Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Ellie

“What do you mean?” I whispered, my voice shaking with my anxiety.

I couldn’t stop the tremble of fear that rushed through me as he guided me into the bedroom. Rafael’s steps echoed as he trailed behind us. I knew I’d gone too far, pushed too hard, but my anger had overtaken my common sense. It was stupid really. I should have stopped and thought before I’d raised my hand to him, but I hadn’t, and I was severely regretting that now.

Was I going to die?

“I’m going to teach you a lesson in respect, little girl ,” Dante said coldly, and my back went ramrod straight.

I wasn’t a little girl. I was a grown woman.

“My name is Ellie,” I blurted out. I don’t know why I told him my name. I should have given him a fake one just in case I made my way out of here and escaped. That would have been the smart thing to do, but apparently, I was just making dumb mistakes today for the fucking fun of it.

I needed to get my shit together and fast.

“I know who you are, Ellie Martinez.” He smiled.

“You know my name?” I sputtered, disbelief coating my every word.

What the fuck?

He cocked his head, staring at me with eyes that were far too perceptive and I tried to take a step back, but his grip held me tight, and I didn’t get very far.

“You’re Marco Vargas’ girl,” he said simply, and his knowledge of that was like a slap to the face.

“I’m not his girl anymore,” I spat. I jerked my arm away from him and leveled him with a glare that was fit to kill.

“No… You’re not.” He smirked, and I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at his meaning.

“I’m never going back to him,” I continued, fisting my hands at my sides with as much determination as I could muster.

“No. Do you know why?” he pressed, his smirk growing wider. I swallowed hard, just staring at him for a moment while I tried to figure him out.

“Why?” I finally asked, my uneasiness rolling through me like a sudden summer storm. My skin prickled and I took another step back, lifting my chin slightly and trying to appear as strong as I could.

“Because now you’re mine,” he said darkly.

I stared into those soulful blue eyes in disbelief. I was seething. I didn’t belong to anybody, least of all a man.

“I’m no one’s property,” I spat. I willfully ignored the building heat in my lower belly.

It couldn’t be desire.

No.

That would be absolutely fucking batshit crazy.

He moved closer, and my skin prickled as his scent wafted toward me. At first, a sharp, invigorating hint of citrus hit my senses. Without meaning to, I breathed in deeply, taking in what was likely bergamot, or maybe orange zest, which gave it a refreshing, clean start. Then, it melded into a warmer, spicier note, with the unmistakable richness of sandalwood, blended with a touch of pepper and maybe even the slightest whisper of cinnamon. The intensity of it left my head reeling.

His closeness made me feel uncomfortable.

No, not just uncomfortable.

It made my skin flush with heat, my heart race, and my breathing quicken. And as much as I hated it, it wasn’t out of fear.

It was arousal.

“That’s where you’re wrong. You’re mine now. Mine to take. Mine to keep and mine to punish,” he said, his voice clipped and dark.

“What?” I whispered.

This couldn’t be happening. I was losing my mind. Maybe this was just some bad dream, a nightmare even, and I was just going to wake up at any moment, safe and warm in my bed. I wound my hand around my forearm and quickly pinched my skin, hoping to wake myself up, but the pain was instant.

This wasn’t a dream.

This was real.

I was so fucked.

He took another step closer, his body pressing into mine and my breath caught in my throat. His hand came up and grasped my chin, forcing me to look up at him. A shaky breath escaped my lips, exposing me far more than I liked.

This was quickly going from bad to worse.

“Now that I have your full attention, let me make myself perfectly clear. You are mine. I will decide what happens to you. I will decide what you do, when you do it, and how you do it,” he vowed.

“You have no right,” I spat, glaring daggers at him.

“I have every right, Ellie,” he replied, his grin causing a chill to race down my spine and goosebumps to break out all over my skin.

I had no idea what he had in mind, but I didn’t want to find out.

Not at all.

With all the strength I had left, I brought my knee up, fully intending to slam it right into his balls. He turned his hips just in time to evade my maneuver and wound his arm around my waist, easily lifting me off the ground as though I weighed nothing at all. With devastating speed, he sat down on the bed, and I landed facedown with a startled gasp.

