Chapter Six
Emma
The only person who has seen my naked body before is my mother and she would always scold me for my skin, saying the flesh was sinful.
I wrap my arms around my breasts but I know Leo can see all of my bare back.
Fortunately, I have underwear on but it’s just a flimsy piece of fabric that can easily be ripped off.
Leo doesn’t say a word behind me.
I feel his fingertips find the waistband of my panties before he pulls them down my legs. I shiver.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I whisper.
“If you won’t give me answers, I’ll have to take them from you. If this is the way, then so be it. Get in the bath. You need to take one.”
“Why do you care if I have a bath or not? If I smell good or not? You’re not my husband. Not really. You don’t care for me. You think I’m lying to you.”
“Because you’re Alessandro Greco’s daughter. There’s no way you don’t know about that. So you will tell me what you know eventually and in the meantime, I will try to get you to talk. Now, get in the bath. I want you to be clean. Call it me being generous.”
I scoff. “You were never generous. If you were, you wouldn’t have used me like this. Is that why you let me into your home? Because you knew who I was?”
“Yes. I had to know what kind of game you were playing. You’re still playing innocent, I see. We’ll see if that lasts forever.” He walks over to the tub and turns the knob, filling it up with water. “Get in, Emma.” His tone is softer. Almost kind. But I know Leo is the last thing from kind.
The basement is cold though and I feel dirty and I want to wash it all away so I get into the bath.
Leo watches me the entire time. Now that he’s dropped his nice facade, I see how dangerous he looks.
How intimidating. How… handsome. I’m not sure how he can continue to be handsome when I know how evil his character is.
“Wash yourself,” he commands.
“Please,” I whisper.
“If you don’t want me to do this to you, then tell me what you know, Emma. Tell me anything I can use against your father.”
“I don’t know anything because I don’t know my father. I am telling you the truth. You refuse to see it.”
He kneels down on the ground, putting his face close to mine.
I inhale. For a moment, I think he might kiss me, but he only stares back.
“What I know is that you’re Alessandro’s daughter.
Your mother is Valentina Greco. Your parents were there the night Giovanni, your uncle, murdered Gabriel Romano’s entire family. ”
“Who is Gabriel Romano?”
“My boss and one of my best friends. I’ve helped him grow in the mafia over the years.
We’ve worked side by side on everything.
I feel anger for him just as much as he does for what happened to him.
Your parents are not good people. Which means you can’t be good.
You were raised by them. I refuse to believe you’re innocent. You can’t be.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself of that?”
His eyes widen before they darken. “You came into my home without hesitation. Most people would not do that. That either means you’re incredibly na?ve or you had a plan to get close to me and find a way to tear me and Gabriel down from the inside.
I have to believe the latter since I’ve only seen darkness in this world. ”
“The mafia.”
“Yes. It’s a dark, fucked up place.”
I shiver at his words. Leo has never cussed around me before. My mother always said cussing was sinful. Everything was sinful in her eyes.
“Why did you come into my home, Emma? You had to have known who I was. No woman would just step foot into a man’s house like you did. No one. So why did you?”
To tell him why I did would be to tell him everything about my mother.
How she kept me locked away my entire life.
How she kept me so sheltered, it turned me into the kind of woman who doesn’t know how to read people.
If I had been raised like the people in her books had been, I would have been able to tell Leo wasn’t a good man.
But I couldn’t because I don’t know anything.
I’m learning now though. I’m learning how evil this world is and how right my mother was and that pains me most of all.
“I can’t,” I say. “I can’t.” The shame of how my mother raised me is too deep. It’s embarrassing. Humiliating. I can’t say the words.
Leo’s eyes flick down to my bare breasts above the water.
I sink down lower, hiding my body from his view.
“Are you shy?” he asks. “Don’t want me to see your body?
Yet, you agreed to marry me after knowing me for only a week.
I’m sure you wanted to give your body to me then.
Who are you, Emma? Are you playing a long game with me or are you truly that innocent? ”
I don’t say a word.
“Why don’t we test it?” He reaches his hand out and pushes a piece of my hair behind my ear. I gasp. His touch feels electric. Despite how evil Leo has turned out to be, I always did find him handsome and that hasn’t gone away overnight.
