Page 34 of Stolen Compliance

“You’re done with the whores. With the alcohol. I refuse to watch it, to see you parade your body in front of me and give it to others to slake your fantasies—ones only I can give you for real. Well, me and the bunny.

“I’m bound by the rules. We both operate in this world to the best of our ability. But fuck it. I’m calling in my marker. You remember this…” I drop my voice as I push my hips against his, feeling his hard cock next to mine. “Yeah, I thought so. You remember I own you.

“Your body. Your thoughts. Everything. The rules may stop me from touching you, from fucking you, as much as I want—which Teo, that’s all the fucking time. But it won’t stop me forever.

“We’re both on chains, but I hold yours. Never forget that. The bunny will fuck up. And when he does, we’ll take him apart—together. To do that, I need you to behave.

“Get your head in the game. And fucking play nice with the kid. He’ll fuck up eventually. You did. So will he, because he’s not nearly as strong as you. But when he does? Buttercup, we’re going to fucking ruin him. And then? I’ll ruin you.”

I take the boxers out of his mouth, tossing them to the side. He moves his mouth, like he’s trying to get rid of the taste or discomfort in his jaw. Who the fuck cares?

Instead, I swoop in, kissing him savagely. I let the knife sink into his flesh just a small bit as I do. And when I draw back, I note the thin rivulet of blood on his neck with a deep satisfaction. And more, the pleasure in my veins from knowing that the kiss we just had? It seared me right into his soul. And hell, it was sharper than my knife on his skin.

I slide the knife back into the holder, pinching his chin in my hand. For a beat, our entire bodies seem to sync. Our breathing, our thoughts, our needs. But then I pull away.

I have to, because even though I hold Teo’s leash, his father holds mine. So it’s not time. Not yet.

But before I leave, I make one more point. “You need to accept that the bunny dances to the same damn tune as the rest of us. He wants to make it up to you. Let him. Because when we take him down? I want maximum pain.”

With that, I slip out of the room. Even though I know he has questions, I’m not interested in answering them. He’ll either get with the program or he won’t.

But fuck knows he better remember what it’s like if he doesn’t.

“You need to accept that the bunny dances to the same damn tune as the rest of us. He wants to make it up to you. Let him.” Dominic’s words from the other night echo in my ear, but they don’t mean shit when Luca seems to have given up making friendly overtures.

Sure, he’s polite and professional, but he no longer tries to draw me into casual conversation with his endlessly stupid questions. Though, to be fair, yesterday…was not a good day for me.

I got stuck doing the bitch work, making sure everyone and everything was accounted for after the holiday, and I had to do it all with a fucking hangover. My own fault, but that doesn’t mean much when the object of my aggression and frustration showed up in my room and turned me on so much I barely resisted coming in my pants.

“The rules may stop me from touching you, from fucking you, as much as I want—which Teo, that’s all the fucking time. But it won’t stop me forever.” Clear-headed now, Dominic’s words play over and over again as my confusion mounts.

I can understand being held back by his loyalty to my father. Fuck knows that’s the reason he tracked me down and turned me into what I now am, but we all know Sergio plays favorites and I am not ranking on his chart. No, that’d be Kari, who can do no wrong in our father’s eyes because she’s a perfect princess; the future wife to whatever Boss makes the best deal. And Dominic, the loyal second who does what he’s told and brought the innocent, unruly, and out-of-his-depth heir to heel.

Sergio may be grooming me to take over, but I know his backup plans have backups, and I’m not stupid enough to believe he trusts me. As if finding out who my father was wasn’t a shock to me as well.

Not that any of that matters now, when I get the lovely job of dragging the newbie with me to a meeting with a supplier—as if they weren’t hell enough.

Luca is quiet on the drive, but there’s tension leaking off him, and I itch to order him to calm the fuck down.

I mourn the fact Dominic stayed behind. He’s not needed. I’ve been handling the acquisition side of things on my own for months now. Not only that, I know what this is; another test for both me and the newbie. The opportunity for either of us to fuck up is right there. Luca? He might end up learning what the true meaning of training is, but me? I don’t see myself surviving another round.

“He’s not nearly as strong as you.” If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was a compliment, but experience does know better. Dominic wanted me off my game, and I was just drunk and horny enough that he easily pulled it off.

It’s confusing, and I had too badly of a pounding headache and not enough sleep yesterday to think things over. Now? I can’t help but replay every little thing Dominic did and said to me in the wee hours of the New Year.

Thankfully, we pull up to the meeting place, a nondescript building that looks like every other restaurant on the block. Only this one is Bratva-controlled, and more than the city’s best pelmeni gets made in those walls.

Luca glances at me when the car stops, but I ignore him, climbing out of the vehicle and barely pausing long enough to allow him to follow me.

The hostess is a familiar one, some distant relative to the man we’re meeting if I’m not mistaken, and she knows the drill, grabbing menus and seating us in the far corner of the restaurant.

It’s early enough in the day hardly anyone is here, and from a glance around, those that are either work directly or indirectly with our contact.

I let Luca slide into the booth first before sitting next to him, the space barely big enough for two grown men, but I don’t think the bunny minds a little crowding.

Our waitress drops off glasses of water and a plate of blini topped with salmon.

“The Boss will be right out,” she says.