34. Playing Both Sides
Playing Both Sides
The repetitive, soothing sound of a beating heart against my ear was the first thing I became aware of as I blinked myself back into the room.
I was lying on Sani’s chest, his arms wrapped around me, his fingers stroking gently up and down my spine, and his dick soft but still buried deep inside my pussy.
“What happened?” I thought I asked, but it came out sounding more like a slur of nonsense.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked from above me, sweeping my hair across his chest and kissing my head.
I swallowed before trying to speak again and gave myself time to consider the question. How was I feeling? Spacy. Sated. Emotional. Amazing.
“Good,” was the word I settled on. I nuzzled into his warmth and sighed. “Did I pass out? I feel like I did.”
“Not quite. You fell into a subspace. It’s an emotional and psychological state of bliss from intense sexual play. You disconnected from reality and entered your own euphoric state.”
“Really? Is that normal?” I asked, lifting my head to rest my chin on his chest and look at him. He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose.
“Si. It can happen during BDSM, when your adrenaline and endorphin release are so strong. You were so fucking perfect, Aria. I knew you would be.”
My chest filled with pride.
“Did you enjoy everything I did to you?” he asked, searching my face.
I nodded, biting my lip. “I loved it all. A little too much. I hated not being able to come, but at the same time I weirdly liked not having control of my body.”
He grinned, looking so sexy and delicious that I couldn’t help but kiss him. When we broke apart, I tried to move off him, not knowing how long I’d been on him like this and that I must have been squashing him. He tightened his arms around me and pulled me closer.
“Physical contact is an important part of aftercare when someone’s entered subspace,” he explained, and I giggled.
“That sounds like an excuse not to let me leave this bed.”
“It’s not.” He shook his head, smiling. “This is your time, Bella. You get me all to yourself, and I’ll do anything you need. Cuddle you, smother you with kisses and praise, wash your hair, and lie in the bath with you until it goes cold. Anything. Just tell me what you need.”
“Really?” I smirked. “You’d wash my hair?”
“Of course. Anything.”
I listened to my body and what I felt I really needed at that moment, and I was shocked to find he was right. I just wanted to be near him, cuddling like this and doing anything that would keep us close. I didn’t ever want him to leave. Wow, needy much? I’d never felt like this with anyone before.
“Can we just stay like this for a while? And then maybe have a shower together?”
He wrapped his arms tighter around me and inhaled my scent as he buried his face in my hair. “Sounds perfect.”
After we’d showered (and he insisted on washing my hair and giving me a head massage, which was utter bliss), I felt more like myself, walking on cloud nine.
That was the best sex of my life. It was bizarre because it also felt like torture for most of it, but a good kind of torture, if that was even possible.
We strolled out of his bedroom, his arm slung over my shoulders, only then realising it was early evening and that my hospital shift started in less than two hours.
Why had I offered to go back in before my leave was up?
What a stupid decision. I didn’t want to leave Santino or this apartment.
I shook my head to snap out of this neediness. That wasn’t me.
“Oh, they’ve risen!” Raya said as we entered the living room and found her curled up under a blanket on the sofa, watching reality TV.
My eyes widened. I’d completely forgotten she was here.
“Don’t worry,” she said, raising a pair of headphones. “Noise-cancelling. Thank God.”
I shoved my hands over my face, mortified. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologise to me. Apologise to your vagina. Three hours must be brutal.”
“We only had sex for an hour and a half. We’ve been chilling the rest of the time,” Sani interrupted, taking out a bottle of water from the fridge and handing it to me with a smile. I melted. Why? Fuck knows. But I melted on the spot. “So, I take it you two made friends?”
I glanced back at Raya, and she smiled. Oh, right. She wouldn’t be talking to me if we hadn’t.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Turns out we have a lot in common.”
Our obsession with morally grey book boyfriends was the main thing. I winked at her, and she smirked, glancing back at the TV as Sani frowned.
“Do I want to know?”
“Definitely not,” I laughed, patting his chest. Christ, I had my own real-life morally grey husband now.
We cuddled up on the other sofa, opposite Raya.
I tried to keep a respectful distance between us so she wouldn’t feel like a third wheel, but Sani refused to let that happen.
“So, will you tell me what happened with my papi now?”
“It’s exactly as I thought. He’s being blackmailed into taking me down. His office is bugged, which means all his electronics are probably too.”
“By Callum?” I gasped.
