Mafia Captive (26 page)

“You know I don’t.”

“Then I won’t go.”

She’d killed his attraction to fear. But he needed to hear cries and whimpers and begging and see tears and hear cracks and smacks and watch red burst out over flesh. He needed it like a drug addict needed meth.

Even while he held Faith at night and wanted to protect her, he wanted to make her cry. He wanted her to cower and tremble at his feet, and he couldn’t simply wish that desire out of existence.

“Faith, you know what I’ll do to you. You’ve seen the things in the dungeon. Take your chance and go. For your own safety, please.”

He could make her go. He could take her out of here as easily as he’d brought her in.

Her jaw set in a determined line. “I’m not going.”

“Why not?”

“You know why not! Don’t make me say it.”

“Say it.” He’d seen all the signs. The way she’d looked at him before that night, and then again after Esmeralda had come. She had fallen for him and couldn’t make herself leave no matter the threat. Just like a battered wife. Just like Gemma with Emilio. He’d killed the bastard, now he
was
the bastard.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I wish Angelo had killed me.”

He knew this time she meant it. If he brought his brother in with a gun, she wouldn’t fight them again.

“It’s better for you to go. I can’t give you what you need, and I don’t think you can give me what I need. And after that night… I don’t know how we could ever… ”

She reached out and laid her hand over his. “I know you’re a good man. What you did for me… I know we haven’t talked about it but… it was everything. Y-you saw the gravity of what happened and you paid a price higher than I ever would have asked just to try to make it right.”

“It can’t ever be right.”

Leo’s muscles went rigid when she left her chair and knelt at his feet. He could barely breathe.

“I want to be with you. I want to please you. I’ll be your slave. I’ll be whatever you want.”

His suspicions about her being a sub were right. Just not a masochist. One out of two? A strong one out of two wasn’t bad.

“I’m going to my office to do some work. When I’m finished, you will be in one of two places, either in your room with your bags packed and ready to go, or in the dungeon naked in front of the mirror. Like that night.”

She flinched, and he knew she’d be packed in an hour.

***

Faith knelt on the kitchen floor as Leo’s footsteps faded from the room. She could go back to her life. Not her exact life, but a better life. She trusted when he said he’d give her a nice apartment or house and help her find a job. But the idea of going back to cats and no real family made her feel cold inside. If she took his offer, she knew she’d never see him again, and despite everything, she couldn’t stand that ending. Let him kill her if he didn’t want her. But tossing her away after all this?

If she were wise, she’d take the offer, go to her room, and pack her things. But she loved the way he smelled and his warmth and the way he held her. She loved how he’d protected her so many times, and despite how wrong it all was, she loved him for the scars he’d always carry for her.

It shouldn’t have been, but the decision was easy.

When she got downstairs, she turned on the lamps and removed her clothing, folding them and placing them carefully on a chest of drawers beside the bed. She paused in front of the record player, thumbing through the cardboard sleeves until she found the dreaded record. They’d agreed never to play it again, but nothing would let him know she was serious more than playing this collection of music, resetting everything exactly as it had been. It was the only way she could prove she was his, and the only way he could ever hope to rewind and redo that night. If she didn’t trust him to make a different set of choices, she should be upstairs in her room packing.

The record player had a setting to restart the needle at the beginning when it reached the end. She didn’t know how long he would be, so she set it and the music started—that deep, haunting tone. Frightening and sad. Everything she’d found her experience with Leo to be.

Faith went to the mirror and knelt in front of it, spreading her legs, committed to the outcome.

***

Leo sorted through mail, mostly wedding bills and deposit receipts. Then he checked email. He wanted to put off the moment when he’d go upstairs, find her ready to go, and have to keep his end of things. The idea that she’d go to the dungeon was too far outside reality to hope for, especially after he’d asked her to relive that night. It would push her the final bit to wake her up and take her out of his life for good where she’d be safe and could find some happiness.

