Chapter 32 Chapter 32

Chapter 32 Chapter 32
“Possessiveness, De Luca?” I whispered, my voice as sharp as a razor blade, even though my heart was pounding like crazy against his palm. “It disgusts you that she touched me, doesn’t it? It drives you completely out of your mind that someone else has left their mark on my skin.” I slowly raised my hands, placed my fingers on his wrists, and squeezed—not to push him away, but to pin him in that exact position. To show him that I wasn’t afraid of his predatory behavior. “Then listen to me damn well now, my dear husband,” I murmured, my gaze drilling into his. “If you demand that no one touch your precious, contractually sealed bitch… then starting tonight, the same rule applies to you. You want the facade of a perfect marriage? You want total control? Then from now on, you won’t even look at your sluts and maids with the side of your eye. If I ever again run into one of your whores in our house, or even catch a whiff that you’ve fucked another one… then I’ll tear this slave contract to shreds with my own hands. And I’ll make sure your precious reputation in this town rots faster than my sister in her grave.” Alessandro froze. For an endless, throbbing moment, he paused mid-movement. His hand still lay heavily on my chest, his knee pressed between my legs, and his breath came so heavily that it brushed against my split lip. He sized me up, searching my eyes for a bluff, for the panic of the art student. But he found nothing but the pure, murderous De Laurentiis darkness that I had finally unleashed once more. I had seen through his weakness. He wanted to control me, but his own jealousy made him controllable by me. A slow, dark, and indescribably hot grin crept across his lips as he realized what I had just done. He had challenged the monster, and I had just bared my teeth at him. “You’re setting conditions, Nicolai,” he whispered, and his fingers slowly traced their way up my neck, closing tightly—but without cutting off my breath—around my nape. He leaned down so low that his lips almost touched mine, and the forbidden tingle in my lower abdomen flared with an intensity that made me despair inside. “You’re forbidding me from other beds? You’re demanding my absolute exclusivity?” He pressed his hard cock against me once more, mercilessly—a silent, physical reminder of who was in charge here. “It’s a deal, mio sposo,” whispered the phantom, and his gray eyes burned a hole through my soul. “No more other beds. No more other bodies. But that also means that starting tonight, the only cock you’ll even dream about is mine. And believe me… I’m going to use every second to make sure you don’t forget that.” His breath burned my skin, and the deep, merciless grin on his lips made it clearer to me than ever before that he saw this as an invitation. He had me exactly where he wanted me: trapped beneath his weight, my nerves on edge, unable to escape the physical dominance he exerted over me. “You’re demanding my absolute exclusivity?” he repeated in a whisper, and in the dim glow of the streetlights, his gray eyes looked almost pitch black. His hand on the back of my neck pressed me a little tighter into the leather of the back seat, while his free fingers slowly traced their way up from my chest. He ran his rough, hot skin over the fresh scratch marks left by Yvette. He didn’t do it gently. He deliberately pressed his thumb into the reddened welts until a sharp pain shot through my collarbone. I clenched my teeth, refusing to moan in front of him, but my damn body betrayed me—a deep, uncontrollable shiver ran through my limbs. Alessandro noticed it immediately. A soft, throaty laugh escaped his throat. “It’s a deal, Nicolai,” he whispered, and before I could even think the word “divorce,” he leaned down and buried my lips beneath his. The kiss was no plea. It was a brutal execution. He pressed his mouth so hard against mine that I tasted the iron of the dried blood from my blow in the salon on my tongue again. His tongue thrust ruthlessly into my mouth, claiming every inch of me and forcing a rhythm upon me that shrouded my mind in thick fog within seconds. I hated him. I hated him so deeply. But when his hand slid down from my neck, slipped under my jacket, and gripped my hip firmly to pull me even harder against his throbbing erection, my body completely lost its mind. A treacherous, quiet gasp escaped my throat, straight into his mouth. I returned the kiss. I dug my fingers into the expensive fabric of his jacket, pulling him closer to me, unable to suppress the burning desire building in my lower abdomen. It was purely physical. It was a sin, a perversion, driven by the sheer heat of adrenaline, but it was there. And it was painfully real. It wasn’t until Sebastian sharply steered the car around a curve up ahead and the tires screeched on the asphalt that Alessandro pulled his lips away from mine. He didn’t pull back very far. He stayed so close above me that the tips of our noses almost touched, his breath coming in heavy, irregular gasps against my face. His hand slid slowly forward from my hip, over my jeans, until his fingers closed tightly around my painfully hard penis. He squeezed, massaging me roughly once through the thick denim and forcing me to take a gasping breath. “You want me to keep my hands off the maids, mio sposo?” whispered the Phantom, his voice rougher, deeper, and darker than ever before. A murderous seriousness entered his gaze, completely dispelling the mockery. “You want me to send my sluts away? Fine. I don’t give a shit about them. I can chase them all out of my house. But don’t you dare think I’m going to play the monk from now on.” He shifted his weight, pressing his knee even more mercilessly between my thighs, and leaned so close to my ear that his lips brushed my skin. “If I’m not fucking anyone else, Nicolai… then starting tonight, you’ll have to give me what I demand,” he whispered, and the murderous threat in his voice sent a wave of pure ice and searing heat down my spine. “Whenever I want it. Wherever I want it. And in every damn position that comes to mind. You’ll spread your legs for me, and you’ll take my cock inside you until you forget your own name. If you demand this vow, then you’ll deliver. Do we understand each other?” I lay rigid beneath him, unable to look away, while his fingers still clenched my hate-filled, throbbing desire through my pants. The noose of the slave contract had just tightened around my neck for good, and I’d tightened it myself through my own pride. The car slowed to a stop. The dull hum of the hydraulic gate of the De Luca fortress drifted in from outside. We were back in hell. I lifted my chin, forced the tremor out of my voice, and fixed my gaze on his gray eyes with all the darkness of the De Laurentiis that still remained in me. “Go ahead and try, De Luca,” I whispered coldly, while my heart pounded like crazy against his hand. “Come into my bed. Take whatever you think belongs to you. But don’t complain in the end when you realize that the beast in your cage has teeth. And that it knows damn well how to bite.” Alessandro stared at me, and for a tiny moment I saw the merciless, hungry glint flare up in his eyes. He took his hand off my pants, smoothed out his shirt, and slowly sat back down in his seat as the SUV came to a stop in front of the mansion’s wide steps. The Phantom’s mask was once again flawless. But the fuse on this powder keg was already burning brightly.