Chapter 5
Nora
I swallowed hard but held my ground. Dante liked hurting me; he would do it whether I earned a punishment or not. By challenging him, I could at least spare Luca’s friends from pain.
And even though Dante would undoubtedly devise something terrible for me, I believed that he wouldn’t do anything that truly harmed me. My body would remain whole, even if he ravaged my psyche.
I was strong enough to endure another one of his sick games. I had to be.
Because whatever he would do to Gabriele and Lorenzo would damage them permanently.
He’d already casually threatened to cut off one of Gabriele’s fingers.
Luca’s friends would be taken apart piece by piece.
He was already suffering in Dante’s trap.
I would do what I could to protect him from more pain, and seeing his men tortured would wound him deeply.
“Don’t hurt her,” Luca growled, knuckles white from his grip on the bars. “If you want to hurt someone, take it out on me, you sick fuck.”
Dante sneered at him. “Oh, but I am. You’re going to watch me torment my wife. You’ll see how she suffers so beautifully for me. Then she’ll scream in pleasure while I make her forget all about you.”
I pursed my lips, holding in venomous words. I wanted to rail at him that I’d never forget about Luca, no matter what he did to me. But that wouldn’t save me from whatever he planned, and it wouldn’t help Luca.
The monster’s attention returned to me, his full lips tilting in an arrogant smirk. “You were so eager to be punished, little bird.” He dropped a doting kiss to my forehead. “I knew you would enjoy our games. We’re an excellent match.”
Something like a growl rose in the back of my throat, and I quickly choked it down. Challenging his delusion that he was my true husband would only rile him, and I didn’t want to suffer anything worse than the pain that was to come.
Dante grasped the satin tie on my indecently short black lace robe and tugged it free.
His hands skimmed down my arms in a parody of a tender caress as he slowly stripped me.
He shook his head with a rueful smile at the matching bra and panties I’d chosen in an effort to maintain a shred of modesty.
“I think we’ll have to dispose of your underwear, pet. I want access to your body at all times.”
He began to remove the offending garments, and I bit my lip against a tirade that he was a sick bastard for depriving me of the small scraps of control I had left. I couldn’t fight him. I couldn’t regulate my diet. I couldn’t even cover my body.
He’d ripped everything away from me, stripping my soul bare. Righteous rage clawed at my insides, shredding me. My composed mask was long since shattered, and all I had now was the willpower to remain silent when he goaded me.
Once I was completely naked, he wrapped the silken tie from my robe around my wrists, binding them together. He used the ends of the tie like a leash, tugging me forward so that I was forced to approach Luca’s cell.
His ochre eyes blazed with fury, and his fists flexed around the bars.
“Don’t do this.” He was begging. On my behalf. My strong, powerful husband was reduced to pleading with his worst enemy in an attempt to save me from pain.
I knew the blow to his pride must ache more deeply than the wounds around his wrists.
My hatred for Dante was incandescent, burning through my veins.
The monster shot him a sharp smile. “Step back,” he commanded, almost lazily. “Brace your hands against the wall behind you, and don’t say another word. Don’t talk to my wife, or your friends will suffer for your defiance.”
A snarl ripped from Luca, and his muscles bulged and flexed with the need to attack our tormenter.
Dante simply waited, a single dark brow arched expectantly.
My husband bellowed a wordless sound of pain and rage as he wrenched his hands free from the bars and backed away. Obeying Dante’s humiliating command, he pressed his palms to the wall at his back. His square jaw was sharp enough to cut as he clenched his teeth, resolving not to speak.
My captor tugged on the silken tie again, lifting my hands above my head and quickly lashing it around one of the bars. His hand wrapped around mine, urging me to grip the cold metal.
“Hold on tight, darling. You asked for a punishment. You’re going to suffer for me.”
I shuddered, and he brushed a kiss over my chilled cheek. His affection turned my stomach. He was enjoying this, getting off on my fear and Luca’s shame.
I stiffened at the sound of his belt unbuckling. I closed my eyes and took a breath, reminding myself that he’d promised he wouldn’t force himself on me.
