Matteo (Dark Erotic Mob Romance) (Rossi Family Book 1) (7 page)

As he spoke, he walked me back until I was pressed against the wall and his face was inches from mine. He didn’t raise his voice or yell as I expected; instead he appeared completely in control, but the tone he used was enough to tell me the punishment would be harsh.

“Yes, Matteo,” I breathed, afraid to speak too loudly in case it broke the calm demeanor he had. I watched as he took a step back from me, thinking I was being excused to go. I turned to reach for the door, but his hand squeezing my bicep made me spin around in time for his fist to land squarely against my face. White light burst over my vision as pain blossomed through my cheek. 

“
Bella
,” he sighed. “Seems you have much to learn yet.”

When he released me, I brought a hand up to my cheek to hold against the stinging pain left behind.

His eyes never left mine as he tugged down on his jacket and fixed his tie before dragging a hand through his hair, making sure not a strand was out of place.

“Now go to your room. Make sure no one sees you,” he said before unlocking the door and allowing me to exit first. He didn’t stop to make sure I did as instructed, instead turning in the opposite direction toward the hushed voices of the men.

I rushed up the stairs, thankful no one had interrupted my escape. Once in my room, I quickly stripped out of my dress and climbed on the bed. I didn’t know how long he’d be occupied, and I wasn’t going to risk not being ready for him when he entered the room.

As I lay in the bed, tears ran down my cheeks. Not from the throbbing in my face, not from the idea of a harsh punishment coming, but from the fact that I had upset Matteo without meaning to. I had tried to do as he’d instructed, but Allegra had been impossible to escape, especially when we were stuck next to each other throughout the five course meal.

I had no idea of how much time had passed before the bedroom door was thrown open, banging against the wall letting me know Matteo had returned.

Chapter Seven

“Think snuggling up to my cousin is going to save you? She might have my father wrapped around her finger and all the other men in the family letting her get away with everything, but you will not use that against me,” Matteo angrily yelled at me. He took a breath and ran his hands through his hair before continuing in a much calmer voice. “Get on your knees in front of me.”

I scrambled off the bed and fell to the floor.

“Head down. Palms out in front of you,” he instructed me.

I did as he said, closing my eyes as I tried to control my breathing. I was frightened by his sudden calmness after the explosion he’d entered with.

The sound of his belt being undone met my ears followed by the whisk of it being pulled through his pant loops. A loud slap of leather against skin made me jump slightly, but he hadn’t hit me, so I assumed it was against his palm. Testing it before he laid into me.

“I see that I grossly overestimated you and your training. Seems like every time I give you a little freedom you only turn it into a great disappointment for me. So, we will have to go back to the starting grounds and I’ll teach you everything myself, although I should demand a refund from Madam since she guaranteed me you would be perfect for what I needed you for.” He walked in a slow circle around me as he spoke, trailing the belt along my back and bottom as he did so. “Perfect slave to be the girlfriend my father demands. Perfect material for a controllable wife. All bullshit. All you are is a good faker. You might have been able to get away with this shit in her house, but not in mine. We will start with lashings now before we begin your training.”

My mind whirled with the idea of being his girlfriend or wife. I had no idea why he’d demanded me out of all the other women Madam had, but he had. Shame filled me with how much I’d let her down, and that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to please him.

The leather belt landed across my backside, and I closed my eyes. I refused to react. I’d been on the receiving end of a beating more times than I could count. Not that I would voice it, but Madam was much better at making a belt burn than he was. Even after twenty licks, I still felt that way. My skin burned and I knew it be uncomfortable to sit down the next day.

“Stand,” he demanded.

Quickly, I pushed off the floor and stood with my palms pressed together at my lower back, head lowered.

“Follow me. Oh wait, you can’t follow directions.” He stepped in front of me before sweeping my hair over one shoulder. The thick leather of his belt slid around my throat before he threaded it through the metal clasp and slid it tight around my neck, but not so much so that I couldn’t breathe. Yanking on the loose end of the belt, he forced me to follow as he exited the room.

We went down the hall, then the stairs, to a door in the kitchen. Without pausing, he threw open the door and descended another flight of stairs before pulling a key from his pocket. Unlocking another door, he pushed me through it ahead of him.

I struggled to look around the dark room until he flipped a switch and it was flooded with light from a hanging bulb.

