2
CASTELLO
I regretted nothing. Life was just too fucking short to regret the decisions you’ve made in the past. And now, while I had my cock buried deep inside the woman that had ultimately changed my life forever, I knew that for as long as I had her, I would never regret a damn thing.
I would never regret saving her.
I would never regret killing my own flesh and blood in order to keep her.
And I would never regret the day I had her kidnapped.
Did that make me a soulless bastard?
Yes.
Did I care?
No.
All I cared about was this addiction that took root inside me the first time I fucked Tatum Linscott. It was an addiction stronger than I ever could have imagined. A compulsion that was too strong to fight, too powerful to control. This woman had become my drug, and there was no way in hell I would ever give her up. And by the way her body responded to me every goddamn time told me she felt the same, that she needed my darkness the same way I craved her innocence. I’ve corrupted her. I know that. If it weren’t for me Tatum probably never would acknowledged the part in her that yearned for the sinful pleasures that belonged in the dark. But truth be told, I fucking loved the fact that it was me who lured her to the shadows.
I felt her body rise and fall beneath me as she tried to catch her breath.
“Say it.” I needed to hear it again. I needed to hear it every goddamn day.
“You own me, Castello.”
I smiled, appreciating the fact that she had gotten to know me so well. “Non dimenticarlo mai.” Never forget it.
“Mai.”
I sat up slightly, and with a gentle touch I swept her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Bellissimo.”
The way her body trembled beneath my touch thrilled me to the deepest parts of my being. Knowing that I yielded that kind of power over her perfect body was downright euphoric. I’ve never wanted to possess another human being as much as her. I wanted to hide her from the world, share her with no one. There was this uncontrollable urge that had me wanting nothing more than to own her like she was a priceless possession whose sole purpose was to please me. But I’d be an idiot if I believed that. This woman had become so much more than that to me. Truth was, it felt like she was starting to own me.
“Come on.” I placed a soft kiss on her shoulder and removed the belt from around her neck. “I’d rather not kill anyone today.”
She stood up. “What?”
I wrapped my arm around her waist, swirled her around and pulled her closer. “I’d have to kill anyone who set eyes on you looking like this.” And that was God’s honest truth. If any man had to see her in the tiny little number she called a nightgown, with her hair all disheveled and that sexed-up look on her face, I’d have no choice but to pop his goddamn eyeballs out of his skull.
Gently I ran my finger over the red marks around her neck, staring at it. “Why do I like hurting you so much?”
“For the same reason I like being hurt by you so much.”
My gaze shot up to hers, and her blue eyes searched my face. “Someone once told me to not complicate the answers to simple questions.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “He must be a smart man.”
“Smart, and stubborn.”
I crouched down and picked up the torn panties, sticking them in my pants pocket.
“Wouldn’t want to leave any evidence behind.”
She let out a soft laugh, and the sound penetrated the stone cold heart I carried around inside my chest. I had no idea what was happening to me, to us...but by God, I knew that whatever it was, it was something I never wanted to lose. For the first time in my life I was starting to feel like I was living, and not just existing. All because of her, because of the way she was changing me. The best part, she wasn’t even aware she was doing it. It was just fucking happening.
In silence we walked out of my uncle’s study. This was the first time Tatum had left the room ever since we arrived here. She refused to come out of the bedroom, giving me all kinds of excuses. But I knew the real reason. She feared the unknown, and refused to face reality. And the reality of the situation was that her father had died. My mother had died. And there was a full-on war raging between me and my younger brother.
All this would be a lot for one person to handle, especially since she had been protected from it all her entire life. She knew nothing of a world where loyalty was worth dying for, yet a life held no value. Finding out that your father hired an assassin to kill the man you thought you loved, a man who also turned out to be a blackmailing gold-digger, had to be a bitter pill to swallow.
Maybe that was the reason for me feeling so protective over her. It was her innocence that pulled me toward her—the fact that she was so pure, yet had a hankering toward the darkness.
Fuck, I don’t know.
I closed the door behind me, turned around, and saw Uncle Gino smiling at both me and Tatum.
“Uncle Gino.”
“I see you finally decided to take Tatum on a tour of the house.” He glanced down at her naked legs. “In her nightgown, no less.”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Yes. It was a spur of the moment decision.”