He gripped my chin firmly. “Open your eyes. I want you to look at Luca while I punish you. This was his choice. You might’ve come down here to help him, but he should’ve known better than to kiss you.
But he’s weak and gives in to his selfish impulses.
He takes what he wants and doesn’t truly care about you.
Just like how he raped you on your wedding night. ”
Luca growled in enraged protest, but his cheeks were red with shame.
I shook my head wordlessly, eyes wide. I wanted to convey to him that I didn’t think of him that way at all, but the tightness around his mouth indicated his self-disgust. He believed what Dante was saying about him, about our wedding night.
But it hadn’t been like that. Had it?
No. Luca had made sure that I felt pleasure when he claimed me for the first time.
Just like Dante always forced me to feel pleasure when he toyed with me.
My lower lip quivered, and I bit it hard to keep from crying. The monster was getting in my head just as much as he was messing with Luca.
Cool leather caressed my bottom, and I jolted at the sudden sensation of the belt on my bare skin. Dante wrapped a strong arm around my waist, directing me to arch my lower back and offer myself up for punishment.
I pressed my forehead against the bars, bracing myself for pain. I’d chosen this. I’d decided to spare Luca’s friends by taking the punishment in their stead.
I could endure it. I was strong enough to handle it. I had to be.
Fire lashed across my bottom, and a scream tore from my chest. I was dimly aware of Luca’s answering bellow of pain as I rocked up onto my toes, moving away from the belt. Two more searing hits burned into my tender flesh, driving all the air from my lungs before I could cry out again.
Dante’s calloused fingertips trailed along the marks, tracing them. My skin tingled and danced beneath his whisper-soft touch, my nerves crackling from the whipping.
“So pretty,” he rumbled, his fingers dipping between my legs.
I tried to squirm away from the erotic stimulation I knew was coming, but he cupped my sex in his big hand and forced me back in position with his firm grip on my most intimate area. Keeping me locked in that unyielding hold, he rotated his fingers against my clit.
For a few merciful seconds, my body didn’t respond, my senses too consumed by the burning pain on my bottom to feel arousal.
His warm breath fanned my neck as he whispered in my ear. “Don’t fight me, pet. It will only be harder for you if you try.”
I drew in a shuddering breath and focused on Luca.
His eyes were wild, his teeth bared like a cornered animal.
But he hadn’t moved, as though his palms were glued to the wall.
He was obeying Dante’s commands, sacrificing more of his pride to spare his friends.
Our captor was slowly crushing his will, forcing him to bend to his insane desires.
I stared into his shining eyes, trying to convey my resolve. I could take this torment. We would both endure, and we’d get out of here together with our sanity intact. Somehow.
Dante continued stimulating my clit, ruthlessly coaxing pleasure from my body. I shuddered at the first ripple through my system, a warm, tingling wave. I kept my gaze locked on Luca’s, focusing only on him. I pretended it was his hand on my sex, his powerful body pressed against mine.
Dante clicked his tongue at me, as though he sensed what I was doing. “I’m your master, little bird. Not him. You belong to me.”
A tremor raced over my skin. He’d tried to force me to accept him as my master before. I’d refused to say the words.
I gritted my teeth against voicing the lie. If I said it aloud, I feared that the truth of it might work its way into my soul.
Cool air kissed my side when he stepped away, immediately followed by another lash of fire across my bottom.
My head dropped back on a shriek, but he didn’t relent.
Four more blows landed, the last catching my sensitive upper thighs.
I yanked against the tie that bound me to the bars, desperate to escape the burning pain.
But another hit didn’t come. Dante’s fingertips circled my clit, and pleasure crackled through me. I released a sound that was somewhere between a moan and a whimper.
He nuzzled my hair. “You’re doing so well, darling. So beautiful bearing my marks.”
I fixed my gaze on Luca, taking in every tense line of his face. Even when his features were drawn tight with pain and loathing, he was ruggedly handsome: the man I’d secretly desired for years before he’d married me.
No matter what Dante said, I didn’t belong to him. Luca was my real husband.
