Chapter 16

Iflew through the air like bird soaring in the breeze. It was kind of beautiful for the brief second that it lasted. Then I landed like a sack of potatoes.

My body bounced off the mattress, throwing me up the bed just enough to clack the top of my skull off the headboard.

Groaning, I reached up and attempted to rub away the haze clouding my mind.

Less than two minutes into the fight and I had a sore hand, two aching legs, a stinging cheek and brain fog. Needless to say, I was not on track to become the next heavy weight champion.

To make matters worse, my shorts slipped off my hips sometime during my flight. So not only was I on Gio's bed – where things might happen that I didn't want to – but my bright pink Ninja Turtle underwear were on full display. The term epic fail was created for times like this. Good thing I didn't get embarrassed.

"Is that a fucking turtle?"

Gio was right there, wasn't he?

I creaked an eye open and looked up at the jade orbs rolling over me, soaking up every curve I had. Turns out I could be embarrassed after all. The darker his gaze got, the more my cheeks heated up.

"Doesn't look like any turtle I've ever seen."

Was he serious?

"It Michelangelo." When he just cocked a brow at me I explained, "He's the best Ninja Turtle Ever."

"What the fuck is a Ninja Turtle?"

Really? Where did Gio spend his childhood, under a rock?

"They're superheroes."

He didn't say anything.

"Please tell me you know who Spiderman is?" Everyone knew Peter Parker.

"That's the guy in the red and black suit, right?"

Red and black suit? That was all he had to say? I wasn't sure if I should be appalled or feel sorry for him?

"Did you not read comic books as a kid?"

"Why would I waste my time on something stupid like that?"

Waste his time? Time was all kids had. They ran around playing games and making their parent's lives hell.

"Because stupid is in the job description of being a kid. Didn't you ever eat a mud pie or jump off the roof to see if you could fly?" Umbrellas didn't help with flying by the way. Mary Poppins lied about that one.

Gio looked at me like I was crazy and I couldn't help but wonder what the little bot version of him was like? Was he an asshole too? Did little Gio have friends to play with? Did he have a clubhouse and roll around in the mud for no reason or eat so much Halloween candy that he got sick? All kids did that kind of stuff. Didn't they?

Maybe Gio didn't? This wasn't exactly a normal house, or family. They didn't even have any family portraits hung on the walls. At least none that I had seen. I couldn't see them going for picnics in the park, or to the playground.

His father didn't strike me as the push his kid on the swings type. So what kind of childhood did Gio have? Was he allowed to have fun, or did he sit by himself watching other kids have fun? He didn't seem very close to his father, or brother for that matter.

I couldn't stop the question from slipping out. "Do you like your family?"

His eyes met mine. "Does anyone?"

"I like mine."

"Well, hurrah for you." He scoffed and pressed his knee down on the bed. "Now stop stalling."

My pulse picked up as he crawled over me, and I should've run away. But I couldn't stop picturing a little boy sitting by himself somewhere in the rain while watching all the other kids around him laugh and play.

The Mancini's had a reputation in this town. Until that moment, it didn't occur to me how isolating a reputation like that might be for a kid. Everyone would be afraid to approach him. Gio had no one.

No one except for Atlas.

To everyone else in this town, the oldest Mancini son was a monster. The person people would walk across the street to avoid. I knew this before anything happened to Veda. Yet to Gio, he was something else.

Atlas was his brother and, quite possibly, the only person he had. And my brother took him away. In Gio's eyes, Atlas wasn't the monster. Kato was.

"Gio…"

"What?" He said while sitting down on my hips with enough weight to press my butt into the mattress.

"I'm sorry about your brother." I don't think anyone had ever said that to him.

He stopped and looked up at me. A spark of pain I recognized flash across his face. It was the same hollow ache I felt every day when I woke up and remembered that Kato wasn't there.

"You think you can apologize for what your brother did and everything will be okay?"

"No," I didn't think that at all. "But that doesn't mean I can't feel your loss."

I lost someone too.