“Welcome to
my
dungeon and training program,” Matteo said in a voice so dark I wanted to look at him to be sure it was truly his. Using the makeshift leash, he led me to the far corner where a set of shackles was attached to the wall. “Knees.”

I carefully knelt on the rough concrete floor in front of him.

He took the belt from my neck, dropping it to the floor before stepping behind me. Icy metal clanked around each of my wrists.

A shiver ran through me. I was chained up in his basement. I’d never been restrained in such a way before. Madam never resorted to such means since she knew I never would’ve run. I had no desire to live free of enslavement. It was all I knew and all I wanted. However, feeling the cool breeze in the room and the even colder restraints on my skin made me wonder if maybe I had thought wrong all along.

“I can see from the look on your face that you’ve never been locked up before, and I see that’s where Madam went wrong with you. No, you didn’t want to escape, but you don’t know how to behave. No, you don’t truly know the extent to which a punishment can go. Don’t worry, that is going to change starting now. This will throw a wrench in my initial plans for you, but I refuse to let you go now. You are mine and will be forever, so get used to the idea.” Matteo leaned against the wall in front of me, sliding his hands into his pockets as if we were carrying on a completely normal conversation. He appeared entirely at ease while I struggled with all the new emotions flooding me. After a moment of staring at me, he pushed off the wall and stood close enough I could feel his body heat.

He reached down to pull his erection from his dress slacks. Sliding his hand over it slowly, he dragged the tip over my mouth.

“Suck it. Get me off and I’ll leave you alone for the remainder of the night. Fail to do so and I will start your punishment now,” he said as he shoved the hot, hard, musky flesh into my mouth.

I wanted to cry out that I thought the lashings from the belt had been my punishment. Instead, I sucked him down my throat and bobbed my head along his length the way he’d shown me he liked it done. The longer I sucked, the more my lips became numb and the more I realized that I really had no idea what being a slave was like.

Finally, he groaned and his release filled my mouth and throat before he pulled back. As he tucked himself into his pants again he yanked my hair so I was forced to look him in the eye.

“Welcome to the Italian Mafia way of life,
bella
.”

Surprising me, he softly patted my cheek then retreated to the stairs. He didn’t look at me before he flipped the switch, leaving me in the dark room.

I listened as his footsteps ascended the staircase, then as he closed the door at the top of the stairs. I wish I’d had more time to look around before I lost the only light in the room. I groped along the floor until I felt a metal pole and followed it up to what I presumed was a cot for me to sleep on. Once I settled on the creaky, old bed, I curled into a ball.

Physically he hadn’t done anything I hadn’t dealt with numerous times in the past. It was the change in scenery. The chains that clanked with every movement I made. The threat of the unknown. Emotionally, he was tearing me apart. I’d never dealt with so many feelings before. He could be so soft, like the pat to the cheek. Then I’d remember the way he could so easily flip to the man that had no problem pulling me off a bed and sharing me with a roomful of strangers.

Yes, my whole world was changing and I had no say in it.

Since there were no windows, no light, no clocks, I had no way to measure how much time had passed before I heard footsteps on the stairs again. My stomach had been rumbling and I’d had to use the small bucket in the corner to relieve my bladder a couple of times since I’d last seen Matteo. I prayed he had food since my stomach was starting to burn and my lips stung with dryness from lack of food or water.

When Matteo flipped on the light, I sighed at the sight of a plate in one hand and a large plastic glass in the other.

I fell to my knees as I waited for him, hoping it’d please him.

“Miss me,
bella
?” he asked as he walked toward me.

“Yes, Matteo.” I answered honestly. I wanted out of the basement as fast as possible.

“I brought you some food and water. However, you must earn them. Your first lesson is that absolutely nothing is given for free. Nothing comes without a price. Never take anything for granted.” He set the food and cup down just out of my reach.

I’d tested how far I could move about the room during one of the bouts of boredom I’d dealt with. Before Matteo, I’d thought all I wanted was quiet, but I quickly learned that wasn’t true. There’d been absolutely no noise in the basement, leaving me completely alone with my thoughts.

He knelt in front of me and produced a black case I hadn’t noticed before on a sling from his shoulder.

I watched with rapt attention as he unzipped it and withdrew a clear glass tube. He withdrew a few other items as I watched, but I had no idea what any of them were.

