy.

But I would have been lying if I said the thought of being that woman didn’t excite me.

More than I wanted to admit.

“This is...amazing,” I replied, not tearing my gaze away from the woman on the stage.

Her eyes squeezed closed as the pleasure consumed her, her groans growing louder over the appreciative mumbles of the crowd. Her breasts jiggled ferociously from how hard the man pounded into her, his hands digging into her hips in a bruising grip as he used her however he wanted.

Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I let my gaze roam up his athletic, olive-skinned body, finding his sculpted abs glistening with sweat.

His muscular pecs were solid, and when the light from the singular red spotlight above the stage lit up his nipple piercings, the weirdest thought popped into my head.

What would it be like to twirl my tongue around those piercings?

When my gaze reached his face, a small gasp left me, and my blood turned to molten lava. Instead of finding the man concentrating on the woman he was fucking, his attention was firmly on someone else.

Me.

For a moment, the rest of the club disappeared as his dark eyes locked on mine, trapping me to the spot at the front of the stage and making it impossible to breathe. My heart pounded fiercely, and I was helpless to do anything but stare back.

He was, without doubt, the most stunning man I’d ever laid eyes on. His dark brown hair, tousled and messy with sweat, almost reached his shoulders, longer than what most guys wore their hair, but it suited his chiseled face and strong jawline.

His brows pulled together in a frown as he continued to plow into the moaning woman, yet his heated gaze was still fixed on me. My core clenched from the intensity of his stare, and as he held my eyes, I couldn’t stop an image from materializing in my mind, sending my pulse into a frenzy.

An image of me on the stage, being fucked from behind by the man while the audience looked on.

Not just fucked.

Claimed.

Owned.

An unfamiliar feeling tightened in my stomach. I had been attracted to boys before, but no one had ever elicited this kind of reaction deep inside me. A heavy ache settled between my legs as heat crept up my cheeks.

As if the man knew where my mind had gone, a salacious grin curled his full lips, and if it were possible, his eyes darkened more.

I shifted on the balls of my feet in an attempt to alleviate the growing pressure between my thighs, hoping the material of my now-damp silk panties might offer some friction, but it was to no avail.

I may have been a virgin, but it wasn’t like I’d never touched myself. I’d lost count of the number of times I’d given myself an orgasm while watching porn, but it was never enough. An itch that couldn’t be scratched.

Not that I could allow that itch to be scratched tonight.

I swallowed nervously, finally pulling my gaze away from the man, and reminding myself that while I had allowed myself one night to be someone I wasn’t, I couldn’t cross a line.

Even if I had the courage to get on the stage and ask the man to fuck me, I couldn’t lose my virginity in a club with a complete stranger.

No, the man who took my virginity would be my husband. A man chosen by my papa, regardless of whether I was attracted to him or not, and if I dared lose my innocence before that moment, the consequences weren’t worth thinking about.

My anxiety over my future had grown exponentially in the lead-up to turning seventeen four weeks ago, and even though my next birthday was still a year away, I was already dreading it.

For as long as I could remember, Papa had told me that as soon as I turned eighteen, he could marry me off to whoever he damn well pleased in order to strengthen our family’s connections.

I grew up knowing that when the day came, I wouldn’t be marrying for love.

I’d be trapped in a marriage to a man who was happy to mess around behind his wife’s back because he didn’t believe in monogamy.

A man who didn’t think twice about beating his wife if she refused to spread her legs for him whenever he ordered her to.

A man who would ruin me.

I may have had another year to wait, but Papa was already making his plans.

Rafe had called me a few weeks ago to tell me that when I returned home for the summer, Papa wanted me to meet a whole host of potential suitors.

The call had been the final push I needed to go along with Kat’s crazy plan and allow myself one night of freedom before it was too late.

I shook away the dread threatening to ruin my fun. Kat and I had gone to too much trouble to make sure I could fly home without Papa knowing, and I’d be damned if I was going to let him ruin something else in my life.

So, no. I wasn’t going to lose my virginity in a sex club, nor was I going to meet the man who one day, I might fall in love with, but I sure as hell was going to enjoy my night.

“Come on, there’s another room I want to check out. The BDSM room,” Kat said, wiggling her brows and taking my hand, pulling me from my darkening thoughts.

Pushing Papa out of my head, I let Kat lead me out of the voyeur room and back into the heart of the main club.

Exotique was a beautiful, classy club, nothing like the seedy, grimy place I’d imagined.

We reached the main atrium, where men and women dressed up to the nines gathered, talking over expensive champagne while classical music played in the background.

In the middle of the atrium stood a circular bar where barmen in crisp white shirts, black braces, and bow ties raced up and down, pouring drinks for waiting customers.

On the outskirts of the room were several hallways leading to different rooms. Rooms that catered to a variety of kinks. Voyeur, BDSM, women’s only room, men’s only room. Hell, there was even a dark room where you had no clue who was doing things to you or who you were doing things to.

My gaze darted around the club, a streak of concern flowing through my body at the worry that someone would recognize me, something that would cause a whole heap of trouble if it happened.

It had taken some persuasion on Kat’s part to get me to agree to her plan, not because we would be sneaking into a sex club, but because of where the club was situated.

Hollows Bay.

I knew I was taking a risk by crossing into the city; if anyone recognized me to be the daughter of Georgio Bianchi, all hell would break free.