Page 6 of The Devil’s Touch (Obsession #1)

The crowd roared in response.

The thick materials around the objects on auction for the night were yanked off. The crowd gasped, more of excitement than fear.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw a petite dark-haired woman in a cage.

She had a collar around her neck, clad in nothing but sheer lingerie.

Although there were other things on auction, like diamonds, mysterious paintings and even unhinged skulls which I found odd that some people would want to have in their collection, I was more stunned that they’d be auctioning a human being.

My throat thickened.

“The first object on auction tonight is The Shadow Skull which is rumored to be the skull of a bloodthirsty vampire from the sixteenth century.”

“How would someone even want to buy that?” I whisper-yelled.

“Some people are naturally drawn to the allure of darkness—the unexplainable, the mysterious...” Domenico’s heated gaze met mine, glinting with something dark that I couldn’t quite understand.

His words struck a chord in me.

Like I was drawn to him?

“The opening bid is twenty-five thousand dollars!” the auctioneer hollered.

My eyes widened when counter bids started pouring in.

“Thirty thousand dollars!”

“Thirty-five!”

“Forty-five!”

“Fifty!”

“Fifty thousand dollars! Does anyone want to top that?” the auctioneer pressed, and just as his eyes wandered around, mine did too because I was equally interested to know who would be interested in topping that.

“Do I hear fifty thousand dollars!” he echoed again.

“Fifty-five!”

“We have fifty-five—”

“Hundred thousand dollars.” A feminine voice echoed from the crowd and my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

“Magnificent!” the auctioneer yelled. “Do I hear over one hundred thousand dollars for The Shadow Skull. Does anyone want to top that?”

There was no response.

He raised his paddle, hoping someone would counter. “One hundred thousand dollars!”

“The Shadow Skull is sold to bidder number 30 at one hundred thousand dollars!”

The crowd erupted into applause.

My heart started racing the moment I saw the lady from earlier approaching the auctioneer. She leaned in and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened, but the look on his face was soon replaced with a mysterious intrigue.

“I have just been informed of an interesting twist,” he announced. “We are going to be trying something new. Although we have planned something entirely different, this is equally worthy of notice.”

“A bidder in the crowd is going to be putting herself up for sale and the highest bidder gets to own her for the night.”

The crowd gasped.

Domenico tensed beside me as though he was already putting the pieces together.

Anytime now...

“Bidder number thirty-five, could you please grace us with your presence on stage?” the auctioneer requested.

The spotlight fell on me, hitching my breath for a second. But then, I knew there was no going back. I plastered a seductive smirk on my face, sauntering to the stage.

I wanted so badly not to look in his direction, but my will wasn’t in alignment. My eyes strayed from the crowd of hungry, lustful men, meeting his burning gaze. His face was cold, hard, and unreadable. Those blue eyes, which always held harshness, reeked of something else.

Rage.

I didn’t care. I looked away from him. He started this when he thought he had me right in the middle of his palms.

“The gorgeous woman here with me—bidder number thirty-five has made it clear that she’s willing to give herself up for whoever it is who can afford her.” My throat tightened at his words. “The bidding starts at two hundred thousand dollars!”

My legs felt light on the floor.

“Two-fifty!”

“Three hundred!”

“Three-fifty!”

Beads of sweat formed on my skin, my lungs slowly thinning out as the world around me started fading into oblivion, leaving just me and the devil.

My eyes kept finding his unconsciously, waiting, searching for any flicker of emotion in those blue eyes that reminded me of the Antarctic ice on a cold, merciless night. My vision started blurring out.

“Five hundred!”

I froze, my eyes settling on the blonde-haired male whose eyes devoured every inch of my body with a malicious and sinister intent. It made my skin crawl and I could feel the champagne from earlier coming back up.

“Do I hear five hundred thousand dollars?” the auctioneer repeated, his voice seemingly sounding like a shrill bell.

It felt like a horror movie was starting to play out before me.

“Two million.”

The world stilled. Everything else quieted and a strange air burst through my lungs, feeling like relief, like liberation.

I knew that voice. Voice of smoke, sin, and lust.

My eyes met with a harsh, unforgiving pair in the crowd, seizing my breath.

“Do I hear two million dollars?” the auctioneer put it out there for confirmation, earning him the kind of silence that made ice grow under my skin.