Over his knees.

I froze.

What the absolute fuck?

“What are you doing?” I squeaked, my voice far too high pitched for my liking.

“Teaching you a well-earned lesson, naughty girl. That’s twice you’ve attacked me unprovoked,” he scolded, and I tried to push up against the bed, only his hand wound around my hips and pinned me back in place. I kicked, but that did nothing. I rocked my hips back and forth, trying to throw myself off him, but it did no good.

I had no leverage. I was trapped.

He had me right where he wanted me, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

I wasn’t an idiot. There was only one reason a man would put a woman over his knee.

He was going to spank me.

Like a fucking child.

I renewed my efforts to fight him off, but he was so much bigger than me and nothing I did seemed to gain me even an inch of control. I turned my head and my eyes caught Rafael’s, his genuine warmth almost more than I could bear.

“Help me,” I tried. My eyes pleaded with him, but it wasn’t enough.

He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, clearing his throat when he cocked his head. Fuck me. He was enjoying the show. He wasn’t going to raise even a finger to stop this.

Fucking great.

I was really on my own here with two strange men, one that seemed hell-bent on punishing me like an errant toddler and the other one standing by while it all happened right in front of him.

The problem was that a certain deep dark part of me was enjoying this too. Even now, I knew my panties were wet and I didn’t understand why. Sure, I’d touched myself in the past to several different dirty romance novels where the male lead spanked his girl, but that was something entirely different, right?

Those were just fantasy.

This was fucking real.

It shouldn’t be turning me on. I shouldn’t want to know what his hand feels like against my ass, let alone my bare ass.

Fuck .

I was really losing it.

“Do you have any idea of who you’re dealing with?” Rafael finally said. I stilled, the insinuation making my blood run cold.

Rafael’s question hung heavy in the air, a warning laced with much darker implications. His gaze was piercing, expecting an answer that I wasn’t sure I was ready to give, but I opened my mouth and answered anyway.

“Dante?” My voice was barely above a whisper, a mix of curiosity and dread. My words died on my tongue before it finally hit me.

The moment the name left my lips, realization dawned on me, cold and sharp.

Oh fuck .

Dante.

The Dante.

He wasn’t just any mafia boss, but Dante Romano, a name that was whispered fearfully into the night, a name even Marco spoke of with a mix of respect and trepidation.

That Dante.

My mind reeled as I connected the dots. Marco had often mentioned Dante in hushed tones, painting him as a shadowy figure of immense power and ruthlessness, a man who controlled the criminal underworld with an iron fist.

And here I was, right over his goddamn knee.

The irony of the situation was almost laughable. From the clutches of one feared man in the mafia to the stronghold of another, but this time, I had fallen out of the frying pan and smack- dab into a blazing inferno.

If Marco was dangerous, Dante was catastrophic .

Escape seemed like a far-fetched dream now.

“You’re beginning to understand now, I take it,” Rafael said, his voice steady and commanding.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. My heart thundered frantically in my chest. My body was as stiff as a board.

Rafael watched me, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gauged my reaction. There was no sympathy there, only the cold acknowledgment of reality. I could appeal to him for help, but he wasn’t going to do anything. I knew that for certain now.

Just like Dante, I knew that Rafael was no saint.

“You’re in a different world now,” Dante stated, his tone very matter-of-fact. “And in that world, you belong to me.”

“You have to let me go right—” I tried, but Dante’s cold chuckle made the words evaporate on the tip of my tongue.

“I don’t have to do anything,” he replied, his voice hard.

The finality in his tone sent a shiver of fear and something else, something far more confusing, down my spine. I swallowed back a gulp of fear, trying to ignore the desire pumping through my veins, but it was hard.

My clit pulsed like a fucking drum.

“I think the rest of the discussion would be much better had with your ass fully bare,” he growled.

Oh god!

“Wait, please ,” I pleaded.

