8. Ara
Ican hardly breathe, and my heart is an erratic rhythm as Luca’s threat devours me.
It’s also hot and heavy. A little sickening. I don’t know how to stop its consumption.
In here he can do anything he wants to me. And to resist Luca Armani only brings his monster to the forefront.
He likes the struggle. Wants the fight. I’m still not entirely sure why he hasn’t killed me yet. Still, I can’t resist my own compulsion to see this through. Even if it kills me.
He bites down on my bottom lip, his other hand grazing beneath my loose sweater. I can’t move; I’m pinned beneath him. Then something more deplorable happens. Warmth floods my core.
No. I’m not attracted to this.
His firm grip twists and pulls at my breast through a thin bralette, and a small moan escapes me. The moment it does, his grip tightens around my throat, and this time a new dread fills me.
I can’t breathe.
Panic takes over, and for the first time in a long time, I’m taken back into that room at twelve years old. Back into my family home. Dark brown—almost black—eyes staring at me through a mask, promising nothing but death. I thought I’d shut out those memories. I thought I left them behind in that house when I promised myself I’d never fear death or another human ever again.
Luca promises it. Wants it. He considers me as my eyes water, and now I try to fight, clawing at his hands. His other hand continues to assault my breast and then slides into my baggy sweatpants. Fuck, is he really going to take everything from me right now?
I try to slap the hand away, but he nudges against me with such force the friction begins to bring an unsettling pleasure. His massive hands begin to rub the fabric of my panties, pinching through them as he takes and takes. I can feel myself building. Uncomfortable in the realization my body is reacting to him.
My gaze is locked on his. The mask completely gone. This is the cruelty I’ve been tracking for months. This, right here, is the monster exposed. “This is what you wanted, wasn’t it, Ara?” he asks with a cruel smile. “To see me up close?”
My sight begins to fade in and out. Fuck, this can’t be the end.
After everything I’ve done to get to this point. I have to see this through to the end. This was the only thing to give me purpose for the last fourteen years. And it led me to this…
Luca releases his grip, and I gasp for my first breath in what feels like forever. He pulls away, clearly disgusted. “This atrocious getup should not be a turn on, Ara.”
I’m gasping, but when I look up, I see how hard he is, his cock pressing against his dress pants. I can’t help but lick my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. I realize now, this is what he wanted from me upon our first encounter in his family mansion. The fear. Real fear.
He repositions his uncomfortable cock. “Do you understand now?” he asks, a trail of calm back in his tone. “I can, at any point, end you, my little stalker.” He begins to undo his belt and my eyes are glued to the action. “You want this, don’t you, Ara? Hiding behind a lens and sneaking around in the shadows. You like the thrill.”
“That’s not true,” I rasp.
“Then explain why you’re soaking wet for me.” He raises his hand to his lips, his tongue gliding along it satisfied. His hand freezes at the top of his zipper as he leans forward again. I’m in a trance. I can’t run away from him. It terrifies me how my pussy throbs. I’m disgusted with myself.
He forces two fingers into my mouth, looming over me as he appraises me. His fingers reach the back of my throat, forcing me to gag. I can taste myself as they glide against my tongue time and time again. His gaze is dark and unreadable. I don’t know if he’s turned on or if he wants to break me. Most likely both.
I hate my treacherous body. He’s taken every bit of my control. I know I can fight back, but only if I really do want to die tonight.
“The wigs you wear and this fake get up,” he purrs. It doesn’t even sound like his usual clipped tone. This is the side no one within our social circles sees. If they did…they would never approach him again. He is all consuming and malice. The devil reincarnated. “I wonder who you’re trying to be? If I had to guess, you’re trying to be my filthy little whore.”
“I’m not your anything.”
A dark chuckle escapes him. I realize my miscalculation. I thought, perhaps, Luca hadn’t dealt with me because he saw some advantage to it. Perhaps my connection with my father. Now I realize, with shocking horror, I might just be his new plaything. One that is disposable at any moment. I’d played right into his trap.
I bite down on his fingers, and he hisses with illicit pleasure. “I want you to get on your knees.”
“No.”
His devastating, cruel smile resurfaces. “If you want to walk out of here tonight, you will drop to your knees and we’ll finish what we started.”
It draws me straight back to the memory in his family mansion. The one he wasn’t supposed to be at on that fateful night. My lower stomach pools with heat. Fuck, I hate how much my body betrays me. How flushed I am because of this man. Has it really been that long since I’ve let a man touch me?