“Lay on the bed,
bella
,” he said, holding up the glass wand-looking item.

“On my back or stomach, sir?” I wanted to be sure I got it right.

“Back. I want to watch your face,” he said after a moment of considering his response.

I climbed on and lay on my back, looking at my feet so I didn’t look at him when I wasn’t supposed to.

“This, dear
bella
, is called a Violet Wand. This is one of my favorite toys,” he said, dragging the tip of it over my nude body, making me shiver. Lifting it off me, he reached down and flicked a switch of some sort, causing the thing to blaze to life with a flickering purple glow through it.

My eyes widened, but I didn’t speak. It didn’t look so bad, not until he’d turned it on. The flashing of purple in it scared me.

“Just a taste,” he said before bringing the tip close to a nipple, but not touching. The purple energy arched between the glass and my skin.

I jumped at the shock, but it was manageable. Not as painful as I’d expected.

“Not too bad, right? Try a bit more,” he said, reaching down again before straightening and moving the wand close to my other nipple.

This time the energy shooting through me was more intense; a groan attempted to slip from my lips, but I managed to bite it back.

“Hmm. Yes, you can handle pain quite well,” he murmured to himself with a smile in his voice. Once again, he reached down, presumably to up the voltage. “We’ll see what you think of this.”

When he brought the tip close to the underside of my breast, the purple jumped to me again and I couldn’t hold back the cry of pain from the contact. My entire body tightened as pain strummed through me.

“Much better. Now, for your punishment. Since you seem to think it’s okay to agree to go out with Allegra without consulting me first, I think you should get ten seconds. What do you think?” he asked. But before I could answer or even formulate a response, he brought the wand down to the opposite breast.

I clenched my teeth and tried to count to ten in my head, but the sharp, unrelenting pain made it nearly impossible.

Finally the pain stopped, but he leaned down again, causing me to nearly cry out for him to stop.

“This is for all the pain and embarrassment you have caused me, because now I have to make excuses as to where you are while I train you,” Matteo said before lowering the wand to my inner thigh.

Instantly, I arched my back and cried out, long and ragged. He hadn’t given me a time limit for this one so I had no concept of how long it lasted; although it felt like hours, I knew it couldn’t have been.

Eventually, he released me from the pain. He set the wand down on the floor after turning it off.

I was gasping for breath, my entire body still vibrating from the pain and energy forced through it, when he climbed between my thighs. His cock entered me in a hard, harsh thrust. I wasn’t ready for him, and it felt like he was tearing me apart with the first few rocks of his hips. Then amazingly my body slickened and pleasure started to gather low in my stomach.

“Yes, come for me,
bella
,” Matteo breathed in my ear, his heavy weight over me. Still fully clothed, the fabric abraded my sensitive skin with each filling thrust. 

When I didn’t follow his instruction, he growled low and slid a hand between our bodies until he found the nerve-filled bud that made me arch against him. It only took a few flicks against that bud before ecstasy burst through me, forcing me to clench down on his invading length.

He groaned low then stilled before fully collapsing on top of me, hindering my already erratic breathing.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it any longer, he climbed off me. As I watched, he fixed his clothing and gathered his items into the case again.

He turned to head toward the door before stopping, and as if it were an afterthought, pushed the plate with the sandwich closer to me with the tip of his shoe, then scooted the cup along as well.

I licked my dry lips when water sloshed out over the rim of the cup at his roughness with it. The light flicked off and he was gone before I could even take my first swallow of the cool, cleansing liquid. I sat, shivering on the cold concrete, gobbling down everything he’d brought for me in case he returned and wanted to take it from me.

I needn’t have worried because he didn’t return, not for a long time. So long I was starting to wonder if he’d forgotten about me. My stomach hurt so much at times I thought I’d pass out from the pain. I was so thirsty I had even considered drinking my own urine, but I couldn’t sink to that level. Even the thought made me gag.

The pure silence was nearly maddening. No one to talk to, no one asking for assistance, no one needing
anything
from me. Nothing to help pass the time. It was just me. Not even footsteps or voices from overhead could be heard. The more time that passed, the more I begged for anything to listen to other than the sounds of my breathing, the whooshing of blood in my veins, the grumbling from my empty stomach.