He gave me a knowing look. “I’m sure it was. Anyway, do you have a moment? There are a few matters I’d like to discuss with you.”
By the look on his face I knew it wasn’t something he’d like to discuss in front of Tatum.
“Sure.” I let go of Tatum’s hand, thinking she would get her own way back to the bedroom. But then there was the familiar hammering of doubt at the back of my skull.
What if she decided to leave?
What if she decided to walk out the front door and leave me behind?
What if...
Fuck that.
I grabbed her hand again. “Just give me a few minutes to escort Tatum back to our room.”
“It’s fine, Castello. I can manage finding my own way back.” She smiled, but it did nothing to silence the voices of doubt swirling around inside my brain, threatening to drive me mad.
“No. I’ll take you.”
We started down the hall, and it was like I could hear the wheels turning in Tatum’s head while she walked beside me. And the fact that she was staring a hole through my forehead didn’t help.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“Are you afraid that I’ll try to leave?”
“No. I’m afraid you’ll get lost in this huge goddamn house.”
“So you’re confident that I won’t leave the first chance I get?”
I pulled my hand through my hair, taking a deep breath. Just thinking about her leaving made my blood boil. It was impossible for me to even ponder the thought of her no longer waiting for me in the bedroom without standing on the brink of losing myself to anger.
“Answer me, Castello.”
I lost it.
With a jerk of her hand I swirled her around and pushed her against the wall, bringing my face inches from hers.
“I see we still have to work on your capacity to keep your mouth shut when the situation demands it.”
“Is this a situation that demands my silence?”
“Any situation that angers me is a situation that demands your silence.”
She lifted her chin. “A confident man shouldn’t get angered so easily.”
I grabbed her upper arms, pulling her closer. “And a woman in your position should learn to know her place.”
“What position am I in, Castello? Where exactly is my place?”
“Where I fucking say it is!”
My voice boomed down the hall, my anger echoing in every word. The way Tatum stared at me with bewilderment I knew I had scared her. But I didn’t care. Maybe it was a good thing, Tatum being scared of me. Maybe if she feared me, she wouldn’t dare walk away from me.
I let go of her arms, and her shoulders slumped forward while she took a few steady breaths.
Jesus. She was scared of me.
With a deep breath, I held out my hand to her. “Come on.” But she didn’t take my hand. She straightened and looked me in the eye with a cold, hardened expression on her beautiful face.
“Am I still your prisoner, Castello?”
Goddammit. I wasn’t ready for her to ask that question. I knew the words swirled around inside her mind ever since we got here, burning the tip of her tongue. But somehow I’ve managed to avoid this conversation…until now.
The truth was, I didn’t know the answer to her question. Deep down I wasn’t sure whether she was still my prisoner or not. All I knew was that there was no way in hell I’d ever let her go…in other words, my answer depended on whether she would leave or not if given the choice.
I gave a step back, never taking my eyes off her. “Only you hold the answer to that question, little mouse.”
“What does that even mean?”
I reached out and placed my palm against her cheek. “I’m never letting you go, Tatum. So it’s up to you whether you’re my prisoner or not.”
I didn’t wait for her to respond. I grabbed her elbow and started down the hall, a heavy silence hanging over us like a threatening storm. It was suffocating, almost impossible to breathe amidst all the confusion and conflicting emotions that raged all around us. She expected me to give her an honest answer, she wanted me to tell her the truth about what was really happening between us. But I couldn’t. Honesty wasn’t something I could give her right now since I wasn’t even sure what the fuck was happening between us.
She didn’t say anything. Like an obedient pet, a silent prisoner, she let me lead her to the bedroom we had shared up until now. The bastard in me loved it, the way she so easily slipped into that role. But the man in me hated it. Hated seeing her lowering herself to nothing but a…slave.
I opened the door, and gestured for her to walk in. She didn’t look at me as she made her way into the bedroom, which was probably a good thing since I wasn’t sure how I would handle the disappointment that was probably plastered all over her face.
“I’ll be back soon.”
She didn’t reply, so I closed the door, and stared at the mahogany wood for a few seconds before I decided to do something I had never done before.
I turned the key…and locked the door.