Chapter 56: Persephone

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Three months ago...

“I’m going to fuck you,” my handsome stranger husks in my ear.

His voice is a deep baritone that bewitched me from the first moment I heard him speak.

The thought of him ripping off my clothes and fucking me sends a jolt of undiluted desire straight to my brain.

I can’t talk. Anything I might have thought to say fades from my mind when his delicious lips crush against mine again. The effect is like gasoline being poured over fire.

Explosive waves of pleasure crash into my soul, paralyzing my body.

His kiss is cruel and overwhelming, sending scorching shivers of raw arousal from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

He kicks the door open without taking his lips from mine, and we fall into his bedroom, our bodies crashing against the wall. Moisture beads between my thighs when he presses me into the hard surface, and his massive erection pushes against my belly.

As he continues to consume my mouth, my insides melt, succumbing to the desire spiking my nerves. I surrender completely, my mind falling into a whirlpool of lust, my body bowing to the delicious assault on my lips.

Oh my God… I can’t believe I’m going to do this.

I’m really going to do this.

Something wild and reckless and forbidden.

I’m going to fuck the sexy-as-hell man I just met in a club.

I don’t even know his name. And he doesn’t know mine.

He is all I’m aware of and all I want to think of right now.

Mr. Gorgeous—the tall, tall, dark blond, god-like man with a face that looks like it was carved to perfection by an angel. Decadent tattoos cover his neck and forearms in a tasteful, well-thought-out manner, making me think he’s a man who appreciates art.

His body feels like it was cut from granite, and there’s an untamed vibe about his entire presence that beckons me to obey his every command.

Everything about him is raw and masculine, sexy and wild.

Dangerous.

I know danger when I see it. When you’re born into the mafia, you eat, sleep, and live around danger.

Although I haven’t been able to figure him out, I knew he was dangerous the instant I saw him watching me dance from afar. I knew, and still I entertained this.

When he asked me to go home with him, I agreed. Now I’m here.

Here in this house where nobody who has power over me knows where I am.

I’m free—for now.

And this is me being me. Not the buzz from the triple shot of vodka the bartender added to my kamikaze cocktail back at the club.

This is all me, being who I would be if my life belonged to me.

Pretend to be someone you’re not until sunrise.

That is the unsolicited advice I decided to take from a carnival-themed fortune cookie I picked up yesterday at one of the stalls on the beach. When I opened the cookie and read the little note, it was like the Universe was screaming at me, handing me a momentary fix.

So tonight, I’m pretending to be the version of myself I’ve always wanted to be.

Given my past and who I am, I might be foolish for following such craziness. However, after the fucking bomb my father dropped on me earlier, nothing felt more appealing than pretending I wasn’t living in a world where my life had crumbled and gone to shit.

In my desperation to stop myself from going insane, I accepted the dare and I’m glad I did.

Mr. Gorgeous will be the first man to have me and I don’t care that this is reckless and crazy, because he’s my choice.

And tonight I’m choosing to give my body to him.

On what remains of my twenty-first birthday, I owe it to my borrowed life to live for one night doing what I want.

After all, there was a time in my life when I was told I wouldn’t make it past eighteen.

With that reasoning, I run my fingers through the spiky strands of my handsome stranger’s hair and savor the pleasure of touching him.

I get lost in the way he claims my mouth and holds me like he wants to consume me.

Until he catches my face in a deathlike grip, and I’m swiftly pulled from my reverie.

He stops kissing me and presses his fingers into my neck, tightening his grip.

I gasp, feeling certain he could snap it, as if I were little more than a twig in the confines of his strength.

He shocks me further when he tugs at the waist of my little dress and rips it right off my body, leaving me in just my strapless bra, my panties, and my ballet pumps.

A villainous smile lifts the corners of his lips. I shudder under the weight of his hungry stare, which morphs into curiosity the moment his gaze lands on the tattoo on my chest.

His eyes lingers there, and he stares at the beautiful design of little pink roses and blue butterflies resting on the larger petals.

I already know he’s looking at it with such interest because it doesn’t suit me.

I agree. Although I love tattoos, I never planned to get one.

My sister was more into tattoos than me. People say twins share all sorts of similarities, but Athena and I couldn’t have been more different. Of the two of us, I’m the dainty and delicate sister. I almost think he knows this, even though he doesn’t know I had a twin.

Maybe he can guess, though—that the tattoo isn’t really me—given the rest of my body is bare and the little tattoo is nestled between my cleavage and just big enough so you can only see it when I’m naked or wearing certain clothes. The dress I was wearing wasn’t one that exposed it.