I snap myself out of it. No this isn’t what I want. I’m not here of my own accord. I’m simply here and breathing because he permitted it, and his arrogant smile says as much as I drop to my knees and begin to pull down on his zipper.
Despite my disheveled state, I accept Luca Armani’s unspoken challenge. He might think he can force me into this. But I’ll find a way to pay all of this back tenfold. I am not to be underestimated. I’ve taken two men down before him. I’ll make sure he’s my fucking trifecta.
I lick my lips, goose bumps erupting over my skin.
“Take off your sweater,” he commands. He really fucking hates my lazy attire. I remove it, feeling even more exposed as my nipples peak through the black bralette. “Those fucking perfect tits.”
I flinch from the compliment as I free his cock. My breath hitches. Fucking hell. There’s no way I’m going to be able to fit the entire thing into my mouth.
His hand catches the bottom of my chin and lifts my gaze to his. A very smug male smile. “Show me how much you want to live past tonight, my little stalker.”
“Stop calling me that,” I hiss, slapping his hand away.
“Start doing as your told,” he orders, a shift of cruelty crossing in his gaze like a magnetizing and deadly storm.
I hate the fact he has all the wealth, looks, arrogance, and the biggest dick I’ve ever seen. No wonder he acts like such an asshole. I open my mouth, barely able to stretch over his girth. The light salty taste of his skin and texture of veins slide over my tongue. I hold the base of his cock with my hand, and my eyes water as I take him in as much as I can and start to bob my head over his cock.
His head rolls back, and I realize with sudden clarity he is as much at my mercy as I was to him earlier. This powerful man standing over me is giving himself to me entirely with his defenses down.
There was something powerful in being the reason to his undoing now. His hand reaches for my caramel bobbed wig. I curl my hands around his ass, sharp nails digging in as I try to take him deeper into my mouth, choking with every partial thrust.
“Fuck, this filthy mouth of yours,” he says rolling his gaze back down to me. A wild storm fills them. This monster stares at me with possessive contentment. I dig my nails in harder, the taste of precum hitting the back of my throat as I slide him all the way in.
My core swirls with anticipation, greed, and heavy desire. I hate myself for liking this. But I can’t stop until I see this powerful man come undone because of my doing.
I graze my teeth along his cock, and he hisses with adamant pleasure. Back and forth, I stretch my throat for him until he picks up his own pace and begins to assault my mouth. Tears stream down my cheeks, and that earlier sensation and inability to breathe takes hold again. I know he’s close. He will break before me. I hope.
“That perfect fucking mouth of yours,” he hisses out through a sharp breath.
Just when my vision begins to become blurry, Luca thrusts into my mouth all the way to the hilt. Cum hits the back of my throat as he jerks.
He looks down at me, a wild storm barely passing through. “That’s right. Take your fill.” He jerks again, another powerful blow hits me, and I down him like he’s the last drink I’ll ever have. Fuck, it might be.
Luca releases my hair as he pulls out of my mouth. I’m quick to adjust the wig. I’ve fucked in them plenty of times, but I’ve never had someone tug it so hard it was an absolute mess afterward.
His thumb grazes my bottom lip thoughtfully. I wonder, then, if he’s still considering killing me.
“This fucking mouth of yours is a dangerous thing, Arabella Barone.” When he uses my full name, it makes it all the more surreal as to what just transpired between us. We both hide behind our names during the day. However, this unapologetic version of both of us has been unmasked. Our vulgar, ugly, and unwavering sides. Where mine is sly, his is deadly. I’m certain it’s a dangerous mix.
“How nice for you to be rewarded tonight,” he purrs like a god offering a favor. As if having his cock hit the back of my throat was an honor.
“How exactly is that a fucking reward?” I pull my head away and throw what he considers an abomination of a sweater back on.
He charms with a slow sensual smile as he tucks his dress shirt back into his pants. “By letting you live for another day. I hope you’ve come to realize you might’ve bitten off more than you can chew by taking an interest in me.”
“Maybe I really should’ve bitten down on your cock,” I snide back. In our social circles, I know when to keep my mouth shut. But here, with him now, in all our ugliness, I can’t help but bite back. He draws out the worst version of myself—entirely exposed and currently at his mercy.
His gaze darkens, a cruel promise of illicit pleasure. “Don’t flirt with me, my little stalker. I don’t think you can handle the consequence.”
The door opens and his head of security, Lorenzo, steps inside the room. Without so much as another word, Luca waves me out.
I’m left gob smacked, not only because my pussy is pounding with unrelenting need but because he’s let me live another day.
I have no fucking idea why.