For the first time since I met him, I felt a connection with my tormentor. Neither one of us were involved in what happened, but we were both affected in ways that could never be fixed. His brother destroyed my family and mine destroyed him.

If what I said affected Gio, he didn't show it. He snapped back into focused mode and grabbed my wrists.

Gio cocked a brow down at me. "You're not going to fight me this time?"

"No."

I don't know why I didn't? Every instinct I had told me to yell and lash out. But I just laid there and watched as he wrapped his fingers around my wrists and held them in one hand. It was oddly serine.

Until he began to unbuckle his belt.

My stomach twisted, causing my instincts to take over. I fought to get away while he pulled the leather strap through the loops on his jeans. Kicked my legs as best I could while struggling to get my arms free from his grip.

None of it did any good. Gio had me pinned. The only thing I could do was attempt to sit up. Considering he was straddling me, that would just bring me closer to him, which wouldn't exactly put me in a better position.

So I decided to conserve what little energy I had left and glared at him while he wound the belt around my wrists. This wasn't Gio's first time tying someone up. He knew what he was doing.

Frist he looped it around one wrist, then crossed over to the other, and finally wound them both together. I was not getting free any time soon. The only question was, now what?

What was Gio going to do to me now? The possibilities were endless, but it was the memory of how his hands felt that made me swallow down a ball of nerves.

I guess he heard me, because his gaze floated back up to mine. "Are you scared, Gattina?"

Yes.

Clamping my mouth shut, I refused to answer him. I would not give Gio the satisfaction of hearing my voice quake.

He folded over me and growled in my ear. "Are you scared that I might fuck you?"

He said he wasn't, but that did mean the thought hadn't crossed my mind. And not in the good way. My body was purring at the feel of his weight pressing down on me. so yes, I was scared at what he might do. But I was more scared that a part of me would like it.

"Are you?" If I knew it was coming, I might be able to prepare myself.

Gio sat back up and eyed me for a second before responding. "That depends."

"Depends on what?" I asked as he stretched my arms over my head and attached my wrists to the headboard.

"On whether or not you earn my dick."

That didn't make me feel any better. What constituted as earning? Fighting him, not fighting him? I needed to know what not to do. All this uncertainty was frustrating.

An hour ago, I would've sworn that Gio wanted nothing physical from me, other than my untimely demise that is. When his father told me to suck him off, Gio looked about as happy as I was. Then the locker room incident happened. Even that I could pass off as repressed rage, or a moment of insanity because he'd ever touched me.

That wasn't the case anymore. No less than twenty minutes ago, Gio's hand was on my most intimate spot, and he enjoyed it. I wasn't sure about anything anymore.

"What do you want from me, Gio?"

After giving my binds a test yank, he sat back on my hips and sighed.

"Don't play coy." His eyes roamed down my face and over my chest in a way that made me shiver. "You know what I want."

One word flew through my mind, spoken in Atlee's voice.

Pussy.

Panic really took hold. I fought to suck in a breath as I argued, "But you hate me."

"So?" A dark smirk curled the corner of his mouth. "That just makes it more fun."

I definitely didn't like the sound of that.

"You're going to hurt me." It wasn't a question, I could see the intent pulling shadows across Gio's face, but he answered anyway.

"Yes."

I wasn't sure if it was fear or anger that pushed the words out of my mouth, but whatever it was said before I could stop it. "Atlee wouldn't hurt me."

"You really don't want to pull on that thread."

I could feel the danger in his tone vibrating through me. And still, I didn't stop.

"Why not. He's nice and we have fun together?" As much as I hated to admit it, it was true. The asshole made me laugh.

"You think Atlee's nice?" Gio scoffed out a snort. "You have no idea what that boy is capable of. But if you think he's nice… I could call him over. Let him break you in for me."

He wouldn't do that, would he? Honestly, at this point I didn't know. That was the terrifying part.

I flinched back as Gio reached out to graze the pad of his thumb along my bottom lip. "Keep pushing that button and you'll find out just how nice Atlee is after he's shoved his fist up your ass."

Gio called my bluff and won. My eyes went wide as I shook my head. "I won't do it again."

