Page 8

Chapter six

Does This Hurt, Love?

Gia

I stared at the diamond eternity band, stacked on top of my engagement ring. It was large. Obnoxious. A weapon in itself. I wouldn’t need to hold my keys between my fingers when walking at night. I could just back hand them and do some serious damage.

I was married, now, sitting in my husband’s living room, staring at the city of New York from above. Like a bird of prey, glaring down at the mice in the field below.

My wedding day would be the second date on my tombstone. My death date.

Gone was Giovanna Durante, and in her place was some stranger called Giovanna Green.

Was I a ghost? A ghost of Christmas future?

“Darling—” The low rumble of his voice sent a shiver through me. “I’m home.”

My husband.

He stared at me with those disturbing eyes.

“Did you miss me?” He smirked, his eyes lazily scrolling down my body.

Memories of the other night flashed through my mind. His golden hair between my thighs, as he stared at me. He’d given me pleasure I didn’t think was possible.

I wish he’d beaten me instead.

I said nothing as he approached, pushing his sleeve up his arm, flashing those veins that advertised hours of physical labor.

“I’ve sent everyone home.”

I glanced around, realizing that the tittering staff who kept looking in on me were absent. I had done such a good job of ignoring them that I hadn’t even noticed that they were gone.

My husband’s long shadow crossed my sight, plunging me into his darkness.

I shivered, both from the growing cold of his presence and the sudden dread of being alone with a serpent, ready to strike.

I took a deep breath, swallowed the lump in my throat and met the monster’s gaze.

“We need to talk,” he said flatly, his dark brow arching as his wicked little smirk promised terrible—or wonderful?— things.

“About?” I said, in a voice so breathy it sounded like a whisper.

But it was all I could manage.

“Come with me,” he commanded, and walked to the bedroom without looking back, already knowing that I would obey.

And I did. Because what choice did I have?

He strode toward the bedroom, stepping aside at the door to let me through first. I did enter first, even though having the monster at my back made my skin prickle in goosebumps. The electricity in the air made my hair stand on end.

“You look beautiful.” I jumped when his voice was at my ear, heated breath grazing over my skin. His fingers traced the light straps at my shoulders, pushing them down my arms, bringing my camisole to my waist. My bared nipples pebbled in the cold, and I immediately covered them with my hands.

He tsked lightly, as his hands encircled my wrists, bringing them down.

“So soon, you seem to have forgotten.” He kissed the crook of my neck. Then the bare skin of my shoulder. “ Mine .”

He kissed down my back, and I helplessly stood there, my eyes shut, as I tried to phase out of this part. I had always known this would happen. Heirs. That was something that our marriage depended on.

I thought that maybe I could just lie back, close my eyes, and let it happen while my mind meditated somewhere else.

But his touch, his kisses, his voice… they kept me rooted in place. My body shivered at the pleasure and fear this man made me feel.

He kissed down my spine, coming to his knees behind me, dragging my camisole and sweatpants down. I wanted to seem as unattractive to him as possible, to buy myself more time from his intoxicating touch. But it hadn’t worked.

He pulled my underwear down too, kissing every new inch of exposed skin until I was naked in front of him, my clothes piled on the floor around my feet.

“Go to the bed, love.”

I didn’t move right away. I couldn’t trust my legs. I couldn’t trust my mind.

I was so confused at how I felt, and what I desired. Did I want this? Maybe. After what he did last night? Probably. But I also didn’t want him. I couldn’t develop feelings for my husband. I couldn’t. That would be a disaster.

“To bed.” And there he was again, at my shoulder, whispering like a dark angel, sweetly beckoning me to do terrible things. “Or must I carry you?”

I didn’t move. I couldn’t even if I tried.

He picked me up, and carried me to the bed, laying me down with my head on the pillow.

I felt like I was in a daze. Like a princess in a fairy tale, in awe of her prince.

He pulled the green and silver tie from his throat, and in an instant, fashioned a knot around my wrists, restraining me to the headboard.

“What the—”

“Don’t struggle, darling,” he warned casually. As if he were telling me that a plate was hot, or to mind the curb. “Before you cause yourself more damage.”

He was… different from the night before.

He was determined, and sure. Controlled.

His fingers traced from my forehead, down my jaw, to my throat.

Then he touched the hollow at my clavicle, down the space between my breasts.

Right down the middle until he grazed above the new, black stitches that held my torn flesh together.

