Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I misjudged him. A secret, seductive motive didn’t exist.

Brogan brought in a laptop, sat on my couch, and wore headphones as I sat, bound, beside him. The zip ties were replaced by scarves that were softer that the plastic. Nothing about him made me feel unsafe other than the fact that I’d seen an arsenal in the suitcase he brought in that was now set against my bedroom wall. A gun remained strapped to his ankle or on the sink while he showered. Don’t ask me how I knew. He wanted eyes on me at all times. I’d been blindfolded, but I could kind of see.

Brogan continued to be direct, but polite. If I wasn’t a captive, it would’ve been the days I had planned for myself. He took time to fix real meals and hand fed me. I didn’t offer to feed myself. Acknowledging that I liked being taken care of by the murderer was too much for my fragile psyche.

Aureliu had tried. I learned by age fifteen that the only person I could count on was myself.

Brogan massaged me in the buff. I’d learned not to argue with armed men. He made it seem optional, anyway. Plus, I could still text my loved ones, though he kept my phone on him and typed for me .

I thought about killing him the first day. The second, I kept looking for something to hit him over the head. By the third, when I’d started to accept that he wasn’t planning to hurt me and we were stuck until he left, I let myself look at him. Really look.

His face held a permanent hard expression, but his features were beautiful. In another life, he could’ve made a fortune with that face. Maybe he had an alter ego and modeled on the side. Then he turned his cool blue eyes on me and I knew there wasn’t room for anything but revenge. Not even a wiggle to make way for lust.

“You haven’t used your phone since you got here,” I said them out loud before my mind could stop me.

Brogan shifted the headphones from his right ear and shifted to meet my eyes. “Who would be calling? A girlfriend?” His tone didn’t change, but his eyes glittered. “My day job?” The glitter faded. “Everyone who cared is dead.”

I swallowed hard and adjusted my bathrobe, lifting my hands together because of the scarf.

He nodded to my phone beside him on the couch. “You have a lot of friends.”

“Employees.”

“They like you. I can hear it in their tone.” He tapped his earlobe. “You’re short with them. We can’t let anyone get too close. We know how it feels when we lose something we love.”

I exhaled and my chest fought to take in my air.

“Your brother is in, though.” He never took his eyes off my face. “That’s how they control you.”

“Leave him out of this,” I whispered weakly.

Brogan borrowed Cabbrieli’s soft black pants and a loose white tank top that displayed his tattooed muscles. He looked comfortable, not like a man plotting to kill.

“I wouldn’t do that to you.” Brogan’s eyes ran over my face. “I’m lukewarm on Aureliu Grasso. He deserves to die for joining them, but he didn’t pretend to want to be with you after he saw it. It would’ve been easier to pretend it never happened. ”

My fingers curled until my fists wanted to break his nose.

“But then marrying a woman that you treated like a little sister?” He tutted.

“Just do it already,” I ground out. “Either kill them, me, or get the fuck out!”

“I want you to think about helping me.”

The sun shone through the wall of windows facing the pool in the backyard. Sunlight cut across the side of his face.

“You’re serious,” I dropped my tone.

“You’re the only one hurt more by them than me. I’ll help you .”

I glanced away and let my hair fall to hide my face. “Cabbrieli doesn’t know anything else. Severino raised him since he was ten years old…”

He might not pick me.

Brogan nodded and placed the headphones over his ear again, and focused on the laptop.

He bathed me again that night. I laid down nude, and he’d oiled his hands to rub me down before he iced my bruises again. He finally received a few phone calls on the fourth day. He seemed in a better mood afterwards and kept looking at me. It wasn’t a casual glance. Brogan wanted to know my mind.

That same day, he asked me to join him again and offered to tell me his plans so far. I stopped him. If I didn’t want to be a witness against him, I couldn’t hear it. His disappointment was palpable, but he respected my decision.

My gut knew the end of my imprisonment had inched closer. He gently bathed me like his little doll and then dried and oiled me like he planned to sear me like one of his delicious meals.

