Accidental Witness (Morelli Family 1)

I open my mouth to say I didn’t, but I can’t. Obviously the first two times I did enjoy it, I just… didn’t know it was him.

He moves in again, giving me a light shove. I drop to the bed, scooting backward uncertainly. “Right here,” he says, pointing to the bed. “Is this where you let my cousin fuck you?”

“You’re not being fair,” I tell him.

“What about this morning, huh? Before you put on this pretty dress and came down to serve him dinner, did he fuck you then?”

I close my eyes, unable to look at him, torn by too many different feelings—not least of all, shame.

“He did,” he says slowly. “He’s been inside you today, hasn’t he?”

“Please stop,” I say, not liking this.

“Then get it out of my head!”

“I don’t know how!” I cry, wishing I did. “You have to want to, Vince. I’m not a goddamn magician. Tell me how to make it better!”

“Promise me he won’t touch you again.”

With a bitter laugh, I shake my head. “How? How can I promise that? I can promise if he does, I’ll fight, but how do I promise you he won’t force me? You act like this is my doing. If I could stop him, I would have already!”

“I’m gonna kill him,” he says, jaw locked as he spins around.

“Don’t say that,” I say, immediately. “You don’t mean that—”

Spinning back around, he gapes at me in furious disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me? Don’t you fucking defend him to me, Mia.”

Stomach sinking, I shake my head in denial. “No, I wasn’t. That’s not what I… that’s not what I meant.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to point out that Cherie said there are cameras everywhere but the bathrooms, that I’ve been thinking about it over the past few days and I think maybe he does watch them. It’s awfully coincidental that as soon as Vince tells me he doesn’t want kids, Mateo decides to fuck me with no condom.

But Vince isn’t listening—he’s enraged, climbing across the bed in my direction. I skitter back, nervous, and he catches my leg, yanking me down near him.

“Vince, Wait—”

“You tell me he fucking forces you and then you have the audacity to be protective of that son of a bitch?”

“No, I wasn’t—”

He doesn’t let me finish, jerking my dress up around my waist and shoving me down on the bed. I panic, trying to get back up, but he pins me to the bed just like Mateo has.

“Is that what you like? Am I not dangerous enough for you, Mia?”

“Vince, stop,” I cry, tears leaking out of my eyes now. “That wasn’t what I was—I’m not protective of Mateo—”

“Stop fucking talking about him,” he bites out, grabbing my bruised thighs and wrenching them apart.

“Please, Vince, not like this.”

“I know I’m not the Morelli who last had his dick inside you in this bed, or even today, but I’ll have to fucking do.”

I sob, dropping my face to the pillow as Vince shoves inside me. I’m already so sore from Mateo and he’s being so mean that every thrust burns like hell. I can’t stop crying the whole time, and when he finally finishes, I realize he’s not wearing a condom either. I don’t know whether he was so angry he forgot, or he figures if I do wind up pregnant, at least now there will be a sliver of a chance he’s the father.

He doesn’t curl up next to me when he’s done, he just gets off the bed and goes to the bathroom, leaving me half-naked and alone.

When he comes back out, he’s still angry. I can’t look at him, but I can tell by the way he’s slamming shit.

Finally moving, I pull my legs together and curl up on my side, tucking myself into a ball.

Vince stops pacing around the room after a few minutes and walks over to the bedside, watching me. He sits on the edge of the bed with his back to me, running a hand over his face and through his hair.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he finally says.

I don’t know if he means brutalizing me or the lack of condom, and he doesn’t clarify.

He’s close enough now that I don’t have to speak loudly. “The cameras.”

Vince frowns, not understanding.

“I just didn’t want him to hear you say that on the cameras. Didn’t want him to take it as a threat. He’d hurt you.”

He’s dead silent so I glance up at him, watching understanding dawn, then morph into dull horror as he realizes his mistake. “You weren’t…?”

I shake my head no. I can see he’s about to sink under the realization, and I don’t have the mental capacity left to deal with it today, so I ask, “Will you hold me?”

Understandably surprised, he asks, “You want me to?”