Page 113 of Dirty Mafia King

And I’m done. “What if I want to be broken?”

Her jaw hits the floor. “Wow. Okay. Didn’t see that coming. Anything else I should know?”

I’m tempted, so tempted to bring up the Red Room. For days, it’s all I think about. Me, bent across the spanking bench. Him, flogging my ass pink. Us, together and acting out our fantasies. “No,” I lie. “That’s all.”

“Just be careful.” She drops her voice, then softly adds, “Above all else, guard your heart. Because that’s the first thing a man like Sebastiano Beneventi will break.”

CHAPTER40

ALESSIA

Iwake up to the sweet smell of marijuana.

With a start, I roll up to sit. I’m in Bastian’s bed. I fell asleep with his spicy cologne on my pillow and his wicked promise in my head.

A man sits in the shadows in a chair by the fireplace.

Watching me.

“Bastian?” I call out.

His silence sends goose bumps across my skin. Nervous, I glance toward the door. Freido’s sprawled over the doorjamb. “Oh my God,” I cry. For three nights, he’s stood guard outside, each night offering me a stern look as I enter Bastian’s space, allowing me inside despite his disapproval. Now, he’s paying the price for protecting me.

I scramble from the bed and fall to the floor beside him. Still breathing, just incapacitated.

By the man in the chair.

A man who isnotBastian.

A man I’ve little hope of escaping, if whatever he’s done to Freido is any indication.

Moonlight bleeds into the room. The man’s wearing a suit, his ankle bent over a knee as he smokes a joint. I don’t get a full look at his face, but I don’t have to—what I see is enough.

Panicked, I rise and stare at Sandro.

Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“You’re in his bed.” His words are slurred, his voice nearly unrecognizable.

What can I possibly say to that? “What did you do to Freido?”

My ears strain to hear his response. “Sedative.”

“Why?”

“Payback.”

He takes a long drag, and my eyebrows lift in alarm. Shadows creep back into the room and cast us into darkness. Will the darkness protect me, or help the monster across the room?

“I’ve been through hell and back to get here, only to discover you’re banging my father.”

“I’m not.” I roll my bottom lip between my teeth. “I’m sleeping here, that’s all.”

“Why?” he tosses my earlier question back in my face. Lord, he’s completely unhinged, isn’t he?

I open my mouth, but no explanation comes out. How can I explain my actions? This unstoppable craving for a man nearly twice my age and years ahead in experience. My father-in-law.Hisfather.

“We won’t be getting married now, will we?” I expect an angry Sandro, so his disappointment throws me off.