"Is it grounds to reject me?"
"No," Angelo smiled. "No, it's not. But your handling is going to be different."
She felt hope flash through her. If her handling was going to be different, that meant he was going to keep her, right?
"Well, you let me know what you plan on doing with me when you work out what that is."
Gemma sat back in her chair and gave him what she hoped seemed like a pleasant smile, though she knew it had every chance of appearing smug. She truly was desperate to stay, but she knew better than to advertise complete vulnerability to Angelo.
A second later, he destroyed her entirely.
"You're a virgin, aren't you?"
Heat zapped through her. "How did you… why do you ask me that?"
"You don't know what you're playing with, and your horror at seeing what I was doing to Willow, that was real. You weren't just appalled at what you thought was a lack of consent. You were afraid of the pleasure itself, weren't you."
"No…"
"No more lies, Gemma," he purred softly.
"I mean, yes. Okay. Fine. I am a virgin. Are you going to defile me now? Make me yours? Brand me with your cocks?"
The filthy words came from some deeper part of her psyche, things she'd heard Willow say, and dirty stories she'd read on the Internet. They did not sound natural coming out of her mouth.
"So Bobby didn't sleep with you. That is interesting. Boy!" Angelo raised his voice to call Bobby in. It did not take long for him to arrive, seeing as he had obviously been lurking on the other side of the door.
"How is it going?" Bobby attempted to sound casual. It did not work.
"We were just discussing how Gemma here is a virgin."
"Is she?" Bobby seemed surprised. "I didn't think anybody was a virgin anymore."
"She is," Angelo said.
Gemma bit her lower lip nervously, looking between the pair of them. "Oh, come on, does it matter?"
"Why do I like the idea of keeping her a virgin?" Bobby murmured the question.
"Because innocence is always appealing, and once she loses that, she will be something different."
"She'll be ours," Bobby said. "She'll be like us."
"I'm pretty sure I'll still be me," Gemma interjected nervously.
"No," Angelo said. "You won't be. You'll go the way of so many others. You'll be twisted by us, marked by us. You'll lose yourself in us."
"I think I already have."
"You want to be here even though neither one of us has ever had sex with you. Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Bobby had apparently suddenly woken up to her inherent contradiction.
"Does it ever occur to you that someone might like you and want to be around you without having had your dick? That someone might belong with you, even if they're not gobbling your knob?" Apparently, being temporarily dead had given Gemma a crude streak.
"No," Bobby replied. "Absolutely not."
"Okay, then let's say I'm using you to escape forced labor that will one day definitely kill me. Does that help?"
"That's closer," Bobby said. "At least that makes sense."
Gemma let out a sigh. "I don't care what you think of me. I don't care what you do to me. I just want to stay in the one place on the planet that's not completely full of bullshit. You two are real. Completely and utterly. Even in your lies, there's truth. You refuse to bow down and do what the world expects of you. Not ever. You're criminals. You're perpetually on the run. But you live like kings. I want to be a part of that. Of this. I belong here. I know it in my gut. And I think you do too."
"I think we're going to get you killed," Angelo replied. "I think you're a little innocent virgin moth to a flame she doesn't really understand yet. But, I'm also not prepared to let you out of my sight, knowing what you know. So. Welcome to the House of Vitali."
A massive smile broke across Gemma's face. "Really!? I get to stay?"
"You more than get to stay. You have to stay. Consider yourself my personal prisoner."
"Oh my god! Yes!" Gemma leaped out of her chair and wrapped her arms around Angelo and then Bobby with the most effusive of grins.
"I really don't think you quite understand," Angelo drawled as she disengaged herself.
"I do understand." She covered her mouth in a yawn. "Oh my god. I am so tired. I'm going to take a nap."
Hours later, Gemma was still curled up on the couch, fast asleep. Or at least, seeming to be. Who knew the truth of Gemma. Even after all her confessions, she was still an enigma.
"I've never seen anybody as happy here as she is. She loves this place. She must have had a really fucked up life before this. Thank you for letting me keep her," Bobby said in a rare moment of genuine gratitude.