Heartless Prince by Brook Wilder

 

Chapter 16

Leda

 

“Tell me what you want.”

 

I stared into Valentino’s eyes, feeling my heart flutter at his nearness. “I want you,” I whispered, reaching out to cup his cheek.

 

He shuddered under my touch, and for a moment, I felt utter devotion for the man before me. He was powerful. He was dominant.

 

He was mine.

 

When he opened his eyes once more, I saw the fiery heat in them, the passion that he was going to bring to my body as he had many times before. Our love was, well, it couldn’t be put into words what I felt for him.

 

“Leda.” My name came out in a whispered plea as he dropped to his knees, his face inches from my throbbing core. “Let me love you.”

 

“Yes,” I breathed, my hands fisted in his hair. “Please.”

 

His thumb brushed over my clit, and I whimpered. “You don’t ever have to beg for me.”

 

Oh, but I wanted to. I wanted him to make me cry out his name, make me beg him to stop as he brought my body repeatedly to the brink.

 

My favorite thing about him.

 

When his mouth touched me, I nearly lost it. His tongue glided over my swollen nub, worshipping me as he pushed apart my folds.

 

I bolted awake, my eyes flying open as I struggled to catch my breath. It was just a dream.

 

It had to be a dream.

 

Groaning, I rubbed my hand over my face. Sunlight was streaming through the open balcony door. I tried to stay up after Valentino had left, waiting in restless anticipation for the moment he would.

 

But the pull of exhaustion finally won out and I fell asleep naked.

 

Refusing to get out of bed, I stretched my body and winced as my feet screamed in return. There were probably scrapes and bruises cuts all over the bottom from my failed escape last night.

 

A shower would do me some good.

 

That, and maybe something more.

 

The thought came unbidden, unwanted, and I realized my body was still flushed from my dream. My hand wandered over my aching breasts. I wasn’t one to touch myself often, but something about that dream left me feeling…

 

Incomplete.

 

A grin flitted over my lips as the image of Lucas Valentino on his knees worshipping me.

 

Now wouldn’t that be a sight?

 

My hand slid down my stomach and I closed my eyes, thinking of the way that he had commanded me with his touch. He dominated me from the very start, and molded my response to what he wanted.

 

What he craved.

 

My finger brushed my clit, and I gasped lightly. I was already soaking wet.

 

This can’t be happening. I couldn’t possibly walk around all the time wanting him…

 

Could I?

 

I shook my head. No. I shouldn’t want him like this.

 

He took me from everything I knew. He swore he’d ruin me. That should be enough to remind me that he was a dangerous man, not to be trusted. But somewhere, deep in my core, a monster opened a curious eye.

 

And it wanted more.

 

It wanted him to pin me down into the bed, hold me down, and push me open. The thought made me close my eyes, and my brain flooded the darkness with flashes of clenched fingers, tangled limbs, and hot heavy breath hovering by my ear.

 

My fingers opened me of their own volition, and I gasped as I felt the heat start to build.

 

“Yes,” I whispered to an empty bedroom, wondering if he had any hidden cameras so he could watch. On one hand, I positively die of embarrassment if he was. But on the other, I wanted him to watch.

 

My orgasm came quick and fast, and I cried out as my body bucked against it. But as quickly as it came, the pleasure started to fade, and all that remained was a burning need—a need that I knew only one person could fill.

 

“Great, just great,” I muttered.

 

I was already starting to want him, and it was only day one. My getaway plan was a wash, and I hadn’t done anything but crave his touch this morning.

 

This day was shaping up to be the worst day ever.

 

Throwing covers away, I got up, walked to the bathroom—naked—and turned on the shower as hot as it would go. I needed to erase him from my skin, to not want him any longer. Get my brain back.

 

I needed to forget he even existed.

 

When I stepped under the spray, I yelped at how hot it was and turned on the cold slightly so that I wouldn’t scald my skin. There were small things of shampoo and body wash, along with a razor, which surprised me. Wasn’t he afraid that I would use it against him? Or on myself?

 

I mean, I didn’t want to go around looking like a hairy woman, but I would have thought…

 

Picking the razor up, I decided it didn’t matter. This was probably just another one of his tests. Another one of his rules that he expected me to break.

 

Besides, I wasn’t dumb enough to consider ending my own life right now. I still had options.

 

So far he hadn’t hit me. He hadn’t tortured me, unless you called the sexual encounter torture.

 

I could still get out of this.

 

I shaved my legs and under my arms before picking up the shampoo and working it into a lather.

 

The shower gave me time to reflect. Has it even been a full day? It was an entirely different life. One Leda walked into prison to see her father, and another Leda emerged. 

 

But just who was this Leda? I sighed and scrubbed at my skin. That would be a question I’d answer later.

 

Rinsing out the shampoo, I quickly lathered up my body with the bodywash, and thought about what I was avoiding. For one, my father was definitely going to blow a gasket, and I won’t be there to see it. Won’t be there to bear the consequences.

 

That was the one positive. He had no hold on me. In a way, it was an odd type of freedom. If I had to take my father’s wrath or Valentino’s wrath, I’d take Valentino any day.

 

At the thought of his name, his piercing eyes popped into my mind, and I sighed. I really wished I knew what his deal was, how he became a Don, but I hadn’t heard the story. I didn’t even know anything about him. I’ve heard of the Cavazzo Mafia only in passing, but nothing else.

 

If I had to guess, I’d say he was somewhere in his early to mid-thirties. His hard nature made me think that he had some tragic backstory that left him the way he was. He liked to be in control, which meant he wasn’t the type to soften over anything. To lose the upper hand would be like death for him; I was almost sure of it.

 

If I wanted to find a way to beat him, I’d need to take the upper hand. But how?

 

I washed the suds off me, shut off the shower, and picked up one of the fluffy towels to dry my body off.

 

Only then did I take a look in the mirror. And the image looking back startled me.

 

Eyes that I’ve known all my life stared back at me, but inside the mirror stood a woman I almost didn’t recognize as me. She had a height of flush on her cheeks that I’d never had. Her wrists were chaffed an angry pink. And her eyes shocked me.

 

They stared, and they wanted.

 

I blinked, and I saw myself once again.

 

Get a grip, Leda! I reprimanded myself.

 

I wrapped the towel around my body, walked out of the bathroom to the wardrobe, and sighed as I beheld my skimpy choices.

 

What did it matter now? Valentino pretty much made his intentions clear. We were going to play his game. He laid out those ridiculous rules of his, and now he was going to take his time using me, either in bed or not.

 

And after?

 

Well, I didn’t want to think about an after. Mostly because I wasn’t sure if there would be and after. And if there was, I wasn’t going to like it.

 

So I needed to make sure I delayed the after as long as I could.

 

A secret thrill ran through my veins as I selected a black teddy, one that left nothing to the imagination. If I was going to make him lose control, I’d need a little help.

 

I needed him to feel something.