Chapter Eleven
Leo
What have I done?
Seeing Emma’s home, the farm where she grew up, made everything change. I saw the lock on her bedroom door. I saw her bloody hands. The way her mother slapped her. Spoke to her.
Was Emma kept as a prisoner in her own home her entire life?
Valentina made it clear that she didn’t want Alessandro to know Emma, which means that Emma was telling me the truth. She’s never known her father. She’s never been a part of this.
So how did she end up on my doorstep that night of all places? Yes, I sent Danilo to kidnap her and he led her to my home but it’s too much of a coincidence.
Or is it fate?
Fuck. I run my hand down my face, pacing back and forth. I’ve been horrible to Emma because I wasn’t sure if I could trust her or not.
The tension inside of me is reaching a boiling point.
A part of me wants her for myself. To consume her.
Make her truly mine. Take her innocence.
While another part of me wants to still use her to punish Alessandro.
He needs to be stopped and Emma is the only way to make that happen. But that still means using her.
Using a girl that I know for a fact is innocent now.
How can I do that? I may be a mafia man without much feelings but Emma has stirred something in me. She’s just so… soft and sweet. It makes me want to protect her from all the bad things in this world. That should include me as well.
I just can’t let her go. I want to keep her for myself.
I have no fucking clue what to do.
With a sigh, I sink into the chair behind my office desk and grab the bottle of whiskey I keep stashed away for moments when I really need it. Right now is a moment when I really need it.
Instead of pouring a small glass, I take a large chug of it, which is a mistake.
A cough bubbles out of me but it’s worth it for the burn.
I need to forget everything I’ve done to Emma.
All the guilt. If I’m going to continue using her to get at Alessandro, I need to push any conflicting feelings for her to the side.
I just have no idea how I’m going to do that.
Emma
I wake up to the feeling of eyes on me.
Leo stands by my bed, watching me sleep. With a gasp, I sit up, clutching the blanket to my chest.
He sits down in the chair beside the bed. “You’re awake. Finally.”
“How long have you been there?”
“Does it matter?” He leans forward, staring me down with an intensity that makes me breathless. “I need you to tell me about your mother. What your life was like with her. I need to know all of it, Emma. Was that what you were keeping from me?”
It takes all my strength to say the word. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me how your mother treated you?”
“Would it have made you believe my story more?”
“It might,” he admits.
“Would you have let me go if you had known I was a prisoner all my life?”
He sighs, running his hand down his face. “No. I still need you. Your father is a problem and you can help me with him. But maybe I wouldn’t have put you into that cage. Maybe if I had known I would have been…”
“Kinder?”
“As kind as a mafia man can be.”
“My mother kept me locked away in that house all my life. I never fully knew why. She would tell me how evil men are. How I needed to stay with her. But I was tired of that life. The way she would hurt me.”
His eyes tighten. “How did she hurt you?”
“She would slap me or kick me. Scream at me. Make me feel like the worst person in the entire world. I believed her at times and other times, I knew it couldn’t be true.
That I wasn’t evil. I went back home with her because I had nowhere else to go.
But it was a mistake. I have no one, Leo.
No one to help me. No one to keep me safe.
I am not working for Alessandro Greco because he is a man I have never met before.
He is a man I never knew existed until you told me about him. You have to believe it.”
“I’m starting to. I know I was wrong to have judged you the way I did. You’re innocent, Emma. I know that.”
A heavy sigh leaves my body, helping to relax the stiffness in my shoulders. “Thank you. But since you know that I’m innocent now, why won’t you let me go?”
“You just said it yourself: you have nowhere else to go. But I’ll keep you here. I won’t put you back in the cage. I promise. That was… a mistake.”
“What does that mean? Me staying here?”
His lips quirk into a smile that makes me blush. “You’re still my wife. I have a claim to you. I still need to keep you here to make your father back off.”
“So I’m still a prisoner.”
“You can move around the house. I won’t keep you locked in this room. But you can’t leave the house. Not when your mother is out there, wanting you back. Not when your father wants you. He could hurt you.”
“I don’t even know if he would. I don’t know him at all.”
“Trust me, Emma. He would hurt you. A man like him has no compassion.”
“And you do?” My tone is soft. Non-judgmental. It’s just an honest question.
