Chapter 35
SAbrINA
Iswallowed hard, my throat dry.
“I’m not playing games. I don’t belong to you,” I whispered, the words shaky but defiant.
“Oh, but you do.”
Before I could remind him of his promise to keep things strictly professional, he stopped me.
“You’re my employee. And I require your presence this evening at a business function.”
Business function, my ass.
I backed up. “I don’t believe you.”
He followed. “I don’t care.”
My back hit the wall. “I won’t go to dinner with you.”
He placed his forearm over my head and leaned in. “I’m getting tired of you always answering no.”
I turned my head to the side. “Then stop asking the questions.”
A ghost of dark humor teased the corner of his lips. “No.”
“Please. You have to stop all the special treatment. It’s making me a pariah with the staff.”
Sebastian ran his fingers along one of my curls. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Frustrated, I ticked off the items on my fingertips.
“The executive office I don’t deserve. Making me attend meetings above my position.
The rides to work. I can’t imagine what they would say if they knew I was still living in your palazzo.
Private dinner invitations. How I’m exempt from the security pat-downs. ”
“The security pat-downs?”
They were a source of constant complaining, gossip, and a strange sort of camaraderie for the staff.
The House of Diamanti not only supplied eighty percent of the world’s diamonds, but it was also an extremely influential jeweler.
I’d learned that only four floors of the headquarters in Rome were visible to the public—the main storefront, the jeweler’s atelier, the administrative offices, and the executive floors.
But below the building existed a whole different world.
Several floors of vaults, secure loading docks, and cutting rooms lay underground, where rough diamonds arrived by the truckload.
Cutting a diamond was not just a science but an art.
Some of the cutters had held their positions with Diamanti for generations. The craft was steeped in mystical superstition, where a cutter would carefully study a rough diamond to determine the best way to bring forth the perfect gem.
One wrong cut could ruin the diamond and cost the company millions.
Rumor had it Sebastian’s sister, Arabella, had a special gift for it.
The staff spoke of her almost as if she were a witch.
Of course, with millions of dollars' worth of diamonds everywhere, security was tight. Staff endured arbitrary searches when exiting the building.
One of the first Italian phrases I’d learned these last two weeks was “Fermato ai controlli, che palle!”—held up at security, what a pain.
It was almost a rite of passage.
And I was exempt from it.
“Yes, the pat-downs. None of your security guards will come near me.”
Before I could object, his large hands spanned my waist, flipping me around to face the wall.
“What are you—”
Sebastian grabbed my wrists, stretching my arms over my head as he pressed my palms to the wall.
“You wanted a security pat-down,” he said, his voice laced with dark amusement.
His body pressed against mine, tightening his grip on my wrists. “Now, now. If you’re not a good girl, I’ll be forced to do a strip search.”
“This is not what I meant.”
Goose bumps rose on my flesh as he ran his hands over my silk-sleeved arms, sweeping my hair aside to bare my neck.
“You wanted to be treated like all my other employees.”
The edges of his palms pressed against my shoulder blades as he slid his hands over my back. His fingers then spanned my rib cage, skimming just below my breasts.
He cupped my breasts, pressing his hips against my ass, before fisting the fabric of my dress, spreading the collar to expose the lace top of my bra.
His mouth skimmed along my neck as his hand slid over my stomach then down to caress my thigh, reaching for the hem of my dress.
I clutched the fabric, even while I rolled my head back onto his shoulder. “Don’t.”
His hand slipped between my legs. “You said no special treatment.”
“You’re not playing fair.”
His fingers skimmed my inner thigh. “I never said I would.”
How did a woman survive being in this man’s orbit?
The answer was simple. She didn’t.
Maybe that was the real reason why I couldn’t find any media on previous girlfriends. They had gotten too close to his dark star orbit and just combusted, until they were nothing, nonexistent—just dust.
I dug my nails into his wrist as his fingers slipped inside my panties. “Sebastian…”
He ran his teeth along my neck. “That’s it, babygirl. I love the sound of my name on your lips.”
The side of his thumb teased my clit while he pushed two fingers inside of me.
I rose on my toes as I reached my arm around his neck. I pushed my fingers into his hair and grabbed when he thrust his fingers deep inside of me.
