Chapter 7 #2
His threats made my blood run cold. Dante had used Gabriele and Lorenzo to subjugate Luca ever since he’d been captured. Seeing my strong husband controlled by a madman turned my stomach.
I placed my hand over his heart to call his attention to me.
It’s okay, I tried to say, but the words stuck in my constricted throat.
“She doesn’t need your hands on her,” Luca seethed. “Not after everything she’s been through.”
Yes, I’d suffered so much. The Russians…
I swallowed hard, and cold sank into my flesh. Dark memories churned, rising up to drown me in terror and agony.
“My wife needs me more than ever,” Dante snapped back.
Dark laughter suffused the air around me, making it heavy enough to suffocate me. Masculine hands groped me, leaving trails of grime on my skin.
“Please…” I begged to be spared, to be saved.
But no one would save me. Dante wasn’t coming, and Luca couldn’t come.
“Nora.” Dante’s voice, rough with strain.
I leaned back into his steady heat, his strong body. “You came.” I whispered.
“I will always come for you,” he swore. “I’ll prove it to you every day. You’re safe with me.”
Luca’s thick fingers trailed over my cheeks, wiping away tears.
“Stay here with me.” My husband’s voice was deep and steady, a gentle command.
I drew in a breath and focused on the two men who had saved me. Both of them, surrounding me, protecting me.
“Let’s get you warmed up,” Luca rumbled.
He didn’t continue his argument with Dante. Their quarrel seemed utterly forgotten as their full focus centered on me.
Handling me as though I was a spooked doe, Luca moved slowly as he reached for the silken tie on the ankle-length black robe that preserved my modesty.
He’d caressed me and soothed me since I’d been rescued, but I hadn’t been completely naked since they’d saved me. At least, not when I’d been conscious.
The tie fell away, and the robe parted. Cool air kissed my sternum, and I suddenly felt horribly exposed, despite the fact that my breasts were still covered. A whimper slipped between my pursed lips, and I fisted the soft material, pulling it tightly around me to cover my body.
Sick laughter echoed through my head, and ice encased my bones.
“No, darling.” Dante’s voice was soft but firm, his warm breath fanning my neck in contrast to the chill that’d frosted my skin. His hands engulfed mine, and he slowly guided my fists apart, easing the robe away from my body. “Look at Luca.”
My husband’s familiar touch warmed my face as he cupped my cheeks, calling my attention back to him. I fell into his caramel gaze, allowing myself to be utterly consumed by the depth of his love.
“I’ve got you,” he promised.
I released my tight grip on the robe so that I could cling to his broad shoulders, my fingers flexing into his muscles. Nothing could harm me when Luca was holding me.
Dante slowly parted the robe, and although a shiver raced over my skin when it slid down my arms and revealed my breasts, I didn’t struggle or cry. The dark memories hovered at the edges of my mind, but the fierce men holding me kept the worst effects of the trauma at bay.
“Let go of Luca,” Dante murmured in my ear, cajoling rather than commanding.
I hesitated to release my husband, but Dante pressed a tender kiss to my shoulder.
“He’s going to hold you the whole time,” he promised. “You have to get in the bath first.”
Reluctantly, I pried my fingers free from Luca’s shoulders and allowed the robe to slide to the floor. Before I could shiver with cold, my husband’s arms closed around me, and he held me close as he eased both of us into the tub.
“You’re doing so well,” he praised. “Good girl.”
I buried my face in his chest and breathed him in as we sank into the warm water. Dante sat beside the tub, with us but apart. He didn’t impose himself on me, but he did roll up his sleeves to reveal his corded forearms.
“Relax,” he urged. “And tell me if anything hurts too much.”
A few of the bruises that covered me flared with pain at the firm contact with Luca’s hard body, but I didn’t care. I welcomed that slight discomfort because it grounded me to him. And with the mild drugs still swirling in my system, the worst of it was dulled.
I settled with my back pressed to Luca’s chest, his imposing frame enfolding mine.
The men didn’t speak to one another again, but they both lathered up their hands and began to gently wash my abused body.
With every brush of their soap-slicked hands, the sense that grime coated my skin began to slide away.
The Russians had groped me, used me. Their cruel, grasping fingers had pressed dark bruises into my arms, my legs, my hips. And they’d…
“Breathe, Nora,” Dante commanded. He pressed his palm over my racing heart, right between my breasts. “Deep breath in.” His glittering green eyes filled my world, and my lungs expanded. “Very good, darling. Again.”
I obeyed, and oxygen flooded my system, making me slightly lightheaded. Everything seemed slightly surreal, the world going soft around the edges as my traumatic memories receded.
“Touch her.” Dante rumbled the command at Luca, but he didn’t take his eyes off me.
“She doesn’t need that right now,” my husband growled.
Dante’s hand eased from my sternum to cup my breast, his fingers lightly tracing around my nipple. I squirmed against Luca as an echo of fear pulsed alongside pleasure.
“It’s exactly what she needs,” Dante replied steadily. “My wife deserves pleasure and intimacy. Those Russian bastards won’t take that from her.”
“She’s still hurt,” Luca’s chest rumbled against my back, and I leaned into his fierce strength.
“And you won’t cause her any pain,” Dante said, calm and confident rather than antagonistic. He was my lifeline, and he wouldn’t waver. He wouldn’t bend or compromise.