“Please? You don’t have a say in what happens next, Ellie,” he countered, his words cutting mine off.

Before I could begin to protest any further, his hand slid beneath me and made quick work of my jeans and panties, jerking them down in one swift motion. No matter how much I fought, it was like trying to punch through a brick wall. To make matters worse, the more I struggled, the further my jeans and panties slid down until they were all the way at my knees.

My eyes widened in shock, the feeling of vulnerability escalating as his hand brushed against my bare upturned backside.

Oh. Shit. My ass was bare.

My jeans and my panties were down around my knees, which meant that my pussy was just as bare too.

I squeezed my thighs together, trying to hide everything while also feeling a cool waft of air brushing against the arousal that was already slickening my sensitive folds.

I didn’t understand it. I shouldn’t be aroused right now. I couldn’t be. I was imagining things, right?

“You don’t need to spank me,” I tried one last time. “I’ll go with you without a fight.”

“That you will, little girl, but you’re going to do it with a bright red ass,” Dante stated.

My little traitor of a pussy chose that exact moment to clench down.

Hard.

So fucking hard that my hips bucked along with it.

Oh, dear fucking god.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

This wasn’t supposed to turn me on. This was supposed to make me angry, livid even, and it was doing nothing but making my nipples pebble into tight little points. I was blissfully thankful that those were still covered, at least for now. I hoped they would stay that way.

Dante’s hand kneaded my ass, making my core throb and I bit my lip, trying to force myself to stay still and not make a sound. I couldn’t let him know that I was enjoying this and that a deep, dark part of me actually kind of wanted this to happen. And that same part of me had always wanted to know what it would feel like to be put over a man’s knee and thoroughly spanked.

Something was wrong with me. Clearly.

I needed to be committed. Like right fucking now.

This man was a dangerous fucking mob boss, and he was about to spank me. This was humiliating and infuriating and wrong on so many levels.

I shouldn’t actually like it.

My ass flexed when his hand brushed against my bare skin, so light that a tendril of tenacious fire pierced right to my core. I bit my lip harder, tasting blood before his fingers lightly grazed the lower curve of my backside.

“Such a beautiful little thing,” he mused, and I couldn’t help but blush at his compliment. I opened my mouth, but eventually closed it, not knowing what to say so I didn’t say anything at all.

“Marco doesn’t know what he’s lost, but I certainly know what I’ve found,” he continued, and my blush only grew hotter.

A soft smack landed across my right cheek and my eyes widened. It was more surprising than painful. Still, it felt odd, strange even, and my heart began to race.

Maybe I’d overreacted. Maybe he was just trying to shame me into obedience. Maybe it wasn’t actually going to hurt like I thought it would.

Another slap landed against my left cheek, harder this time, and I bit back a yelp.

Then again, maybe I was wrong.

I rocked my hips and the third smack landed on my left side, twice as hard as the first two. I pressed my lips together in a firm line, doing my best to keep quiet, but that one stung more than all the rest. It felt like I’d been stung by a bee, or maybe a thousand of them all at the same time.

It was more than enough to steal my breath away.

He spanked me again and this time, the pain was far more intense. I hummed quietly, taken aback by how much it stung.

This was a punishment for kids, right? I could take it. I would take it and then we would be on our way to wherever these men wanted to take me. Maybe they were right. Maybe they could protect me from Marco and I was just being na?ve.

My silent reverie was quickly broken by several much harder smacks and a quiet gasp escaped me before I could stop it.

Then, his hand thrashed the lower curves of my ass, over and over, the smacks raining down on my bare skin, the stinging sensations beginning to build on top of one another. Each new blow added to the sting of the previous ones, thoroughly scalding my bare cheeks until they felt like they were both ablaze.

His hand was unforgiving, and the intensity was rising, becoming more than a mere sting, and quickly rising to a blazing inferno.

Each smack stung worse than the last, the heat from the pain radiating out from where his hand met my ass, spreading and intensifying and soon, it was too much.

“Okay, that’s enough,” I tried. “I’m sorry I hit you! I won’t do it again!”

