“Don’t be such an ungrateful bitch,” he hisses, and I cry out as he bites down on my earlobe. “Do you know how many women would love to be in your place? I have women lining the streets to take a ride on my cock, so this preciousprincipessaroutine isn’t working,dolcezza.”
My heart stutters in my chest at his words before picking up speed, thumping crazily against my chest wall, making me feel like I’m close to cardiac arrest.
“Your father underestimates me, but I suggest you don’t,” he adds as his fingers brush against the crotch of my lace panties.
“Please don’t,” I whisper, fighting tears.
“Don’t do what?” he sneers, rubbing his fingers back and forth across the lace.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Don’t touch you where?” He mocks me, and his two soldiers laugh.
“Don’t touch me there,” I whisper as a tear rolls down my face.
“Don’t touch your pussy?” Pushing the lace aside, he probes my folds with a rough touch, and I want to die. “Don’t fuck you with my fingers?” He shoves two fingers inside me with brutal force. I cry out as he spreads me, pumping his fingers in and out, and pain splinters through my core. “Or don’t touch your tits?” he adds, moving his arm up and squeezing one of my breasts through my dress.
“Please stop.”
“I don’t think I will,dolcezza.” Removing his hand from my pussy, he spins me around to face him, keeping one arm banded around my back as he licks my essence from his fingers. “Sweet as honey.” He licks his fingers clean while staring at me with blatant need.
Aesthetically, Carlo is a very good-looking guy. Tall and toned with handsome facial features, he is deemed a good catch. He looks like a young Johnny Depp with his dark hair and sultry brown eyes, but the monster lurking behind his gaze never lets me forget he is as far removed from a handsome movie star as I can get.
There are rumors he likes to cut the girls he takes to bed and he forces them into blood play and other kinky shit. Some of the Italian girls in our small circle at school tell me over and over how lucky I am, and I hate that I have to bite my tongue from admitting the truth. Carlo Greco scares me, and he makes me sick.
Case in point.
Carlo grips my face, painfully forcing my chin to tilt so he’s peering into my eyes. “Is that why Leonardo Messina calls youdolcezza? Has he drunk from the forbidden well?” Anger flares in his eyes as his fingers pinch my chin. Panic for Leo floods my system. What the fuck does Carlo know and how?
“Leo has been my brother’s best friend since we were kids. He is basically my pseudo brother. He has called medolcezzasince I was a little girl. Not everyone is a sick fuck like you,” I add.
My head whips back as he slaps me across the face. Pain rattles around my skull, but I don’t cry, letting anger overrule all other emotions and the throbbing ache spreading across my cheek. I bring my head around to face him, pinning him with the full extent of the hatred I feel for him.
“Disrespect me again and I’ll kill him,” Carlo says in a lethally calm voice as his free hand trails up my body. “Disobey me and I’ll kill him.” He cups one breast, squeezing it tight. “You are mine,dolcezza. Mine to do with as I please.” Tugging the top of my dress down, he slides his hand underneath the cup of my bra, fondling my bare flesh. I squeeze my eyes shut as agony twists my insides into knots. “Open your eyes,” he demands, pinching my nipple, causing tears to sting the backs of my eyes. He rolls my nipple back and forth between his thumb and forefinger as he shoves his pelvis into my stomach. His disgusting erection prods at my narrow waist, and acid crawls up my throat. “If I find out Messina has touched any part of you, I will chop his dick off and feed it to him in little pieces.”
He looks over my shoulder at his men. “And I’ll give you to my men for a night. Let them do whatever they want. Fuck your tits, your ass, your treacherous cunt, your pouting mouth. I’ll let them cut you, burn you, beat you.” His hand moves from my lower back, and he pulls the bottom of my dress up, exposing my ass to his men. He squeezes one ass cheek through my lace panties and then the other before his finger traces a line through my ass crack. My eyes close of their own volition, and I’m struggling to hold on to my tears.
He slaps my ass. “Open your fucking eyes, Natalia!” he hisses. “You will do as I say, when I say it, and if you a breathe a word of this to Mateo or Leo, I will end them both.” Leaning down, he suctions his mouth over the swell of one breast and sucks hard. His finger continues to rub up and down the line of my ass, and terror has done a number on me. I can’t speak, can’t move, and can barely breathe as he violates my body in places I have never been touched before.
Revulsion tiptoes down my spine as he sucks on my breast, bruising my skin. Lifting his head, he reviews his work, a satisfied grin tugging up the corners of his mouth. “I want you to look at that and remember what I have said.” Grabbing my face, he smashes his mouth down on mine, brutalizing my lips and shoving his disgusting tongue in my mouth. “I own you, Natalia. Don’t forget.” He cups my crotch through my dress, squeezing tight. “This cunt is mine and mine alone. When I come for you next, you won’t refuse me, or it will be Leo and your brother who will pay the price.”
* * *
I barely sleepa wink that night. Concern for Mama commingles with concern for Leo and Matty and fear for myself. I played it all wrong today, and I want to scream and shout and berate myself for not being stronger. For not protesting louder. But I was scared, and I froze, intimidated by Carlo and his two leeringsoldati. I can’t tell my brother because he’d lose his shit if he knows what Carlo did. Mateo is already in hot water with Papa, and I won’t add to it. His temper is too fiery to risk going to him. I really want to tell Leo, but I’m afraid to because that monster warned me not to, and Carlo clearly knows things. I don’t know how, but I won’t risk Leo’s life, so I vow to say nothing. Like I did yesterday when he asked me what was wrong.
“Natalia,” Leo says, exiting the car from behind the wheel. “Wait up a minute.”
I stall at the bottom of the steps to the school doors, steeling myself in preparation. “What’s up, Leo? I can’t be late for homeroom.”
“I know something is wrong. Tell me.” His eyes probe mine and I both love and hate how well he knows me.
“I’m worried about Mama,” I truthfully reply.
His features soften. “I know you are. We all are, but I know there is more. What did he do to you,dolcezza?” My mouth turns dry as I remember Carlo taunting me with the nickname yesterday.
“Nothing,” I lie, averting my eyes.
“Stop lying, Natalia. I saw his hand on your leg under the table. That bastard has no right to touch you before the wedding. You need to tell Angelo. He’ll get Don Greco to rein him in.”
