I’ve given her too much freedom. I listened to Ms. Poitier, who advised I treat her like a real woman and not some figment in my dream. Nevaeh’s repaid me with her disobedience. But she’ll learn how hard she can really have it?—
“C, you hear that?” Matteo interrupts. “Johnny was briefing you about the whereabouts of her parents.”
I snap out of my bitter thoughts and shoot Johnny a disgruntled glare. “Yes, yes. I’m paying attention. Go ahead, Johnny.”
“Nero’s crew hasn’t been able to find them anywhere. They’ve been searching through every neighborhood in the city. It’s almost like they’ve disappeared into thin air.”
“Why would they turn on Nero now?” asks Sergio, another one of my men. “Does this mean they’re turning to our family?”
“No, this is separate of that,” I say. “Niecy and her husband seem to be acting of their own interests.”
“Did they drag the ballerina into it?” Johnny asks.
I snatch him by the throat to the alarmed flinches of my men in the room. Johnny retches at how roughly my hand’s enclosed around his throat, his eyes bulging.
“Her name is Mrs. Ziccardi to you,” I growl through clenched teeth. “Is that understood?”
He coughs out ayesand squirms in my hold like he’s afraid of suffocating if I throttle him any tighter. A legitimate concern considering I’m twice his size with the strength of five men. He gasps for air as I finally release him and turn to the rest of my men.
“For now, keep an eye on their search. If Nero’s guys find her parents, I want to know about it.”
“And your family?” Matteo asks. “You had mentioned you wanted a sit down?”
“Yes, reach out to my father. See if he’s interested in meeting to discuss a path forward. No more pussyfooting about the issue,” I explain. “They’ve betrayed me and need to know there will be consequences.”
With the meeting over, I address a few other pertinent matters and then return to the dungeon door. Bitter thoughts and welled-up emotion still occupy my body and mind.
Nevaeh whimpers at the sight of me. Mia bella ballerina looks so helpless and upset in her binds, my cum still dried on the inside of her thighs.
I give nothing away as I stride the rest of the way inside and slam the door. In order to finish her punishment, I have to remain stoic, or else I might let the tears glossing her eyes and the tremble of her bottom lip persuade me.
She made the choice to betray me; she broke our vows and the promises we made to each other.
Now she will suffer more of the consequences.
“C-Cael,” she murmurs, sniffling. “Pl-please… let me go.”
“You know better than to ask that, bella. You know what you’ve done wrong.”
“Let me tell you… my side, Cael.”
She’s so upset, she can’t even speak properly. She dissolves into hiccuped cries, the shackles clanging as a sob works its way through her body.
I step toward her, my arms folded behind my back, drinking in the sight of her head to toe. She truly is the most beautiful, most ethereal being I have ever seen. So entrancing even now as she cries in her binds and begs me to understand.
To her, I’m being cruel and vicious. I’m an uncompromising brute.
I see things differently. I think about how I’d trusted her. I’d gone to bed that night convinced the woman I called my wife was truly loyal to me. After all we’d been through, we had fallen in love and grown together.
But Nevaeh and her mother were plotting all along. The first opening she had, she took it.
“Nevi, you know better than to beg me when you have done what you’ve done.”
She sniffles. “W-what do you want?”
My gaze darkens. I’ve stepped close enough to eliminate the gap between us. I lean even closer ’til my mouth is only an inch from hers. “You, mia bella ballerina,” I whisper. “I want you. And I will have you. Are you ready for me?”
I cup her soft, quivering chin and lick at the tears that have spilled onto her lips. I don’t stop there, biting at her jaw and then sucking at the arc of her neck. My hand leaves her chin and roams where it wants to go.
