Chapter 17
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ZENA (22YRS)
A week later, I was still restless almost every night, haunted by visions of first Lorenzo then Remo choking me to death with one hand. I tried to remain positive, but the days were beginning to drag. Even Rayden was getting tired of sitting around doing nothing. On the plus side, the Rossi brothers disappeared for a week the night after Remo threatened me. This gave Rayden and I some alone time under the watchful eye of Dario. While we snuck in a kiss or two, it was all the intimacy he allowed us. We’d been missing almost two weeks and both Rayden and I prayed that our families were still keeping the kidnapping under the radar.
Now, I stared up at the ceiling, sleep having evaded my attempts for the last hour. A glass of warm milk sounded like a necessity. Sliding off the bed, I peeked out, taking in the darkened hallway. Slowly, I slipped out and tiptoed all the way to the kitchen which was a waste of time. There were barely any shadows to hide in given the house was made of glass walls, someone could see me no matter where they stood. Checking the cupboards, I searched for a glass and opened the refrigerator door.
“What are you doing out of bed?”
“Christ!” I yelped, jumping back, my fingers tightening around the milk carton and biting my tongue in the process. “Lorenzo,” I moaned, more from pain than fear, setting the carton down on a counter. Jesus, these brothers made stalking look like child’s play.
He stood in the darkest part of the open-plan space—near the patio that led out to the pool and the direction in which I hadn’t bothered to look when I entered the kitchen. Dressed only in dark sweatpants, I couldn’t stop my roving gaze as he moved into the light from the open refrigerator. Fuck me, I was drooling from both ends. Again, like that morning I’d seen him exercise and he came in my mouth not long after.
I stared. Forgetting for just a moment that he was my kidnapper, my potential killer and relishing in the man beneath and his unguarded magnetism. Everything from the dark hair to those deep blue eyes nearly hidden by thick dark lashes and hooded with sleep to that clenched square jaw, was beauty unmatched. Unhindered, my gaze fell below his neck and I suddenly wanted to touch. To run my fingers over those hard pecs, down that defined six pack and along a ‘v’ so profound it was almost like it were carved into his pelvis before disappearing inside the waistband of his pants. I shuddered unsure if the abrupt buzz I heard erupted from the apex between my thighs or the open refrigerator door. Still my gaze dropped lower—
“I asked you a question, girl?” the snide words as though he were cognizant of my flagrant appraisal, snapped my eyes to his face as he flicked a light switch.
“Stealing milk, is that a crime?” I retorted before I could stop myself.Shit.
Knowing his reaction to my unchecked responses during that moment in the bedroom our first night here, I braced myself for his wrath. It didn’t come. Head cocked to one side, he rubbed the evening stubble along his jaw, drawing my attention to the corded veins in his arms. I was immediately reminded of the shove of his hard cock and his rigid fingers in my pussy that night, now provoking a startling fusion of fear and desire. The first moment I saw him, I knew what sin looked like. Having sucked him off once, I knew what sin tasted like too and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want him again.
With steps resembling the prowl of a panther out on a night hunt, he approached, stopping a foot from me, his large frame sucking up more than his share of oxygen. It took everything I had not to cower, to stand up and let him see that I wasn’t scared. Yet I hoped the subtle squeeze of my thighs to hold back the abrupt urge to relieve myself went unnoticed.
He stood so close, his breath brushed over my skin, igniting a flame so intense, I feared it would char the clothes off my body. Slowly, he licked his lips, pulling my gaze to thick, full lips that were made to tease and seduce. I shivered, wondering how they’d feel against mine. When he reached out and the back of his finger glided down the side of my face almost as gentle as a soft breeze, I bit my lip, but I didn’t flinch, didn’t jerk at his touch and dared not to move. And when that finger slid lower, down the cleft between my breasts before moving across to draw lazy circles around my breast, I stopped breathing altogether.
“Was that stunt you pulled with Remo the truth?”
His abrupt question caught me off guard and I momentarily stumbled when I opened and closed my mouth just as quickly. Forcing myself not to give anything away and aware of Remo’s threat, I nodded. Lorenzo’s perceptive ability was uncanny. He didn’t believe me. I could see it in the way he studied my face as though he could see the lies there.
“Something tells me you’re not afraid of me, Zena.” The seductive thrum in his voice brushed across my cheek.
Was he testing me? Waiting to see if I’d break and tell him the truth. I swallowed, suddenly hyperaware of his proximity, his touch, his spicy scent of earthy cinnamon and musk that curled around me like the bars of a gilded cage. Yet it was the way he looked at me that had me both spellbound and unnerved. His was a look you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley if you’d wrong him, yet it could, at the same time, entice a woman into giving him her soul just for a touch. If by some miracle I made it out of this place, I would never forget those eyes and their effect on me.
He grazed his fingernail over my now taut nipple, and I hissed in a breath, my pulse racing so fast, it probably wasn’t safe. Then his hand slid around my waist, gripped an ass cheek, pressing me tight to his body. I felt the nudge of his hard cock in my stomach and the sear of his bare chest through my satin robe which I hadn’t bothered to secure tightly.
I licked my lips, knowing he wanted a response. “I’m not.” Only, after I shook my head, did I realize I was lying only to myself. Of course, he scared me. I was generally good at reading people, but Lorenzo Rossi wasthemost enigmatic man I’d come across and that was saying something.
“Dangerous men should not be toyed with,mia caro,” his words were eerily calm for a man I just insulted.