The monster continued to stimulate me, rubbing my clit in a demanding rhythm.
The smooth sensation of the belt caressed between my legs.
The scent of leather and my own arousal suffused my senses when he touched it to my lips, painting them with the shameful evidence of my lustful response to his masterful manipulations.
“You’re wet for me,” he rumbled, his voice rich with satisfaction. He licked the belt and released a low hum. “You taste so good, pet.”
I shivered at the perverse act, but bliss sang through my veins when he eased a finger inside my slick folds and crooked it against my g-spot.
His thumb pressed down on my clit at the same time, and I bucked at the sudden rush of ecstasy.
He stimulated me mercilessly, driving me closer to the edge, until I was so close to release.
A humiliating cry of protest slipped from me when he abruptly withdrew.
It morphed into a scream as fire lit up my bottom once again.
I lost track of how many times he lashed me, dizzy from the sudden shift from pleasure to pain.
My screams rang through the basement, blending with Luca’s desperate, wordless shouts in a violent crescendo.
The hits stopped, but my skin was still hot with stinging pain.
I hissed when Dante’s palm skimmed over my abused flesh before he touched me between my legs again.
He played me like I was his favorite instrument, coaxing pleasure from my core once again, until it fizzed through my veins and flooded my mind.
Then his touch was gone, and I choked on a moan of protest. The fire lashed me again.
I wasn’t sure how long he toyed with me, driving me to the brink of release before yanking me back from the edge.
Tears spilled over my heated cheeks, and Luca’s face blurred into something meaningless.
All that existed were the conflicting sensations of Dante’s belt and his wickedly skillful hands.
He murmured soft words of encouragement as he indulged in his cruel game, telling me how beautiful I was and how much I pleased him.
Pain.
Pleasure.
Pain.
They melded into one, until my body floated and my mind blanked.
“Come for me, little bird. Come for your master.”
He barely had to brush my clit, and my back bowed from the force of my orgasm.
A primal, animal wail echoed around us, and I didn’t recognize that the sound tore from my own chest. It was smothered when Dante’s lips crashed down on mine.
He stimulated my g-spot, wringing more ecstasy from me as his tongue plundered my mouth.
Nothing existed in the world except for his hands on my body and his ferocious kiss.
He swept away all thoughts—even thoughts of Luca.
Especially thoughts of him.
This was an act of savage domination, a display of ownership for my husband’s benefit.
My release went on and on, until my legs shook and I saw stars. Dante’s corded arms wrapped around me, holding me upright as he continued to ravage me.
He didn’t stop until I wept for mercy, so overstimulated that all I could do was babble for reprieve.
He shushed me gently and freed my wrists from the silky binding before he sank to the floor, settling me over his lap so he could cradle me close to his chest. He was breathing hard, and his cock pressed into my stinging bottom, but he made no attempt to fuck me.
Instead, his kiss turned languorous, indulging in my complete submission to his will.
There were no thoughts of fighting him, no glimmer of resistance as I accepted his kiss, clinging to the act of tenderness after so much suffering.
He bushed his lips over my cheeks, tasting my tears.
“I have something for you, darling,” he murmured, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small, black velvet box.
I blinked at it, clearing my watery vision even though my mind still wasn’t working. I stared numbly when he opened the box to reveal the delicate, heart-shaped padlock. An ornate D had been engraved into the rose gold.
The matching, thick gold chain slithered like a snake as he lifted it from the box. It was cold against my heated skin when he looped it around the back of my neck. He hooked the padlock between the final links at either end of the chain. The click of the lock engaging made my heart stutter.
He traced the outline of the padlock with his fingertips, and my skin tingled beneath the tender touch.
“Now everyone will know that you’re mine,” he declared, voice warm with triumph and masculine satisfaction.
His lips brushed mine again, and I retreated deeper into the blankness of my quiet mind. I didn’t want to think. I couldn’t contemplate the fact that he’d essentially locked a collar around my neck like I truly was his pet, his property.
Dante thought that I was his. He thought that he was my master.
I couldn’t let it be true.