She tossed her pillow at him, annoyed when he deflected it easily. “I’m not the one with the self-professed obsession, O’Mara.”
He shrugged. “Not yet, not that you’ll admit, but I’ll bet I rarely leave your thoughts for more than a few minutes.”
She barely resisted the urge to snarl like an animal. “It’s normal to be preoccupied with the criminal who kidnapped you.”
His rich laugh filled the room. “Okay, Mia. Enjoy your time in denial.” Without another word, he left the suite.
She sat up long enough to shoot a rude gesture toward the closed door. With determination to spite Shane—and because she was absolutely exhausted from the previous nights’ lack of sleep and physical exertion—she flicked off the lamp and put her head on the pillow. Mia refused to think about anything and drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes.
Chapter Six
Shane paused in the middle of shuffling papers when an edge caught a cut on his finger. He looked down at his hand, tracing his thumb over the two long gashes across his index finger before touching the shorter one on his middle finger. The glass had cut him last night more than once, but he had persisted with the lesson. He had willingly endured the pain in order to get through to her.
Did she finally understand? He questioned the wisdom of betraying his own vulnerability to her, but she couldn’t persist with fighting him. Having longed for her for so long, having stooped to scheming and machinations, followed by kidnapping when she had failed to show up at her father’s house as Vadim had promised she would, he wanted something deeper than an adversarial relationship.
Not that he minded some of her resistance. Shane chuckled as he remembered the way her eyes burned with internal fire, and the stubborn tilt of her chin when she decided to fight him. It also made her a wildcat in bed.
He couldn’t deny part of him enjoyed taming her too, and Shane suspected a part of her thrived on being subdued. It wasn’t a classical domination/submission relationship, but they were definitely engaged in a power struggle.
His groin tightened when he remembered the way she had lain absolutely still under his hand last night, fearing the glass enough to stop resisting. That was what he really wanted. Mia had him tied in knots, and he wanted her to be a willing bedmate, to explore each other with abandon, rather than her invariable resistance. He didn’t want her cowed with fear either.
He’d take her however he could get her though. He was pragmatic enough to admit that to himself, and that self-honesty had allowed him to put in motion the steps needed to make her his, whether she wanted to be or not.
Now he had her, and he still wasn’t satisfied. Shane wanted to see her submit to him willingly. Not in a bound-and-chained sort of way, but to have her smile with welcome, to open her arms to him and mold her soft body to his. He’d had her body, and he still wanted it desperately, but even more than that, he wanted Mia herself. Whatever made her tick, he wanted to know. He wanted to be inside her body and her mind. His obsession hadn’t eased. It had only grown stronger.
“Fuck.” He bent his head forward, propping it on his hands so he could rub his eyes with his thumbs. A headache was building, and he could find no relief. Instantly, an image of Mia spread underneath him, his fingers dipping into her heat to prepare her for his cock, flashed through his mind.
Deciding that was better than two ibuprofen tablets, he pushed away from his desk before pausing. So far, he had managed to resist the compulsion to go to her during the day, other than for meals or brief interactions. He knew the key to managing his addiction was to ration his time with her, so he had vowed to keep her compartmentalized. She would be in her own room, and he would only visit her at night.
His resolve was already crumbling. Fucking pathetic.
With a sigh, he got to his feet, deciding he didn’t give a damn about the boundaries he had previously set for himself. It didn’t matter how much time he spent with her. A feeling of dread crept through him as he contemplated the notion that he could never get enough of her.
With a half-shrug, he walked toward the door of his study, deciding not to fear that possibility. She was his for as long as he wanted to keep her, and if that was forever, that was acceptable. Eventually, she would have to yield and admit to their mutual attraction.
He stepped out onto the second-floor landing, freezing with a muffled curse when he saw Bruno hurrying toward him. Judging from the blond giant’s look of concern, he wasn’t going to be sating his rampant lust for Mia just yet.
