I hung up the phone then walked back into the dining room where Mia was sitting. I’d made salmon and rice for dinner, something light after all the booze I’d had that day. We hadn’t said much to each other since she asked me to let her go.

I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.

I didn’t want to keep lying to her.

From her point of view, there was no reason for me to keep her as a prisoner anymore. Sex was consensual, and she said she would keep sleeping with me if I let her go. I knew she meant it. It wasn’t just a trick to escape.

So I had no reason to keep her.

Now that I knew what Egor did to her, I hated the bastard even more. I had never cared about Mia’s mistreatment because I’d purposely tried not to connect with her. I steered away from personal questions. It was smart not to get attached to her so I could hand her over to that demon without feeling guilty about it. But the second we screwed, all that went out the window.

She came on to me.

She kissed me. Fucked me. Came for me.

The attachment I tried to avoid had already happened.

Egor took away her ability to have children…which was so despicable I wanted to murder him. It was worse than rape and torture. It was just cruel.

Now I had to give her back to him…in just a few days.

Fuck.

She kept asking me to release her, and if she kept this up, she might figure out the real reason I didn’t.

I couldn’t let that happen.

But could I really return this woman to the cruel life she’d just escaped from?

There was so much money on the table, money I’d already collected. If I pulled out of the deal and wired the money back, there would be bloodshed. Egor would never accept that betrayal. He would come after me and my entire family.

I didn’t have a choice anymore.

I would try to enjoy the last days I had with her, fucking her and making her feel good, before I returned her to the master that would never let her go. Now that I was sleeping with her, I understood Egor’s obsession.

She was magnificent.

“Are you alright?” Mia’s pretty voice interrupted my thoughts.

My gaze shifted to her face, her beautiful coffee-colored eyes and her full lips. With long brown hair and a curvy body, she was a fantasy. She deserved to be with a man who would protect her from the world, who would put her on a pedestal and worship her. She was too good for that asshole. “Yeah.”

“Your face is pale.” Her eyes shifted back and forth slightly as she looked at me.

Because I was a terrible person. I bought women from the Underground and returned them to safety. That’s why I didn’t feel bad profiting from the exchange—because I was doing a good thing.

But now, I was doing a bad thing.

I hadn’t known the context of the situation when I’d agreed to do the deal, but that didn’t change anything. I was sending this woman back to a life of horror. She would eventually die in his captivity…or take her own life.

And unfortunately, I was starting to care about her.

Dammit. “That was the doctor. We’re both clean.”

“Oh.” She drank her glass of wine. “Not surprised…”

I should be hard at the thought of fucking her that night without a condom, but I wasn’t. I felt too guilty for what I was about to do. Mia wouldn’t even see it coming. I would slip a syringe into her neck and put her to sleep before I made the exchange. She would have no idea what happened until she woke up with Egor beside her. He would pick up where he left off—and she would know giving her back was part of my plan all along.

And she would hate me.

I’d done terrible things to her before, but she forgave me. She saw the good in me despite the bad situation. I held a whip in my hand and chained her to the bed, but she had the power to talk me out of it. And she’d still wanted to sleep with me anyway. She accepted me for who I was…and my money didn’t seem to impress her.

She still wanted to leave.

She wanted to be free…but keep sleeping with me. That meant she didn’t want anything from me…only me.

“I thought you would be thrilled about that,” she whispered.

“I am. I just have other stuff on my mind.”

After she did the dishes, we went upstairs to my room. She immediately assumed she would be sharing my bed with me for the foreseeable future, and she was right. I wanted to fuck her before I went to sleep. Then I wanted to fuck her again the second I opened my eyes in the morning.

When she stepped into the room, she saw the black lingerie sitting on top of the bed. Black, lacy, and sexy, it was the perfect piece of clothing to place on that beautiful body. She eyed it on the bed before she turned to me, a question in her eyes.

I felt like an asshole for asking her to do anything, not when I was going to betray her in a few days. If she knew what my true intentions were, she wouldn’t stop until she killed me. But since she saw me as harmless, her guard was down. A part of her probably believed I would let her go eventually, just as I changed my mind about whipping her.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

She picked up the black thong and held it between her fingertips. “You want me to put this on?”