“Sold to bidder number thirty-six for two million dollars.”

****

I didn’t know how I found the restroom. My legs were light on the floor, leading me anywhere, anywhere away from him, delaying the inevitable. My eyes burned with unshed tears, tightening my throat, wrapping around my neck like an invisible noose.

I didn’t know why I was so terrified. I didn’t know why I was trembling so hard, pushing back against the door like that would stop him from finding me.

I glanced around the large restroom, dragging my trembling self to the sink. I turned on the faucet with shaky fingers, dipping my dark, manicured fingers through the water, hoping it’d soothe the volcano erupting inside me.

“Breathe,” I looked into the mirror, murmuring to myself.

As if you could outrun the devil. The voice nagging at the back of my head chose that moment to crawl out.

I shut it down.

I grabbed the edge of the sink so hard, I felt it restrict the blood flow in my veins.

Then, I felt it. That sensation that made me feel like ice was growing under my skin. I murmured a little prayer beneath my breath, hoping desperately that it wasn’t who I thought it was.

I died on the spot as my eyes clashed with those unforgiving blue ones.

He was standing by the door, his intimidating frame swallowing up the entire entrance, bending the air in the room to his will.

He casually strolled further into the restroom, swiftly locking the door behind him.

Lean fingers came up to his mid stomach, undoing the button of his suit.

He shrugged it off, and the top buttons of his crisp white shirt followed, teasing me with the hard surface of flawless golden skin beneath it.

“What did you think was going to happen?” His voice was calm, too calm for someone I just tried to play.

I stiffened against the edge of the countertop as he approached me, slowly and stealthily, like a panther who had all the time in the world.

“Someone was going to win the bid, take you home, bend you over the nearest surface and fuck you, and you would let them?” He scoffed out the last part like he couldn’t fathom how stupid I was.

I slowly shook my head, unable to come up with anything.

I wanted so badly to shrink and disappear into the sink edge, but it was impossible. He caught up with me like my fucking nemesis, caging me against the countertop, curling his scent around me like smoke.

“Did you really think there was someone who could buy you and save you from me?” He was everywhere, choking me, consuming me without having to touch me.

My eyes stung with tears as he brought his finger to my chin, delicately tilting it so that my gaze could meet his.

“Two million dollars? I’ll make it back in the blink of an eye.

” He scoffed. “I’m your reckoning, Mia Cara.

Nothing in this world can pry you from my hands—dead or alive—not even death.

I own you.” He grabbed my hair in a rough grip, fisting it so hard, it made me wet and drip for him like a fucking slut.

“Dom...”

“Shut up,” he gritted. “You wanted to sell yourself off—give yourself to another man who would fuck you?”

“No...” I whimpered as he pressed himself into me, deepening his grip around my hair.

“No?” he repeated. “So, you were going to run from me?”

“I’m not going anywhere.” I tried to convince him.

What was more scary about that was deep down, I knew I couldn’t run from him. I couldn’t bring myself to. Not when he had me in such a chokehold.

“Liar,” he seethed. “You shouldn’t have done that, Mia Cara.” His voice was low, heated, searing my skin with dark promises I knew he intended to keep, judging by the psychotic glint in his eyes.

“You are mine.” His fingers found my zipper, undoing it, pushing it downwards to release my breasts from their confines.

“And right now, I’m going to fuck you like I hate you—hard, rough, and intense, and you know what you are going to do?

” His eyes were fixed on mine as he lifted me effortlessly on the marble surface.

He tugged me to him by my legs, eliciting a moan from me. “You are going to spread these legs and take it like my good little slut.”

I arched into him when he cupped the back of my head, brushing his lips against mine. His breath mingled with mine, teasing me with what I wanted but not giving me.

“Only good girls get kissed,” he murmured, pushing himself between my legs. “Bad girls get fucked like whores.” He undid his fly, the warmth of his cock teasing my inner thigh as he hiked my dress up.

“But you’ll like that, won’t you? You’d love to be fucked like the fucking brat that you are.”

My voice wavered so hard. “Dom...”

He hadn’t even touched me yet and I was wet and needy for him.

He pressed his forehead against mine. “I’d have done anything for you, Mia Cara.”

I know.

“You just had to piss me off, and I’ll punish you for it.” Was it insane that I wanted him to?

