Page 50 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

Luca sweeps an arm around my waist, wrenching me completely off my feet against his chest. "You are never leaving this compound again," he growls against my temple. "I will chain you to my bed before I let anyone put another scratch on you."

I open my mouth to fire back something cutting, but the words turn to ash on my tongue as my knees buckle. Luca catches me before I hit the stones, his fingers digging like iron bands into my ribs as the sharp, metallic stench of spilled fuel and burnt gunpowder finally hits the back of my throat.

Chapter 18

LUCA

I kick the heavy door open, hauling Nora across the threshold in my arms before kicking it shut with the heel of my boot. The deadbolt slams into place with a sharp metallic crack. I drop her down onto the cold edge of the marble vanity, breathing like I ran five miles through fire.

I step between her knees so she can't slip away. "Take your clothes off. Right now."

She grips the cold counter behind her, her knuckles turning white. "Are you out of your mind? Put me down on the floor first, you asshole. Do you always carry women around like bags before playing doctor?"

I step closer, the cold tile hard under my shoes. My hands are shaking, and it pisses me off that she sees it. "Someone tried to kill you minutes ago. I have to check you for cuts, bullet scrapes, and whatever else happened out there. Take them off, Nora, or I will cut them off myself."

She rolls her eyes, her fingers already working on her shirt buttons with obvious annoyance. "Very charming. Truly. Is this how guys hit on girls in Italy? 'Hi, I'm Luca, let me look at your cuts after someone shoots at you'?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" I cross my arms and stare straight into her eyes. "Two bullets smashed right through the back window."

"And neither one hit me, thanks to your guard driving like a lunatic on the sidewalk." She pulls the shirt off her shoulders, letting it hang loose. "You have awful manners. At least Dino offered me a drink before he started yelling into his walkie-talkie."

"Dino is a fool who got you ambushed in the middle of the day." I snatch the shirt before it falls to the floor and toss it into the sink. "Turn around."

The torn trousers hit the floor, leaving her in lace underwear. I grip her hips and hoist her higher onto the vanity, forcing her legs apart. Both of her knees are covered in dried red streaks and embedded shards of dark safety glass from the blown windshield. A dark purple bruise wraps around her ribs, but the glass in her joints makes my blood boil with sick fury.

I kneel right in front of her, locking my hands around the tops of her calves to hold her knees wide. "You dropped to the floor of the car. You scraped yourself all over broken glass."

"Bullets were blowing through the headrests, you maniac," she snaps back. Her heels kick against the cabinet as she flinches. "Sorry for not sitting up straight like a good guest while people shot holes in your seats."

I drag the metal medical box from the lower cabinet and drop it onto the floor with a clatter. Steel tweezers, antiseptic, heavy rolls of white gauze. My jaw locks so hard my molars ache. I grip the steel tweezers in my right hand and wrap my left fingers around her bare ankle, lifting her leg onto my thigh.

I touch the metal points to the cut by her knee. "Stay still. If you kick me, I will hold you down by your neck."

"Try it and I'll kick your balls into your throat." She groans and tilts her head back against the mirror as the first piece of glass clinks onto the steel tray. "You'd make a terrible nurse."

I pull another sharp piece out. "A nurse would be a lot nicer to the men who did this than I'm going to be." Blood trickles down her skin, and I wipe it away with my thumb before grabbing the bottle of rubbing alcohol. "Hold onto the counter."

I douse the open wounds in antiseptic. Nora gasps, her spine stiffening like steel, her fingers digging so deep into my shoulders that her fingernails bite through my clothes. She doesn't scream. She glares down at me through wet eyelashes with pure venom.

I wrap the clean gauze tightly around both knees to stop the bleeding. "Nobody hurts you. Nobody puts a finger on you. If anyone takes a shot at you again, I will kill them with my bare hands."

Her chest heaves as she looks down at my hands. "You sound completely crazy. You look nuts right now."

I stand up straight until my chest presses right against her knees. "I am crazy. I lost my head the minute your car stopped answering the radio."

I scoop her straight off the marble and carry her into the bedroom, throwing her down on the mattress before she can draw another breath. Her back hits the sheets with a dull thump. Before she can roll away, I unbuckle my heavy leather belt, looping it firmly around both her wrists to bind them to the wrought-iron headboard post.

She tugs hard against the leather strap. "Luca, don't you dare..."

I silence her mouth with my own, tasting the salt of sweat and hot iron. My hand grips her throat choking off her air, pinning her down beneath me. She growls against my tongue, testing the leather restraint, her hips lifting against mine in open defiance.

I rip the scrap of lace from between her thighs with one sharp jerk of my hand. The fabric shreds against her skin. "You think you're in charge because you survived an ambush?" I growl down against her collarbone, dragging my teeth hard along the sensitive skin behind her ear. "You belong to me, little bird."

She arches her spine off the mattress, belt taut against the iron post, eyes wild and dark in the dim light. "Stop threatening me and take it, then. Show me what you're so angry about."

I don't go slow. I drive deep inside her in one hard, merciless shove. Her back bows straight off the sheets with a sharp gasp that hitches in her lungs. She is soaking wet and scorching tight around me, gripping my cock like a clenched fist while the leather around her wrists creaks against the metal.

I hold myself still, buried to the base. My fingers clamp down on her hips so hard the skin turns white under my thumbs, and I press my forearm across her chest. "Look at what you do to me. Every inch of you is mine to keep alive."