Chapter Five
Chantilly
Valentino was making it more than apparent I wasn’t a welcome guest inside his fancy home. I was an intruder, as about as welcome as a fox inside a henhouse. He’d only brought me here so he could use me and abuse me, and then he’d—
A shiver snaked down my spine. I didn’t want to think about what he’d do next. I couldn’t go down that path. I still had hope I’d find a way to escape from him. The only thing I could be grateful for was that he wasn’t giving me back to Sean.
How do you know that with any real certainty?
“This way,” he said, leading me around a handcrafted dining table with trumpet shaped legs and through the lounge room where a three-seater gray sofa and matching armchairs faced a huge flat screen television. Then he unlocked the huge glass sliding door before we stepped out onto the balcony.
My breath caught at the horizon that was the ocean, the sun sliding behind it and leaving orange-gold reflections in the water. Waves broke and foamed on the shore in a continuous roar, a faint spray of saltwater lingering in the air.
He stepped behind me and clasped my shoulders. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
I stiffened, caught somewhere between alarmed and turned on. “It is.”
He dropped one of his hands under my skirt and cupped my sex. “Not a soul in sight,” he said softly before he thumbed my clit and rotated the plump button. “You could scream out my name and no one would hear you.”
I moaned a little, hating him yet desiring his touch with quiet desperation. “You’d have to make me orgasm first,” I challenged in a croaky voice.
He chuckled darkly, his thumb pressing harder on my clit. “It’s not just an orgasm that would make you scream.”
I sucked in an unsteady breath. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Not yet, my little Tilly.”
My tension didn’t melt away, if anything it intensified. But not because I might only have hours, days or even weeks before he stopped my heart from beating. In that moment I only wanted to experience overwhelming pleasure. It was crazy to feel that way about my future killer, but I’d lived in the shadow of death for so long now it was beginning to lose its scare factor.
I was one of eight billion or so people on this planet, my death wouldn’t even be a blip gone missing on the radar. Not even my family would care, not since they sold me out to the Irish don, Sean. They were probably happily spending the money he’d given them before he’d taken me away.
As the youngest of three sisters, I’d sensed my two siblings had been envious that Sean had had eyes only for me. My parents might have been vocal at first, pleading for Sean to leave me alone, but the moment he’d thrown them a wad of money, their eyes had widened and their pleas had gone silent.
They’d accepted his money with shaking hands and they’d turned away from me even as I’d begged them not to let him take me.
I’d been sold to the devil.
My sisters had no idea how lucky they’d been.
“Turn around,” Valentino commanded.
I did what he asked, allowing him to believe I was an obedient little captive. Then he kneed before me, and I knew he was about to worship me with his lips and tongue. And suddenly I was shamelessly, brazenly obedient. “Spread your legs,” he commanded.
My body heated even before I did as he asked and he spread my outer lips apart. As he put his opened mouth on my pink flesh, his beard prickling my sensitive flesh, I cried out then moaned as he licked my slit and sucked on my clit, electricity sparkling through my nerve endings.
Holy fuck.He was turning me into jelly, my body trembling and my knees weak. I pressed my hands into his hair and clung on, the visual of his mouth on me almost as thrilling as what his suctioning mouth and clever tongue was doing to my body.
Then he pushed a finger deep inside me and curled his finger around, touching a part of me that sent shockwaves straight to my core before shooting me into an orgasm that made me scream loud and long.
I was only glad his name hadn’t blasted from my lips.
He drew back his head and licked his wet lips, his eyes glinting as he looked up at me. Then he stood and I lifted my head to hold his stare, waiting for him to command me to suck him in return. When he didn’t I blinked up at him, caught between relief and disappointment. He was like a mountain looming over me, his very presence taking away my breath, my willpower.
He licked his lips again and smiled, though his eyes held little warmth. “I’ll have to work on you saying my name.”
I pushed the hem of my skirt down, though there was little point in doing so. He’d seen and tasted me intimately. I could strip naked and he’d probably be no more aroused than normal.
Normal for him seemed to be three intimate sessions in a day.
Perhaps I should have worn sweatpants and a jacket.
He stretched a little, his bared abs showcasing a six pack, the skin revealing an intricate pattern of dark ink that continued under his shirt. “You must be hungry?” At my nod he said, “Go take a shower. I’ll cook dinner.”
I arched a brow. “You cook?”
