Anger and annoyance roll through me. Gia may be brave, but she’s also stubborn and relentless, both will eventually get her killed.
I nurse my drink while I watch Gia in the darkness gather her strength. She holds onto the wall as she takes careful steps, trying to quiet her feet on my old battered floors. It’s an impossible task for the talent of a ballerina floating across the floor, let alone someone who is injured. Gia can’t control her legs. She’s off balance, and every step sounds like an elephant tromping through my house.
She falls. I hear the thunderous sound vibrate through the entire house, her body hitting the ground.
I wince and curse under my breath. My instinct is to run to her and help her up. I’m desperate to help her.
That’s what I’m doing, I remind myself. By staying, I’m helping her.
So I wait and force more of the cheap scotch down my throat. She gets back to her feet, but it takes time. I’ve already finished my drink, poured myself a second, and finished all but a drop of that before she manages to stand again.
I close my eyes. I feel her heavy breathing. I hear her bones aching with each movement. My floor bends and cracks with each shift of her weight.
I grip the armrests, trying to restrain myself. Stay. Wait.
I glance up at the clock above my fireplace mantel. It’s after four in the morning. She’s been at this almost an hour now. Enough.
I spring off of my chair and walk silently into the hallway.
“Fifty-five minutes and thirty-four seconds, that must be a world record for the slowest attempt at escaping my house,” I snarl. I can’t keep my anger and frustration out of my voice, though I know it will provoke her temper.
Gia glares at me, her anger reaching the deepest parts of her frown.
“If you’ve been listening to me this entire time, you could have at least helped me back to bed or told me there was no point.”
I laugh in a twisted way. “Would you have listened or would you have just postponed your attempt until tomorrow?”
She crosses her arms across her chest as her mouth prepares to tell me off, but the movement knocks her off balance.
I grab her before she falls again. I sigh. “Stop trying to escape. Stop trying to save yourself. It won’t work. You’re too weak.”
She chuckles in defeat. “Would you stop fighting? How can I stop when it’s all I have? I have my freedom, my honor, my name. That’s all I am. I’m Gia Carini. Wealthy, powerful, and beautiful. If I lose it, then what?
“I have nothing left. I have to fight. I can’t spend tonight giving into you when tomorrow you could be beating me half to death. If that happens, I need to know I did everything I could to try and escape tonight. Understand?”
“More than you know.”
“So don’t lecture me about trying to escape.”
I shake my head. “You need to stop trying to escape. No matter what happens next, you are still Gia Carini, the most powerful, intelligent, beautiful woman in all of Italy. Nothing I do will change that. But you have to stop trying to escape. You’ll never heal.”
“Why would I want to heal when you will just break me again? I see it in your eyes. I know you are just as bad as Dante, even if you can control yourself better than him. Why wait for you to lose control?”
“Because like you said, I can control my monster. I won’t hurt you. For one month.”
Her eyes widen, and her mouth falls open. And all I can think about is what it would feel like to shove my cock into her glorious mouth. Her long pink tongue massaging me, bringing me to the brink.
“Caspian?”
She must have said something.
“Yes?”
She shakes her head. “I thanked you for saving me, or whatever it was when you took me from Dante. But that doesn’t make you a saint.”
“I never said it did.”
“Then let me go. You have no use for me. You are a good-looking man. I’m sure you can get plenty of women. You have enough money you can pay a nice woman to live out your fan