He took a quick shower after me, keeping me tied to the towel rack. He always rushed when he stepped out, as if he didn’t act comfortable around my nudity. As bad as it sounded, I didn’t mind it. He touched me like no one ever had.

Brogan wrapped a towel around his waist and quickly untied my wrists. I twisted my hand, freeing it, and his eyes darted to mine with such surprise and then hurt. His eyes widened slightly as I leaned forward instead of withdrawing and jerked the towel in one quick move before cupping him.

His nipples hardened before my eyes. Instead of stopping me, he balled his hands into fists at his side and closed his eyes. I shifted off my robe and switched hands to shake it off.

“Why are you doing this?” he whispered.

I always cleansed my palate, so to speak.

“Claiming back what they tried to take from me,” I answered, and his eyes slid open. His pupils narrowed and swelled as he looked down at me.

“Start fresh.” His eyes slid to my breasts, and he pulsed in my hand. “I’m leaving in the morning. If you’re trying to get my guard down —"

“It’s what I said. You can leave me bound.”

He sliced his head to the left. “I’m not into rough stuff.” Brogan gripped the scarf and pulled it off my wrist. He nodded towards the door. “In the bedroom. It’s too slippery in here.” His eyes dropped lower yet.

All common sense pooled south as he slowly drew his eyes back to mine.

“How long have you been watching?” I finally asked.

“Since last year. I worked Aureliu’s wedding.”

“I drank too much,” I explained.

Brogan nodded and let me stroke him against my stomach. “You were high, too.”

Don Pannareli made sure it fell on the night they got me. Aureliu found the perfect excuse not to show up. I didn’t remember that night at all. I woke up in a hotel room with a man I didn’t recognize.

“They left you in the bedroom after you passed out. I couldn’t leave you there. I was staying in the hotel, anyway. We slept. You ran out before I could explain.”

“I was still drunk… and high.”

Brogan nodded. “I could tell that you couldn’t remember. ”

“I’m neither now.”

He nodded and raised his arm. He brushed the side of his fingertip along my shoulder and down my arm. His thumb slid behind it and lightly rolled my nipple.

“We shouldn’t do this,” he murmured. His lids grew heavy. His lips were wet. “I’m going to come,” he whispered roughly, and I felt a surge of my own.

His palm cupped my breast as he parted his lips and kept my gaze. A low moan shifted into a smile as liquid heat dripped over my stomach.

“Fuck,” he uttered. I leaned and kissed the hollow of his throat. His voice vibrated. “This would be a mistake.”

I withdrew and turned around. I ducked down and picked up his semi-damp towel to wipe my stomach. He moaned and lightly held my hips as I straightened. He shuffled behind me to my bed.

Brogan let me push him onto the bed before I climbed up after him. His neck stretched as his thighs flexed when I settled over him. He’d stopped trying to talk himself out of it and resorted to swearing.

He watched where we joined as I slid onto him. His eyes rolled as I swiveled my hips. His hands squeezed my thighs. Brogan’s jaw clenched. The leather strap he wore slid so the Connemara marble circle settled in the hollow of his throat. A matching beaded bracelet made dimples in my skin from where it circled his wrist.

“How’s that?” he asked as he helped move my hips.

“Good,” I moaned as my lips parted to take a deeper breath.

My brow knit as I wound up. I looked down to see if he was close and found him watching my hips with a furrowed expression. His full lips pressed together tight as he fought another orgasm.

“I’m coming,” I whispered and watched him come undone. I slumped to his lips and slanted my mouth over his.

The scent of my soap on his skin brought a lazy smile to my lips. I wasn’t being smart at all. I deepened the kiss and he brought his arms around me tight .

He drew in a deep breath with our lips pressed and exhaled loudly. “Lay back.”

I rolled onto my back and followed him to the bathroom with my eyes. He returned with one of the towels and placed it on the bed.

Brogan nodded to my hips. “Lift. You’re going to want this.”

My brow quirked as he slid it under my butt. His muscled torso flexed as he leaned over me and kissed every spot a bruise lingered, then lower.