20
Nicole
I roll around beneath the covers and stretch my arm out to find the bed beside me empty.
Did he go to his office? Or back to work?
My eyes lazily flutter open. I’m back in my bedroom.
I exhale an exhaustive sigh and push myself out of bed. It’s already morning, and the sun is bright.
It doesn’t fit my mood. There should be thunderclouds rolling in and shaking the house.
The yellow of the sun casts the bedroom in a chipper glow.
I didn’t shut the curtains last night before bed.
Apparently, Dante didn’t think of it either before disposing of me back in my bedroom.
What the hell?
Was that all I was to him, a sex object? A quick fuck.
He did buy me from that stupid auction. I was a prisoner at his mercy. Grabbing the pillow, I throw it across the room.
It falls to the floor with barely a sound, not so much as a thud.
Why did I think I meant anything more to him?
He’d made it clear that I was his to own. He’d bought me like property after abducting me.
The bastard!
Was it all because of his stupid truck that I stole?
He knows my father is don. Isn’t he scared Papa will do something to retaliate?
I still can’t wrap my head around why Papa had let Dante take me home.
Dante must not have given Papa a choice.
I had to give it time. Papa would send an army of men to obliterate Dante and his men.
But when?
Already a week has passed and I’m still stuck here, unable to leave.
A sharp rapt and the bedroom door swings open. It’s one of the guards. “You are expected downstairs in five minutes,” he says.
Expected? Now Dante is giving me orders?
“Or what?” I ask, and pull the covers tight around myself. I’m naked beneath the bed sheets and don’t want the guard to get any ideas. He barely looks old enough to drink. Although with friends like Dante, I’m sure he gets whatever he wants, liquor included.
“It’s okay, Leone,” Dante says to the guard. He steps past him and invites himself into my bedroom. Dante is fully dressed, expensive suit and all with the shiny black shoes to finish his ensemble.
I try not to ogle him. But it’s hard when that voice inside my head keeps nagging me.
He hurt you. He abducted you. Remember? Don’t fall for his charm. Don’t fall for him.