Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Katya
After three days of silence from Gabriele, with meals being eaten separately once more and doors closing before I reach them, I feel as if the progress we made has simply evaporated.
I don't know what news Adriano brought but it was bad enough to make my husband retreat into his study and for Lukas to take a vow of silence.
It's frustrating being shut out like this. If Gabriele doesn't want to tell me what Adriano's news was, I can live with that.
What I can't accept is being treated as if I don't exist. Perhaps if the house wasn't still on lockdown I could cope. But being stuck within the same four walls day in and day out is only making me angrier. There's nothing to distract myself with.
It’s not just me who feels the tension. Though nobody has said anything, the whole house is on edge.
Maria has kept the staff away from the corridor where Gabriele’s office is located.
They still clean the living room where I spent most of my days, but they move quickly and quietly, afraid to disturb.
Lukas is the only one Gabriele allows into his inner sanctum and when he emerges he’s noticeably tense.
Unable to sleep properly, I’ve come down well past midnight the last couple of nights and noticed a light coming from under Gabriele’s door. I’m not sure he even goes to bed.
Something is troubling him and I want to know what before it brings all of us down.
As I pace back and forth in the living room, wearing a groove in the carpet, Santo comes into the room. He's done his best to entertain me over the past few days but there's a limit to how many games of cards you can play before going stir crazy.
"Signora Katya." Santo's voice is careful. He's right to be cautious. I'm on the verge of exploding. "Why don't we…."
"Don't." I hold up a hand to stop him. "Don't suggest another card game, a film, a game of Scrabble. Something is going on around here and nobody will tell me what it is. I've been patient long enough."
"I understand, but…."
"Do you know what's happening?"
Santo shakes his head. "Above my pay-grade, Signora."
"Hmm, well I've had enough." I press my fingers to my temples for a moment and breathe. Then I drop my hands and look at Santo. His expression is one of concern. "I'm going to speak to him."
He nods slowly. He doesn't try to stop me. By now, he knows better.
“Be careful,” he says as I brush past him.
He offers me an uncertain smile, something I’ve never seen from him before. Though he’d never overstep and say it outright, he thinks I’m making a mistake.
Perhaps I am. I know I am, yet I still storm along the corridor to Gabriele's study. I pause for a moment, gathering my courage, but I don’t knock.
Pushing the door open, I find him sitting at his desk. The light in here is dim, the shutters closed against the afternoon sun.
The desk in front of him is empty. There’s no laptop, no papers. It doesn’t look as if he’s been working on anything.
He’s just sitting there in the half-light with an untouched glass of Scotch in front of him. My heart flutters. This is worse than I feared.
"Gabriele." I take a cautious step into the room and close the door behind me. "Is everything okay?"
"Not now, Katya." His tone is weary but edged with something dark. "Now isn't a good time."
"When is it a good time?"
He has no answer for that. He picks up his drink, lifts it to his lips and then lowers it to the desk without touching a drop.
"Is there something you need?"
"Yes. I need my husband to stop avoiding me."
"I'm not avoiding you."
Does he really think that's going to fly with me?
"Yes you are. Something happened when Adriano was here and I have a right…."
Slamming his hand on the desk, Gabriele gets to his feet, bristling with anger. "You have no rights, not in my house."
He couldn't have shocked me more if he'd slapped me. His house? After I've spent weeks working to make this place somewhere worth living? My bottom lip wobbles but I refuse to cry.
"You're an asshole."
Gabriele closes his eye. His chest rises and falls slowly as he takes a breath. When he opens it, the anger has been replaced with something I can't name. It chills me to the bone.
"Get out of here, Katya."
"No."
He scrubs a hand over his face and I know I'm on dangerous ground.
"Go." His voice is quiet, deadly. "I'm not in the right frame of mind. I'll hurt you."
I study him for a moment, trying to gauge how close to the edge he really is. Gabriele is drowning. I can see it.
The last thing I want is to be used and discarded but right now I’m the closest thing he has to solid ground. I’ve helped him through crises before. This is no different. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
I need to do something to bring Gabriele back to me. We were getting somewhere and I can’t let that slip away. I’m tenacious, I remind myself. When I want something, I don’t stop until I get it.
