Chapter 6
Luca
The heart shaped padlock glittered at the hollow of her throat, the pretty trinket a nauseating sight. My stomach churned in the aftermath of the harrowing scene. If I’d eaten anything today, I would’ve vomited.
Her screams had knifed through me, carving furrows deep in my soul. I’d never forget the horror of watching helplessly as the bastard tormented my wife.
And I’d done nothing. I’d said nothing.
Even now, my hands were fused to the wall at my back, trapped in place by Dante’s cruel order, his threat to torture my friends if I defied him. All I could do was watch while he kissed my wife as though he had every right.
She was quiet in his arms, her eyes closed as her mouth shaped to his.
Was she thinking about me instead?
I gnashed my teeth at the thought.
Selfish.
The truth of Dante’s characterization of me was a dagger to my heart. I’d always been selfish when it came to my relationship with Nora. Everything I’d done with her—even trying to make her happy—had been for my own benefit, my own pleasure.
She’d just been punished in the most sadistic way because of me. Why would she think of me in the aftermath?
Yes, I’d been selfish to let her treat my wounds.
To claim a kiss from her lush lips. I’d warned her to leave me, but I hadn’t tried very hard to make her obey.
I’d been too desperate for her touch, for the distraction of her soft submission.
Dominating her made me feel powerful, and I’d indulged in that rather than facing the truth of my captivity and shame.
She’d suffered because I was too weak to turn her away.
The weight of my self-loathing crushed my chest, shoving all the air from my lungs.
Even if I could rail at Dante for being a fucked-up bastard without risking my friends, I didn’t have the breath to shout.
My throat was already raw from bellowing my helpless rage as he’d hurt Nora, and I’d been forbidden from saying a word in protest. I would’ve begged on my knees by the end if it meant she would be spared.
As it was, my knees remained locked, and my hands were still pressed against the wall. My chest heaved as I sucked in oxygen, willing the sick, dizzy feeling to abate.
Dante’s watch beeped, and he ended his kiss with Nora to check it. His lips brushed her forehead.
“Time for dinner, darling. You haven’t eaten today, have you?”
She stiffened and blinked, a glimmer of awareness returning to her lovely eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off before she could say anything.
“Don’t lie to me. I don’t want to punish you again so soon.”
She pressed her lips together, and her throat worked as she swallowed hard.
He stood and helped her to her feet. She swayed, legs unsteady in the aftermath of the devastating things he’d done to her. He wrapped a supporting arm around her waist and guided her toward the door to my cell.
His glittering green eyes met mine, his satisfied smile sharp enough to cut. “You’re coming with us,” he announced. “You’re going to see how I take care of my wife.”
“Haven’t you hurt her enough?” My demand was hoarse from my raw throat.
He shook his head at me, his grin maniacal. “I didn’t say you could speak. Nora took one punishment for your friends’ sake, but that won’t happen again. Not when she’s blameless for your next actions.”
I wanted to snap at him that she hadn’t done anything to deserve the torment he’d just inflicted, but in his mind, she was partially responsible for our kiss. When it was all my fault. I’d been the one to grab her hair and tug her toward me so that I could claim her mouth.
And now if I dared to speak again, he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Gabriele and Lorenzo.
“Don’t try anything stupid,” he warned. “Remember what will happen if you try to fight me.”
As though I needed reminding. He’d already crushed my will. How much more humiliation could I bear?
I gritted my teeth and straightened my shoulders. For my friends’ sake—and for Nora’s—I could bear it. I didn’t have a choice.
He retrieved a key from his pocket and unlocked my cell. I stood rooted to the spot, pressing my hands tighter to the wall to prevent them from wrapping around his throat.
He smirked at me and lifted Nora up in his arms, turning his back on me.
“Come,” he commanded, not bothering to watch to ensure I complied.
My feet stuck to the concrete floor, the order grating on my already raw and wounded pride.
But he was carrying Nora away from me. I had to follow.
I wrenched my hands from the wall and fisted them at my sides to prevent myself from snapping his neck.
Each docile step pained me like knives piercing my bare soles, but I didn’t attack my enemy.
Instead, I watched the top of Nora’s head where it peeked over his shoulder.
I wished she would turn her head and glance back at me, but it was probably better for us both if she remained in her detached state.
If she looked at me with desperation pinching her delicate features, I wasn’t at all certain if I’d be able to stop myself from killing Dante, and that would condemn Gabriele and Lorenzo.
We strode up the stairs and through a maze of corridors. I marked the path, memorizing the layout of the mansion. I’d already explored a significant portion of the house when I’d hunted for Dante yesterday, after I’d killed his guards and briefly escaped.
But I’d never really been free at all. The bastard had been waiting for me with yet another trap: a gun to Nora’s head. It hadn’t even been loaded.
No, Dante didn’t want to see Nora dead. I knew that now. His insane affection for her seemed genuine, and from what I’d seen, it bordered on obsession. He reveled in tormenting her; he didn’t want to lose that by killing her.
He still held her cradled to his chest when he led me into a cavernous dining room and settled in a chair at the head of the table. Two place settings waited for us. I assumed one was for Nora and one for him, but he kept her in his lap, his arm an iron band around her naked body.
