Page 15 of Forgive Me, Father (Don #1)

FOURTEEN

THE WHITE RABBIT

The door opened, and Nico rushed in.

“Where is she?” he asked. “Alfonso, where is Camilla?”

“In her room,” I answered him. The little bitch was getting off on my temper.

“Is she still alive?” he questioned. Nico stared at me as I stood there still in a daze. “Alfonso, is she still alive?”

Chuckles that turned into laughter poured from me as he looked at the belt in my hand.

“Oh fuck, he’s losing it,” my cousin sang.

“Lorette, go the fuck home. Please,” I begged.

She stared at me and walked into the room. “Your bride still alive, cousin?”

“Yes, she’s in her room. I do have some sort of restraint.” I kept chuckling though as Nico continued to stare at me. I walked to my office.

Camilla was getting turned on by the way I handled her. Nico had no idea just how well he had chosen my bride-to-be, and I wanted her now more than ever.

I closed my office door and locked it. I was still furious, but feeling the wetness around her opening, glistening her up for my cock, was the last thing I thought would happen tonight.

Rape! I huffed at that idea. She was my wife and belonged to me to do with as I pleased.

But she was invigorating, and calling me out on my shit in front of Loretta this morning fucked me off.

Any other day, I might have actually treated the entire situation differently.

It was all signs that it was time to go back to Italy to get my demons under control again.

Before I really kill the little runaway.

I had to admit, Camilla wasn’t like your ordinary Don woman. It felt as if she was truly made for me, and her defiance was something that I loved and hated at the same time.

But the fact that her body was reacting exactly how I wanted it to react, oh, that was my biggest fantasy come true. And this ache to have her, warmed my black heart.

I grabbed my shaft in my hand and jerked off. She’d had me hard as a rock all night, and I’d tried to cool down, but seeing her with another man, my blood boiled again, and then she’d pushed me away and defied me over and over. She was like a little Chihuahua. There was no stopping those dogs.

I should know. I’d killed one that belonged to my Nonna because he’d refused to stop yapping. Camilla made me feel like that tonight.

I needed to go to Italy and control my demons. It was time, otherwise I feared my temper would end her life. And that would be a damn shame.

She would submit one way or another.

I came all over my hand and growled as I kept pumping my dick, imagining I was fucking her mouth. Just thinking about that made me want to go hard again. This girl was going to be the death of me; it was just a question of when.

* * *

The next morning, I had been on a conference call the entire morning and found Camilla eating on the balcony, just staring out at the ocean.

I grabbed a plate of fruit and a pastry and joined her.

She hardly acknowledged me when I sat down at the table.

“I’m sorry about last night.”

“Save it, since I know this is how it will be from now on. You love manhandling women; you are a fucking abuser, Alfonso, admit it.”

She got up and walked to the entrance. She was testing me again, and I grabbed her wrist. I counted to ten, and instead of hurting her, I brought her wrist to my lips and kissed it. She froze.

“I know it’s hard for you to accept my apologies, but I am sorry. You are not like the other girls I’ve met. You’re different.”

“Spare me your empty words. Tonight, you’ll just find another reason to chuck me against the wall and threaten to rape me.”

“It’s not rape if you’re mine.” My temper was coming out to play again.

“Yeah, who told you that? If it’s not consensual, it’s rape. Last night would not have been consensual.”

“You sure about that? Your cunt was dripping for me, little runaway.”

She closed her eyes as embarrassment colored her features. “My body reacts the way it does. It doesn’t mean I like it.” She pulled her hand away and stormed back inside.

I stared after her and sighed.

I had to find a way to make this work with her. I knew bodies, and hers didn’t lie. A woman doesn’t respond like that unless, deep down, she wants it. Maybe she had desires she wasn’t ready to admit, fantasies she kept locked away. But with me, there’d be no shame. She’d learn that soon enough.

THE LITTLE RUNAWAY

It had been four days since Alfonso’s little manhandling game. The most boring New Year’s Eve was waiting for me.

But what haunted me more was my body’s reaction. Why had I responded like that? Did some part of me secretly want it?

I had no one to talk to, no one to help me make sense of the mess inside my head.

I’d always had weird sexual fantasies with Philip, but nothing like this. Rape was wrong, and here I was, fantasizing about Alfonso raping me. It scared me to death.

His temper was something that should completely terrify me.

And yet it was the fourth day that he’d been bestowing gifts, very expensive gifts, on me.

This morning, he handed me tickets to Italy, Puglia, to be exact. I’d been there once as a kid on a family vacation, and it had been one of the best weeks of my life. We’d all needed that break so badly.

Part of me longed to see it again, to walk those sun-drenched streets and breathe in that coastal air, but going now meant going with him . And I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

I picked up the phone to order breakfast when the lady on the other side apologized and told me that she’d been instructed not to bring anything up to me.

It was Alfonso. He was forcing me to eat with him.

So, I figured I wouldn’t eat.

I saved my energy by sleeping half of the day and watching Netflix the other half.

