Chapter One #6
Alfredo rolls off and grunts as he flops back on the bed. I risk opening my eyes but stare at the ceiling. “We need to talk.”
“Huh?” he grunts. “And what would we need to talk about?”
“The wedding.”
He groans. “I was really happy then until you ruined it with the incessant need to talk about this fucking wedding.”
I huff out a laugh. “Not our wedding, my wedding. You were right. It seems Father is selling me to the highest bidder. I just thought you should know that while you were gone, there have been… developments.”
He rolls over and grips my face. “What the fuck do you mean, developments?” He squeezes my face tighter until I wince.
“The Riccis,” I force out.
“The fucking Riccis?” he grits out. “What the fuck? Has he told you that himself? What did he say? What did they say?” He snarls in my face, gripping even tighter before pushing me back away from him.
I force a tear out. I’m getting good at this now.
I can cry on cue when I need to, and I seem to do a lot of it around him.
It seems to fuel him, to make him feel like a man, like he’s in charge.
It gives him a smug satisfaction to have me whimper in his presence like he owns me and rules me.
Whatever I need to get what I want, right?
I internally roll my eyes while I give him the performance of my life.
“They didn’t say. They never tell me anything. I’ve just heard them talking about dates and arrangements. They’ve been here a lot, Alfredo. I’m scared.”
I tug my dress back down, and I shudder as his cum starts to leak out of me. But I don’t make eye contact. He tugs my face back towards his.
“Did they say dates?”
I shrug. “A few months is all I heard. What are we going to do?”
“You keep quiet. We will stick to our plan.”
“Plan?” He never confirmed a plan other than killing Father and getting married the day after, but nothing official, nothing set in stone. Better the devil you know, right?
“Next week at the meeting, I’ll kill him and take over.
We marry the next day, in front of the families, and I rule and take all of Alessandro’s kingdom.
I will destroy his name and become the leader I was promised to be.
I will move in, and this house will be mine, the business will be mine, and you will be mine. ”
I nod. There’s a lot of “I this” and “I that” followed by “mine, mine, mine,” so I know once we’re married, I’m going to have to get rid of him and assert my dominance.
I can kill him in his sleep—that won’t be a problem.
I just need him to take out my father; that way, he steps up, takes me as his wife, and I play the dutiful role—well, for a few days at least—and then I’ll take him out and rule myself, this is my birthright, and I’m happy to use him to remove my father from the equation while I play dumb and pretty. For now.
I whimper a little for effect, and he grunts, tucks his dick away and slides off the bed. “Keep your mouth shut, and if you hear anything else, let me know. Do you understand?”
I nod, and he unlocks the door. He doesn’t even spare a glance backwards and clicks the door closed behind him.
I curl my lip at the feeling of him between my thighs, sliding around my skin.
It’s bad enough when he normally cums over me, but this feeling, his cum inside me, seeping out of me, makes my stomach turn.
He never normally finishes inside me. He sees it as birth control.
What he doesn’t know is that I would never let myself have his child.
But he’s being careless now, which means he may become unpredictable as he sees what he thinks is his being taken away from him; I need to watch my back now even more than before.
I take a shower because I feel gross. I scrub every inch of my skin and the parts that he touched. I scrub again until my skin is angry and red, inflamed, bordering on sore, but at least it’s clean. At least I’m clean.
I head to the kitchen to see Marianne. She wraps me in her arms and whispers against my ear.
“Are you okay?” I smile at her and nod. She’s more of a mother to me than my own ever was.
“We have a week.” She nods against me, and I slide the bank card and ID into her pocket.
She sighs. “So it’s really happening?”
I nod. “If it goes wrong, you leave, take the money, and run. There’s enough for a new life, a good life. You deserve it. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me.”
She squeezes me harder and stutters a breath as she tries to fight back the tears, but we need to be strong. I will not fall apart, so I pull back from her. I wipe the tears from her eyes. I kiss her cheek, and I turn and walk away. Game faces on.