I just hope he can’t see the remnants of the scar beneath. I don’t want to have to explain the whys and whats of how it came to be. The hidden scar which resulted from that runs much deeper and darker than anything visible to the human eye.

His sensual lips part as if he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t.

Instead, his gaze drops to my breasts, and the breath burning my lungs leaves me when he snaps open the butterfly clasp of my bra.

As my breasts spill out, I become very aware that he’s the first man who isn’t a doctor to see me like this—this naked.

I’ve never felt more vulnerable, and the wariness I previously felt returns. It only eases when a twinkle enters his eyes, and he looks at me as if I’m the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

I know that can’t be true, but he makes me think it could be.

Filling his palms with my breasts, he tweaks my nipples playfully with his tattooed fingers, sending my body into overdrive. Then he lowers his mouth to my neck and licks the skin right up to my earlobe.

There he lingers as his warm breath whispers over my skin, heating my body up all over again.

“Are you scared of me, Princess?”

“No...” It’s a lie, and we both know it. Of course, I’m fucking scared. “Should… I be?”

“That depends. Nice girls like you are usually scared of men like me.”

There’s that air of danger again.

When my breath hitches, his smile widens. It’s as devastatingly disarming as his Mediterranean blue eyes.

Both freeze me in place, and I think of all the reasons why this idea of mine is risky as fuck.

The normal version of myself would never dream of having a one-night stand with a stranger. Not with my adept knowledge of bad men.

I’m still trying to figure out which type he is.

He looks like the kind of mafia men from the Camorra I’m used to, but nothing is giving him away. He also speaks American English like me, which makes me think he could be here in Brazil on vacation as well.

The only thing lurking between his words is the lust enticing me to breathe him in.

Seeing my contemplation, he reaches for a lock of my brown hair and takes it between his thumb and forefinger, allowing the ends to curl then loosen.

I’m not sure what fascinates him more—my fear or me. I’m here at his mercy, and he knows it.

I suck in a breath when his clever fingers run down to my pussy, and he rubs my clit through the lace fabric of my panties. In response I moan, unable to restrain myself.

God, that feels so good.

Greedy for his touch, I widen my legs, and he gives me a knowing smile.

“You like that, Princess?” He nibbles on my ear.

“Yes.”

He rubs harder, stealing the air from my lungs. “Do you want more?”

I open my mouth, but no words come.

“Answer me.”

“Ye…sss.”

On my word, he cups my sex and slides the fabric away from my mound so he can slip a finger into my pussy.

The burst of pleasure that lances through me is too much. It’s so overwhelming that I have to grip his shirt to stop myself from falling over. But I loosen my grasp when he pulls out and licks my glistening juices off his finger.

“So wet and ready for me,” he husks.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more fascinating than watching him taste me.

The smile returns to his handsome face, and he plunges his finger back into my pussy once more, but only to pull out again and place the tip on my lips.

Pushing into my mouth, he makes me taste my arousal, encouraging me to suck his finger.

I do, and it’s the hottest thing ever. I suck on the thick skin, watching his eyes darken to the angry blue of the sky in a tempestuous storm. Then suddenly, his coolness slips, and lust seems to take over. At that moment, he tears my panties off the same way he ripped off my dress.

Two thick fingers then plunge into my pussy, sending me reeling in ecstasy as he starts finger-fucking me.

“You, Princess, are one interesting creature.”

“Why?” I moan, gripping his shirt, feeling the hard cut of his muscles beneath my fingers.

“Because you have my undivided attention even though you won’t tell me your name.” His seductive voice pours over me as I moan louder, coming undone in his arms. “Or where you’re from.”

He stares me down with such intensity it weakens my knees.

It’s not that I wouldn’t love to tell him my name or where I’m from.

I just can’t.

It’s safer this way for both of us.

I’m not supposed to be here with him, and he’s not supposed to know me.

“I wonder what else you could be hiding in that pretty little head of yours,” he adds.

I was relieved earlier when he didn’t question me on my identity. Since people have no-name hookups all the time, I thought I might have gotten away with it. I’m still trying to, but perhaps it’s not the wisest thing to hide the fact that I’m a virgin.

“I’ve… never done this before.”

“A virgin?” He looks me over again with an incredulous expression.

“Yes,” I stutter.