Sani twisted his lips. “Probably. But if he is behind it, your father isn’t aware. Two men broke into your father’s house last night, attacked him, and threatened him. The fact that they got past his security shows they know what they are doing and are highly skilled.”
“What!” I shot to my feet. “He was attacked? And you’re only just telling me now! Is he okay?”
“He’s okay. Bit bruised but otherwise fine.”
“Oh, my God.” I slammed my hand against my forehead. “I can’t believe you’re only just telling me, Santino! What’s wrong with you?”
I grabbed a pillow off the sofa and threw it at his head. He caught it in his hands.
“Asshole move, fratello,” Raya mumbled from behind us, her eyes fixed on the TV screen as she pretended not to be listening.
He smiled slightly as I launched another pillow at his head. “Relax. He’s fine.”
“Oh, I forgot you’re a sociopath and that it wouldn’t cross your mind to mention that my father is hurt, because that’s something I might care about! Or was fucking me higher on your priority list?”
He scoffed. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“Santino!” I yelled, clenching my fists. “I really can’t stand you right now.”
He spread his thighs and patted his lap with a teasing smirk. “That’s fine, come take a seat instead.”
“Oh, brother,” Raya sighed. “You’re in for a world of pain.”
I glared at him, shoving the pillows aside to find my phone. He grabbed it from my hand, and I swear I nearly punched him in the face.
“You can’t call him.”
“Why not?”
“They are most likely listening in on all his calls.”
“I have to know he’s okay, Sani.”
“I’m telling you he’s okay. Look…” He reached for my wrist and yanked me back onto his lap.
I let him, but kept an angry scowl on my face.
“I’ve told him I’ll find out who’s behind this and protect him, but right now we have to pretend nothing is amiss to keep him as safe as possible.
The men who attacked him told him he had two days to get me arrested.
That means we have two days to find them.
Alessio, Gio, and Max are all on it. We will find them and torture them until they give up who they’re working for. You don’t need to worry, Ribelle.”
I folded my arms across my chest and stared at him. He gave me those puppy-dog eyes that melted me again. “Fine.”
“What if he’s playing you?” Raya asked, voicing the scary thought that had also entered my mind.
Sani narrowed his eyes. “He’s not. He wouldn’t betray Aria or do anything to jeopardise her safety.”
“But what if he’s not betraying her?” Raya argued. “He thinks he’s actually saving her by getting rid of you. He could be framing you, Sani. Use your brain.”
“I am using my brain,” he snapped back. “I told Piero to play along so they won’t suspect he’s helping me find out who’s behind this. This is the only way to protect him right now.”
“Isn’t it obvious who is behind it?” Raya shook her head at us both.
“You mean, Callum?”
“If that’s even his name.”
I glanced at Sani, who was frowning deeply at his sister. “Yes, Callum is our number one suspect, but we have no proof and not much motive.”
“But you do!” Raya swung her legs off the sofa to face us both, her hazel eyes wide, as if it were obvious. “You’re all overlooking the most obvious thing.”
“Raya. Spit it the fuck out before I die of old age,” he grumbled.
She glanced at me. “Who knew about your and Callum’s wedding before Santino found out?”
I looked to the ceiling, thinking hard. “My father. Callum. Me. Allegra. The vicar. And I guess anyone I spoke to about the wedding plans, like the florist and the bridal dress assistant.”
She peered over at Sani. “She’s missing one other name.”
I looked at him as a dark cloud appeared over his face. “Damiano.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I agreed to the wedding after Damiano went miss– I mean, you took him. He couldn’t have known.”
Sani glanced at me, and his nostrils flared. “But he knew. Before I killed him, he told me you’d been promised to him after the wedding.”
My stomach dropped.
“Exactly,” Raya said with a shrug.
“Promised to him? What does that mean? And how would he know when the wedding hadn’t even been planned before then?”
“Someone had promised that he could rape you after you were married to Callum,” Raya said, cutting through the loaded silence.
“Fucksake, Raya. No need to put it so bluntly,” Sani growled at her, wrapping his arm around me as I sat frozen in his lap, my face draining of colour. Bile rose in my throat. “Hey, I was never going to let that happen. That sick fuck’s gone. He got what he deserved.”
“Only two people could have known the plan was to get Aria to marry Callum before she’d even agreed to it. Callum and Piero,” Raya continued. I turned to look at her.
“My father would never agree to Damiano—” I couldn’t even say the words. But then it was hard to believe Callum would agree to that either. Clearly, I didn’t know what he was capable of. Shit, he really was a dangerous man.