He ducks his chin for a long moment before nodding. “I don’t always have compassion. But I do have compassion for you. I have a soft spot for you, Emma. I’ll admit. I won’t keep you as a prisoner if you promise to stay in this house. But you have to stay.”
“You hurt me,” I whisper as tears hit my eyes. “You filled me with hope and ripped it away. That has hurt me the most out of anything that has happened to me.”
Guilt forms in Leo’s eyes but to his credit, he doesn’t look away from me.
“I know, baby. I know I hurt you. And I don’t want to hurt you again.
I can’t promise I’ll always be nice. I have a darkness in me.
I think all mafia men do. But I do know that I don’t want to put you back in that cage.
Especially knowing how your mother treated you. Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because it was too hard,” I admit. “I felt shame for how my mother raised me. I felt embarrassed. I just couldn’t get the words out.”
“I’m glad I know now. Your mother is a problem just as much as your father is. But we can take them down. Together. If you stay here with me. Promise to stay here with me.”
Or he’ll have to lock me back in that cage, I realize.
Leo has to do what he has to do for his job even if that means hurting me.
But it’s obvious he doesn’t want to. It’s more than what my mother has given me.
And as for my father, I don’t know how he’d treat me but hearing him at the theater, I know he’s not a good man.
There was a darkness in his eyes that frightened me.
So I give Leo the only answer I can give. “I promise,” I say. “To stay here as long as you don’t lock me away again.”
“Deal.” The second he says the word, I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders.
“Leo, what happens if my father doesn’t back down? What will you do with me then?”
“Let’s not worry about that now.”
I stare down at my bandaged hands. “Thank you for helping me last night. I wasn’t sure if you were coming to kill me or not when you showed up at the farm.”
“I don’t want to kill you, Emma. I never have.”
“But you will if you have to, won’t you? If my father never backs down. You’ll have to kill me then?”
He blows out a rough breath. “I don’t want that to happen so I will try everything in my power to prevent that. Besides, if you were dead, then I wouldn’t have anything to hold over Alessandro’s head. So as long as you stay in this house, you’re safe.”
“Even from you?”
A dark glint enters his eye. “I want you,” he admits, shocking me. “Like I’ve never wanted anyone before. I want to rip your innocence right out of you. I want to show you things I know you’ve never experienced.”
His words make a tingle spread through my body and I press my legs together to stop the sudden ache between them.
“I can’t promise that you’re fully safe from me,” he continues. “Not when I want to touch you like I do.” His eyes flick down to my legs and back to my eyes. “Do you need me to touch you, baby?”
“I shouldn’t want that.”
“But you do.”
“But I do,” I breathe out.
Slowly, he stands up, hovering over me. I lay back on the bed, feeling like a maiden in a painting with my silky nightgown on. Leo grabs my legs and pulls me to the edge of the bed, making me gasp.
Without a word, Leo shoves my nightgown around my waist, exposing my pussy to him.
“You know what I want to do? Shave away this pesky hair. I want to taste you without it in the way.” He walks into the ensuite bathroom and comes out with a razor and shaving cream.
“I won’t hurt you as long as you remain still. ”
He props my feet on the bed and spreads my legs wider. Goosebumps break out on my skin.
I hold still as Leo runs the shaving cream over the hair of my pussy though it takes everything inside of me to do it. I swallow hard when his fingers graze my nub. For just a second, my hips arch into his hand.
Leo makes a low sound in the back of his throat. “Naughty girl. Hold still for me.” He brings the razor to my inner thigh and begins shaving the hair away.
He is meticulous and focused. It makes a wetness seep out of me. I never knew I could feel this aroused for another person.
One he finishes, he uses a towel to wipe the rest of the shaving cream away.
“There. All bare for me.” He leans down and blows air right on my nub. I cry out and arch my hips up. Leo lets out a low chuckle as he grabs my thighs and begins to kiss along my inner leg.
“You smell like fucking honey,” he murmurs, grazing his nose against my inner thigh. “I need to taste you again, baby.” Without asking for my permission, he brings his lips right to my nub. A loud moan escapes me. I’m not even embarrassed by it anymore.
He runs his tongue all along my folds and nub, making me wetter. It coats my inner thighs. The dark sound that Leo makes as he eats me out sends a heat through my body. My hips arch into his mouth.
Leo holds me down and presses his tongue and lips against my nub harder.
Without thinking about it, my hands find my breasts. I need something to steady me. Something to touch.