He tipped his head at the chair opposite him. “Sit.”
I sat stiffly, and all my muscles locked up tight. I was on high alert, completely thrown by what was happening. Dante’s actions made no sense. Why free me from my cell and offer me dinner like I was his guest?
Other than to rub it in my face that I didn’t have to be confined for him to keep me subdued.
Nora sat stiffly, too. Her cheeks were pink, a dark shade of embarrassment.
“Please don’t do this,” she whispered, begging Dante to grant her reprieve from something I didn’t understand.
He kissed her cheek. “I’m going to take care of you, pet. Let me.”
Suddenly, she lunged for the sharp knife to the right of his plate. He snagged her wrist mere inches from the blade, dragging her hand back into her lap as his other arm clamped around her more tightly.
“I know you’re angry with me, darling, but there’s no need for that. Don’t make me punish you again.”
Her entire body vibrated with unspent aggression. “Fuck you.”
Keeping her trapped against him with one arm, he lifted his other hand to grip her jaw. He lifted her face to his and locked her in a forbidding stare.
“I admire your fire, but we have to learn to get along,” he said, as though he was the reasonable one. “You asked for a punishment, and you got one. I understand if you lose your temper with me sometimes, but I won’t allow you to hurt me.”
“And you’re allowed to hurt me?” she shot back, venom lacing the words.
“Yes,” he replied simply. “And I’ll make sure you enjoy it. Did I not make you come hard enough in the end?”
His dark brows rose in challenge, and she bared her teeth at him.
“I don’t want you to make me come. I don’t want you to touch me. I hate you.”
He sighed, exasperated. “It doesn’t have to be this way between us, little bird. You’ll come to understand me in time.” He released her face from his firm hold and pulled the domed silver lid from his plate. “Now, it’s time for you to eat something.”
“You make me sick,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not hungry.”
“Yes, you are,” he said dismissively. “You just don’t want to eat. But you don’t get to make that choice.”
His sharp green eyes suddenly pierced my chest. “She’s been starving herself, and you didn’t even notice.
” He sneered. “You were never worthy of pretending to be her husband. You’re too self-absorbed to see what’s right in front of you.
” He stroked a hand down her back. “I’ll always take care of my wife. ”
My eyes raked down her slim body, noting how slender and fragile she was. I’d assumed she had a dancer’s form, and I’d never questioned how thin she was. She had generous enough feminine curves to distract me from the slight shadows around her lower ribs.
How had I never noticed?
“Is it true?” I demanded of her before I could hold the words in. My own face firmed into forbidding lines. “You’ve been—”
“Don’t talk to my wife!” Dante thundered, cutting me off before I could demand answers from her.
She cringed at his outburst, and he stroked her spine again, soothing.
“I’m not angry with you,” he promised her. “Luca needs to learn to mind his tongue, or Gabriele will lose his.”
My fists flexed beneath the table, and I clamped my mouth shut.
Dante cut into his steak and picked up a bite sized piece, lifting it to Nora’s mouth.
“Open up, pet,” he cajoled.
She shot me a shy glance, her cheeks flushing a deeper shade of pink. She was embarrassed for me to watch him feed her like she truly was his pet.
But if she was looking to me to help her avoid eating, she was mistaken. If I’d been free to do as I wished, I would have fed her from my own hand.
I’d been careless with my wife, every bit as self-centered as Dante had said.
But if our positions were reversed, I would’ve done whatever it took to ensure she was safe and healthy.
And although I didn’t possess Dante’s sadistic streak, I could be a controlling bastard when I was intent on getting what I wanted.
I would’ve bent her too-thin body over the table and spanked her if that was what it took to get her to eat.
“Remember what happened the last time you refused,” he reminded her sternly.
What had he done to her?
Whatever it was, the memory of it made Nora drop her eyes and part her lips, accepting the food from his fingers.
I felt like I was a voyeur watching something perverse. Because if she’d submitted to me like that, I would’ve fucked her hard and given her an orgasm in reward for her good behavior.
Loathing for Dante burned with the molten heat of a small sun in the center of my chest. He’d taken my wife from me. He was holding her and caring for her in the way I should’ve done from the very beginning of our marriage if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with securing my birthright.
Instead, I’d taken what I wanted from her on our wedding night and forced birth control on her to suit my own needs and desires. She’d told me that she hated me for it.
Dante had accused me of raping her. It wasn’t true.
It couldn’t be. I wasn’t that much of a monster.
Not like him.
My stomach twisted, but I would have to eat something. I had to keep my strength up, and already it’d been more than a day since my last meal.
I looked down at my place setting and found that I hadn’t been provided with a knife and fork.
It seemed Dante was sparing me from temptation.
So, I’d have to eat with my hands like some kind of beast, yet another humiliation on top of everything he’d already done to me.
As I watched him feed Nora, regret gnawed at my insides, making me feel sicker than ever. The food I forced down tasted like ashes.
It was too late to go back. I couldn’t undo the unforgivable way I’d treated Nora when I’d forced her to marry me. I couldn’t try to ensure her wellbeing simply because I genuinely cared about her happiness more than my own.
As long as he had my friends as his hostages, there was nothing I could do against him. Nothing I could do to save Nora from him.
We were Dante’s playthings now.