“I’m not keeping you here as a tool,Tesorina. You’re not being held for ransom,” he says. “As I told you before, though you may not have been listening, you are here under my protection. If you were anything less than a guest in my home, do you think I’d be bringing your children toys, new clothes, and offering a warm bed to sleep in?”
I stare into his dark brown eyes. “I don’t know what to think. You’ve held us against our will.”
“Sit,” he commands, backing me up toward the bed.
The power he evokes, the stance of his walk, his roughness and proximity force my feet to stumble backward.
He exudes authority, and while I don’t want to do as he says, my body yields to him.
“Good,Tesorina.”
He’s pleased that I’ve sat on the edge of the mattress. He towers above me.
I shouldn’t let him get this close. It’s dangerous.
“Quit calling me that,” I snap. I want to anger him. I yearn to throw him off his game, and if I upset him, maybe he’ll decide we’re not worth the hassle.
Will he let us go?
The corners of his lips tug upwards. “Are you not my little treasure?”
“I’m not your anything!” How dare he think he can own me and that I belong to him.
His hand reaches up, and at first instinct, I recoil, afraid he’s going to smack me across the face. It’s what Mikhail does when I challenge him.
Instead, his hand is strong but gentle, capturing my jaw, forcing my gaze to meet his.
I want to turn away, deprive him of his desire to make me listen, but even if I shut my eyes, I’ll hear him. Do I plug my ears and sing loudly to tune him out?
“You are mine,Tesorina, and until you accept it, your stay will be—unpleasant.”
“Is that a threat?” My top lip twitches as I stare up into his dark gaze.
He never flinches. Antonio is calm, steady, and calculated. It’s like he’s perfected this moment, thought about it a thousand times, and knows exactly how it will go and what will happen.
“It’s a truth, one that you will come to see, eventually,” he says. His grip is tight on my jaw, and his other hand grabs my hair, fisting it into a ponytail.
He has me at his mercy.
Antonio tilts my neck upwards.
Is he going to kiss me? I’m trapped, and while the thought of kissing him by force I find revolting, there’s also something stimulating about his strength.
Besides, it’s not as though we haven’t kissed before. And from what I remember, it was hotter than a thousand suns.
But he doesn’t kiss me. At least not yet.
He watches my reaction, studies my lips, and leans closer.
His breath teases me, lingers against my satin lips. “Did you know your men bombed the regional airport? They tried to kill a child, a little boy just a few years older than Liam.”
His words sting like venom. “I don’t believe you,” I say. “Mikhail would never hurt a child.”
“No?” Antonio pulls back and drops his hold from me. His legs nudge mine as he’s still poised at the edge of the bed above me. “He ordered multiple kidnappings on high-level members’ families and their children.”
There’s a heaviness that fills the room.
I don’t want to believe Antonio, but Nikita had warned me that Mikhail was acting dangerously, seeking vengeance for what happened with Liam.