***
Mia looked up with surprise when her door opened without even a cursory knock. She had been engrossed in a book, having somehow maintained her vow not to dwell on Shane’s taunting words when she had woken that morning feeling refreshed. It was a bigger surprise to see Bruno in the doorway. He should have at least knocked and awaited permission to enter, in case he caught her in the middle of undressing.
“The boss needs to see you, Miss Kasilli.”
Mia thought about ignoring him and forcing Shane to come for her himself, but something in the way the man held himself warned her not to push him. He was stiff with tension, and her eyes widened when she saw the way he was fondling the gun at his side. The few times she had seen him, he’d worn a suit jacket to disguise the holster, but he had taken that off. Perhaps to deliberately intimidate her with the sight of the handgun?
She hated to disappoint him, but it was hardly the first time she’d seen someone carrying a weapon. Nor was she a stranger to having one pointed in her direction as Wallace had done the other night. No, she was much more intimately acquainted with a weapon aimed at her. Her heart skipped a beat as she experienced a moment of memory, recalling the sharp bite of the barrel pressing against her forehead—
“Get a move on.” He jerked his head toward the door, and though she half-expected him to brandish the pistol, it stayed holstered.
With a sigh of annoyance, Mia bookmarked the location and turned off her e-reader before sliding off the loveseat and walking toward the goon in her bare feet. She didn’t bother with shoes, figuring he wouldn’t allow her the luxury of taking time to grab any.
Mia was aware of him a step behind her as she exited the room and walked down the stairs. “Where is he?”
“Main salon.”
Since she had no clue exactly which room acted as the main salon, she stepped to the side so Bruno could pass her. Mia didn’t let herself lag behind, deciding to save her anger for her true target. When she saw Shane, she intended to blast him for sending his goon to fetch her like a dog toy, and without even the courtesy to knock on her prison door first.
Her lips twitched at the thought, and she was having a hard time hanging on to her irritation as they stepped off the staircase. Bruno led her to a large room near the front door, and her gaze immediately rested on Shane. The words of recrimination died in her throat as she picked up on the tense set of his shoulders. Lines bracketed his mouth, and he seemed to be poised to attack. Instinctively, she knew she wasn’t the target of his ire, and she turned her head to assess the others in the room.
Mia’s heart jumped in her chest, and a chill flashed through her body when she saw Aldo Peretti standing a few feet from Shane. He had his own entourage of goons in tow, and the two hulking men stood a step behind their boss. The hungry look in Aldo’s eyes made her want to vomit. “What are you doing here?”
He clicked his tongue. “What a rude greeting. I’m here to bring you home, dear sister.”
“I’m not your sister.” She spat the words in his direction as she surrendered to instincts urging her to find safety. Before she knew she was doing it, Mia moved toward Shane. He seemed startled when she pressed her body close to his, and his shock mirrored her own when she clutched the front of his shirt. “Please don’t let him take me, Shane.”
He blinked before any emotion disappeared from his green gaze. His voice was little more than a whisper when he bent his head to her level.
“I want two things from you, Mia.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “What?”
He touched her cheek with his finger, and Aldo hissed his displeasure. “First, I want the full truth about why you don’t want to go with your stepbrother.”
She bit her lip before nodding. The idea of confiding in Shane was embarrassing, but she’d rather face that humiliation than go with Aldo.
A ghost of a smile graced his lips for a second. “Second, no more fighting.”
Mia glared at him, her voice a low whisper that was full of annoyance. “You can’t expect me to give in to you.”
He curled his lip. “If you’re expecting me to go to war to keep you, I expect you to be worth it.”
Mia stiffened her shoulders. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, but a quick glance at the cold anger in Aldo’s expression reminded her of what was at stake. At least with Shane, she would enjoy some of it. Or all of it if she accepted a role as his lover instead of his captive, a traitorous voice whispered in the back of her mind. Her lips barely moved when she said, “Fine.”
