Cruel Vows

PAISLEY

If this bastard thinks he can snatch me and hold me captive, I’ll make sure I fight him every step of the way. The Morrone family are renowned for trading in flesh, but it’s about time someone taught them that people aren’t cargo you can trade.

The brutish asshole who dragged me out of the car tosses me into a room and I tumble onto the floor.

“What the fuck?” I shout, glaring at him.

“Shut it,” he says, slamming the door shut and then locking it.

I stare at the shut door for quite a while, shattered in pieces on the floor as I try to gather my fractured thoughts.

How can my night have gone from a standard yet busy night of bar tending to being sold as part of a deal to the Italian mob?

It’s sickening that I ever felt any desire toward Massimo Morrone. The incident in the bathroom was just a huge mistake. One I wish I could erase, as I fear he’s going to keep using it against me. The one thing it doesn’t change, though, is the fact that he’s still the most painfully gorgeous man I’ve ever met.

An overly arrogant, gorgeous man, thinking he can take me and marry me without my consent. A part of me wants to cry, another part just wants to scream and tear this overly lavish room apart. The way these people live in a fancy mansion, profiteering off of crime is shocking.

He will have to hold a gun to my back if he’s going to get me to marry him. I sense that won’t put him off. The guy is crazy. I cannot shift out of the rather uncomfortable position that son of a bitch threw me into. The handcuffs dig into my wrists and cut my flesh every time I move.

I slump against the thick carpeted floor and shut my eyes, feeling exhausted. All the fighting and stress has taken it out of me, as I could easily fall asleep right here on the floor. It’s not like I have much else better to do.

As that thought crosses my mind, the lock of the door clicks open.

I open my eyes to find the monster who stole me standing in the doorway.

He raises a brow when he sees me on the floor. “You don’t have to sleep on the floor, princess.”

I grind my teeth together. “I didn’t exactly have much choice. Some asshole threw me down with bound hands.”

He chuckles, and it’s the most unfriendly laugh I’ve ever heard. “Perhaps I can help.” He pulls out a tiny key and unlocks the handcuffs, pulling them away from my sore skin. “Now that you can’t escape, there’s no need for you to be restrained.”

“Do you get off on this power play?”

“Power play?” he asks, brow pulling together.

“Yes, isn’t that what this is? You exercising your power over me and kidnapping me? I mean, you are telling me you are forcing me to be your wife when I don’t want to be. That’s power play.”

His eyes darken as he walks toward me.

I jump to my feet, stumbling away from him. The need to keep a good distance between us driving me. Despite my talking tough, I can’t deny that Massimo scares me.

He stops advancing forward. “Do you know what the Morrone famiglia’s main import is?”

I know, but I don’t wish to say it out loud. Instead, I just shake my head.

“Women.” He unbuttons his shirt and pulls it off, making me hot and bothered in an instant. “We run the largest trafficking crime ring in North America.” He turns toward me and my cheeks flame as I struggle to keep my eyes off of his impeccable body.

The tattoos on his chest are elegant and he hasn’t got too many, just enough. If I thought his face was perfect, then his body looks like it was carved out of stone.

“And you believe that I’m getting a power trip from kidnapping you when it’s what we do daily?”

A shiver travels down my spine at this man’s clear lack of morality. The most vile commodity that a mob can trade in his human flesh. Yet he stands in front of me, telling me about it as if it’s nothing.

Axel has been to the auctions they hold at Le Stelle, as I’ve overheard him talking about it. The girls have been torn from their homes in Eastern Europe or other far-off countries and shipped to the United States to be sold to wealthy men as sex slaves.

“You are the most vile man I’ve ever met.”

His nostrils flare. “That’s not the impression you gave me Monday night in the bathroom.” He steps toward me slow and steady, making my heart pitter-patter in my chest.

I will myself to move, but I’m frozen in his stare again, much like in the bathroom at the party Monday night. It’s as if his eyes have the power to hypnotize me. He wraps his palm around the back of my neck, squeezing firmly.

“I will have you submission, little girl. One way or another.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. “You’ll have it when I’m dead and buried in the ground.” The courage to fight comes from nowhere. “It’s the only way I’ll ever submit to you.”

His dark, chocolate brown eyes search mine. “On your hands and knees.”

“Fuck you.”

He growls and laces his fingers in my hair, forcing my knees to buckle. “You need to understand that all this resistance only makes me want you more.” Once I’m on my knees, he maneuvers me like a doll onto all fours. “If you don’t want my attention, then you should shut that pretty little mouth of yours.”

I gasp as I feel the air hit my ass cheeks.

Massimo lifts the hem of my skirt up to my hips and groans. “I enjoy seeing you like this. At my mercy.”

I tremble, knowing that I’m way out of my depth. The memories of Monday night in the bathroom with him resurface stronger than ever, and I feel my panties dampen.

“I bet you are dripping with need, Paisley.”

He’s standing over me as I glance back at him, narrowing my eyes. “If this isn’t a power trip, then I don’t know what is.”

“Face forward,” he barks.

I bite my bottom lip. “Or what?”

He unfastens his belt and a tremor of pure terror coils through me.

I glance forward instantly, fearing what he’ll do with the belt.

The leather belt comes down firm across my ass cheeks, making me grunt in pain. “Too little, too late, princess.” He brings it down over my bare ass a few more times before dropping it to the floor with a thud.

I shudder as his large palms massage my stinging skin almost gently, as if he didn’t just hit me with an implement repeatedly. My mind feels broken as I stare forward, trying to gather the mix of emotions swirling like a storm inside of me.

“You’ll learn how to navigate this dynamic, Paisley.” He grabs the gusset of my panties and tears them apart. “If you pussy dripping is any indication, I’d say you quite enjoy impact play.”

Impact play.