Chapter Nine
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Isabella
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My sleep schedule has been nonexistent since I learned my family is bankrupt and I have to marry the head of the Onyx Empire. Except there are now three heads of the Onyx Empire, and each one is my sworn enemy.
My life couldn't get any more ridiculous.
Oh, but it gets worse. I'm a terrible temptress, as history has proven, so I go to get help from a renowned courtesan, only for her to declare me unteachable in the ways of the seductress. She offers me a potion because that is the only way I'm going to get a marriage proposal out of one of them.
I'm terrible, and everything else is already ridiculous, so I take the potion and pay for emotionally damaging the courtesan as well. Go life.
But I'm doing it all for my family. That makes everything worth it.
I'm in the middle of my second breakdown when, since I got up at noon—yes, I toss and turn all night and sleep well into midday now—I get a message from the offices of the Onyx Empire.
"Your attendance is requested at..." and the message gives me the address. I look it up immediately and discover it's a penthouse. Except I can't for the life of me find out who it belongs to, which means I have no idea who I'm meeting. Lorenzo, or Emilio, or Marcello.
It takes me an hour to decide what to wear, and eventually I settle on a simple dress with a flared skirt and a fitted bodice. And before I change my mind again, I head to my car and drive away.
I refuse to acknowledge my racing heart. I could be having a heart attack or a panic attack, I don't know. Today, it's not my business. I just need to get to the penthouse, sign a marriage certificate, and then I can revisit my life as it was before.
I force myself not to stall either. I need to do this speedily and purposefully. My family's lives are in the balance. Nothing else matters.
By the time a doorman, who seemed to have been waiting for me, opens the door to the penthouse, I'm just a numb heap of flesh and bone.
I don't know what I expected to see. But all three of them are not it.
What is going on?
My body does its familiar leap of joy at the sight of them, much to the vexation of my mind, which still sees them as my enemies. And of course my nipples and clit get involved too, and then I go from numb flesh and bone to hot, wet, bothered, and annoyed.
My gaze darts from each of them until it stops on Lorenzo. In his hand is a very familiar little bottle.
"Care to explain?" Lorenzo drawls.
No. No. No. No.
"How did you... I mean, I have no idea what you're talking about," I say, standing my ground like a false martyr of the untruth.
"How did we know?" Marcello asks, finishing my sentence before I started to lie.
"Well, the drink you gave us tasted a little funny. So we retraced your steps and met the lovely Courtesan Celina."
"Okay, but look, I can explain," I say, laughing as if it's the funniest thing ever. But then everything changes.
One second, I was laughing, trying to explain my way out of an impossible situation, the next Marcello throws me over his shoulder and carries me to a desk in the very luxurious penthouse. I thought I had views. I didn't. These are views.
But matter on hand, I've been kidnapped from my standing position to across the vast living room before I'm placed back on my feet, except with the rest of my upper body forced to lean over the gleaming expanse of the desk.
"Just wait a minute. We can talk about this. It was just a little misunderstanding."
They don't listen to me, and before I know it, my wrists are firmly tied to the far edge with soft silk rope.
Did they just have rope lying around like that for no reason?
Or for nefarious reasons? Is this the rope that people use to tie other people up when they play bedroom games?
Do they tie up other women with the same rope?
A river of unbridled jealousy flows through me, and my efforts to get myself released increase.
I kick and shout, calling them all sorts of names, and then resort to begging when they flip up my dress.
No. No. No.
They should not be doing that.
Oh god. My cheek is pressed against the cool wood, my ass up high, and my legs spread while my dress is bunched up around my waist.
I twist from side to side, kicking my legs again when Marcello drags off my panties. He wins, and soon my ass is completely bared.
Oh god, help me.
"Naughty girls who feed us potions to seduce us get all the punishment there is," Lorenzo says, and as if on cue, the sound of something buzzing echoes around the room.
I turn my head to see a... butt plug in Emilio's hand. And it's vibrating. A butt plug. A butt plug. I keep repeating the phrase over and over until it fully registers. That plug is going in my bottom hole.
No, they wouldn't. They're just trying to scare me...
They're not.
Marcello and Lorenzo part my ass cheeks. I lose my voice when the feel of something thick and warm slides down between my cheeks.
"Since this is your first time, we'll allow the use of lube," Emilio says like he's talking to me about the fresh produce on sale in aisle nine.
I both melt and burst into flames when Lorenzo's fingers spread the lube across my hole before he takes the nozzle to my opening and squeezes.
I nearly fly off the table, bindings be damned, at the sensation, at their touch, their nearness.
Until Emilio slips in behind me, and the head of the plug nestles against that very same lubricated hole of mine.
My attempts to scream murder at them are thwarted when instead I bite my lip so hard I taste blood, and the dome-sized part of the plug slips into me.
The stretch is so mind-shockingly disruptive to my entire body, I whimper, tremble, and sob at the same time as fresh, copious amounts of wetness seep from my naked folds.