My laugh barrels out of me, and I give my head a shake before closing the door. I head her way, and she shrinks back, but only slightly.
“Seriously, Settimo.” There’s still strength in her tone, but it’s waning. She must be figuring out she isn’t going anywhere. “Or should I call youDon Settimo?”
I sit on the bed. “Hmmm.” I look up and pretend to think for a moment. “How about ‘sir’?”
She glares and I give her my best smartass smile. This is going to be so much fun.
“Kay,” she spits. “I would like to leave now,sir.”
“I think you’re missing the point of the restraints.”
Alex studies me, her eyes flicking over my face, searching for some glimmer of hope that maybe,just maybe, this is all some sick joke. Her fiancé didn’t seriously give her up to me. And I’m not seriously going to go through with it.
I lower my eyes to her spread knees, and she strains herself to close them. “I didn’t want there to be some misunderstanding about your situation. Youcan’tgo home. You’re here for the night. Tomorrow morning,Prince Paolowill be here to rescue you, but until then, you’re going to do everything I want. Regardless of whether you fight me on it. Don’t worry though,” I wink and grin. “This will be more enjoyable than last week. I’m better when I take my time.”
I lick my bottom lip and run my gaze down to her breasts. They spill from her bra, cleavage on full display.
She lowers her head and uses her hair to hide my view. It creates a pretty veil covering her from me, and it makes her even more inviting.
“Why are you doing this?” she asks, her voice low.
My smile falters. My breath hitches.
Is she acting? Playing along? Or is she genuinely afraid?
I pull myself farther onto the bed so I’m close to her, and I reach my hand out. My knuckles graze her shoulder, and she shudders. A real shudder, with a wince attached and all. It isn’t from lust or pleasure, but from fear.
My cock hardens, and I instinctively inhale as if the animal inside me is smelling its next meal. Lilacs. She smells like my mother’s garden.
“I won you,” I say, my voice heady. “What am I supposed to do with you? Turn down my prize?”
She lifts her head and looks at me, her face twisted with confusion. “What do you mean you won me?”
My lips pull, and I brush her hair over her shoulder. She flinches, and I freeze. An overwhelming wave of lust splashes onto me, and for a moment it feels like I’m drowning.
What is it about a woman’s fear that is so undeniably intoxicating? Is it the vulnerability? The defenselessness? Maybe it’s the knowledge that you hold their fate in the palm of your hand, and they’d do anything to keep you from squeezing.
But then again, I always have that power. I was born into it. This? This is so much more than that.
“You don’t know?” I ask.
She narrows her eyes but gives her head a small shake.
“Paolo bet you in a poker game.” Her face falls, and her eyes swirl with a mixture of sadness and betrayal. I’m a bastard for this, but I kind of like it. I shrug. “Kind of a dick move, I know.”
She looks away from me and doesn’t say anything. Tears fill her eyes, and drizzle falls on my good mood. This, I don’t like. Fear, yes. The realization that Paolo is a piece of shit, absolutely. But not tears.
“It’s okay, though. I know a great way to get back at him.” I reach out and brush a tear from her cheek. She doesn’t flinch this time. She meets my gaze like she wants to hear what I have to say.
I gesture around us like it’s obvious. “Right now, he thinks you’re doing him a favor. Ihopehe feels bad for betting a human being. He has no idea we know each other or that we’ve fucked before. We can have a good time tonight, and it’s all sanctioned.He’sthe joke here, not you.”
She belts out a humorless laugh, her fear snuffed out by disbelief. “Let me get this straight. You want me to get back at Paolo by having sex with you?” Her tone is flat, and the tension winding my body loosens. She’s less afraid and she isn’t crying, so I must be easing her worries some.
I shrug. “I mean, if that’s the way you want to look at it, sure. I won’t object.”
“Do you think this is agame?” Her jaw drops like she’s just realizing it. “You think Iwantthis?”
My brow furrows, and I tilt my head.