The days go by fast. I have everything ready.
I have weapons hidden all over the house, refusing to be caught off guard and without protection, so I plan.
I plot and prepare for almost every eventuality because things will go sideways, of that, I’m sure.
Where these men are concerned, it pays to be cautious.
It’s the night before Father and Alfredo’s meeting, and I pace my room.
He’ll come. I know he will. The Riccis have been scarce since Alfredo has been back, and that is all the evidence I need that this has all been about me.
If it were normal business, they would be here now, and yet they’re nowhere to be seen.
I miss seeing those deep, dark eyes following me wherever I go.
I miss those lingering stares that bore into me, and I miss the tiny quirk of his lip, the glint of his lip ring, the dimple, and the smirk when no one else is watching.
I miss the way he brushes past me in the corridors as they pass.
The others don’t even notice me, but his arm will brush mine as they walk through the halls.
The feel of his skin against mine as the back of his hand brushes against me lights something defiant inside me, and I have to tamp it down and hold it back.
He makes me feel alive, and I have to keep my confidence in check because it wants to spill out and take over around him. All in good time.
The door clicks open, and I take a deep breath. Hopefully, this is the last time I play this part, the last time he takes what he wants from me, and after tomorrow, I will be the one to take it all back, painfully if I have to, but it will be mine, nonetheless.
He walks up to me, crowding against me as he tugs at my dress, pushing me back towards the bed.
He turns me just before I reach it and pushes me over.
He lifts my dress, and I hear him fumble with his buckle and zip, tugging my underwear to the side and he enters me roughly.
Pushing down on my back, holding me bent over the bed, and I close my eyes.
I smile as I see him. Those eyes want to burn me alive, and I want to let them.
My skin tingles at the thought of his on mine.
I want to see his tattoos. I want to trace them with my fingers, my tongue.
I long to taste him, caress him, and I groan.
It’s him I imagine taking me as Alfredo ruts into me.
His grunts fill the room, and they’re the only sound apart from skin slapping skin. How the hell has Father never heard us?
He pushes harder against my back, taking me for his pleasure and his alone, but I don’t mind. I don’t care; he hasn’t taken anything of importance from me, and although he thinks he’s going to get it all, he will only get what’s coming to him.
I smile at the thought, sliding the knife into his neck while he sleeps, and all the time, he will never suspect little old me. None of them will. And by the time they do, it will be too late. I will extinguish him like the gnat he is, and I will enjoy doing it.
But this family is mine to rule, and rule it I will. I feel him pull out and fire across my cheeks and the bottom of my back, and then he tugs my dress back down and yanks me up, turning me to face him.
“I want you in that meeting tomorrow.”
“Me? Why?”
“Don’t ask fucking stupid questions. You will be there. Do I make myself clear?” The disdain etched on his face tells me all I need to know about his feelings towards Father.
I nod. I don’t know what his game is and why it suddenly involves me, but I need to be prepared. Whatever he has planned isn’t going to be pretty; it’ll be fucked up, and I know to be wary of him.
“Meet me in the living room, eleven a.m. sharp. We will go to your father’s office together. You don’t speak unless spoken to and stay one step behind me. You do as you’re told, and we will both get what we want. I’ll get to rule, and you’ll get to have me as your husband.”
I smile, mainly at the thought that he thinks he’s my prize.
He thinks I actually want to marry him, and who am I to burst his bubble?
I don’t want to do that. Not yet, anyway.
So I smile at him. I nod my head, and he kisses the top of it.
It is not a nice, loving kiss, but more of a token gesture, something he thought he should do to keep me compliant.
As his lips bump against me, he turns and leaves.
Fucking wanker. I need to get changed again. The feeling of him on me is getting harder to endure, but it’s not for long. I need to suck it up. I click the lock on the door. I clean up. Never risking sleep with it unlocked. You just never know, and the only person I trust in this house is Marianne.
I climb into bed. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end for my family as we know it, and I smile as I drift to sleep. My story is about to begin.