Something told me that if I continued to egg him on, Gio would do exactly what he said. And so would Atlee.

His eyes darkened as his tone deepened. "No, you won't. And do you know why?" Suddenly Gio's hand was on my neck, squeezing the oxygen out of my lungs. "Because I fucking own you! Say it!"

The golden flecks in his jade eyes sparkled with malice. For a split second I thought this was it. That Gio was finally going to strangle the life out of me.

My lungs burned as blackness began to seep into my vision. And I couldn't even slap him because my wrist were bound. All I could do was close my eyes and weakly croak out, "You own me."

"That's right." He hissed and thankfully let go, allowing me to cough air down my aching throat.

"I fucking own you. And after tonight, you won't forget it."

I was so pathetically happy to be able to breathe, that I didn't put much thought into what he said. I didn't even notice when he leaned over to the side. I was just happy that the black edges marring my sight faded.

Then I saw what was in his hand and terror tore a violent tremble through my soul.

My entire being was focused on the slice of light sliding along the sharp edge of a knife. I couldn't see or hear anything beyond my own heart hammer in my chest. The only thing that existed in this room was that blade and it was more deadly than swimming with a hungry gator at night.

I noticed everything about it. The pointed tip, and slight curve in the edge leading to the sleek black handle, but it was the two chips on the left side that my gaze was stuck on. Tiny little missing pieces that meant that this knife had been used.

There was someone walking around with slivers of metal in their body. Or worse, they weren't walking anywhere. They were cold in an unmarked grave somewhere. Forgotten and left alone with no witnesses but the remnants of the weapon that ended their life. And not in a quick way, but in sharp stabbing slices that delivered agony in their last moments. Death by a bullet was fast. A knife was unnecessarily cruel.

I needed to get out of here, but I couldn't move. My arms were too heavy to lift.

I tried to raise them, but they wouldn't budge. The same weight pressed down on my chest, compressing my lungs, while fear slid its icy tendrils up my spine, paralyzing me. I was trapped with no escape from that deadly edge.

It sounded like someone was saying something, but the voice was distorted and far away. I couldn't make out what they were saying. Maybe it wasn't a they at all, maybe it was the forgotten screams held within that blade that were calling to me. Voices and terror coated in blood that dripped down fat globs…

Glop.

Glop.

Glop.

"Oh my God, Nova, don't look."

There was blood everywhere. On my hands, soaked into the knees of my pink pants, and pooled under me on the floor. A coppery ting assailed my nostrils while the sticky thick fluid molded around my butt.

I watched a red drop roll along the arm flopped over the tweed couch and drop down to join the puddle below. It made a weird sound when it hit the blade laying on the floor. Not quite a plunk or a ting, but more of a glop.

I'd been sitting here for a while now. SO long that I didn't know if it was the same day. And those drops kept on coming. Long after the arm had stopped moving.

Glop.

Glop.

Glop.

One after the other they fell back to the blade that released them. As if they were trying to go home.

The knife couldn't suck any more up though. It was tinted red and shimmering under a pool of crimson. Yet still…

Glop.

Glop.

Glop.

That's all there was. Just me, that coppery scent and the glops.

"Nova, Nova…" Someone called while my eyes followed another drop.

Glop.

Glop.

Glop.

"Kato, what's wrong with her? Nova…"

"Nova!"

My face jarred to the side as a sting spread across my cheek.

When I refocused my sight the glops were gone, but the knife was still there, staring me in the face.

"Get that thing away from me." I jerked to the side, causing the belt around my wrists to bite into my flesh.

"Hey." A hand tapped my cheek. "Look at me."

I knew who was talking to me. I feel Gio's glare burning down at me. But I was not taking my eyes off that knife, or the large fingers wrapped around it.

"I said look at me."

"Fuck you." I growled back and attempted to yank my hands free while bucking my hips.

Gone was the sane Nova that argued and pushed buttons. There was no sanity with a weapon like that. There was just getting away before too much damage was done. If that meant I had to tear my own hands off to escape, then so be it.

