Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Sofia
“ W here have you been?”
I jump a foot in the air and let out a terrified shriek, spinning around to face the figure peeling away from the dark hallway. My heart is pounding in my chest as I whip around.
“You almost gave me a heart attack,” I grumble, hand pressed to my chest.
“Sorry, ma’am,” Alba looks truly apologetic. “I was just really worried when you weren’t in. It was getting late, and you don’t really know the area.”
Right. I’ve lived here for almost a month now and I still don’t know the area because I’ve been confined inside these walls like a convict.
“Where were you?”
Oh, just around, getting my mind blown by Nero Castello, with one or three orgasms, nothing too serious.
I flash her a strained smile. “The confinement was getting to me; I just took a walk around.”
She blinks. “I walked around the grounds and still didn’t see you.”
“We must have missed each other, then,” I tell her, hoping she’ll drop it. “Did you keep dinner for me?”
“Yes,” she tells me. “Shall I bring it to you now?”
“Yes, please.” I open my bedroom door and walk in, feeling the twinge in between my legs with every step. “I just need to shower first. I’m all sweaty and gross.”
“Sure.” She smiles and walks off.
As soon as she’s gone, I hobble to the shower and turn it on. I need a long, soothing bubble bath, but I’m going to have to settle for a quick shower or my food will get cold.
I try to keep Nero out of my thoughts as I strip out of my dress and bra and soap up my body, but he refuses to be relegated to the sidelines, and I can’t help the moan that slips out when I slide the loofah down between my legs.
Oh, mio Dio.
It feels like it’s his long, calloused hands touching me so intimately. I toss the loofah away from me when I hear my bedroom door open and glare at it like it’s responsible for turning me into a shameless hussy.
I turn the shower knob down till the water turns into icy needles pelting my skin. I’m shivering when I step out of the bathroom, and I quickly dry my body and toss on a heavy dressing gown.
“The boss was asking about you earlier, at dinner,” Alba begins as I walk into the room, “I told him you had a headache. Mr. Castello wasn’t at dinner either.”
I jolt, stomach turning until I realize there’s no suspicion in her voice. I settle into the couch. “Is it unusual that he wasn’t?”
“He’s never missed one. You know, I thought he would spend his time here driving around the city with girls hanging off his arms. But he doesn’t even bat an eyelash when I smile at him.” She glances over at me with a twinkle in her eyes, and I force a smile. “He’s really handsome, but—” She trails off, looking nervous.
“But what?” I lean forward, ignoring the food in front of me.
The girl hesitates. “Well, er, there are rumors.”
“About what?” I ask impatiently, raising my glass of water to my mouth for a sip.
“I heard that he’s not into women.”
The water goes in the wrong way, and I splutter, water flying everywhere as I begin to choke. Alba rushes to my side, hitting my back.
“Ma’am, ma'am, are you alright?”
“Yes,” I croak. “I swallowed wrong.”
“You should eat, before your food gets cold.”
“Sure.”
“I’ll be back to collect the plates,” she says before making her way out of the room.
I usually don’t have a lot of appetite. It’s been a problem for as long as I can remember. Food doesn’t hold much zeal for me, and sometimes I can’t even force myself to put a single bite in my mouth. I’m more than surprised when I dig into my food with gusto and don’t stop until my plate is cleared.
I lean back into my chair, feeling full for the first time in my life.
My eyelids begin to droop tiredly, and I drag my drained body to my bed and fall into it, too exhausted to even change into a nightdress. I close my eyes, and I’m not surprised when I find Nero behind my lids, staring down at me with eyes a solid, inky black and his mouth curved up into a barely-there smile.
I go to sleep with a smile.
I sleep the best I’ve had in years, and I wake up energized but full of thick, cloying guilt. I haven’t even been married a year, and I’m already having an affair.
Not that there’s any length of time that should determine an affair, of course. But still, how could I have let it happen?
I can’t let it happen again.
I have to stay far away from Nero, but that’s easier said than done. My eyes are constantly drawn to him during breakfast, and the meal seems to last forever. Not even my husband’s words can pierce through the haze Nero puts me in with just a look.
“You’re not eating,” Nero’s voice cuts through the room, and I glance up from my still-full plate to look at him in surprise.
“What?” I ask.
“You haven’t touched your food.”
Sebastian’s head snaps between us, and the hand that’s gripping the fork suddenly becomes too clammy to grip it. The fork falls down from my loose grip with a clatter.
“I had a large dinner last night,” I start to explain, and then immediately regret it when Nero’s eyes heat up.
“Oh, did you now? Worked up a lot of appetite, did you?”
I stare at him aghast even as heat rushes up to my face. “Something like that,” I finally whisper.
I’ve never in my life been a violent person, and yet at the moment, I want to crawl across the table and slap Nero’s unfairly handsome face, then kiss him hard enough to make him the flustered one, and turn the tables on him for once.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I say, “I think I need to lie down.”