He smirked. “Do you see any live-in chefs?” His smile cooled a little. “I do have a team of cleaners come in once a week, but don’t go getting ideas and ask them for help, they know better.”
“Of course they do,” I said bitterly. “They probably value their lives too much to disobey.”
“Actually, they value their very big pay check too much to disobey.”
I could only imagine how much they were paid to keep his house clean and his private life, private. I cleared my throat. “I might go have that shower,” I muttered. “Do you mind if I use one of the guest bathrooms?”
“I do mind. You’ll share my shower along with my bed. You’ll find a bathrobe hanging near the towel rails.”
“Right.” I stalked away from him, only for him to catch my arm. I looked back at him and bit out, “Yes?”
“Don’t I get a kiss before you go?”
My muscles tensed even as I squirmed imagining his lips on mine after he’d been sampling me like a buffet. “Do I have a choice?”
His eyes glinted. “We all have choices.”
“I guess we do,” I said softly. Then I pivoted around and stood on tiptoe, my arms lacing around his thick neck before I pressed my mouth to his. Oh, fuck. His lips pillowed mine even as his abrasive beard inflamed my senses into wanting more.
He deepened the kiss and I tasted an intimate, musky citrus tang that was all mine. A shiver centered in my core, and I moaned against his mouth before jerking my head back. “Satisfied?” I croaked.
“Not yet,” he growled softly. Pulling my hips close so that the impressive length of his cock molded against my belly, I gasped audibly, left weak-kneed by the size of his erection. Would he even fit inside me? He winked, then added hoarsely, “You’d best go have that shower before I forget why you’re here.”
His reminder made me step back from him with a glower. If I’d still been a virgin I would have ran screaming for the hills.
He smirked as my arms fell to my sides. When he stalked into the kitchen, I was left with little choice but to do as he asked. My lip curled. He’d said we all had choices. What if my choice was to not have a shower and instead find a way to escape?
With Valentino already busy preparing dinner, I slipped past his bedroom and silently opened the door to his study. If there was any means of escape, I’d likely find it in here. Stepping off oak floorboards and onto soft gray carpet, I shut the door behind me, my mouth falling open.
A bank of monitors on one wall showcased the exterior and much of the interior of his home, the lights beside each one flashing green. No doubt they’d flash red and sound an alarm if there was any suspicious activity.
Though on one hand I felt safe knowing no one could get inside without alarms blaring, on the other hand I slumped as my adrenaline faded to the realization there was no escape. Not from here.
Then my focus moved to the big oak desk opposite the door. I’d bet inside its drawers I’d find keys or a remote control, perhaps even a way to turn off the alarms.
“What did I tell you about trying to run away?”
I spun around, my heart in my throat as Valentino loomed behind me, his eyes even darker than his voice. I swallowed convulsively. “I-I thought this was your bedroom.”
He shut the door with a decisive click, then closed the space between us with a single step. “Do I need to tell you what happens when you lie to me?”
I shook my head, my heart rate surging along with a flush of heat to my entire body. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
He grasped my wrist and jerked me toward him. “You won’t be leaving here, Tilly, not ever.”
My whole body shuddered. When I did leave I’d probably be in box. I lifted my chin. “So you can kill like life isn’t sacred, but I can’t lie?”
His nostrils flared. “I guess it’s a case of do what I say not what I do.”
“How…beneficial, for you,” I said, my voice scathing. That he hadn’t denied he was a killer told me everything I wanted to know. I’d escaped one psycho to fall into the clutches of another.
He smirked, then nodded toward the door. “Go have that shower before I forgo dinner and wash myself—and you—instead.”
I ignored the clench deep inside my core to instead pout and ask, “You’d let your captive go hungry?”
He laughed, his dark eyes flashing with mirth. “I’d rather not,” he conceded. He looked me up and down. “I wouldn’t want you to lose your curves.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. You want me to look my best when you kill me.”
His mirth faded, his stare turning hard. “No more talk of death.”
I laughed back at him. “Why is that? Don’t tell me you’re growing a conscience?”
“This home is my sanctuary. Death doesn’t get a mention here.”
I shook my head, though a part of me was relieved to know there was no dark past living inside these walls. “I wouldn’t want to darken your doorstep with the truth.” I stepped toward the door. “I’d best go have that shower.”
He was still standing looking after me as I left his office.