“I had a nice lunch with Elise earlier today,” I say, just trying to make conversation and to fill the silence.
He smiles to himself and grunts as he tries to touch his toes and fails. “How’s she doing? I thought she was in Italy still.”
“She got back recently, I guess. She’s doing good. We spent most of the afternoon drinking wine.”
“Sounds like her.” He raises his eyebrows at me. “Did she get you drunk?”
“No, asshole. I didn’t drink like she wanted me to.” Although she definitely would’ve gotten me hammered if I had let her. “But she did talk about your father a little bit and about what you guys were like when she joined the family.”
His eyebrows knit together as he sits back on his hands. His expression goes distant and he looks across the room, seeing nothing. His shirt clings to his muscular frame and I’m struck at his beauty, at once both graceful and brutal, like a dancer trained to kill.
“I hated her for a long time,” he says as though I’m not in the room and he’s only talking to himself. “I blamed her for my mother’s death, and it took me a while to figure out that she was just another victim of my father. Elise had no agency in her life, not really. That’s why she spent it running around and avoiding this place. Not that I can blame her. Sometimes I’m jealous that she was able to put distance between her and my father. I’m jealous she got to survive him mostly intact.”
“She talked about what he was like back then,” I say, moving closer to him. “About how hard he was on you guys.”
His face hardens as he looks at me. “Yeah? She said that?”
I get the sense that I’m on a bad topic, but I never did learn to keep my mouth shut, and anyway Elise asked me to do what I can for Fynn. Maybe talking about it can relieve some of his burden. So I press on. “She said your father was hardest on Casso, but he was hard on you and Gavino in a different way. She seemed to think it was worse somehow. I don’t really know what it must’ve been like, growing up with a man like that.”
His jaw works and I can tell that I said the wrong thing. He shifts closer to me and I’m surprised as his right hand moves back into my hair and he suddenly shoves me down to the mat, pinning me with his body as he grabs my hair and holds it tight. My hands come up to try to shove him away but it’s like pushing against concrete. His lips pull back as he stares into my eyes.
“What the fuck do you know about my life? Do you really think Elise knows a damn thing?”
“Fynn,” I say, struggling slightly as his grip tightens.
“Elise was busy running around taking selfies and drinking champagne with her socialite friends. She doesn’t know a fucking thing about me and Gavino. And you know even less.”
He’s breathing hard, staring at me with wild eyes, and fear pulses along my skin. I almost forgot that he’s dangerous, that he’s a killer, that he’s a wild animal and I need to be careful around him. Instead, I knowingly brought up a painful and difficult topic, and now he’s looking at me like he wants to break my neck.
“Please, Fynn. You’re hurting me.”
His grip slackens, but he doesn’t let me up. Instead, he slams his mouth against mine and I moan into that kiss as he shoves his knee between my legs, pressing it up against my pussy. I gasp in surprise and move my hips, grinding up and down along it as he kisses me hard, his tongue sliding into along mine, invading me.
He releases my hair and roughly reaches down to yank off my yoga pants. I struggle, trying to kick him away, but he grabs my hair and pulls sharply until I yelp in shock. He finishes undressing me and throws the pants aside, leaving me in just my panties as he roughly grabs me and turns me around, pinning me on my belly, one hand jerked roughly up behind my back.
I groan in agony and pleasure as he holds me against the floor, kneeling at my side, a hulking monstrosity. “You should be more careful around me, princess,” he says, snarling, and he rips down my panties, exposing my ass. “I’ve been much too easy on you. I can’t let you think I’ll be kind to you, little princess. My lovely fucking girl.”
“Fynn,” I say, wiggling my hips, trying to get away. “What are you doing?” But he’s holding me down and I can’t move.
He smacks a palm flat onto my ass. He spanks me hard and I throw my head back in ecstasy and shock, moaning his name as he does it again and again. He spanks me raw, each blow harder than the last, working me with agonizing precision, until I’m biting my lip so hard I think I might bleed, and only then does he spread my legs and plunge his fingers deep into my dripping wet pussy.