Chapter 18
Eighteen
Lissia
Marchello guided me into the bathroom. “When are you going to stop acting out and learn to obey me? Should I keep you locked in the bedroom all day so I know where you are? Should I microchip you like my pet?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but judging from his dominant look and his tense stance, now was not the time to provoke him. Whatever had set him off had little to do with my extended walk. That much I knew.
“How much longer can we keep dancing with one another?” He lifted my shirt over my head, freeing me from the soaked material. “I don’t tolerate disrespect or people who don’t listen to me.”
“I don’t work for you.” I couldn’t help myself. Sparring with him came so naturally. Maybe it was the reaction I drew from him when I baited him that I craved. When we were fighting, I had his attention.
“You don’t have to work for me to listen to me.” He swiped my hair to the side and then slipped my bra strap off my shoulder. “That’s something you keep forgetting.”
He spun me around and nudged me against the counter, trapping me between him and the cool, white marble.
Our gazes connected in the mirror when he unclasped the hook on my bra and peeled it from my skin. Goosebumps formed along my arms and neck, making me tremble even more.
“Do you really see me as brutal and uncaring?” He trailed his fingers down my side and to the button of my jeans. “Because if you want me to be a beast, as my brother called me, I can show you who I can really be.”
“I thought you already showed me.” Flashes of him flipping me over and taking me from behind flooded my thoughts. I still had the bruises from his rough fingers digging into my hips. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” He lowered the zipper on my jeans. “Are you deliberately provoking me so I’ll punish you?”
I rested the back of my head on his chest as he slid his fingers into my panties and pushed inside me. With his other hand, he shoved my jeans and panties down to my ankles.
“Step out of them,” he growled into my ear.
I did what he asked. He couldn’t be more wrong when he said I couldn’t obey him.
I gripped the edge of the counter when he increased his pace, gliding his fingers as far as they would go and then pulling back, spreading my arousal as he went.
“Are you thinking of leaving me?” He gathered my tangled hair in his hand and jerked my head back. “Because when Ricardo couldn’t find you, that’s what I thought had happened.”
“I didn’t leave.” I clenched around his fingers, rocking my pelvis in time with his unforgiving motion.
“That wasn’t my question.” He tugged my hair. “Do you want to leave me?”
“I…I don’t know.”
The idea of him intrigued me, but the longer I stayed with him, the more attached I would become. How could I give my heart to a man who saw me as nothing more than his enemy’s daughter?
“You don’t fucking know?” He withdrew his fingers just as that delicious sensation built inside me. “Then maybe you really are nothing more than a ridiculous distraction.”
When he unbuckled his belt, my pulse raced.
“An insolent brat who needs to be taught a lesson.” He shoved his pants and boxer briefs down his hips. “You came after me.”
He jolted my body forward with a force I wasn’t prepared for, causing me to fall against the counter. When he released my hair and pressed on my back, I lowered my face to the chilled marble. My nipples grazed the stone as he arched my hips.
“You haven’t answered the question to my satisfaction.” He ran the tip of his erection along my slit, then shifted his hips, entering me enough to make me quiver with the need for more before stopping. “Your answer determines how this is going to go.”
“Marchello.” I wiggled into him, but he grabbed my hips and held me still. Frustration filtered through me. He wouldn’t give me what I wanted.
“You humiliated me today.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“My advisors think I have split my focus. That I can’t keep you under control and run my business.” He inched forward, giving me a little more of his massive length. “I can do what needs to be done, but I need to know I didn’t miscalculate with you.”
“Please stop talking and fuck me.” I squeezed the lip of the counter with so much aggression I thought I might dent the marble.
“What did I tell you about your filthy mouth?”
“Seriously?”
“Answer my question.” He thrust into me, then held still with his muscular thighs firmly planted on either side of my hips.
“I already answered you.” I clenched around his shaft, trying to entice him. “I told you I didn’t know.”
“Why are you so stubborn?”
“Why are you a jerk?”
“I’m a jerk because I want an answer?”
“You’re a jerk because you’re demanding an answer.” I held his gaze in the mirror. “An answer I already gave you. I can’t help it if you don’t like what I said.”
“How can I keep a woman by my side if I don’t know if she will be here for all of it?” He ran his hand along my spine, circling the dip just above my backside. “All of the destruction, chaos, and violence of my world.”
It would be so easy to answer him. I was in this for the long haul. I would stand by his side and be the woman he needed. But first, he had to prove he was the man who was worthy of me. Didn’t I deserve that?
The cold dampness that the storm had rained into my bones was being replaced with a white-hot blaze. In one desirable instance, he abandoned his quest for me to answer the way he wanted me to and plunged into me with such force it should have startled me. But I wasn’t afraid.
“Ah…” I came with a vicious shudder, thrashing against the counter and screaming out my release.