I had no idea how long we’d be stuck here, and that uncertainty gnawed at me.

A knock echoed from the door. I didn’t move, just shut my eyes and sank into the mattress, feigning sleep like it was a damn performance. My mother used to call me a drama queen, said I could fake sleep better than a cat avoiding a bath.

The door creaked open. I could feel someone standing beside the bed, hovering, watching. It could’ve been Nico, but when a set of knuckles brushed gently across my cheek, I knew it was Alfonso.

He stayed for a moment, silent, then turned and left. I counted the seconds, waited until I was sure he was gone before I let my eyes flutter open.

Tears pricked as part of me wanted to make peace with my husband, but I needed him to treat me differently. I needed his respect. This was a business transaction, not a real marriage. But he wasn’t keeping his side of the contract.

He wasn’t giving me what I wanted, and now none of us were getting what we wanted. It was a vicious cycle.

Later that night, I sneaked into the kitchen and tried to find something small to eat.

The fridge was basically empty. There wasn’t a sliver of food to be found.

I was tired of alcohol. I sighed and shut the fridge door, jumping when I found my giant husband sitting at the breakfast nook watching me.

“Why are you so stubborn?”

“Why do you have such a temper?”

“I was born with it.”

“Me too.”

I got ready to leave when he grabbed my wrist again, though with less force this time. “Camilla, please. It’s been five days. I said I was sorry, and I meant it.”

“Some things you can’t fix with a sorry, Alfonso.” I stared at him. I could see the regret in his eyes. His gentle side was at the wheel, and I was a sucker for gentle Alfonso. But the beast, the rage in this man, was too much to handle.

“I only protect what is mine.”

“Protect?”

“Don’t start, please,” he pleaded.

“Then don’t push it. It’s not nice being strangled all the time and slammed against a wall whenever you don’t get your way.

And I have the right to protect myself. If you’re not going to feed me, you’re going to starve me to death, and you can’t force me to eat with you.

You fucked up; own it.” I pulled my arm out of his grasp.

“How do I fix it?”

“By starting to keep your end of our contract.”

He growled, and my thighs clenched. I hated my body and the way it reacted to that man’s impatience.

* * *

The next day, I was finally allowed to order food again, and I tore into it like a starving animal. I didn’t care about manners; hunger made me ruthless. Mid-bite, a knock rattled the door.

I wiped my mouth, half-expecting Nico, but when I looked up, Alfonso filled the doorway, silent and unreadable.

“I have to leave on business for a couple of days. Nico is here if you need anything.”

“He’s not going with you?”

“No. What I have to do is for me alone,” he said, his tone final. Then he turned and walked away, leaving the faintest echo of his cologne in the air.

I watched the door close behind him, curiosity itching under my skin.

Where was he going that didn’t require me?

The contract had made it clear, I was supposed to accompany him everywhere.

So, why was he leaving me behind now? Another clause, it seemed, he had no intention of following, at least not today.

At twelve, I watched him leave. He climbed into his Range Rover, and the driver took off, probably to the airport. One thing I knew for sure: that man looked great in his suits.

Nico knocked on my door later that night. I opened it, and he just stood there staring at me. “Do you like living like this, Camilla?”

“Fuck off, I mean it.” I closed the door in his face.

Asshole blaming me for his temper, typical male.

But I knew what my mother would’ve said if we were still speaking.

She would’ve fought with me too for not listening to my husband.

Not giving him what he required. It was the way of the Dons, but it was the one thing of the Dons that I’d always rebelled against. Philip had known how I felt, and I’d thought that I’d gotten a great deal with him.

That he would treat me like his equal. Now it was something I had to fight for all over again. It was draining; Alfonso was draining.

Later that evening, a knock came at the door again.

I opened, and Nico stood inches from me.

“I’m leaving for Italy. I want you to come downstairs and meet Sebastian,” he said, all serious.

I raised a brow. “What, another glorified bodyguard? Because I don’t need a PowerPoint presentation on every man hired to follow me around, Nico.”

He exhaled slowly, clearly losing patience. “Please, Camilla. It was Alfonso’s orders.”

“Of course it was,” I muttered. I pushed out of the room and closed my door behind me. “Let’s get this over with.”

Nico trailed behind me, silent as ever, while I marched into the lounge and stopped dead. Great. Another mountain of muscle.

The man waiting for me was built like a tank, taller than Nico, broader in the shoulders, and looked like he bench-pressed trucks for fun. I had to tilt my head all the way back to meet his eyes. Ice-blue, sharp as broken glass, and staring at me like I was a toddler having a diva moment.

“This is Sebastian Acosta,” Nico announced. “You don’t go anywhere without him knowing. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” I snapped. “Anything else? Maybe a GPS implant you’d like to stick under my skin?”

He didn’t dignify that with a response.

“Didn’t think so.” I spun on my heel and went right back to my room.

Nico wasn’t anything like Alfonso, and thankfully, Sebastian knew how to give a girl some space.

I glanced over at the clock on my nightstand. Midnight. Happy fucking new year.