Stubbornness, not silence, will be the death of me.
With a tiny sigh, I reach for the tablet and swipe the screen with my fingers. It lights up and the various icons stare at me. I put on the earbuds and tap the movie app, then scroll through the various titles. My curiosity is piqued when I come across365 Dni. The description of a handsome and ruthless Italian man kidnapping a woman he’s obsessed with in order to make her fall in love with him sounds over the top ridiculous. But I select it anyway, ignoring the warning for sex, nudity, and violence.
I’ll be a legal adult of eighteen in a few days time, but mentally I’ve been an adult for a long time.
The beginning scenes of the movie are filled with danger and the father of the main male character dies after being shot. I vaguely wish this would happen to my father, but I’ve had no such luck. Massimo, the son, is also wounded and almost dies. During what he believes are his final moments alive, he envisions a woman he briefly saw on a nearby beach.
It’s shaping up to be a typical cheesy film, but the main woman, who’ll eventually be taken, masturbates. I tilt my head and study this part from a pure intellectual standpoint. I’ve touched myself several times before, but I don’t think I’ve ever had as much of an exhilarating experience as her. Maybe it’s over exaggerated.
Or maybe I didn’t do it right.
I’m thinking heavily on this when the lead male in the movie ends up alone with a flight attendant and she starts giving him head. I blink my widened eyes.
It looks real. And so hot.
“What are you watching?”
Beni’s voice startles me and I let out a tiny squeak right before fumbling with the tablet and shutting down the screen. He grins at me and his eyes are sparkling with mischief.
“I was beginning to think you were mute, but you sounded like a chew toy for a dog just now.”
I make a face at him and he laughs. It draws everyone’s attention and the weight of their stares crush me. My cheeks heat at the very thought of Beni announcing what I was watching. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but my lack of experience in sexual matters only makes the topic awkward for me.
I’m not a sultry vixen with the confidence of a woman in her prime.
“If you like that scene, then you’ll really like the one on the yacht.” He winks at me and laughs again when I huff, my face scrunching all the more. He lowers his voice and leans just the tiniest bit closer. “I saw how you were glued to the screen, but don’t worry, it’ll be our little secret.”
Beni is what I imagine having a brother would be like: Older, playful, and gives you a hard time for no other reason than to amuse himself.
Tristano clears his throat in what I suspect is a nonverbal warning to Berni. Or maybe even me, although I haven’t done anything wrong. I turn my head and meet Tristano’s gaze. The gray of his eyes is the color of thunderclouds right before they unleash a torrential downpour. In his case, it’d be censure, not rain.
He’snotsomeone I’d picture as an older brother.
There’s no way he’s the same age as my father, who’s in his fifties, but Tristano is definitely a lot older than me. And old enough to be my father… Thinking of him as mydadquickly evolves intodaddy, and that brings about a sexual connotation I didn’t intend.
But now it won’t leave.
The image of Massimo standing over the flight attendant as she takes his cock into her mouth floods my mind and I nearly squirm in my seat because of the immediate effect it has on me. Then the vision morphs, depicting me as the woman on my knees before a powerful man, who stares down at me with a sterling silver gaze. My sex dampens, and that visceral reaction has me sucking in a breath.
From mere yards away, Tristano quirks a brow in a silent inquiry and my flushed face heats all the more. In that simple gesture he’s asking what it is that I find so interesting. Or it could be him wondering why I’m staring at him.
There’s no way in hell I’m answering either question, verbally or otherwise.
I avert my gaze and fix it on the tablet. After unlocking the screen, I select a game.Tetrisis harmless, non-sexual, non-orgasmic, and won’t draw unwanted attention to me.
“I challenge you to a duel,” Beni says. He tilts his tablet which enables me to seeTetrisloading on the screen. Then he grabs mine, taps it several times, and hands it back to me. “The setting is on challenge mode, so whenever you clear the lines it’ll stack on my screen. I’m assuming you know how this game works?”
My expression conveys my exasperation and he chuckles.
“Just so you know, I’m pretty good at this game.” Beni waggles his brows at me. “I have a sharp mind andamazingdexterity.”
I roll my eyes. It’s one of the few times I’ve done something other than stare blankly or nod, and it’s…nice. Another step toward normalcy I guess. Somehow this made man, who was probably inducted into the mafia by killing someone at an early age, disarms me with his silliness.
“You’ll see here shortly,” he says. “May the best man or woman win.”
The music begins and the first shape appears on my screen, stealing my focus. I hone in on the game and a sense of excitement flows through me, making my blood rush through my veins. I think it’s an endorphin rush from having someone to compete with or it could be that I’m doing something enjoyable, which is relieving a portion of the built-up stress that’s accumulated during the past couple days.
Whatever the reason, I do my best.