“Oh, Ellie, I’ve hardly even gotten started,” Dante murmured.

My blood ran cold.

He couldn’t mean that… Right?

“Rafael, please! Help!” I screeched.

I turned my head back and his eyes met mine, the same intense heat burning behind his gaze and my mouth dropped open. It was easy to see that he was loving the show, and for some reason, that realization was doing things to my body that I didn’t understand.

I was getting even wetter, and I couldn’t make it stop.

Dante spanked me harder and that’s when I realized something else. His cock was rock- hard beneath my belly too.

Dante Romano, the most powerful mob boss in New York, was aroused by baring my bottom and spanking me like a naughty little girl.

I had no time to ponder the meaning behind that.

The smacks began to land even harder and faster, his pace increasing, and my mind quickly focused entirely on the hard paddle of his palm as it peppered against my bare ass. He spanked from the very tops of my cheeks all the way down to the tops of my thighs and before I knew what was happening, he started all over again.

Every smack was hard. Every spank hurt.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my desperation quickly becoming apparent with every syllable that left my mouth.

“Not nearly sorry enough,” Rafael growled, his arousal evident in his voice too.

“Please,” I tried once more, but the smacks came harder, faster, and soon the only thing that mattered was my bare ass and Dante’s hand. The spanking became too much. It was more pain than I could handle. I needed it to end, but it wasn’t going to and the fact that I was helpless to make it stop only added to the agony.

Dante took complete control.

I hated that my pussy loved it.

The intensity grew and grew until it was all-consuming, my entire body focused on the smacks and the stinging pain. Each smack sent a ripple of sensation through my body, and I couldn’t hold back my cries anymore.

The spanking was unrelenting, and the burning heat grew worse. I squirmed, bucking against him, and I almost couldn’t believe it when a soft moan slipped out.

Then, all of a sudden, the punishment paused, and his hand brushed across my scalded cheeks.

“Naughty girl, I can see your arousal glistening in the moonlight. You’re enjoying your spanking, aren’t you?” Dante said softly.

My entire body seized with shameful need.

“I’m not—” I whispered in horror, but his soft chuckle cut me off.

Gently, his fingers trailed down, brushing against the lower curve of my buttocks, and heading downward until he glided across the wetness that coated my inner thighs.

I blushed and I blushed hard.

There would be no denying it now.

His fingertips dipped lower, caressing the most intimate parts of me and a deep growl rumbled from his chest at the same time that a visceral cut of pleasure pierced right through me to the core. I squirmed, but that only resulted in rubbing my pussy against his fingers even more and the heat that had rushed to my face turned molten.

Without a single warning, he pushed a finger inside of me, and a sharp moan fell from my lips. I tried to bite it back, but it was already too late.

He’d heard, and worse than that, so had Rafael.

“Please, don’t,” I whimpered. I could feel their eyes on me, their heated gazes making me flush all the more.

“You can protest all you like, but you’re enjoying this, Ellie. This wet little pussy tells me everything I need to know,” Dante breathed.

“I can smell her arousal from here, boss,” Rafael added, and a cry of shame escaped me before I could stop it.

They were talking about me as if I weren’t even there, as if I wasn’t a living, breathing person.

I was just a toy, something they could use for their pleasure.

And for some insane reason, a part of me liked that.

“I found you, Ellie, and I’m going to keep you,” Dante purred. His digit slowly pumped in and out of my soaked pussy, teasing and taunting me with pleasure just out of reach and I gasped, biting back a moan when he pulled his fingers free and brushed them over my clit.

Oh god.

I couldn’t be this aroused right now.

I couldn’t be on the cusp of orgasm from a spanking by a total stranger, yet here I was.

It was really happening.

This was absolutely fucking real, and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

When his fingertips glided over my clit again, my whole world stuttered. My hands tightened and my toes curled, all at the same time that my blood rushed through my veins and my ass burned from his hard palm. My whole world centered on his fingers and my throbbing clit, and nothing I could door think could sway it even the tiniest bit.