He stared at her for ten seconds or so, as the tension mounted in the room. With a decisive nod of his head, he turned back to Aldo. “Mia doesn’t wish to accompany you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We both know Vadim forced her into this arrangement.” Aldo’s dark eyes grew cold. “It took him several days to admit what he had done, but he finally confessed what had happened to my Mia.”
She shuddered at the possessive note. “I’m not yours.”
“You are.” Aldo scowled. “You aren’t this Mick bastard’s, Mia. There is only one man to whom you belong.”
“Get out.” Shane spoke the words softly, but with full sincerity.
“Things could get messy, O’Mara. You should think carefully about—”
Shane waved a hand. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Peretti.”
The other man swelled up like a toad, and his anger made his handsome countenance ugly. Mia had always found him ugly though, knowing what lurked inside the monster. “You might not live to regret this decision, O’Mara.”
Shane’s grin looked sharp at the edges. “I’ve lived to regret all kinds of things I’ve done, Peretti. Keeping Mia won’t be one of them.”
Aldo pinned Mia with his gaze. “You’re only making this worse for yourself, Mia.”
She couldn’t hide her repulsion. “Knowing what you want, there is nothing that could be worse.” Her words rang with sincerity, and she moved even closer to Shane. Despite the things he had done to her, he was the safest choice, and she knew he would protect her from Aldo. It humbled her to know she needed someone else to defend her, but a cursory glance at her stepbrother had revealed his sick hunger for her had only deepened over the past few years.
With an angry hissing sound reminiscent of a startled goose, Aldo Peretti turned on his handmade Italian loafers and stalked from the room, his goons running to keep up though they had longer legs.
She sagged with relief when the front door slammed a moment later, but it didn’t take long for that feeling to fade. As soon as Shane’s hand fell on the back of her neck, she stiffened.
“It’s time for a talk, Mia.”
How she dreaded the idea, perhaps even more than the thought of submitting to Shane’s sexual advances without protest. One involved baring her body, but the other was a complete stripping of everything that shielded her soul. Her stomach churned with nausea as she turned to look at the man with whom she had made this dark bargain.
As she faced him, trying to marshal her thoughts and figure out how to begin once Bruno closed the door, she wondered for a brief second if she had made the right decision. Was it better to stay with the devil she barely knew rather than face the one she knew all too well? Only time would tell, and there would be a surplus of that. Now that she had agreed not to resist him, would he ever let her go?
Chapter Seven
Mia’s mouth was dry as she tried to explain the sordid history with Aldo Peretti. “I guess you should know I’d never even met Aldo until the day of the wedding. I’d only met Stefania a couple of times at that point.” Shane sat down in his chair, tugging her down to sit on his lap with his legs pinning hers together. She couldn’t move. “I wasn’t thrilled to have a new stepmother or stepbrother, but Vadim didn’t care about my input.”
“Your father strikes me as a selfish man.”
She had to bite her tongue to resist the urge to point out he shared traits with her aloof father. “It didn’t take me long to warm to Stefania, but I never liked Aldo. He made me…uncomfortable.”
“How old were you?” Shane took her hand, squeezing gently.
To her great surprise, she found the touch comforting. “Twelve. He was nineteen, so he shouldn’t have had any interest in me, but he seemed to go out of his way to try to engage me in conversation or spend time with me.” She swallowed. “At first, I thought he was just trying to be a nice guy and a good stepbrother.”
His eyes narrowed. “When did that change?”
“The first night he came into my room.” She shuddered. “It was my thirteenth birthday, and he came to give me my present. A secret present.” Nausea churned in her stomach, and she tightened her grip on his hand without thought. Mia winced when his hand tightened as well, and she realized he was holding back his reaction. She appreciated that, knowing she needed his calmness, even if it was fake, to get through this.
“What did he give you?”
