Page 9 of Arranged

Two guards held Luca by the arms, and even as I passed through the door, he still struggled against their hold. When his eyes lifted to mine, they were full of anger and fire.

But then I took a look around the room, and my eyebrows shot up.

We’d only left him a bed and an empty cabinet, and yet, he’d somehow managed to make so much mess it was impressive.

The bedsheet was shredded. The pillow had been ripped apart, and the filling was everywhere.

A fresh gust of air burst through the broken windows, and the glass was still on the floor. One of the guards had a black eye.

“Hello, Luca,” I said as I stepped forward so we were only inches apart. “Do you know who I am? My name is Valentina Cassaro.”

“Yeah, I know who you are,” he spat out, glaring at me.

“Then you know the terms of the deal between our families and what that means for you.” I stared deep into his eyes.

“You can’t kill me.” His lips spread into a smile. “I refuse to be your slave.”

“You’re right.” I grasped his chin. “I can’t kill you, but I can still punish you when you don’t obey me.”

“What are you going to do, huh?” He lifted his chin up, keeping his gaze on mine. “Spank me?”

A rush of excitement surged through my insides.

Oh, I’d love to do that.

“That’s a great idea,” I said.

His lips parted in surprise, but he quickly wiped his emotions off his face.

“Actually, you’ve made a lot of mess here and you caused too much trouble. I’m not going to tolerate that. If you had an issue with the terms of our deal, you could’ve brought it up to your father. Now the situation is as it is, and it’s better for you if you do as I say. Apologize for what you did in here, and I won’t punish you this time.” I let go of him, eyeing him carefully.

“Fuck you!” he said, baring his teeth.

“Ah, so that’s how you want things to go.” I’d wanted to be nice about it all, but he refused to listen, so I didn’t have a choice. “Then choose your punishment at least, before I choose for you. Do you want to spend a week in the dungeon in the basement? In a nice, cold little cell with bars and an occasional rat? Or would you rather get a spanking?”

I tried to ignore the heat pooling between my legs. This was about Luca’s punishment, not my pleasure. But damn, I couldn’t deny that I would enjoy giving him a spanking.

He pressed his lips into a tight line, his eyes narrowed at me.

“Make your choice, Luca,” I said.

He eyed me for a few moments, probably wondering if I was being serious. Or he was trying to come up with a way to get out of all this.

“Maybe I’ll just spank you first and then throw you in the dungeon, since you’re having such trouble making up your mind.” The corners of my lips tilted up.

His jaw was set. “Then spank me.” He held his chin up.

He thought I was going to go easy on him, didn’t he? Well, he was going to see just how wrong he was.

“Bring me the spanking bench,” I said to my men, and they immediately left the room.

Those who were still holding Luca seemed to tighten their grip on him because their muscles strained.

Luca still had that fiery look in his eyes, even though there were a few flashes of surprise in there too. Maybe he didn’t expect me to actually go through with it, or he thought I’d been joking.

Once the guards brought in the bench, Luca’s brow furrowed.

“Take off your shirt and pants,” I said, and motioned for the guards to release him.