“Well, Princess… that just means I have the pleasure of teaching you how to please me before you get the hard, dirty fuck I plan to give you.” His voice is husky with intoxicating sexual greed. “You can start with sucking my dick.”

Lust gathers at the back of my throat, and my temperature spikes as my eyes go straight to the bulge pressing against his pants.

I barely get a moment to think before he undoes his belt buckle and shoves his pants down his hips, releasing his thick, long cock. The bulbous head already has pre-cum glistening on the tip.

“Get on your knees.” Placing his hand on my head, he forces me to the ground, and like an obedient servant, I obey.

The moment my knees settle on the cool concrete floor, his fingers lace through my hair, and he guides his cock into my mouth.

“Good girl. Now suck.” He shoves deeper into my throat as I run my tongue along his shaft. “Harder.”

I obey, and he thrusts even deeper, making me gag, but the exhilaration of having his cock in my mouth entices me to do whatever he wants me to do.

“Good girl,” he groans, fisting my hair so he can angle my face to take his thrusts. “You’re my perfect little slut.”

He tweaks my nipples and starts fucking my face, his hips moving wildly, his grip tightening in my hair and the nape of my neck as he pounds mercilessly into my mouth.

Everything becomes wild with the surge of sexual energy rippling between us, and I commit this moment to memory, mentally wiping away all the unsavory encounters I’ve had with that devil my father practically sold me to.

Mr. Gorgeous pounds harder, and my pussy aches for him to touch me there.

The ache is so intense I find myself rubbing my clit in a desperate attempt to soothe the need.

When he sees me touching myself, his cock twitches, growing harder in my mouth.

“That’s my job.” Suddenly he pulls his cock out of my mouth and secures a firm grip around my arm, lifting me to stand. “I think it’s time I own your greedy pussy.”

This is it. The moment I change forever.

I won’t be the same Persephone I was when I woke this morning.

I won’t be the same girl I was mere hours ago before the world changed and my dreams were taken away from me.

He yanks his shirt off, revealing the granite muscles I fantasized about, and I find myself lost in him again.

His body is a work of art. It’s covered in tattoos artistically designed to enhance his sculpted muscles.

There are a series of Japanese characters lining the right and left sides of his abs and an eagle at the base of his hip. The design that catches my eye the most, however, is on his arm. It’s a female harlequin clown that looks like it came straight out of a Batman film.

While I openly ogle him, he reaches into his back pocket, takes out a condom, and tears the wrapper. I continue to watch with fascination as he rolls the condom onto his cock.

Pressing me against the wall, he lifts my leg and secures it around his waist. Then he guides his cock to my entrance.

I flinch when he pushes into my pussy, and look away, gasping for air when he forces his way into me.

He grabs my face again, rougher this time, turning me back to meet those eyes of his which now look like shimmers on the sea.

“Look at me while I fuck you.”

“Oh… God.”

One hard thrust takes him deeper. Another tears right through my maidenhead and sends a rush of undiluted pleasure through my being as if someone added a dose of napalm to my body.

I cry out from the impact, tightening my grip on him. He holds me too, and begins moving inside me, pumping slowly at first, then faster and faster, until he builds up a steady rhythm that holds me in ultimate ecstasy.

My body comes alive with erotic bliss, luxuriating in the sensation.

Then he speeds up and starts fucking me relentlessly into the wall.

He pounds into my body over and over again, taking me higher out of this world.

It hurts. He’s hurting me so damn much, but I’m so aroused that pleasure and pain feel like the same sweet, delicious thing.

My head spins, and desire rides the wave of arousal racing up and down my spine while he continues to claim me with the skill of a man who knows what he’s doing. And what I need.

The first wave of a fierce orgasm tugs savagely at my insides, making the walls of my pussy spasm around his cock. Then I come, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced.

Pleasure explodes from the depths of my soul, forcing mindless moans from my lips. My cries of ecstasy join the erotic melody of our bodies slapping together.

One hand squeezes my hip and the other grips my neck as he tilts my face up to kiss me again.

“You’re mine now. All mine,” he growls, picking me up.

I wrap my legs around his waist as he continues plunging into my body like a savage.

We collapse on the king-size bed in the center of the room. There he pulls out briefly to flip me onto my hands and knees.

“This ass is mine,” he declares, giving my cheek a hard smack that jolts my body.

I cry out from the sting, and before I can get over the shock of what he just did, he spanks me again and again.

The maddening sensation of incongruent pleasure assaults my body, leaving me delirious and utterly stunned by the new arousal coiling through me.

