“Am I ever going to be allowed to leave this bedroom?” Gabriella asked the next morning when Tommaso returned after a workout in his home gym. She’d not been invited to join him. Breakfast had been brought up to her. She’d eaten it alone, in this room that she loathed with every fibre of her being. Everywhere she looked, her reflection gazed back at her. When she’d been drinking her coffee on the sofa, she’d seen her reflection from different angles in four different mirrors and for a moment had imagined Tommaso’s past lovers mocking her.
A black eyebrow rose. Bare-chested, he had a towel slung around his neck, his hair damp and slicked back. With his workout shorts on, he practically oozed testosterone, and she loathed that the spot between her legs was already fizzing with sexual anticipation almost as much as she loathed this room. “I don’t recall saying you were confined to the bedroom.”
“You never said I wasn’t.”
His tone was nonchalant. “This is your home. Treat it like you would your apartment.”
She eyed him warily. “Really?”
“I didn’t marry you to keep you a prisoner.”
Her wariness turned into suspicion. “So I can go shopping if I want? Meet a friend?”
Now he was the one to eye her. “I have already made it clear that you go where I go.”
“So I can’t just leave the villa and meet up with anyone then?”
“Forget your friends. Your old life doesn’t exist anymore. You don’t go anywhere without me.”
She folded her arms over her breasts. “So I am a prisoner.”
“A prisoner kept in luxury with a wardrobe of the finest clothes?” he asked mockingly.
“Chains aren’t always made of steel.”
His stare darkened, the mocking tone vanishing. “Do you forget why you’re here so soon, Gabba?”
Blanching at his use of the affectionate name she’d always been called by, she said with quiet venom, “I will never forget.”
He matched the venom and added extra bite. “And neither will I. You are here because I chose to let you live. I saved your life, and now your life belongs to me. I have no wish to keep you like a rat as my sister wants, so I suggest you don’t push me. Benevolence is not a natural state of affairs for me – I can fuck you as easily in a cage as I can a bed.”
Striding to the bathroom, he reached the door and turned back to her. “You will be pleased to know you will be escaping the villa tonight. We’re going out. I want you to dress sexy – I will be showing off my new wife. For now, you can leave the bedroom by joining me in the shower.”
Gabriella added a sweep of blush to her cheeks and lifted her chin as she took stock of her reflection. Naples was striding into summer, but the evenings were still cool, so she’d chosen a black silk halter neck dress that cinched at the waist, its swing skirt with the high thigh slits falling to mid-calf, and selected a shimmering silver wrap to cover her shoulders if it was needed. Slipping her feet into a pair of black heels much higher than she was used to wearing, she sprayed perfume on her wrists and cleavage, and left the dressing room.
“Well?” she asked of Tommaso, who was on the bedroom’s sofa sending a message on his phone, an ankle hooked on a muscular thigh. “Is thissexyenough for you?”
She’d not thought it possible for him to look sexier than he usually did, but dressed in black chinos, a white shirt rolled at the sleeves and open at the throat, and a silk navy waistcoat, somehow he did. He’d shaved his neck, combed his beard and brushed his hair, and yet he looked more untamed than ever. Or was it her responses to him that were becoming wilder? Whatever it was, she hated it. Hated how badly she wanted it; wanted him, and she lifted her chin even higher in defiance of him and the awful sickness possessing her for him.
His stare flickered up to her. For the longest time, he just took her in. His expression gave nothing away. “It will do, but you need to wipe that look off your face. We’re going to Gino’s tonight and meeting up with old friends. Everyone knows me there, and most of them will know you or know of you. When we leave this villa, you will act as a new bride glowing with adoration for her new husband.”
She shook her head in derision. “I’m not that good an actress.”
“We both know that’s a lie – you should be showered with awards for the love you faked for my family. It was the performance of a lifetime.”
“I could never fake it for you, though, could I?” she taunted. “Everyone knew I thought you were only a step from Beelzebub.”
He contemplated her silently before a cruel smile tugged at his mouth. “Yes, and everyone knew you wanted me despite it.”
Unable to deny this outright, she snorted.
“The circumstances of our marriage are contained,” he warned. “Only my family, Katya and the most trusted of my men know the truth – for everyone else it’s speculation. I willnot have that speculation fed, and if you do or say anything that could feed it, there will be consequences.”
“What will you do? Stick me in a cage and fuck me through it?” she challenged before giving a disparaging laugh. “At least that would be honest.”
He unhooked his ankle and reached for the glass of whisky on the small table beside him. “Are you being deliberately antagonistic?”
Not giving an inch, she folded her arms, pushing up her braless breasts. “I suppose I am.”