Luca’s touch was hesitant as he cupped my other breast, his fingers testing my peaked nipple. “You want this, kitten?” he murmured, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
“I want you,” I whispered raggedly.
I wanted my husband’s touch to erase what the Bratva had done to me. I wanted him to take the nightmares away.
And I couldn’t seem to break from Dante’s intense gaze. The man who had once been my monster was now my anchor, keeping me bound to reality when I might’ve been dragged into darkness at the contact with my most intimate areas.
“You’re so brave, Nora,” Dante praised. “The bravest woman I know.”
With his free hand, he lifted mine from the water and brushed a kiss over my knuckles.
His other continued to massage my breast, stimulating me and coaxing pleasure from my ravaged body.
Luca’s hand was firm on my other breast, toying with my nipple in the way he knew I liked.
He handled me more gently than usual, but I couldn’t take harsher treatment at the moment.
And cruel, sadistic Dante stroked me as carefully as though I was a kitten.
“Touch her clit,” he ordered Luca.
My husband grunted, a sound between irritation and desire. His cock was hard against my bottom, but I didn’t experience so much as a flicker of fear. I could trust Luca.
And I trusted Dante to never hurt me. He’d saved me so many times, putting his own life on the line for me. How could I fear him after that?
What we were doing together should feel perverse, but all I felt was comfort and pleasure at their hands.
Dante was right: I needed this.
And even though Luca didn’t seem to understand my needs in the same way, he loved me, and he would do anything for me.
Luca’s fingers trailed down my stomach, swirling around my navel before exploring lower. He slowly tested me, ensuring that I didn’t respond with fear before touching my sex.
The first brush of his thumb over my clit made me buck against him, a shocking mix of terror and pleasure bursting through me. I cried out, and Dante pinched my nipple, capturing my attention with the small flare of erotic pain.
“Don’t stop,” he growled at Luca.
He pinched my nipple again, tugging and rolling it between his deft fingers in the way I liked best. I whimpered, and my eyes slid closed as my head dropped back on Luca’s shoulder. My husband kissed my neck, nipping at my tender flesh to light up my body with carnal awareness.
But in the darkness behind my closed lids, visions of my tormentors began to coalesce. I tensed and thrashed again. Luca held me fast, his thumb rubbing my clit in firm, determined circles.
“Look at me,” Dante ordered.
My eyes flew open, and I gasped as I was immediately captured in his intent emerald gaze. I drew in a shuddering breath and released it on a soft sob of relief.
“Dante.” I whispered his name like a prayer, and my fingers sank into Luca’s thighs on either side of me, anchoring myself to him.
“I love you,” Luca rumbled in my ear, his teeth tugging at my lobe with a little bite of pain. Just the way I liked it. “You’re so beautiful, kitten. Such a good girl, submitting to me. I want an orgasm.”
He rubbed my clit in a firm, demanding rhythm while Dante toyed with my nipples. My back arched on a sharp cry, and pleasure burst through me. Both men held me fast as I writhed between them, bliss singing through my veins, chasing away the last of the toxic taint left by my tormentors.
I didn’t think about the Russians. I didn’t think about anything at all.
All that existed was the ecstasy of Luca and Dante’s hands on me, their deep, rumbling voices lavishing me with praise.
Even as I began to float back down from my high, peace enfolded me. My eyelids were heavy, and I blinked slowly.
“You did so well, darling.” Dante brushed a kiss over my flushed cheek, but he didn’t try to claim my lips.
Something like regret tugged at my gut when he pulled away, but Luca was instantly there, his big hand urging me to turn my face to his so that he could capture my lips in a fierce kiss.
While I remained locked in my husband’s embrace, Dante finished washing my body, prioritizing my needs above his evident desire for me.
I could see the bulge where his cock strained against his pants, but he didn’t try to touch me sexually again.
I was overstimulated, every inch of my flesh tingling.
I couldn’t have taken more intimate contact.
Not yet, when my body was still recovering.
After a while, Luca lifted me from the cooling water, and Dante wrapped me in a fluffy towel, carefully drying my body before slipping a silky red nightgown over my head.
It was one of the indecent scraps on lingerie he’d bought for me when he’d first captured me, but the garment didn’t bother me anymore.
I didn’t feel any modesty around either man.
Too much had passed between us for me to feel embarrassment over my nakedness when I was with them.
And I was so sleepy. I wouldn’t have protested even if I had been irritated by his choice of sleepwear.
I yawned, and Luca carried me the short distance to the bed. Worry nipped at me, and I clung to his shoulders as my eyes found Dante’s once again.
“I don’t want Luca to leave,” I pleaded. I didn’t want him to return Luca to that awful cell; I needed him to hold me and keep the nightmares at bay.
Dante frowned, but his voice was gentle when he replied. “Luca isn’t going anywhere, Nora. He hasn’t left your side since we returned home.” His expression hardened to something more forbidding. “But I’ll be damned if I don’t share a bed with my wife. Luca is staying, but you sleep with me, pet.”
Confusion threaded through me as both men settled into the massive bed on either side of me. Luca pulled me close, so that my head rested on his chest. Dante’s heat pressed up against my back, his body molding to mine. Their warmth and strength surrounded me, protecting me.
Before I could puzzle over the bizarre arrangement, I fell into deep sleep, free from nightmares. Nothing bad could touch me while I was in their arms.