Another smack on my raw skin has me panting like a dog.

Then he shocks me further when he runs his tongue right over the tight rosette of my asshole and licks across the searing heat of my ass cheeks where he spanked me.

Despite the frenzy of arousal and pain racing through me, my entire being goes tense when I feel the head of his cock pushing into my asshole.

“Now it’s time to make you scream,” he declares. “I’m owning you here, too.”

I don’t get the chance to process what he’s about to do because he just does it, pushing his hard cock deeper into my ass until he’s all the way in.

Instantly I scream as if programmed to do so when the burning sensation ravages my body.

Fuck! It fucking hurts so much that stars speckle my vision.

“It… hurts,” I choke out weakly.

“Then red is your safe word. Say it, Princess… and I stop.”

The pain is so unbearable I’m grateful for the offer, but when I open my mouth to say red, nothing comes out of me but a whimper of pleasure.

Mr. Gorgeous prods at my ass, sliding in and out slowly. Tortuously slowly, and purposefully.

All I hear next is the deep rumble of his laughter.

“Bad girl. I knew you wouldn’t say it. You like it dark and dirty, don’t you?” He pushes in harder. “You like the thought of me owning every part of your body.”

I don’t know, but I must do because I still can’t say red.

Another laugh falls from his lips, and he starts moving inside me again.

The pain is worse, but there’s something sinister about what he’s doing that makes me crave more. When he speeds up, every thought flies out of my brain, leaving a void. Then he pulls out of my ass without warning and plunges back into my pussy, rutting into me with a rush of carnal animalistic need that seems to go on forever. Quickly it becomes the cold, hard fucking I’ve heard my cousin, Raven, talk about.

Everything is beyond what I imagined.

And so is he.

Every inch of me feels like it could shatter, severing me from existence.

It does exactly that when another wild orgasm rips through me. I scream again, throwing my head back at the same time his cock tenses inside my passage. Then warmth heats up my core when he climaxes too.

My God…

I’m burning up. My skin is so hot, I’m going to explode.

I just had wild, crazy sex with a total stranger.

What now, though?

We stay just like this for a few moments until our breaths still.

When I calm down, I feel drained, my body crippled, as if I’ve been running a week-long marathon.

He pulls out of me and slides off the bed. The sordid thought hits me at that moment that he’s done with me now.

What if he tells me to leave?

What if he dismisses me as if what we just did was nothing?

Deciding to avoid the humiliation, I avert my gaze from him and make my way off the bed, but he catches my ankle and yanks me back toward him, flipping me onto my back.

“Where do you think you’re going?” His gaze intensifies.

“I thought I had to leave.”

“No. You and I aren’t finished yet.” A lock of his tousled hair falls over his eye, making him look even sexier.

“Aren’t we?”

“That was just a taste of what I want to do to you.” Kissing the tops of my feet, he makes his way back up to my sore pussy and plants fiery kisses over my mound. “So no, you aren’t going anywhere.”

When I wake up, it’s morning. I’m momentarily disorientated, until I roll onto my side and find myself staring at the god-like man I spent the night with.

He’s fast asleep, and I’m lying in his arms.

Memories of last night flood my mind and my body tingles, wanting him again.

We had sex three times, and I’m so sore I can barely move.

I have to move though, because I need to leave.

I can’t be here when he wakes.

I have to be gone from this house and his world as if last night never happened. Even though I’ll never forget it.

Sliding off the bed, I grab what’s left of my dress and inspect it.

It’s completely destroyed. I thought I could use the little straps to tie it on me, but that won’t work.

Thinking fast, I look around for something else to wear and find the black shirt he was wearing last night lying by the dresser.

I put it on, and it’s so big for me it swallows my body. It smells like him too.

This can be something to remember him by.

I look at my handsome stranger and think of how strong and foreboding he looks even in his sleep.

I’m not a virgin anymore. I gave the only thing I had left to this man. Now that I have, I at least get to hold on to that sense of freedom and choice Antonio Marchesi, my soon-to-be bastard husband, won’t ever be able to take from me.

I glance around the room and commit what I see to memory. Then I look at my handsome stranger once more and think of what he did for me.

Who is he?

What is he?

I wish I at least knew his name.

Maybe it’s better this way, though. It’s not like knowing who he is would do me any good. I need to become Persephone Vittorio again, and that means getting on that plane tonight and flying back to New York to the gilded cage that will become my new life.

“My angel,” I whisper. That is what he was for me.

The dark, mysterious angel I’ll never see again.