Chapter 41 The promise
Dante POV
I shook my head. “Then you’re dumber than I thought…which is a huge disappointment.”
“dante.” I wouldn’t look at her.
Dante,” she repeated, this time with more emphasis. I sighed before I turned my head to look at her. She propped herself on her elbow so we could be eye to eye. “I don’t like it, and I don’t want you to do it anymore. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.”
She held my gaze with authority, holding on to whatever power she had left. She stared at me without shaking, making a request that she had no right to make. Why did I even listen to her? Why did I walk out of the bedroom and join her in the living room? Why was my ass sitting on the floor when she should be the one at my feet? There was something about this woman that forced me to a have a little humanity…something I didn’t think I was capable of. “Pick your battles wisely, baby. You’ve won this fight, but I won’t be accommodating for the next one.”
Relief shone in her eyes, and she released the breath she was holding. “I shouldn’t have to say this but…thank you.” I turned my head forward again. “Why is this so important to you? What am I missing?”
“It just…nothing.”
I turned my gaze back to her, holding on to the last word she spoke. “It’s not nothing. Tell me.”
“If a woman is bound…it feels like rape. But if she’s not…then it’s consensual. I feel like I don’t have any rights or any decision in the matter.
Something is being done to me. And it makes me think of what my mother must have gone through…because she never would have stopped fighting…”
Moisture coated her eyes instantly, the tears appearing from nowhere. “She must have been tied up and…” She closed her eyes, but the tears escaped from underneath her eyelids and streaked down her face. I felt like shit.
It was the first time I really felt that way. It was the first time I felt like I did something wrong.
It was the first time I cared. That I actually felt something close to guilt and empathy. I couldn’t bring myself to apologize, but now I wanted to give her what she wanted. I didn’t
want her to feel that way, to ever feel like I was doing what my father did to her mother.
I turned my body into the couch and cupped her face. My thumbs brushed away her tears before my fingers glided into her hair, comforting her the only way I knew how. My face moved into hers, and I brushed away the remaining moisture with my lips. “Baby…” I scooted my arms underneath her and carried her into the bedroom where she belonged. Her arms immediately wrapped around my neck, and she pressed her face into my shoulder.
I put her in bed and got her under the covers before I lay beside her. This time, she didn’t push me away. She moved into my chest and snuggled with me like she did every other night. She pushed me away just minutes ago, but now she held on to me like she needed me.
My fingers moved through her hair, gently caressing her. “Why didn’t you do it?” she whispered. I knew what she was asking even though it was ambiguous. When she first
became my prisoner, she expected me to rape her. I probably would have if my father had never done it to her mother. It seemed wrong to me, so that was a line I never crossed. I’d kill people and torture them, but forcing a woman
against her will seemed wrong, even if it turned me on. My mother was a whore, and men used her for her body. Why would I want to be another asshole like that? I already was an asshole, but that was a different level. “I
knew my father did that to your mother…so it felt wrong to do that to you. I have nothing because of what your parents did to my family, but I won’t pretend that my father’s actions were okay. I wanted to make up for his mistake by not doing it with you…so we’re even.”
She held her breath after I finished speaking, like she was replaying my words in her mind again. Her fingertips lightly dragged down my chest and stomach, and when she breathed again, she seemed to be back to normal. “Thank you…”
“I didn’t do it for you. I just want to right the wrong…that way I have every right to destroy your family.” I said the words as I held her, held this Conti in my arms. My fingers stroked her hair, and I lay in bed with her, our naked bodies intertwined together.
“So you won’t tie me up again?” She didn’t seem surprised that my vendetta was still as alive as ever. But that was probably because she intended to kill me with that gun she brought home. If she fired that gun, I wasn’t sure what I would do in retaliation. I may have
to beat her senseless to punish her. Or I may have to kill her. There would need to be some kind of punishment for her ill-advised decision.
I just wasn’t sure what it was yet. “No.”
She gripped me harder and moved farther onto my chest. Now she was all over me, treating me like a lover rather than a master. “Promise?” “I told you men like me don’t make promises.” “But you make promises to me…”
I tilted her chin up to look at me, and I kissed her softly on the mouth. “Yes… I promise.”