9. Chapter Nine #2
“How do you know I’m not lying about that?”
“Because I saw your face the night you told me. I could tell you were being honest and I can tell you’re not being honest now. Just one perfect day you had growing up. Just one. Just tell me.”
“Fine,” he snaps. “You want a perfect day? Ok. My mother really did take me out for ice cream. It was the first time she had ever done it. She didn’t want me getting fat so we weren’t allowed these things.
But she took me out that day. I didn’t understand why at the time.
But I was so happy. Just six years old. I remember it vividly.
She smiled at me. Spoke sweetly to me. Gave me ice cream.
It was a perfect day. Until it wasn’t. She didn’t hit me, my mother.
You are right. I lied about that. But she did something even worse.
She used the lure of ice cream to get me to come with her and then she took me to this man’s home.
A man I had never seen before. And she told me that I would be his now.
That I belonged to him and then she left.
Just… walked away. I never saw her again.
I don’t even know if the bitch is alive or dead. ”
Silence once Dante finishes his story. I open my lips but can’t get the words out.
“You’re… you’re mother gave you away?”
“She didn’t just give me away. She sold me. She didn’t have any money. It’s the reason we never had ice cream. It was a luxury. But we had it that day because he had paid her. For me. The man who became my father. And yes, I did kill him. I wasn’t lying about that.”
“So your father wasn’t your actual father?”
Dante chuckles but there’s no humor to it. “He was my father in every way that counted. He raised me. Taught me how to be a mafia man. But he was cruel. So I killed him when I was old enough to do so. End of story.”
There’s a hardness to Dante’s eyes that tells me he’s still not saying everything. But he told me a lot today and I don’t want to push it further.
Something compels me to grab Dante’s hand. His eyes widen. “Thank you. For sharing that. Even if your perfect day ended in tragedy.”
“I guess you never experienced anything like that. It sounds like your parents loved you.”
“They do. I mean… my father did. He treated me like a princess. My mother was always more bold. More realistic about the world than my dad. It’s how she kept me safe from suitors who came knocking at our door after my dad died.”
His slow smile his eerie. “But she couldn’t save you from me.”
“No,” I breathe out. “She couldn’t. You shot her. I hate you for that.”
“She survived, didn’t she?”
“You still shot her and I still hate you for it.”
He presses his head to mine. I jerk back, putting space between us. “If you hate me so much, Sienna, why do you let me touch you the way I have?”
“You haven’t touched me, remember?”
“I know,” he glowers. “You like having a dildo inside of you? A fake cock? Would you prefer that to a real one?”
The tingle between my legs returns. Dante’s eyes flick down to them when I press them together.
“I take it you would,” he says. “You’re excited. But I don’t like that you would prefer a fake cock to a real one. Aren’t you a little bit curious about having my cock inside of you?”
“You shot my mother,” I say again. “I hate you.” It’s almost like I’m trying to convince myself of that.
He tilts his head to the side, making me feel like I’m on display. “Do you want to know what it’s like to have my cock inside of you?”
“I’m still a virgin. You said so. And you’re not my husband. You can’t have sex with me.”
“I think we’re past all of that, aren’t we? I have fucked you with a dildo in front of other people and you came. You enjoyed it. What kind of sick, twisted person enjoys that?”
I blush. “You did this to me. It’s all your fault.”
“I never said you had to enjoy it but you have. You’re the sick one, Sienna.”
“No, you are!” I snap.
The smirk on his face is dangerous. He knows he’s getting under my skin. He enjoys it. “You’re my bad girl, remember?”
“And you’re the man who kidnapped me. I am only doing what I must to survive.”
“I don’t think coming on a dildo is doing what you must to survive.”
I look away from him for the first time. It’s humiliating to lose. “What are you doing to me?”
“You don’t really hate me.”
“I do. You shot my mother. Of course I hate you.”
“Fine. Maybe you do. But another part of you likes me. I can tell. Why? What happened to you to make you so drawn to the darkness? Did your father touch you when you were little?”
“How dare you,” I snap, turning back to him. “My father was a good man. He never abused me.”
“Your mother then.”
I cross my arms and glare at him. “Never. I had a great childhood.”
“So then where does this darkness come from?” he asks as he runs his hand down my cheek. I hold perfectly still because a part of me is worried I’ll lean into his touch.
“Nowhere. It comes from nowhere.”
“It has to come from somewhere. You like being my prisoner. Most people wouldn’t. So why are you enjoying it, Sienna?”
“You confuse me,” I whisper. “But I never said I was enjoying any of it. You just assumed.”
“Fine.” He pulls away from me and stands up. All the fire between us is snuffed out like a candle. “Keep telling yourself that.” He grabs a towel. “Stand up.”
Slowly, I do as he says. Dante wipes the water from my skin and then picks me up and carries me back to the bed.
“Rest,” he says. “Your body still needs it.”
I watch as he leaves the room, locking the door once again. I have less answers than I did before and only more questions.