“Punish her,” he said, spitting the words. “Make it good, or I’ll do it for you.”
A grin played along Dominic’s lips. I nodded once. Dominic and my father left the dining room. I looked at Lucia sitting there, her face insolent, her eyes the only part of her betraying her fear.
I took my jacket off and hung it over the back of a chair, then loosened my tie, unbuttoning the top buttons of my dress shirt before it choked me. All the while, my eyes remained locked on hers. I walked toward her, rolling my right shirt sleeve up as I went. I wondered if she knew what was coming, what had to happen now. Why the room adjacent to ours became suddenly so quiet, as if there wasn’t an audience just beyond the doors to bear witness.
I reached for the buckle of my belt and undid it.
That was when she understood. She made to rise, but I was too close and caught her halfway up.
“Make this easy on yourself,” I whispered, wondering if those in the other room heard the swoosh of my belt as I yanked itfrom its loops, pulled her up out of her chair, and pushed her to bend over the table that had yet to be wiped down.
“Salvatore,” she began.
“Quiet.” I shoved her dress up to her waist. She struggled, but I held her flat and pushed her panties down so they slipped from her hips and pooled around her ankles. “Count yourself lucky that he closed the doors.”
“You can’t mean to…”
I gripped a handful of her hair and leaned down close to her ear. “One fucking sip. You could have been drinking to his death for all I cared, but you couldn’t do it. Now, you pay.”
I straightened, keeping one hand on the flat of her back while I swung with the other, the sound of leather striking flesh coming instantaneously with the sharp intake of her breath.
“He’ll require more than that,” I said, lashing her again. “And forgive me, but so will I.”
I whipped her hard, knowing I had to, wanting to beat her for her stupidity, her inability to keep one fucking promise. Knowing if I didn’t, he would. Or, worse, he’d let Dominic do it while I watched.
It took nearly thirty strokes, her screams becoming hoarse as she wept, lashing my heart as I lashed her flesh, hating myself, hating her for making me do this. Hating him, hating my father for his power over me. For the power I allowed him to have.
I only stopped when the quiet on the other side of the door grew into a soft murmur and the sound of silverware on dishes told me cake had been served. The vultures had been sated or perhaps had grown bored. I hated them all, but hated myself most of all.
When I lifted my hand from her back, she remained as she was, bent over the table, her dress hiked up to her waist, her ass bare. I adjusted the crotch of my pants before sliding the belt through the loops and buckling it. Red welts crisscrossed her assand thighs, and when I placed the flat of a palm over her hip, heat throbbed against my hand.
I squeezed.
She mewled.
I picked up her panties and pocketed them before lifting her to stand. The skirt of her dress dropped to her ankles, covering her. I turned her to face me and held her tight to me as she wept into my chest, fists pounding against me. Hiccups interrupted her sobs, and I lifted her into my arms and, ignoring the stares of the waitstaff as I carried her up to our room from the server’s stairs, I locked the bedroom door behind us. I sat on the bed, cradling her in my lap, refusing to let her go even as she fought me.
“I warned you.”
She pounded her fists into my chest, trying to free herself, tears streaking her face black with mascara.
“You liked it!” she screamed as the evidence of my arousal stabbed her hip.
“I didn’t like hurting you.”
“You’re hard, you prick! You liked it just fine!”
“I can’t deny the fact I’m aroused.” One corner of my mouth quirked upward. “But you deserved that one.”
“I hate you!” She clawed her fingernails down the side of my face.
I flipped her onto the bed, gripped her wrists and spread them wide, straddling her hips. “I fucking warned you. You have only yourself to blame!”
“They all heard!”
“That was the point. Humiliation. You’re lucky he didn’t demand the doors stay open!” During her struggle, her dress had shifted, exposing one breast.
“Let me go! Don’t look at me!”