She closed her eyes, remembering the horror of waking up to the sight of Aldo standing over her with his penis in his hand. “He performed for me, telling me I should be proud of how turned on I made him, now that I was a woman.” She spat the last word, unable to hide the contempt she still felt eight years later. “I was still a little girl and terrified of the sick fuck masturbating in front of me. After he came on my bed, he left.”
The gentle brush of his lips against the top of her head was his only response.
“I didn’t know what to do. I kind of ignored it, hoping it had been a nightmare or something.” She drew in a deep breath. “Denial worked for three days, until he came back and did it again.”
“What did you do?”
“I was scared of him, and I was afraid of my father. I had never liked spending time with Vadim. Perhaps even as a child, I’d realized what he was.” Mia curled her nails into her fist to keep her voice calm. “He didn’t progress beyond that for a few months. It was like he enjoyed scaring me and denying himself. Maybe it gave him a thrill.”
He brushed his thumb across the knuckles of the hand he held. His voice was gentle against her ear. “When did that change?”
“I’m not sure, but maybe six months after it started. That night, he made me touch him, putting my hand under his as he…” Mia took a deep breath, still able to vividly recall the feel of her stepbrother’s cock in her hand for the first time. “I was terrified that he would do something worse, so I tried to talk to my dad the next day.”
“What happened?”
She lifted a shoulder. “He was too busy to care about what I was trying to tell him and sent me away. I thought about telling Stefania, but it was her son, and she was starting to get sick.”
“He had you trapped.” Shane’s tone was neutral, but the tense set of his body behind hers gave away his anger.
She nodded. “It escalated. Soon, my mouth.” She dipped her head, shame assaulting her all over again. “And…behind.” Even now, her sphincter tightened as she remembered the horror of Aldo penetrating her there. “When he did that the first time, I freaked out and told my father what was happening.”
He let out a low growl, but his hand remained gentle around hers. “What happened?”
“He told me not to make trouble, and that there was more to grasp than I could ever understand.” Tears blurred her eyes as she recalled Vadim’s cold features and the complete lack of concern he’d shown. Now she knew he must have been referring to th
e tenuous truce between the families, but it still hurt to know he’d chosen his criminal alliances over protecting his young teenage daughter.
That had been the day she’d completely stopped loving the man who had contributed genetic material to her makeup. “The bastard suggested I should be flattered, as though it was an honor to be desired by Aldo.”
“You were just a child. How could he be attracted to you?”
Mia managed a small, genuine laugh. “I guess I must be like catnip for psychos. Normal guys sometimes like me, but they don’t cross the line to batshit obsessed crazy.”
He snorted, though it was difficult to tell if from anger or suppressed laughter.
“Aldo found out I’d gone to my father, and he threatened me.” A chill crawled down her spine as the sensation of cold steel against her heated flesh came back to her. “He pressed his gun to my forehead and told me he would shoot me if I tried to tell anyone again. He promised I wouldn’t die. He’d just make sure I was paralyzed, so I couldn’t escape him. My body would be his plaything, and I’d be unable to stop him.”
Shane’s embrace tightened. “How did you manage to keep your virginity, baby girl?”
“Honestly, I think he was teasing himself again. In fact, I know he was, but I didn’t find out why until I was seventeen. A few times when he was really into what he was doing, he seemed poised to rape me there too, but when I resisted, he reined himself in and found other ways to amuse himself.”
“What did you find out when you were seventeen?”
“He revealed his master plan to me. My father had agreed to let him marry me, so he was saving my virginity as a wedding present to himself.” Nausea churned in her stomach, and a tear streaked down her face. “He told me Vadim had relented and was prepared to sign the marriage certificate so we could get married before I turned eighteen.”
Turning slightly, though her legs remained pinned, she curled a bit closer to Shane instinctively. “That crazy bastard was planning to make me marry him within days. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let him keep me, so I went to Stefania.”
Shane: A Mafia Love Story: Dark Erotic Romance Page 8