My heart raced with an unexpected, burning desire that kindled deep in my belly, spreading through me like blazing wildfire. It was maddening, this fierce attraction I felt toward a man who represented everything that should have been forbidden. His commanding aura, the power that resonated from him, it didn’t just intimidate me; it inexplicably drew me in, and I couldn’t make it stop.

But… maybe I didn’t want it to.

His masterful touch lightly slid over my clit, terrible and wonderful and everything I ever wanted.

I knew I was getting close. I knew it and it terrified me.

“Please, I can’t,” I whispered. I couldn’t live with myself if I came right now, not with my jeans and panties around my knees and my ass thoroughly scalded, but I soon realized I wasn’t going to have much choice about that either.

“Naughty girl, you’re going to come for me. Hard,” Dante said darkly, and my hips bucked at the sound of his words. I tried to control myself, but it was a losing battle.

I turned my head and met Rafael’s eyes. They practically burned through me. That terrible deep part of me liked that he was watching.

That he’d seen Dante spank me.

That he was watching Dante make me come.

I didn’t know why. I didn’t understand it and I didn’t really want to, so I just tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t.

His eyes were like a firebrand.

I bit my lip and held his gaze, unable to look away, and a shiver coursed through me when Dante increased the pressure on my clit. There was no more fighting this. I knew that now. He was so much bigger than me, his strong arm wrapped around my waist, effortlessly holding me down as his hand teased my aching pussy.

The pressure in my core increased the harder he circled my clit, the more firmly he pressed down until I reached the breaking point.

“Please!” I cried out.

I tried to fight it and I failed.

I came anyway.

My eyes snapped shut, and I let the sensation take me, the feeling of falling into the abyss overwhelming me, making everything else fade away. My body shook as waves of ecstasy washed over me, leaving me weak and helpless to their power. My clit thrummed with devastating pleasure as my legs trembled and my muscles flexed. I couldn’t stop the way my hips bucked, shamelessly riding his thigh with my bare red ass high in the air as my climax took over my every waking thought.

It was as though a rubber band had snapped inside me, fierce and painful and utterly incredible.

My head whirled up in the clouds and I fell deeper and deeper, exquisite ecstasy whirling through my every limb. My heart thundered in my chest, and I lost myself in every bit of that wonderfully terrible climax.

When I came down from the high, I was spent. Utterly spent.

And utterly humiliated .

“I think she enjoyed that a little too much,” Rafael mused, his voice low and full of sinful promises.

I didn’t even have it in me to protest, I’d come that hard.

“Now, little girl , are you going to come with me like a good girl or do I need to take off my belt?” Dante questioned, his voice firm.

I swallowed hard, shaking my head. “I’ll behave,” I choked, too caught up in the idea of him using that leather strap. Why did a part of me actually like the idea of him doing something like that? Why was my clit pulsing like a needy little whore just at the mention of his belt?

Something was wrong with me, that much was for certain.

“Good,” he murmured.

He didn’t let me up right away. Instead, he mercifully let me catch my breath. I closed my eyes, still feeling the trembling in my tired muscles from running and fighting. Finally, I allowed myself to relax as I grappled with the fact that I’d just had the hardest orgasm of my life right over Dante’s knee with another man watching.

It was shameful.

It was wonderful and terrible all at the same time.

I didn’t know what to make of it.

Dante’s hand rubbed gently over my backside, and I shivered, a soft sigh escaping me.

“Stand up,” he directed, and his arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me gently to my feet. I stumbled and his hands quickly steadied me so that I stood right in front of him.

Oh my god.

He was staring at my pussy. My pants and underwear were still around my knees and my swollen pussy was all but on display for him. I made a quiet keening sound and his thumbs brushed against the top of my mound.

I shivered and his gaze flicked up to mine, a blazing inferno of heat encompassed within them.

Not knowing what else to do, I reached down and pulled my panties back up around my waist, covering myself in a bit of a rush. When I pulled up my jeans next, I grimaced as the rough fabric brushed against my sore ass, but I didn’t make a sound.

I couldn’t let him know how much he had gotten to me.

I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did.