No, I didn’t just want him to punish me. I needed him to. It was like needing something so much it was my edge of survival, the only thing keeping me together.

I wasn’t prepared for how he slid into me with ease. I was dripping, messing up the surface of the countertop with my arousal yet when he penetrated, a sharp cry tore from my throat. I had forgotten how huge he was—how he filled me up like he was fucking made for me.

“ Fuck ,” he growled.

He pulled out of me, stroked my bare pussy and sensitive clit with the tip of his cock before thrusting into me like a sweet, frustrating intrusion that tore me apart and made me feel so whole at the same time.

“Dom!”

“So tight. All mine.” He cupped the back of my head, pulling out of me and slamming back into me.

The sheer force rearranged my insides, causing pressure to mount at the back of my eyes. My lips trembled, ecstasy swallowing me whole as he repeated the process with a much more brutal edge this time around, making my eyes roll back.

Domenico seemed to have been furious with me for a while now, some reasons I knew and understood, some I didn’t. His fucking me in the restroom right now granted him the full advantage and the perfect outlet to maximize his rage.

His nails sank into my hair, his lips meeting and marking everywhere they could on my neck and my breast, sucking like a feral creature.

He plunged in and out of me with a terrifying animalistic force that jerked me to the edge with every harsh thrust. It was almost as though I was falling off the edge of a cliff and he was yanking me backwards and repeating the process all over again.

I was stretched beyond my limit. My throat hoarse and aching from the filthy sounds he wrenched from me as he fucked me like I was his reckoning.

“Dom ... ah! Ah!” I dug my heels into his back, tossing my head backwards.

“No one gets away from me.” Thrust. “Not even you, Mia Cara.” Thrust. “I will tear the city apart and hunt you down to the ends of the earth if I have to.” Thrust.

“Fuck... Dom, please. I—I can’t—”

“You can’t what?” he grunted like he was taunting me, digging his fingers into my hip while he gripped onto my hair with his other hand.

“I can’t—I can’t—it’s too much.” I sobbed.

“You’ll take every inch of it, Mia Cara.”

He was relentless. His thrusts were harsher, as though I were his canvas, expressing how furious he was with me.

He fucked me hard, fast and rough, not allowing me to catch my breath as he repeatedly struck my sensitive spot.

My eyes blurred with tears, my vision dotted with streaks of black as though my soul was being separated from my body.

“I’ll be so good...” I moaned, fighting back a sob because of how good it felt to not be treated like something fragile, to be fucked like I was the object of his obsession, his deepest darkest desires, his ruin and his redemption.

He fucked me like he hated me, like he couldn’t stand me and also hated how much he wanted me at the same time.

The sound of his cock pounding in and out of me, his deep grunts and my throaty, helpless moans filled the room like a cacophony of madness.

“Don’t ... don’t ... stop...”

“Oh, God.” I arched into him, my legs literally hanging on his shoulders.

He held me down so tightly like it was a silent command that I was to sit my ass down and take every inch of his brutal, addictive cock.

“Fuck, Silvana!” he growled.

That fucking accent. It made my nipples so hard, causing me to drip even harder around him despite the fact that he was literally and figuratively fucking me into my ruin.

“Dom, please ... please ... oh, God, there.” I fisted his hair, choking on my own sob as he took a nipple into his mouth.

The pleasure surged from all angles, stimulating me until I was a writhing, blubbering mess.

“Mine.” A guttural growl tore from his throat.

“I need to—I want to, please—”

“Please, what?” His pace hardened.

“Come ... come...” My stutters broke with thrusts.

“Just like that, Mia Cara,” he murmured. “Come for me.”

My back was locked. My lungs thinned out for what seemed like eternity, and I could barely hear myself scream anymore since it felt like my ears had shut themselves out from reality.

I shattered around Domenico and he still fucked me through my orgasm, making me climax a second time as he hit his peak.

“Damnit, baby,” he grunted, easing his essence into me.

Our breathing was loud and uneven, our bodies a sweaty mess against each other. I could barely feel my throat, but my frame was thick with satisfaction as I pressed into him submissively.

Domenico did something I didn’t think he was capable of doing. It was like something cracked in him. He pressed a dainty kiss to my forehead, content that he had fucked that bratty attitude out of me.

“Can we stay like this?” I didn’t think he heard me, but he did.

“Anything you want, Mia Cara.”