“I don’t need your answer after all.” He held me down and shifted his hips. I imagined the smirk that crossed his smug lips. “Your screams are what I want. Your pleasure is what I need. I own you. All of you.”
“You can have me.” I moved with him as he gripped my hips and used me to fuel his desire. “You do have me.”
His body tensed as he roared out his orgasm. He emptied his hot pleasure into me, filling me and convincing me that I did belong to him, even if he didn’t know it.
He collapsed onto my back, both of us drawing labored breaths. His arousal seeped out of me and trickled down my thighs. I shivered underneath him.
“You should take a shower.” He moved away from me, leaving me with an empty sensation. I wanted us to be more than sex and aggression. I wanted passion and love.
He turned on the faucets in the stall and adjusted them to spray in several directions. In seconds, the glass enclosure filled with steam.
I stepped toward him and bit my bottom lip, contemplating my next move. It didn’t always have to be a battle between us, but it was as if we couldn’t help ourselves. We fed off one another’s conflict.
He lowered his face to mine and covered my mouth with his, kissing me slowly, sending powerful tingles through me. I wanted him again.
“Join me.” I tugged on the bottom of his shirt and raised it over his head. He sighed when I ran my fingers along his chest. “Please.”
He removed his shoes and socks before shedding his pants and boxer briefs. His taut muscles bulged over his impressive body, leaving me in awe of his beauty.
Taking my hand, he brought me into the shower stall and guided me under the steady warmth of the water. I stood close to him, wanting the heat of his flesh, but if I was being completely honest, I wanted to be near him. I wanted to matter to him.
“You’re a goddess.” He traced his finger along my bottom lip. “Too perfect for any man.”
“I don’t want just any man.” I pressed my palm to his cheek. “I want you.”
“Why?” He closed his eyes for a second and leaned into my touch.
“I wish I knew.” I smiled at him.
He pushed my wet hair from my cheeks, then took my face between his hands. The intensity in his gaze excited me. Knowing that I could hold the attention of a man like him gave me a sense of power I had never possessed.
“My father doesn’t make allowances for mistakes.” He caressed my cheeks with his thumbs. “He doesn’t tolerate incompetence.”
“Am I a mistake?”
“One of the biggest mistakes I could have made.”
I gazed down at the floor, wishing I could disappear as easily as the water swirling down the drain.
He tilted my head up and looked into my eyes. “Not all mistakes are wrong or meant to be regretted.”
He released my face and wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing me close to him.
“If we were different people.” He shook his head and backed me against the tiled wall. “If we came from a different place and time, maybe… There are things that I have to do to protect what’s mine. I can’t expect you to understand them or forgive me for them.”
“It isn’t like I don’t come from the same world you do. Shouldn’t that make me understand you better?”
“I don’t think you fully understand where you come from, because if you did, you wouldn’t be here with me now. You wouldn’t be so clueless to the things this life expects of me. You would know why we’re a mistake.”
Was I just his bargaining chip? A means to an end? A way to get his father home?
If the answer to those questions was yes, why did I feel such an intense bond with him? Had nothing we shared these past few days meant anything to him?
“I know you don’t like me all the time,” I said. “But we do have a physical connection, and that means something to me.”
I wouldn’t push him, but the torment in his voice haunted me. What happened to make him so guarded? So miserable?
“Do you like me?” he asked.
“More than I should, I’m afraid.”
I slipped my hand down his chest and along his stomach. My hand trembled as I took his length in it. If I didn’t mean anything to him, would he be this conflicted?
“Princess.” He moaned when I tightened my grip on his growing shaft. “Can you handle more?”
Is he talking about sex or more of a life with him?
“I can handle anything you give me.” I ran my thumb over the head of his cock, twirling it around the tip. “Anything at all.”
“Because you’re fearless.” He attacked my mouth, kissing me powerfully. “I knew that when you didn’t flinch after almost taking a bullet at the auction.”
“I don’t know about not flinching.” I squeezed his fully erect length. “But I knew you had my back.”
He lifted me up and slammed me into the wall.
“I can answer your question now,” I said.
“You don’t have to.” He entered me all the way, taking the air from my lungs.
“I want to.” I hooked my legs securely around his hips as he braced his hand against the wall. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“When Ricardo said he couldn’t find you, I didn’t expect to feel the way I did. I didn’t plan on you.” He plunged into me, giving me all of him. “I have so much going on in my life.”
“You have a lot of responsibility.”
“Why did you have to come in and complicate things even further?”
I’m meant to be yours.
He kissed my neck and breasts as he thrust into me. The mist of the shower covered the two of us in a sultry haze, and the water poured over our bodies. The steam thickened to the point where I could barely see him, but his eyes were still visible. Maybe it was because I had committed them to memory, but I knew they were gazing into mine. They were conflicted and uncertain.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to make things harder for you.”
“But you have.” He kissed me with an unfamiliar tenderness. “Now I have to figure out what to do with you.”