“Does this hurt, love?” he asked, kissing the skin around the tender flesh.

“No,” I gasped, as his soft lips sent heat down to my core. “And…. And… don’t call me that.”

I tested the silk binds on my wrists, and shuddered when they didn’t give. Not even a millimeter.

“Don’t call you what?”

“Love.”

I swallowed, hoping he didn’t ask why those words felt so… harmful. Like it was a wielded knife ready to plunge into me again.

“But I like that particular word for you,” he said against my skin, dipping down lower until his lips lingered at my navel. “It seems that the ice queen is more capable of that warm emotion than I originally thought.”

He kissed the skin under my belly button, his breath racing over my pale stomach. My thighs clenched in anticipation as my body ached for him to do his work. To make me feel that dreaded ecstasy again.

He kissed my inner thigh, the tender place so close to where I wanted his lips.

“Tell me darling,” he kissed the other side. “Who’s your lover?”

“Wha—Ah!”

He bit down hard on my thigh, the sensitive skin sucking through his teeth as he viciously bit down on the flesh.

Not enough to tear, but more than enough to bruise.

He sucked and marked the pale skin, as I struggled to get away, but he held me down, his arms encircling my legs to keep me pinned to him.

“Your lover,” he said again. “Who is he?”

“I don’t… have a…”

The slap on my ass cracked like thunder in my ears.

“Don’t lie to me,” his voice boomed. “Or I’ll take it as an insult.”

He bit down on the other side until I whimpered in agony. “Stop!”

“Why? Afraid he’ll see these marks and get jealous?” He growled as he crawled over my body, reaching down to cup my pussy in his rough hand. “Worried he’ll realize that you don’t belong to him? That this pussy belongs to me, and me alone?”

His fingers pushed my thighs further apart, as he licked his lips.

“I will happily slit his throat and fuck you in front of his dying eyes, if that’s what it takes to get my point across.” He bit his lower lip, before his wicked eyes glinted up at me. “No one touches a Green without consequences.”

Those words, which had seemed so protective before, were a very different threat now.

“I don’t have a lover.” I tried to enunciate, but lost my words in a groan, as he slipped one finger into my wetness.

“Don’t you?” He lifted a brow, as another went in.

Then his expression changed. It was one of confusion. Disbelief. And then, with a shake of his head, he threw his doubts aside.

“Send him this message for me, love.” His fingers slipped out, as I heard, more than saw, him unfasten his belt and unleash his thick, hard, angry cock.

I fought against the silk restraints at my wrists until they dug into my skin. I felt the cold trickle of sweat on my brow. My heart thumped loudly in my ears as earlier lust turned into fear.

But even that was exhilarating, as his finger moved gently in and out of my core.

“Cillian, please…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I couldn’t tell him to stop.

I bucked my hips. But I didn’t know if I was pushing him away or inviting him in.

He made the choice for me before I could protest. His cock slid into my entrance and ripped me apart at the seams.

I screamed, my entire body shaking in both fear and desire.

Fear of the pain that I knew would come. Fear of the feelings he’d rip from my soul. But I longed for the release that was promised. A release I’d never felt before. A wave of pleasure unmatched by any I could have dreamed of.

He pushed in, and I wailed, tears streaming down my face as the pressure of his engorged tip opened me further, carving itself into my most sacred place.

This was how it felt to be invaded. To be conquered, body and soul.

“Jesus!” he grunted. He pushed himself up by his arms, taking his weight off of me, so we were only connected in a single, primal place. “I need you to tell the fucking truth, Gia.”

“What?” I gasped, unsure why he’d ask me a question at this moment.

Why now? When I could barely think? When everything felt like a muddled haze of nothing but light and darkness. Even the meaning of words felt different now. Feelings were given shapes as solid as the flesh.

“Are you a virgin?”

Why would he be surprised?

“No,” I almost laughed. “Not anymore, at least.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he growled. “Will you never give me a straight answer, woman?”

“Your question is ridiculous,” I said between gasps.

“You think I’d risk it? Risk the harm you serpents would bring on me?

On my mother? If I came to you as anything less than pure?

This is the Dark Ages, Mr. Green. Women are bought and sold to marriage, and I wouldn’t risk the life of someone I loved for a moment of…

of…” I couldn’t put to words the action we were taking.

We weren’t making love. But fucking wasn’t descriptive enough. “Just for a moment like this.”