I bucked, kicked and snarled like a wild animal. Not that it did me any good. Gio was sitting on me and a lot heavier than I was. I could flail my legs but the rest of my body was held fast.

"That's it." Gio clamped his thighs around my hips and would his legs around my claves to stop my kicking. "Knock it off! If I wanted you dead, then you'd already be dead."

That was about as comforting as sitting on a a board of rusty nails, and not a claim that I was going to believe.

I did the only thing I could and screamed at the top of my lungs.

One hard slap from Gio brought that to an end. His large palm slapped across my face, trapping my scream in my throat.

"That's enough." Gio glared down at me. "Now, stay still or you're gonna get cut worse than I intend."

I blinked back the tears brimming in my eyes. "Why do I have to get cut at all?"

"You seem to have an issue remembering who owns your ass." He Shifted down my thighs to my calves. "I'm gonna make sure you, and any guy that decides to sniff around, remembers."

I couldn't stop my chin from quivering. "Please don't do this. I'll do anything you want."

And I would. If it meant he would put that knife away, then I would get down on my hands and knees and beg with everything I had.

"You brought this on yourself."

I forced a heavy gulp down my throat as his palm smoothed over my lower abdomen.

In an instant everything was heightened. I didn't know if it was fear or something else, but I felt it all. My nerves were lit up.

The warmth from his fingers sent an electric shock of goosebumps across my skin, while the tip of the knife scraped down the front of my shirt. I'd never been more happy for a piece of fabric in my life. Cloth was all that was separating me from that deadly weapon.

Gio traced a last path down my torso as I closed my eyes, hoping that would magically make all of this disappear.

But it just made things worse.

The way Gio's breathing mingled with the soft scraping of the blade did something to me. Something I couldn't explain. I was hot, achy, and terrified all at the same time.

"Please stop." I tried again.

"I fucking love the way you beg."

The low rumble in Gio's voice vibrated through me like an echoing scream in a canon wall. I felt every syllable of his deep tone.

"Are you gonna cry for me, too?"

Fuck him. At least that's what I wanted to say, but I couldn't open my eyes, let alone talk. Not while he still had that thing in his hand.

Air cooled my hips as he slid my panties over them.

My heart fluttered, thinking that this might be my chance. I waited for my legs to be free of his weight so I could kick out and maybe get away. But I wasn't that lucky. Gio didn't completely remove my underwear. He only slid them down enough to bear the top of my vagina.

"Stay still." Was the only warning I got before the knife bit into the flesh beside my hipbone.

I held my breath and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, while holding onto the belt binding my wrists. As if that strap of leather would somehow ground me.

The first cut made me wince. The second dug my teeth into my lip, and the third pulled a tear from my eye.

It hurt so bad that my body was vibrating with the effort it took to remain still.

I tried to think about anything but the warm trickle flowing down my skin, but that glop, glop, glop, kept ringing through my head. I could see the drops behind my closed lids falling into the pool below.

No matter how hard I tried to free my mind, the image remained. The unmoving hand with chipped pink nail polish, and the fat red drops.

Glop.

Glop.

Glop.

It felt like my torment went on forever.

Every time I thought Gio was done, the blade would piece into me again.

Then everything changed.

Gio groaned out a, "Fuuck," and I felt his tongue lave a fiery trail across my wounded flesh.

The sting from my cuts combined with the moisture of his mouth caused my eyes to pop open.

The sight I saw wasn't one I was prepared for.

Pure, unbridled lust was burning in Gio's eyes as he bent over and licked the blood off my skin.

I shouldn't like the way he was looking at me, but I did. I couldn't tear my eyes away. The red that coated his tongue while his eyes rolled in the back of his head gave me some sick thrill that caused my breath to pick up every time his tongue darted out. His hunger was terrifyingly beautiful in the most depraved way.

"So fucking sweet." Gio growled and pushed the tip of the knife into my inner thigh.

I winced at the sting, then whimpered when his mouth came down the fresh wound.

A strange mixture of pain and need flowed through me. That was only heightened by the fear shooting up my spine when he moved the blade to another spot.