When she was gone, he’d call Mei Lin. If she hadn’t gotten back with her Master, perhaps there was something they could build on in this life after all. If it ended up being a rebound, that might be ideal, a short fling to scratch each other’s itches and help heal each other’s losses. Faith felt like she belonged to him, like she was his responsibility to care for and keep safe, but keeping her safe from himself meant she couldn’t be under his roof.

As he closed the browser window, his cell rang. He recognized the number.

“Hello, Caprice.”

“I miss you.” She sounded as if she’d been crying. He doubted it was over him. Most likely some other love affair had gone sour and he was the first person she thought of when she was alone again. Lucky him.

Leo glanced at the calendar. It was about time for a Caprice call. He should have known a few quick sessions during the holidays weren’t going to end with her meekly going off to Vegas and never contacting him again. But his dick could tell convincing lies when necessary.

“I told you it was just during the holidays,” he said.

“Why are you marrying her? I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t. I mean she’s pretty enough, I guess, but she’s not what you need, and you know it. I’m what you need.”

Caprice wasn’t what anybody needed. Least of all Leo. But he held on to that retort. He also wasn’t about to tell her the engagement was broken off. It would send her into his arms faster than anything, or else it would start the rumor mill going. When it came out, he needed the family to hear it from him, not twisted in with Caprice’s jealousy and half truths.

“I need to be going,” he said. “I have somewhere to go with Faith.”

She made a disgusted snort over the phone. “Dinner and a movie? Maybe she’ll get the courage to hold your hand. Maybe you two can share a tub of popcorn and look longingly into each other’s eyes during the romantic comedy and come home and fuck in the missionary position with the lights out and roll over and go to sleep.”

“Don’t ever call here again.”

He was about to disconnect the call when her words stopped him. “Maybe I should tell your naïve fiancée what you were sneaking off to do during Christmas. Would she marry you then?”

“If you come near her, I will kill you. Is that clear enough? Stay the hell out of our lives.” He disconnected the call before she could reply.

No, Caprice wouldn’t meekly go home, and there was no telling what havoc she could bring to his life. Even without Faith, he didn’t want her, because at the end of the day she always came back to manipulation and nastiness to get what she wanted. He couldn’t train it out of her using any moral methods, anymore than he could train kink into Faith.

Leo took his time walking to the glass room in the east wing. He didn’t know if he could stand to see her sitting there, waiting with her bags packed.

He knocked, but there was no answer. He tried the knob, and it gave freely in his hand. When he stepped into the room, Snowball and Squish meowed and wrapped around his legs briefly before darting out the door. Faith must have forgotten to let them out. Normally they spent some time here, but otherwise had the run of the house.

The room was empty, all of her things still in their normal spots.

“Faith?”

Silence.

Snow fell outside the windows, the last gasps of winter creating a heavy blanket. He didn’t want to drive in this right now. And where was he going to take her until he found a permanent living solution?

He found himself irrationally irritated that she wasn’t packed yet. He’d been in his office for an hour at least. He searched the normal places she frequented: the kitchen, the game room, the family room where she liked to sit with a book beside the fire with a mug of cocoa or tea, even the pool.

He refused to consider she could have taken the other option. As obvious as it was, it felt like the kind of thing one would fantasize about and convince themselves of, only to be disappointed in the end. He couldn’t take any more disappointments. And he didn’t deserve a stroke of fortune. Despite this, when he was out of options, he made his way down the back hallways to the metal door at the top of the stairs.

He slid it open and pushed the flat switch that turned the LED lights on. He was halfway down when he heard the music. He hadn’t mentioned the music. Even he couldn’t be that sadistic.

Though he knew what he should expect, he still couldn’t believe it when he reached the bottom. Faith was in front of the mirror, watching her nude reflection, her legs spread as he’d requested.

He sat in the chair he’d been seated in that night. Her gaze never strayed. He glanced to the record player to find it on repeat, and he wondered how long she’d been waiting. Could it have been this whole time?

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m not leaving,” she said, not looking away from the mirror.

