The door swings open and both our attention trails to Jasper. A long breath escapes me as my eyes meet his icy blue ones.
He’s here.
I’m not alone.
It’s almost a déjà vu from those days in the boarding school when he used to protect me from the stronger and bigger boys.
Jasper studies the scene before he strides between us with his hand curled in a fist. “What the fuck did I tell you, Enzo?”
Enzo answers in Italian and he goes back and forth with Jasper. My head spins trying to get a gist of the conversation. There are a lot of clipped words and neither of them seems amused.
“Let her go.” Jasper orders and Enzo steps away as if he wasn’t just about to break my wrist.
I massage the assaulted skin as Jasper clutches me by the arm and pulls me to his side.
“Touch her again and I will kill you,” Jasper threatens in a low tone.
“I was only stopping her from escaping,” Enzo says in a suave tone then motions at my joke of a weapon.
I swallow as Jasper’s jaw hardens, but he doesn’t look at me. Not even once.
“Get out,” he tells Enzo.
“You’re dick-whipped, my friend.” Enzo smiles a little. “One day, you’ll wake up and see her for what she truly is. A fucking Costa.”
And with that, he’s out the door.
Jasper continues glaring at him as if he’s still there. I remain silent, not wanting to trigger him in any way.
Just when I think he’s calmed down, his blue eyes focus back on me. They’re cool, but I know what he hides underneath that façade.
“You were trying to escape, is that it?”
I gulp. “I want to see my dad. My family. My home.”
“Well, that’s not going to fucking happen.” His tone turns lethal. “I’m your only family and this is your only fucking home so you better get used to it. Oh, and I’m going to punish you for your pathetic attempt at escape. I’ll spank your ass red until you beg me for an orgasm, and guess what, Pet?”
Tears barge into my eyes as I whisper, “What?”
“You won’t get it. Bad girls don’t have the privilege of an orgasm.”
“I don’t care what you do to me. I won’t stop trying to escape.”
“Be my guest. I’m arranging new guards and this place will be more secure than a military camp. You won’t be able to set a foot outside without me knowing about it. And every time you try to run, I’ll punish you.”
“I hate you.” I hit his chest, a tear streaming down my cheek. “I hate you so much.”
“Hate me all you want, but you’re not leaving.”
Salli appears from the kitchen, carrying a plate full of food. She stops at the view of the scene then smiles and speaks with her strong Italian accent. “Lunch is ready.”
“Grazie, Salli,” he says.
My next idea to escape forms loud and clear in my head.
“I’m not eating.” I stare at Jasper. “Unless you let me out of here, I won’t eat.”5JasperMy little Petal hasn’t eaten for days.
The first day I left her to her fucking antics and ignored her.
By the second day, I’ve had enough of her stubbornness. I had the new housekeeper, Salli, prepare Cannelloni and then I forced Petal to eat.
At first, she threw it away, so I spanked her ass, forced her to open her mouth and then I shoved the food down her throat.
She vomited it back up.
Fuck that.
I stand at the door of the bedroom staring at her as she sits on the balcony, her gaze lost in the distance. She has a book open on her lap, but she’s not reading it.
Her shoulders and cheeks have thinned. She always had beautiful forms and curves, but now they’re starting to lose their usual liveliness.
She is starting to lose her liveliness.
If Petal continues like this, she might lose herself altogether. I can punish her, force her to eat by edging her toward orgasms, but something tells me that will only make things worse.
It might work for a while, but eventually, I’ll break her to the point of no return. She’ll become a shell of herself and I might never be able to find her once I lose her.
So I go down a route I’ve never used before.
With a deep breath, I step inside and sit on the chair across from hers. She pretends I’m not there, her cheeks hollowing and her lips thinning.
Her gaze is still lost in the distance where workers have started cultivating the land. It’s slow, and not many have shown up, but they’ve been doubling and tripling over the past few days.
While people here respect me and my last name, if they know I brought a Costa on their turf, they wouldn’t approve.
Fuck them and Enzo who already figured it out. He’s hell-bent on using her for this war, and that’ll never happen.