Though I know I’m playing with fire and likely to get burned, I know what I have to do. Reaching back, I lower the zipper of my dress.
"Katya."
I should heed the warning in his voice but I don't.
Three days of being ignored have made me desperate for attention, no matter what form it comes in. I wriggle out of my dress and let it drop to the floor. I stand before him in my black lace bra and panties, waiting for him to react.
Gabriele stalks closer, a predator closing in. He grabs my ponytail and jerks my head back.
"Why can't you be good?" he murmurs. He bends his head and kisses my exposed throat. "Why can't you do as you're told?"
"I can," I say defiantly. "When I like what I'm being told."
Gabriele kisses my throat. I moan as he finds a particularly sensitive spot. He releases my hair and steps back. As he crouches, I hold my breath. He leans closer, his warm breath whispering over me. Then, suddenly, he gets to his feet and shoves my dress at me. Shocked, I take it.
"Get dressed and get out of here, Katya. This is your last warning."
"Gabriele." Whether I want it to or not, my voice is pleading.
"And stop trying to use your body to sway me. You're my wife, not some shlyukha."
It's the first Russian word I've heard crossing his lips and he used it to call me a whore.
Enraged, I pull back my hand and slap him hard across the face. The crack resonates through the room. For several long heartbeats, Gabriele and I stare at each other.
Then I whirl and storm from the room. I march toward the stairs, past Maria who gasps in shock. Heavy footsteps echo on the tile behind me.
Gabriele shouts something in Italian, not directed at me but at Santo who chooses this moment to pop his head out through the living room door. He casts me a horrified glance and retreats.
Picking up my pace, I hurry toward the stairs. I make it almost to the top when Gabriele catches me. He grabs my ankles, pulling me down. My hands shoot out to break my fall but I still come down with a thud.
Gabriele presses along the length of my back.
"Is this what you want, Katya?" He slides a hand around to cup my feminine mound. "Is this what you need?"
As he runs his finger over my slit, I can't help but moan. He never fails to turn me on. Even when he’s being like this, I want him with a hunger I fear I’ll never satisfy. I'm not about to admit that, but he doesn't need words. My body betrays me.
With a feral snarl, he rips my panties away. His weight lifts from me just long enough for him to free himself from his clothing.
Bracing himself on his hands, he impales me with his cock. There's nothing tender in his touch as he holds me down and pumps his hips to thrust deep inside me.
This is a masterclass in brutal possession. He fucks me like he hates me and it still turns me on. There must be something short-circuiting in my brain because the rougher he handles me, the more I like it.
My body hums with pleasure as he fucks me on the stairs where anyone could walk by. As he continues to hammer into me, I curl my fingers around the edge of the stair above me and bow my head. Gabriele pulls my hips back to meet his thrusts. There's nothing for me to do but hang on.
Even as it crosses my mind that I'll be sore for days after this, I feel the familiar stirrings of ecstasy inside me. It swirls around my womb and fans out across my body. My pussy clenches and I moan as Gabriele carries me ever closer to the edge.
He slides a hand beneath me and unerringly finds my clit. It's swollen, throbbing, in desperate need of attention he's only too willing to give. He isn't gentle as he takes the sensitive bud between his fingers and pinches.
I scream as a powerful wave of pleasure washes over me.
My body quivers in the aftershocks as Gabriele continues to fuck me until he, too, reaches his climax.
He pulls out of me and a moment later his warm seed splatters across my back.
He collapses on top of me, his weight pressing me into the stairs.
I lie there listening to his harsh breathing for a moment, before I buck my hips, urging him to move.
He does so immediately. For a moment he sits on the stair next to me. He doesn't look at me.
"Do you feel better now?" I ask him.
"No." His voice is quiet.
"No." I struggle to my feet and pick up my dress which was crushed beneath me. "Neither do I."
With that I walk away, my dignity intact, but my heart breaking into a thousand tiny pieces. I don’t know what Adriano told him, what pain he’s nursing in that study but I know, for a brief moment, he let me close enough to feel it. That’s enough. For now.