“Do you like this?” he murmurs, drawing his fingers lower to my collarbone.
I shiver. A smirk plays on his lips as he brings his fingers to the swell of my upper breasts.
“Would you let me touch you here? If you were truly innocent, you would push my hand away. Or maybe it’s because of your innocence that you won’t. What game are you playing, Emma?”
“No game.”
He cups my breast in his hand. I gasp from the pleasurable sensation.
Never have I felt this before. My own touch exploring my body was nothing in comparison.
Every time I would read one of my mother’s romance books, I would feel a tingling between my legs but I never knew how to get rid of it.
My mother told me that touching your own body was a disgrace.
But how can it be wrong when it feels so good?
Leo runs his finger over my nipple, making me gasp. “You like this? Tell me.”
I bite my lip. I shouldn’t like how this feels but I can’t deny the tingling sensation that spreads through my lower body. I press my legs together to make it stop but it doesn’t help.
“Are you aroused right now, Emma?” He lets my breast go and lowers his hand to my stomach.
“What would happen if I touched you between your legs? The moment you showed up on my doorstep, I thought you were so pretty. I’ve wanted to touch you all week but I held back, watching to see what game you were playing. Have you wanted me to touch you too?”
“I don’t know,” I admit while deep inside I want to scream yes.
“Shall we see?” His hand moves further down until he touches my upper thigh. Gripping it, he parts my legs. I don’t fully know what’s happening. I know about sex and how babies are made but I don’t understand this frustrating ache deep inside of me. I don’t know enough because of my mother.
Leo keeps his eyes locked on mine as he brings his hand between my legs. The moment he touches my nub, I gasp and clamp my legs around his forearm. The pleasure is too intense. I can’t take it.
“You like this, I can tell.” Leo rubs that pleasurable spot over and over again. “Part your legs for me. It will feel better.”
I do as he says because in this moment, I want to feel good. I want to explore these deep, confusing feelings. I hate Leo but I also like him. None of it makes sense.
Leo presses his fingers against my nub, making my hips arch up and a soft whimper to escape my lips. “I can give you what you want, Emma. If you just tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything,” I answer honestly, looking into his eyes, silently begging him to understand. “Please, Leo. I don’t know anything.”
“Then how are you so innocent? No one is.” He flicks my nub and a loud gasp leaves me.
“Please.”
“Just tell me.”
“I can’t.” I can’t utter any words about my life on the farm with my mother.
“I know you’re still keeping something from me.
You showed up on my doorstep. You came into my home.
You agreed to marry me after a week. It’s all suspicious, Emma.
You have to see that.” He rolls my nub around, increasing the pleasure building inside my stomach.
“So either you had a plan or you’re just that innocent. Which is it?”
“I’m innocent,” I moan. The sound comes unbidden from inside of me.
“Maybe you really are. I want you to be innocent, Emma. God, I want you to be.” He sounds so real and honest that it takes my breath away.
“Please,” I beg. “Please.” I arch my hips into his hand, needing more. The pleasure he’s bringing out of me is too much. I need… something.
Leo keeps his eyes locked with mine as he rubs his hand over my sensitive nub. It’s like heaven on earth. The water in the tub sloshes over the side but neither one of us comments on it.
I grip the side of the tub. “Leo,” I pant.
He rubs me harder. “You need this, sweetheart? Are you really this sweet? Can I even call you that?”
“Please.”
“You confuse me,” he admits in a rough tone.
“Please.” It’s the only word I can say.
Leo presses down with his palm, making my swollen nub sing with pleasure. It’s at that exact moment I find the release I didn’t know I was searching for. My body trembles as I let out a soft moan. I’ve never felt this relaxed in my entire life.
That is until Leo pulls his hand away and places it on my breast, gently twisting my nipple. I cry out.
“Are you real?” he asks. I stare back at him in shock and fear and confusion. After a beat, Leo lets me go, breathing heavy like he just ran a marathon.
“Leo?” I whisper.
“Do you want to tell me why you showed up on my doorstep? If you don’t tell me, Emma, I’ll be forced to bring you back to the cage.”
“I can’t say.”
He closes his eyes for a moment before looking back at me with resignation. “Fine then.” He leaves the bathroom and comes back with a silk nightgown. “Put this on. It’s time to bring you back to the cage.”