I held her gaze, standing in my sweatpants near the foot of the bed. This was wrong on so many levels. Now I was dressing her up for my desire. She wanted to be the recipient of my kisses and thrusts…but not if she knew the truth. “Yes.”

“And this?” She picked up the see-through bra.

Just picturing her wearing that turned me on. “Yes.”

Without a protest, she walked into my bathroom and changed.

I dropped my boxers and sweatpants, my cock already hard thinking about how she would look. I got on the bed with my elbows propping up my body. My hard dick lay against my stomach, eager to feel her bare pussy surround me. With skin-on-skin, I would be able to feel her warm and soft flesh. I would be able to feel her squeeze me even harder. I would be able to drop my come deep inside her, where it would sit until morning.

I moaned to myself because I was horny as hell. All the guilt I felt was muffled by the hardness in my dick. Just like every other asshole on the planet, I stopped caring about morals the second sex was involved. Now that I was about to get laid, I didn’t care that I was screwing her over.

I just cared about screwing her.

She stepped out of the bathroom, the lingerie fitting her hourglass frame perfectly. She fixed her hair with her fingertips, making it frame her face and her shoulders. The bra pushed her plump tits together, and her long legs moved gracefully across the floor. The dark color was sexy against her flawless skin. Her brown eyes were on me, watching my reaction to her.

“Jesus Christ.” I loved a woman in lingerie, but not quite like this.

She crawled onto the bed, on her hands and knees. Her tits filled out the bra, and her back arched as she moved. Her eyes were directed on me as she came closer, the mutual desire in her gaze.

She wanted me as much as I wanted her.

She moved on top of me and straddled my hips, her hair dragging against my chest as she positioned her face over mine.

I watched this beautiful woman sit on me, her tits about to fall out and her sexy thighs parting over my hips. She stared at my lips as she leaned down to place her mouth over mine. My cock twitched against her panties just before I felt her lips.

Fuck.

The second our mouths were combined together, my hand dug into her hair, and I kissed her hard. My lips ached for something deeper, something more intense. My tongue darted into her mouth right away, and I ground against her, my cock eager to feel the arousal that was seeping from between her legs that very moment. If she was as wet as she was last night, my cock would be very happy.

My fingers dug into her panties, and I rubbed her clit, the pads of my fingers becoming soaked in the slickness right away. I forgot to breathe for a second, my body pausing in excitement. Like I was a teenager who treasured every moment of sexual activity, this felt brand-new. I touched her pussy like it was the first time I’d ever gotten any action. Something about this woman made me feel brand-new, like this was the first time sex actually mattered. My fingers slid into her slit, and I explored her, feeling her moan against my mouth. “So fucking wet.” I used two fingers to move inside her, to feel her tight pussy as it prepared for my big dick. Being inside her was heaven, whether it was my fingers or my dick.

Her fingers dug into my hair as she kept kissing me, her kisses turning just as carnal as mine. When she was with me, she didn’t think about anyone else. She didn’t think about the horrible things Egor did to her. When our bodies moved together, there was no one else.

It was just us.

I would love to watch her ride my dick, but I was so anxious to fuck her that I craved the control. I rolled her onto her back and pulled her wet panties off her legs. She’d barely had them on for fifteen minutes before the lace became soaked with her arousal. She opened her legs for me the second the material was gone, her hands running up my back at the same time. With parted lips and heavy breathing, she was ready to take me, even more eager than she was last night or this morning.

This time, I wasn’t gentle. I pushed my swollen head into her entrance and gave one hard thrust, sliding inside her instantly. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“God…”

I rested my face against hers as I got used to the sensation between her legs, the wetness and the tightness. It drove me wild, made it impossible for me to think straight. It was so good…so damn good.

“Carter.” She clawed at my back as we lay idle together, getting used to the feeling of our bodies combined. She was insanely wet, and I was harder than I’d ever been my entire life.

“Fuck.” I hadn’t even started to move yet, and I was on the verge of exploding. The idea of filling her pussy with my come was too much to even think about. I’d fucked women without a condom before, but there was something about her cunt that did a number on my dick.

