Buttons and Shame (Buttons 4)

We hadn’t spoken a word to each other, but we greeted one another just the way lovers did. I started off my morning in a warm bed with my arm wrapped around my captor, and it ended with an orgasm that made my legs shake.

Cane moved back up my torso and held his powerful body on top of mine. I could see the sheen from the arousal that was just between my legs. He rubbed his nose against mine before he kissed me, making me taste my own arousal on his lips. He kept his eyes open as he looked deep inside me. “I’m losing my patience, Bellissima. And I’m not a very patient man to begin with.” He pulled away with narrowed eyes, silently telling me not to call his bluff. He got out of bed with a hard dick but no intention of making it soft again.

I knew I was taking too long to give him what he wanted. It was nice of him to give me time at all. But instead of thinking about that, I fixated on one thing. “What does Bellissima mean?” I didn’t know a single word of Italian.

He pulled a t-shirt over his head then ran his hand through his hair. “There’re keys and cash in the kitchen drawer downstairs. Go to the store and pick up dinner. You’re my woman, and I expect you to cook for me.”

Something like that would have offended me in my former life, the assumption that because I was a woman I belonged in the kitchen. But I had bigger fish to fry. “You’re gonna let me leave?”

“You’ll come back,” he said confidently. “And pick up whatever you want for yourself.”

After I picked up groceries and placed them in the truck, I sat in the car and broke down into tears. It was so sudden that I didn’t see it coming. I never thought I would drive a car again. I never thought I would do something so normal as go to the grocery store. It felt like I had a life again—even if it wasn’t real.

I returned home and worked in the kitchen, still feeling the tightness in my chest. I was cooking dinner for a man I didn’t know, but I actually felt a glimmer of hope. After being beaten on a daily basis and being fucked by three men at once, this was a vacation. I was in a beautiful house I could roam whenever I wanted. I had rights as a woman—as a human being. I felt grateful toward the man who did business with Tristan even though he really hadn’t done anything to help me.

He just wasn’t as bad as Tristan.

I’d never been so confused in my life.

I considered myself to be a strong person. When someone pushed me down, I got back up. I always put a fight, even if my opponent was three times as strong. The mind was the strongest muscle in the body, and I never let anyone take my logic and reasoning away. These men could do whatever they wanted to my body, but they could never take my mind.

But now I was being tested.

I didn’t know how to cook that well, and I had no idea what kind of culinary masterpieces Cane was used to. So I made lasagna and a salad. Since he was Italian, I hoped that would be enough for him.

He walked in the door just when dinner was ready. He wore a black t-shirt that fit his muscularity well, along with his rugged handsomeness, and it was hard to deny that he was one of the sexiest men I’d ever laid eyes on. If we’d met in a different life, I probably would have already slept with him by now. He had the kind of looks I used to dream about when I was a little girl, like Prince Charming but with a darker hue.

So absorbed in his masculine beauty, I had forgotten to say anything. “Dinner is ready. You want to eat now?”

He tossed his keys on the small table then came around the counter. The kitchen was enormous, enough for ten cooks at once. Most people would kill for this kind of luxury, but it didn’t seem important to him.

The closer he came to me, the more my breathing changed. My hair stood on end, and the lights from the ceiling suddenly felt brighter than they did a second ago.

He stopped when he was right beside me and moved his fingers under my chin. Gently, he forced my face to turn his way so he could greet me with a kiss. It was the new way he greeted me, not that I minded.

When his eyes settled on my face, the affection in them died away. He dropped his hand and stared me down like he saw something he didn’t like. “What’s wrong?”