Enzo should have been my safety in the Bellandi family. The one with the conscience who wouldn’t cross certain boundaries that the others seemed to ignore. But something rattled at the cage, begging to be set free from the confines of his control.
I had a feeling the beast was hungry, and that I was meant to be dinner.
“Enzo,” I whispered my protest. Anything louder would have felt like too much in the quiet space as we stepped into the dark bedroom.
Only the light from the floor to ceiling window to the left of the bed gave us any light, the waxing moon shining against his hardwood floors. “Take off your clothes and get on the bed,” he ordered coldly.
I swallowed back my curse, choosing a slightly less antagonistic way of defying him. “No,” I said, tearing my wrist from his grip. I hurried back out the bedroom door, determined to make it to my bedroom with a lock on the door so I could wait out whatever had come over him.
His arms wrapped around my waist, lifting my feet from the floor as he carried me back in. He positioned himself between me and the door and closed it behind him, leaving me to glance around for an escape that didn’t exist.
Short of throwing myself out the window, there was nowhere to go.
Even with Enzo scaring me half to death, I knew that was slightly extreme.
“I will only tell you once more, Carina. Get on the fucking bed.” I shook my head, staring back at him and hoping the curse, the frustration of it, was a slight hint of Enzo beating back the rage to see how close he came to crossing a line. His lips twisted into a snarl as a growl clawed its way up his throat, and he stepped closer to me. There was nowhere to go but further into the room, backing away until he trapped me in the corner.
Clasping me around the backs of my elbows with a harsh grip, he lifted me from my feet and tossed me to the bed. I scrambled to sit up, scooting to the edge of the bed as he jerked open a drawer in his nightstand. Filled with weapons, I hurried to the other side of the bed at the sight of glinting blades, loaded guns, and coarse rope from just a single peek inside.
Hands grasped my ankles, tugging me back until my stomach collided with the bed. Enzo’s weight leaned over me, rolling me to my back and shoving me to the center. Straddling my waist, I stared up at him in horror. Tearing the rope from where he’d held it clenched between his teeth, he fed it through the slats in his charcoal grey headboard and pulled it out the other side while I swatted at his chest and shoved. “What kind of fucking pervert keeps rope in his nightstand?” I screamed in his face.
“The kind who sleeps with a gun and is fully prepared to kill anyone who sneaks in here while I sleep,” he grunted, snatching my right hand off his chest as I dug my short nails in to mark him.
Angry red welts raised, the brutality of them shining against his skin and threatening to bring tears to my eyes as the rope wrapped around my wrist tightly.
Without a doubt, I’d have marks of my own by the time he finished with me. “This isn’t you,” I said, trying to appeal to the man I knew would never hurt me. Even in the face of his demon, I knew I’d be safe with him in the end.
Somehow, Enzo would push me to the edge of my limits but never pass them. Even if it felt like a false promise, I knew it down to my core.
He ignored my plea, snatching up my other hand and shoving it above my head. “Enzo!” I yelled as the rope tightened against my skin and stretched my arms over my head.
Sitting back so that his weight settled over my hips, he stared down at me strung up like a feast waiting to be devoured. Even as I squirmed and tested the bonds, the heat that bled into his stare despite his rage threatened to consume me with my own need.
He reached his hand into the nightstand drawer, dragging out a knife slowly. The blade glinted in the moonlight, reflecting light back onto Enzo’s face to reveal the cruel twist to his lips. “Do you want to fucking die, Baby Girl?” he asked. “Is that what you were looking for when you ran toward a burning building?”
“No,” I gasped, the cool metal of the blade touching the skin just below my throat. Enzo trailed it lower, applying pressure so light that he didn’t break the skin, despite the sharpness as it slid over my flesh.
It burned in the knife’s wake, a trail of red appearing as he slid it between my breasts and grasped my sleep-shirt in his fist. “You can’t cope with what’s going on around you and you need a rush to find your balance?” he grunted, slicing the blade through fabric in a smooth motion until it split down the middle. “You come to me, Baby Girl. I am the only fucking rush you need.”
Sliding the knife into the left sleeve, he cut it away from my body. Repeating it on the right, he didn’t stop, carefully touching the blade to my skin just enough to hurt.
Just enough to make me feel and bring me back from the blank void of emptiness that consumed me in the wake of the fire.
He tore my shirt out from under me, leaving me naked from the waist up with my shirt discarded in tatters. I didn’t own many clothes. I’d lost nearly everything I owned, but Enzo didn’t give a shit about the material objects he could easily replace.
He cared about my body. The very same body he tormented with the threat of pain to show me how fragile it could be.
Goosebumps erupted across my skin as he trailed the blade through the valley between my breasts, teasing it back up over my ribcage to draw thin red lines around my nipples. The sharp pain that consumed me made me arch my back as he continued his path down and over my belly button. Unknowingly seeking more of the pain I’d never imagined I’d like.
Rough sex I knew, but I’d never trusted someone to the level where I could let them touch a knife to my skin and know I’d walk away without bleeding. Enzo’s control held steadfast, even as the beast rattled the cage and begged to be set free.
He controlled it just enough to keep me safe. The threat of what came after I was naked hanging in the air around us only adding to the adrenaline that pulsed through my body.
He cut through the material of my sweatpants and shorts in one motion, ignoring the fact that he could have just taken my pants off like a normal person. The unnecessary force of it appealed to me on a primal level I’d have never expected. To be so consumed by the adrenaline coursing through my veins as the tip of the knife dragged over the bare skin of my pussy, my breath wheezed out of my lungs in a ragged gasp.
Enzo finally moved to my shoes, tossing my socks and sneakers to the side haphazardly and pulling what remained of my pants down my legs to follow suit. With the blade clenched in his grasp, he slid a hand behind each of my thighs and shoved them high. Until my knees touched the sides of my breasts, folding me in on myself, and the edge of the blade scraped the skin of my stomach. He bared me to his view, staring down at me as he considered his options.
He finally smiled down at me, a dawning cruelty in his gaze as he seemed to realize what he wanted to do. Apprehension slithered along my skin, the dark promise in his eyes hinting that the worst of his punishment had yet to come.