She cupped the back of my head as she looked into my eyes. “You feel so damn good…”

My gaze was locked on to hers, my cock stretching her far apart. I’d never seen a more beautiful woman underneath me, a woman so passionate and erotic. She shouldn’t succumb to this desire, not the same way I did. She deserved better, deserved better than me. But the innate chemistry between us dictated our behavior, controlled our reactions to one another. Neither one of us could fight this; we were both in so deep.

I hadn’t even started, and I knew I didn’t want to stop.

She didn’t want me to stop either.

“All I can think about is coming inside you.” I wanted my dick to explode like a rocket, shooting my seed as deep as it could go. The instinct was unshakable. I wanted to claim her as mine in the most animalistic way possible. I wanted to make this pussy exclusively mine. The idea of letting Egor have her back pissed me off, especially when I was deep inside her like this. I wanted to fuck this cunt every single night and again in the morning. I didn’t want to share it with anyone.

“Me too…” She grabbed my hip and tugged me inside her. “I’m almost there…”

“I haven’t even started, sweetheart.”

“I know.” She squeezed her thighs around my waist. “I can’t help it…”

I watched her close her eyes and felt her dig her nails into me harder, fighting the explosion that was about to happen between her legs. “Looks like you have a new record.”

I would normally chuckle, but I was far too invested in this moment. I gave her three thrusts, moving slowly and rubbing against her clit every time I touched her. Somehow, I could feel her impending climax between her legs, and she could feel mine. We were moving as slowly as possible, but just enough for both of us to get off.

“There…” She breathed against my mouth as she cupped my cheeks, coming just from the feeling of my dick inside her. I’d never made a woman come that quickly, and I knew it didn’t happen now because of my skills. She’d wanted to come before I was even inside. She was aroused the second she put on that lingerie. And when she felt my hardness inside her, that was all she needed. I turned her on in a special manner, made her feel arousal in a whole new way.

Her cunt constricted around my dick as she came, moaning in my face as the desire swept her away. “Carter, give it to me…”

I was already holding on as best as I could, and once I had her permission, all the fight left my body. I moaned in her face as I filled her, dumping all my seed into her pussy instead of the tip of a condom. All the muscles in my body burned with the exertion, and I kept my dick deep inside her so she would get every last drop. Tonight, I would give her so much, she couldn’t keep it all. And for the last few days she was in my captivity, she would always be full of my come.

Until I had to give her back.

It was the middle of the day when my father called.

I was sitting in my office, taking some privacy away from my prisoner.

I wasn’t even sure if I should call her that anymore. She seemed like a sexy roommate that I was constantly fucking. When I dated women, sometimes they would stay at my place for the weekend, but their stay never lasted longer than that.

Mia had been there for an entire month.

From the day she arrived until the present moment, our relationship had changed so drastically.

It was hard to believe I’d ever chained her up in a room to begin with.

I cleared my throat. “Hey.” I’d been avoiding speaking to my family for a few weeks. Only Conway knew about my situation. Since he was so loyal to me, he would take the secret to the grave. But I felt awkward talking to my family, especially my parents. My father was a very candid man, speaking his mind with such bluntness, people thought he was an asshole most of the time.

Well, he was an asshole.

“Hey?” he asked. “We haven’t spoken in two weeks, and that’s all you have to say to me?”

“Hi?” I asked sarcastically. “Is that better?”

“Same shit, different word.”

“Alright, what do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know,” he snapped. “But a lot more than that.”

He turned aggressive when he was emotional. He wasn’t good with words, and he was even worse with feelings. The response turned him into an asshole…even more. I hadn’t understood any of that until my mother explained it to me. “Alright. How are you?”

“Pretty pissed off since we haven’t spoken for two weeks.”

I rolled my eyes. “We’re talking now.”

“I haven’t seen you in almost a month. I know you’re a hotshot with your cars and shit, but don’t forget where you come from.”

If only I could tell him the real reason for my absence. “I’ll be done with this project in a few days. Then I’ll be all yours.”

“That’s more like it.”

“I’ll take a trip down there. Sapphire is gonna have the baby soon anyway. I’ll help out at the winery, see Mom for a bit, and see what Carmen is up to without me. I’ll stay for a week.”