“Oh God.”
He added a third finger and pushed his hand inside my bra to tease my nipple.
My mouth opened on gasp as he twisted his fingers inside of me. The slight twinge of pain when he increased the pressure on my inner walls made me clench my fingers tighter in his hair.
I was so close.
The pressure increased.
He thrust fast then pushed the pad of his thumb against my clit with more force.
My knees buckled.
He tightened his arm across my breasts, holding me upright while constricting my ribs.
My body bucked against his restraining embrace.
The moment he sank his teeth into the sensitive spot where my neck met my shoulder, I went over the edge.
As I cried out, he shifted his hand from my breast to my mouth.
Everything about this was wrong.
And I couldn’t get enough of it.
We hadn’t even locked the door.
Any of the co-workers I’d worked so hard to impress over these last few weeks could have walked in and found the boss’s hand up my skirt as I called out to God and all that was unholy.
I bucked again as wave after wave hit me.
Then, just as I was about to collapse in his arms, he swung my body violently to the side.
My middle struck the edge of the desk as he bent me over it. Flipping my skirt over my hips, he exposed my ass to the cool air. My skin wasn’t chilled for long.
I rested my cheek against the wood and looked up in time to see his arm raised behind me.
Before I could object, he spanked my ass with the full force of his flat hand.
He spanked me again on the same cheek. Heat bloomed over my flesh.
“Why are you—”
“You’ll see,” he ground out as he pushed his fingers back inside my now sensitive pussy.
“No, I—”
“What did I tell you about saying no to me?”
He pumped his fingers inside of me. The heightened fear and pain from his spanking as he held me in a humiliatingly submissive position over the desk played on all my darkest kinks.
I came a second time.
While my head still spun, he twisted his hand in my low ponytail and yanked me upward. Tears pricked my eyes from the sharp sting. My body slammed against his.
His fingers dug into the soft flesh of my cheeks while he jerked my mouth open.
He then pushed three fingers into my mouth. “Suck.”
Tears blurred my vision as I swept my tongue over his fingers, forced to not only taste the proof of my own pathetic submission, but to clean it off his skin.
He pulled his hand free. “Good girl.”
I sniffed and lowered my head, unwilling to let him see the turbulent emotions playing across my face.
When he tried to caress my cheek, I turned my face to the side, avoiding his touch.
My neck wrenched back as he renewed his grip on my hair. I couldn't turn away when he cupped my cheek.
He ran his thumb over my cheekbone, swiping at a wayward tear.
He frowned as he stared down at me. “Why do you insist on fighting me when you know you will lose?”
My lower lip trembled as I forced myself to hold his gaze. Blinking past the tears, I raised my chin. “Because one of these days, I’ll win…and I hope it breaks you when I do.”
Just once.
Just once I wanted to see this casually manipulative, overly confident, arrogant, god-like man brought to his knees by an unexpected blow.
I curled my fingers into fists at my sides.
And fuck, I didn’t just want to be there when it happened.
I wanted—needed—to be the cause of it.
I grasped on to that tiny spark as if it were my only light in the unrelenting darkness that surrounded him. I wasn’t as naive as he thought me. While I might not know what game he was playing, I at least knew I was an unwilling participant.
And in every game, even the weakest player gets a chance to play.
All I wanted was a chance.
A chance to break him, even if it was just for one fleeting moment.
The hard glint in his gaze intensified as his lips thinned.
I swayed and had to grasp the edge of the desk behind me for purchase.
He snatched his jacket off the desk, slipped his arms into it, and glared at me as he buttoned it. Without saying a word, he turned on his heel and marched to the door. After opening it, he paused.
"The car will take you home at five. Be ready by seven.”
He slammed the door shut behind him.
Unable to keep up the farce any longer, I crumpled to the floor. Leaning my forehead against the side of the desk, I let the tears I’d barely kept back flow.
The last time I defied him, I'd lost my job and was basically kidnapped.
And that was in a city where I at least had a few friends to turn to for help.
I barely knew anyone in Rome.
And, as I’d already witnessed, everyone feared Sebastian in this town.
What would happen if I dared to defy him again?