She was closing the door behind her when his impossibly deep, impossibly gravelly voice called out, “Keep it unlocked.”
Thanking God for the small mercy of being allowed to at least close the bathroom door, she rested her back against it and closed her eyes, taking a moment to try and just breathe.
The magnitude of what her future held pounded through her as clear as the mirrors of the sexual lair Tommaso called his bedroom and with the same strength as the thumping of her heart.
She wasn’t just Tommaso’s toy, she was his prisoner. The monster of her dreams was now her gaoler, the controller of her life.
In less than a day, he’d imposed his will on her so successfully that she was grateful for the mercy of being allowed to close a bathroom door. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the gun aimed directly at her face. Saw, too, the wildness in his black stare. That he’d been able to bring her to a climax…
What waswrongwith her? Tommaso was a monster with the face and body of a God, but still a monster. That she’d melted for him… She would never forgive herself for that. Or forgive herself that she didn’t know if excitement or terror were the predominant feelings coursing through her now. Very soon, she’d be stepping into the walk-in shower directly in her eyeline with the waterfall head designed to pour over two people. To the side of it, a sunken bath that could accommodate even more people. She turned her stare away from it, not wanting to imagine him demanding she share that with him, too.
What a fool she’d been to open her mouth and confide in Niccolo. She should never have taken such a risk.
Gabriella had been drinking when she’d confided in him. The trip to Accardiano for his and Siena’s wedding had been only days away. It was a trip she’d been dreading with every fibre of her being. She would be stuck in the same hotel as the Espositos for six days with no hope of escape. Six days spent pretending to be thrilled at her role as Siena’s bridesmaid. Six days of guilt that she had to pretend. Six days of being unable to escape Tommaso.
It was the Tommaso aspect she’d dreaded the most. Six days of his incessant company. All the meals. All the social events. Allthe forced fun that everyone was expected to participate in. All of that, unable to escape Tommaso’s gorgeous face and arrogant, hateful personality.
Gabriella rarely drank, but that evening, days before the trip, Siena had dragged her out for a poker night at one of Rico’s casinos with the other Esposito siblings. Tommaso had turned up with his latest lover. That lover hadn’t wanted to play, had wanted only to paw at him, which he’d been happy to oblige. It hadn’t stopped his black, sensuous stare continually falling on Gabriella. It had sickened her. More shamefully, it had thrilled her.
She’d deliberately lost her money after three hands and left the table, moving to the bar where she ordered a bottle of rum and settled herself on a table to watch the game from a distance and pretend not to watch Tommaso. Ten minutes later, Niccolo, having lost all his money too, had joined her. Twenty minutes after that, they’d drunk over half the bottle.
It was the first time they’d spent time alone together, and if she hadn’t been feeling so tipsy, she would never have looked at him through narrowed eyes and said, “Do you actually like any of them?”
People either loved or hated the Espositos. No one straddled the divide. You were either in or you were out, and if you were in, you committed with your life. Gabriella had been born into it, still a small child when Lorenzo had begun his manoeuvres to turn the empire he’d built on other people’s blood into a legitimate business. On the face of it, he’d been wildly successful, his past mostly memory-holed by the public who’d adored him for his cuddly charm, but behind the scenes, the thug who’d turned himself from a lowlife drug dealer into one of the richest men in Italy still carried the stench of his past and had no intention of washing it off.
Niccolo had been the first person she’d met since her mother’s death that she’d sensed a kindred spirit in. His love and respect for the Espositos, she’d become increasingly certain, had been as fake as her own.
His answering smile had been more of a grimace, and then he’d looked atherthrough narrowed eyes. “Do you?”
She’d laughed, loudly enough that Tommaso had looked up from his cards and openly stared at her with that hateful knowing smile on his lips. Barely understanding why she hadn’t positioned her back to him, she’d flipped him the bird and turned her attention back to her new drinking partner. Smiling widely, she’d uttered words that had never before passed her lips. “I despise them.”
Niccolo had considered this before his face creased into an identical smile and he raised his glass. “Lorenzo’s fucked me over.”
She’d clinked her glass to his. “I thought as much. And one day I’m going to fuckhimover.”
He’d raised an eyebrow. “Before the wedding?”
Still smiling, she’d downed her neat rum and shaken her head. “Not until I’ve got enough evidence to put him away for life.” She’d wiped the back of her mouth and, as she poured them both another shot, laughed even harder. “I’m going to put them all away, every last one of them. I’m going to destroy the whole rotting edifice.”
Eyes sparkling with warning, he’d raised his refilled glass. “You’ll be careful? These people are dangerous.”
“Trust me, no one knows better than me how ruthless they are.”
Gabriella’s father had paid the price for the Espositos’ ruthlessness, and still she’d opened her big mouth and confided in Niccolo.
Her only excuse was that the nine years since her mother’s death had been exceptionally lonely. She’d thought of the Espositos as her family, had taken comfort while her mother lay dying that she wouldn’t be alone in the world because she would have them. But then her mother had told her the truth, and any sense of family had been ripped away.
She flushed the toilet.
An instant later, the bathroom door opened, and the monster now in full control of her life walked in.
Chapter Four
God,he washuge.
Tommaso’s size was something Gabriella had been intensely aware of since she was a teenager with a thumping crush on him, but somehow, in this confined space, he seemed so muchmore. Taller. Broader. More muscular. Darker. Wilder…
Wordlessly, he stepped into the walk-in shower, stood beneath the waterfall head and beckoned her with a jerk of his unsmiling face. The only animation was in his eyes.