It was practically an engraved invitation. If she was teasing him, she’d picked the wrong man to do it with.

“Come here.”

She crawled across the carpet to his feet as he unzipped his pants. “I think you know what I want.” Even as he said it, he berated himself for expecting she’d rush to please him with her mouth.

Leo let out a soft hiss and gripped the arms of the chair when her lips wrapped around him, her warm, wet mouth engulfing his stiff member. The way she gave a blow job was the way she did everything else. There was something tentative and sweet and almost innocent in the act as she sucked on his hardened flesh. It was clear she’d done this before and knew her way around a man’s anatomy, but she was still shy. It was the most deeply erotic thing he’d ever experienced. He became more convinced that, with patience, he could remake her. His fingers tangled in her hair as she pleasured him.

When he came, he didn’t allow her to pull away. He wasn’t going to scrub cum out of the carpet. If she was letting him use her mouth as a receptacle, she’d finish the job. His breathing deepened and then stopped for a moment as he came. She swallowed without fighting the degradation, and when he pulled out of her and tucked himself back into his pants, she remained on her knees with her gaze cast down at the ground, waiting, her breath coming out in short flutters.

He lifted her chin. Her eyes held a glazed expression that contained equal parts fear and longing, and a foolish sort of love that danced around the edges. He helped her to her feet and took her to the table he’d been strapped to a few weeks before with Esmeralda.

She panicked like a spooked deer and tried to pull out of his grip. Leo would never comprehend the level of fear she must feel when this wasn’t her kink, especially after the gore she’d witnessed when he’d been on this same table. But it was time to jump in or run, and she’d refused the chance to run. He wouldn’t keep offering freedom, and he suspected if he did again, she’d begin to see it as a sort of threat that he’d throw her away. If she’d made this choice with such resolute certainty—adding the music on top of everything—then to continue to question her desire to obey him, no matter how great the fear, disrespected her and what she offered. Whether he deserved it or not.

“I understand you’re afraid, but you knew what was down here, and I gave you a chance at your freedom. Not staying in this house and watching while I take other women, but real freedom away from me. And you chose to stay. I won’t be vanilla for you. I can’t. It’s not who I am.”

“I know, Master, I’m sorry. I’m just scared.”

He took her into his arms, feeling her heart pumping against her chest, beating into his, practically throwing his own heart off its normal rhythm.

“Get on the table, on your stomach,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple.

He went to the wall, expecting she’d do as he’d asked and selected a couple of the less scary items: the flogger and the paddle. Then he went to the toy box to retrieve the last coil of fresh rope.

When he returned, she was on her stomach on the padded table, shivering with her eyes squeezed shut. Leo dragged the thick blanket off the bed. He made it snug around her torso as if she were being tucked in for the night. Her eyes remained closed, but were squeezed less tightly. He took a knife from a drawer and began to cut lengths of rope, knowing exactly how long each should be.

The endless metal rings attached to the table, allowed for extensive and intricate rope bondage in all imaginable positions, but he was content to tie her down in a standard spread eagle. It was convenient and secure, while being the least distressing form of bondage he could use to start. Tying her down wasn’t just about his own pleasure, but for her safety.

If the ropes hadn’t kept him so tightly bound in place when Esmeralda had whipped him, he could have moved in such a way that the whip would have injured him much more severely than it already had. He didn’t plan on doing anything that sadistic and cruel to Faith, but it was safer for her to stay as still as possible so he could strike the places he intended and nothing else.

He changed the record to something more peaceful: Chopin. The first piece was the third Nocturne for piano. He left the player on repeat and went back to the box for massage oil and a few pleasurable toys, as well as a blindfold. If he intended to train her to want what he wanted, he must make sure that all pain came with a sharp dose of pleasure so the lines would blur and she wouldn’t know which she was getting. Her body would eventually respond to both.

It wouldn’t matter how she was wired or what her brain wanted. He could remap that, reprogram it to his liking so that her body did what he wanted it to do. She’d be aroused and ready when he demanded.