Gio cut me three more times. They weren't as bad as the original ones. Just little pricks that gave him a drop to devour. But the way he stared at me while he did it, had me utterly mesmerized.

For the first time in my life, I was tongue tied. I couldn't think of a thing to say.

I didn't understand what was happening. Why did this make me want to squirm closer to him, yet run away at the same time? I didn't even argue when he lifted off me and began to pull my underwear down my legs.

This was the moment I'd been waiting for. He wasn't holding me down, I could kick him. A voice in the back of mind told me to do just that. Instead, I laid there, watching him strip my bottom half bare.

"You liked that, didn't you?"

"No." I didn't think I was lying.

"I think you did." Gio tossed my underwear on the floor and tipped his gaze down to the spot between my thighs. "Fear gets you off, Gattina."

"No it doesn't." Does it?

My cheeks heated with embarrassment when Gio lifted my right leg over his shoulder, and leaned in. His face was so close that his breath was warming my pussy.

"I can smell you, Nova. And you smell fucking delicious."

My mortification was made worse when he sucked in a deep inhale, but it was the groan he let out that made try and wriggle away.

This was getting too personal. I didn't do personal.

But Gio wasn't letting me go anywhere. His strong hand clamped down around my thigh, and the next thing I knew, his mouth was somewhere else.

His tongue slid between my folds causing my back to arch off the bed. I barely had time to catch my breath before his teeth grazed over my clit. Electric sparks shot into my core, making me bite back a moan. What he did to me before felt good, but it didn't have shit on this. All I wanted to do was grind up against him as Gio continued to feast.

This must be what heaven was like. I quickly found out that it wasn't heaven at all. It was hell.

When my orgasm climbed to the precipice, Gio slowed down before I could crest that bridge.

Then he did it again, and again, and again.

He continuously brought me to the point of ecstasy, but never gave me enough to to throw me over the edge.

It went on forever. By the time he pulled away and looked at me, I was hot, covered in sweat, and more frustrated then I thought possible. And I was the queen of frustration. One time I made Memphis so angry that it sounded like he was speaking in tongues.

People didn't get on my nerves. I got on theirs. Yet when Gio looked up at me with a crooked smirk, all I wanted to do was kick him in the face.

"What's wrong, Gattina? You seem frustrated."

Was he kidding me?"What do you think?"

"Watch your tone." He delivered a hard slap to my pussy.

If I wasn't too busy biting back a moan, I might've been embarrassed by the wet sound his strike made.

"Now," his finger circled my clit in agonizingly gentle way. "Why don't you try asking me nicely for what you want."

"Please," was all I could manage to whine.

I was right there. My entire body was on fire. All I needed was a little more pressure.

"Do you want to come?"

He was going to make me say it wasn't he?

I gritted my teeth and hissed, "Yes."

He got what he wanted and therefore should've finished the job, but why would he do that?

Instead giving me what I needed, Gio said, "Too bad." And got off the bed.

"What the hell?" Anger had a new name, and it was called need. As in I needed him to get his ass back on this bed. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm gonna go have a shower and jerk off."

What kind of bullshit was that. "Oh, so you can come?"

"I can come whenever I want. You," he pointed at me. "Need my permission."

Oh, I was going to kill him.

"Fine," I snarled. "Untie me then and I'll do it myself."

I didn't need him. I could figure this shit our on my own. Maybe? I hadn't had luck in the past – the vagina was a complicated instrument that I wasn't motivated to figure out before. Now, it was a matter of pride. Because, fuck Gio.

"What part of you need my permission did you not understand?"

He couldn't be serious. "You can't leave me tied up all night."

Eventually he'd have to let me go.

"Watch me." Gio turned to walk towards a door on the right side of the room and waved over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams."

He waved over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams."

"What the hell do you mean sweet dreams. I'm still tied up asshole."

This mother…

My teeth ground as he disappeared inside and closed the door behind him.

Murder was definitely in the cards tonight. I just had to figure out how to get my hands free first.