“Make it two.”

I tried not to grin. “A week and a half.”

“Two and a half.” All my father wanted was to spend time with me. Conway had been around a lot, so he was probably jealous he wasn’t spending as much time with his own son.

“Two.”

The victory in his voice was obvious. “Two, it is. Can’t wait to see you. Your mother and I miss you.”

“I know. I miss you too.”

“Maybe you should think about moving to Florence. Conway and Sapphire are doing it. You work from home a lot, and you can just fly out there when you need to. Makes sense to me…” My father would do anything to get me back to Tuscany. Carmen was still there, but that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted both of us.

Not having Conway around had already affected me. I used to see him all the time, but now that he was married and living five hours away, I missed him. He was my closest friend, not just my cousin. “I’ll think about it.”

“Great. Your mother would be so happy if she got to see you more often. And remember—”

“You won’t always be around.” He said the same thing to me all the time, for the last decade. “Yeah, I know. I said I would think about it.”

My father finally backed off, knowing he’d made his point. Now he just had to hope that I would take his words to heart and move there. I was the last Barsetti who wasn’t living in that vicinity. Being isolated from the herd had never bothered me because Conway was here, but without him as a neighbor, I really did feel separated from my family. I would think about it more seriously when I had time. Right now, I still had Mia to deal with. “Anything else new?”

“Actually, that’s the reason why I’m calling. Well, the main reason.” His tone changed, simmering down to a serious coldness. “Your uncle and I had a chat with Griffin.”

I’d come to accept that Griffin was a part of our lives now, as strange as that seemed. “Yeah?”

“This issue with the Skull Kings isn’t buried yet, so Griffin and your uncle are going to take a trip to the Underground to have a conversation.”

I sat up straighter in my chair, the muscles hugging my spine tightening.

“We killed the men they hired to take out Conway, but we have no way to know if the war is actually over. Instead of taking that risk, we want to bury it. Crow will meet with them to establish peace, to present them an offering to make them forget about us.”

“What does Griffin have to do with this?” Conway and I were the ones that started this mess. It didn’t seem right that my uncle had to take care of it.

“He has a close relationship with them,” he explained. “They’ve hired him for work in the past. Griffin also knows a lot of people, a lot of men at the Underground. He’s done favors in exchange for loyalty instead of money. He’s as close to untouchable as possible. He offered to intervene because it gives the Barsettis a lot of credibility.”

Griffin was the reason I still had all the members of my family. He had managed to take down all the enemies surrounding them. My father and uncle were the strongest men I knew, but Griffin was made of something else. “I should come too. I’m responsible for all this—”

“No.” My father’s cold tone silenced me instantly. “Crow and I have already talked about this. There’s no room for negotiation.”

“Father, Conway and I are both adults—”

“Who were stupid enough to get mixed up in this,” he snapped. “Now your fathers are cleaning up your mess.”

“We never asked you to—”

“Be grateful that you don’t have to ask. Be grateful that your fathers are willing to sacrifice their lives for you. Be grateful that we would do anything for you, even walk into the monsters’ den and risk our necks.”

I stared at my desk, seeing the pile of bills and documents that needed to be addressed. I was just scolded by my father, and as much as it angered me, I knew I deserved it. “What about the money?”

“We can talk about that later. It’s not important right now.”

If we had to pay back the Skull Kings for the profit we made, it should come out of our pockets, not Crow’s. “When is this happening?”

“As soon as Griffin gets back from his mission.”

“He’s still doing that?” I asked incredulously.

“He’s quitting. He just has to finish two more before he can be done.”

I knew Crow wasn’t happy about that. He wanted a simple and peaceful life. Griffin wasn’t fitting the bill at all right now. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” I should probably tell him about Mia, but if she was leaving before the deal even went down, I didn’t see why it mattered.

“You know what you can do?” he asked coldly. “Learn your lesson.”

“I have.” More than he could possibly understand. The woman I was holding captive was actually an exceptional human being, someone who deserved better than the fate she would be forced to accept. I was ignorant and got myself into a bad situation, blinded by the greed the cash instilled in me.

I’d definitely learned my lesson.