When I look over at Sebastian, I see that his focus is back on his phone. He’s been clicking away at it throughout breakfast, and I wonder if he’s still trying to find who set fire to the room in the resort.
He waves his hand dismissively and I take off, feeling sick with guilt. But regardless of the itchy guilt, I know I’ll give in like putty if Nero puts his hands on me again. I don’t know how he has so much power over me or why he affects me so much when I’ve always felt like a living, breathing robot.
I spend the rest of the day in my room trying to read to avoid him and distract myself, but the words on the page look like gibberish, and eventually, I toss in the towel and slam the book shut.
I’m lying in bed, head racing with thoughts when I hear a soft knock on the door. I raise my head to see Alba at the door, eyes full of worry.
“You’ve been in bed all day,” she begins cautiously. “Are you alright, ma’am? You skipped lunch, and dinner was half an hour ago.”
I blink, only now realizing that it’s gotten so late. “Did my husband ask about me at dinner?” What I really want to know is if Nero has noted my absence.
“He hasn’t had dinner yet. He’s still busy in his home office.”
I let out a sigh of relief. Then the crazy thought to redeem myself strikes me. It won’t absolve me of the fact that I’m a horrible cheat, but at least it can?—
My thought stutters to a stop, because I don’t know what it would do, but it has to do something. I couldn’t let Sebastian get suspicious.
“Can you set up a tray for Sebastian so I can take it to him, please?”
Her face brightens. “Of course. That will be a wonderful idea.”
A few minutes later, I’ve slicked on lipstick and I’m walking down the hallway leading to my husband’s home office on the ground floor. I have to juggle the tray a little to be able to grab the knob and turn it.
“Good evening, Seb—” my words and the smile on my face falter and then die a quick death at the sight before me.
My husband is seated on his large leather chair, leaning back with his eyes closed, jaw clenched. Seated on his lap is the platinum blonde, Vittoria, naked except for a heavy diamond necklace clasped around her neck.
“Fuck baby, you’re amazing,” my husband is saying. “So gorgeous, so good.”
She’s clutching the back of the chair for leverage and bouncing up and down. The large chair has been pushed far back from the desk, and so, from where I’m standing at the door, I can see his slick cock slipping in and out of her and I immediately note that he’s not wearing a condom.
His business associate indeed.
I knew something had to be going on between them, deep inside I knew I was just living in denial, as I so often do.
She throws her head back, panting, and Sebastian’s mouth latches on to her heavy breast, sucking with rupture. He looks pleased and consumed—nothing like the cold, impersonal man who slips into my bed and pushes into me.
“I’m going to cum, I’m so close!” Vittoria screams.
“Yeah, baby,” he rolls her nipple in his hand. “I’m close too. I’m about to paint your insides with my cum.”
“ Ah! ” she bites out, pace becoming erratic, hip rolling and bouncing.
He grabs her hip and begins to guide her movements, slamming her down on his length over and over again till she’s sobbing and writhing. My gaze flicks to my husband and goes wide at the way he’s looking at her.
My own mind flashes back to how Nero had looked at me last night.
He drags his tongue up her throat and then sucks down on it.
“Oh, my fucking God. Don’t stop. Harder! Sebastian!”
My stomach curdles at the realization that all I’ve ever done is lay there and take it. Even with Nero, the two times we have been involved, he had been responsible for our pleasure. I want to make him look at me the way Sebastian is looking at his lover. I want to be able to drag those guttural sounds from him.
No, no. What am I saying? I’m supposed to want to bring my husband pleasure. Maybe that will be the first step to making our marriage stronger. I’ll earn his respect and kindness, and he won’t need Vittoria anymore.
And then I can finally put my attraction to Nero in the bin.
Or maybe I won’t.
Sebastian grunts, and I decide that I’ve been peeping Tom long enough. I slip away as quietly as I came. The whole way to the kitchen to return the tray, I keep thinking what kind of a heartless bitch I am that seeing my husband with another woman doesn’t make me furious. The only thing I feel is relief that I don’t need to feel guilty about this thing with Nero.
And excitement about what I’m about to do.
I tell myself I need to. It’s for the sake of my marriage, it’s for Sebastian. But deep inside, I know the truth.
As I slide on the lilac, see-through lingerie bodysuit, I can already feel my skin tingling. I undo my hair from its bun and drag my fingers through it, messing up the curls. Biting my lip nervously, I wrap my dressing gown tightly around me and then pick my way to Nero’s room.
Everything inside of me is telling me to turn around and forget this ridiculous plan, but my body wins the battle against common sense, and I knock on his door.
It feels like I can’t draw full breath from my lungs for the seconds it takes him to pull open the door.
Dark eyes flare when they land on me. “What are you doing here, Princess?”
“Aren’t you going to let me in?”
He looks around before speaking again. “You can’t be here.”
I decide to not waste our time beating around the bush. “I want you to teach me how to please you—I-I-m-mean, please a man.”
“Christ almighty, Sofia,” he grits out, then grabs me by my waist and tugs me inside.