His expression hardened.
“Don’t tell me you’re leaving the Romero family? You’re going to give this all up?” She shook her head sadly. He wasn’t a good man. Even if he wasn’t turning her over to Frank, it didn’t make him good. He’d trained and sold women. Just because he wasn’t doing the same to her, didn’t change his past. She had to remind herself of that fact even though emotions she had for Costello of late were beginning to muddy the harsh reality she was truly in.
He was still a monster.
And God help her…she craved being in the arms of the beast.
“Ariana. You’re getting close to a line. You need to back it off,” he warned.
“Or you’ll take your belt off and spank me? Put me in a corner? What? What will you do that you haven’t already done?”
Costello’s nostrils flared and his gaze hardened. She’d walked right up to the line and kicked it. She’d probably get a spanking. But she didn’t fucking care. At the least it would get rid of some of the stress building inside her.
“I think you’ve forgotten your place here, Ariana. Not in the House, but in this room, between us. I said I will help you. I’ve promised you’ll never be sold or sent away. But you still want to push my buttons. You want to make me feel guilt that I gave away a long time ago. I make decisions based on survival. And now, I have to make decisions to keep us both alive, and you testing the boundaries of submission just now not only puts yourself at risk, but it does the same for me.”
He slid out of his suit jacket and tossed it onto the chair behind him. Casually he unbuttoned his sleeves and then worked on the long row from his neck down to his waist.
“Take off your nightgown, Ariana. Lullaby may not work on you, but I sure as fuck will.” He jerked his chin in her direction as he yanked his shirt free of his pants and peeled it off his back.
Ariana stared at him, frozen. She’d poked the bear, and now she would have to deal with the grizzly. In one smooth sweeping motion, she pulled her nightgown over her head and dropped it at her feet. Heat ran through her veins, warming her even more when his glare did.
He stood before her completely naked. It was the first time she’d seen his entire body, and she took her time soaking him in. The man was a sculpted God. Broad shoulders, muscular chest and abdomen. Even his thighs were thick with strength. But what drew her attention were the small white marks littering his chest. She’d seen the scars before but hadn’t asked him about them.
She stepped toward him tentatively, knowing she was supposed to be following his lead here. But curiosity outweighed her sense of duty.
“What happened to you?” she asked, lightly touching a long scar running across his left pec.
He tensed but didn’t brush her away.
“You aren’t the only one put in a shitty situation.” He covered her hand with his own, pressing her palm against his chest. Beneath, she could feel the steady beat of his heart.
“Tell me,” she ordered softly, bringing her gaze up to his.
The hardness cracked at the edges, but he was still in control. Would he ever let that slip? Even a little?
“I was in high school when my parents were killed,” he said, staring into her eyes. “Frank’s Uncle Mario—Nancy’s father—ordered a hit on my father behind Carlos’ back. Carlos was Frank’s father. When Carlos found out about it, that my mother had been killed too, he gave me a job in his ranks. But just because he gave me the position, didn’t mean I didn’t have to earn my way up. He gave me an apartment, but everything else I had to take care of on my own.”
“Why would he do that?” Innocent people get killed all the time by the Romero family. She doubted they did the same for all of their families.
“My father worked for Carlos Romero. He was loyal to Carlos.” He raised his chin.
“Your dad was accused of something he didn’t do, and he got murdered for it. So, Carlos took you in.” She looked back at the scars. “And these?”
“Not every street transaction goes according to plan.” He shrugged. “This world is all about looking out for yourself. Kill or be killed. Do bad or have bad done to you. It is what it is, and like I said before…I gave up the guilt a long time ago.”
“Is this a bullet wound?” She gasped.
He tilted her chin up to pull her away from the scars. “It doesn’t happen so much these days.”
“Because you’re higher up on the food chain? You get to work here?”