Blood & Vows Read online

  He moaned against my cheek. “You see, little mouse, your body can’t lie to me.”

  “Stop,” I said against his palm. The word, my voice, held absolutely no conviction. None. I’ve tried so many times to convince myself that this wasn’t who I really was. That the person I’ve become since I met Castello was just a part of me trying to survive in his world. But that was a lie. A big, fat, naïve lie. I was every ounce of twisted as he was.

  He pulled his finger out, then pushed it back in. My legs started to shake, my hips slowly moving against his palm, and I could feel myself slipping further and further down the pit of darkness that surrounded us both with nothing but sinful desires.

  “I don’t think you really want me to stop, do you, Tatum?” A second finger entered me, and the only answer I could give him was by biting my lip, and moaning as my body started to demand more.

  With his hand still around my throat, his thumb tracing all along my lips, Castello was busy doing what he did best…seducing me.

  “Look at me, little mouse.”

  I opened my eyes, and stared into his dark irises. I no longer saw any resemblance between him and Carlo. Nothing. Even though they were identical twins, I saw an entirely different man.

  My lips parted, and he slowly eased his thumb inside my mouth. “Did you really think I would let you go?”

  “Did you really think I wanted to run?”

  His full, inviting lips curled up into a wicked smile. “Oh, how you thrill me.”

  And then his lips were on mine, hard and heady, his tongue forcefully claiming every corner of my mouth. My body instantly reacted by pushing harder against his, my hips moving, searching, yearning, loving the way his fingers expertly sent me closer and closer to the point where I would no longer be satisfied with less than all of him. The harder he kissed me, the faster his fingers moved inside me. Nothing about him—about us—was soft, and gentle, and calm. Everything was hard—it was rough, turbulent, and aggressively passionate. Exactly the way I wanted it.

  Castello was right. Now that I knew how it could be, now that I’ve tasted the darkness with him, I would never be satisfied with anything less. Castello knew what I wanted, and how I wanted it…just like I knew what he needed.

  Hesitantly, yet desperately I placed my hands on his shoulders trying to push him away, wanting to prove to him that I can play. But his body just pushed harder against mine, like steel pinning me against the wall. He pulled his hand away, the cold air assaulting the need that pooled between my legs, and I moaned as my body mourned the loss of his touch.

  He started with his pants zipper while never taking his eyes off me. “Don’t fight me.”

  I lifted my chin in deviance. “Give me one good reason not to fight you.”

  “Because you don’t want to.”

  “You have no idea what I want.”

  “Oh, but I know exactly what you need.”

  Abruptly he grabbed my waist, pulled me against him and spun us both around, slamming my back against the wooden cabinet. The pain that radiated down my spine wasn’t strong enough to overpower the fervent need that possessed my entire body.

  Cold, dark, hungry eyes stared down at me, and it only added more fire to the flame that already threatened to burn me to ash from the inside.

  He traced a single finger down the side of my face. “It is a master’s responsibility to know his slave, to know what she wants…what she needs.”

  “Is that what I am? Your slave?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  With a hard jerk he grabbed my arm and spun me around, pushing my face against the cabinet. Castello pressed his elbow against my back, securing me between him and the hard wood. When I felt the sturdy leather of his belt being placed around my neck, I gasped with panic while my body continued to climb with sinful anticipation.

  “Castello, what are you—”

  Abruptly he tightened the belt around my throat, silencing me. The cold steel buckle pinched the skin of my neck as he tightened it even more, making it almost impossible for me to breathe.

  He leaned forward, placing his cheek against mine. “You shouldn’t have run from me, little mouse.”

  Before I could even attempt to reply, he pulled my arms behind my back and shoved me to the side, and toward the desk. Moans escaped me as I struggled and gasped for air, but my body started to quiver as the promise of sinful deeds thickened the space around us.

  With a violent push, my body slammed against the mahogany desk. With his hands still firmly holding my arms behind my back he forced me down until my cheek was flat against the wood.

  “Always a sight, you bent over, and completely at my mercy.”

  “Cas—”

  “Shut up.” The belt tightened. “Just keep quiet and let your body talk to me.”

  A hand so soft, yet capable of inflicting so much pain, gently started to stroke up the back of my thigh, moving the fabric of my nightgown all the way up until it no longer covered me from his view.

  I felt him slip a finger inside my torn panties, slowly pulling them down all the way until it fell around my feet.

  “I need to see you, Tatum.” With his foot he forced my feet apart, spreading my legs. “I need to see all of you.”

  His hand started its way back up my thigh, until his fingers softly stroked against the wet, sensitive flesh on display for him as he kept me bent forward.

  “Do you know what I see whenever I look at you like this, spread open and so ready for me?”

  I couldn’t answer. I didn’t want to answer.

  “I see hell.” His finger dipped and traced through my slit, earning a loud moan from me. “I see hell masked, veiled, hiding behind the promise of finding pleasure in a paradise most men would kill for—which I have killed for.”

  I closed my eyes thinking about Nicollo, how he almost took from me that which no man had the right to take. Memories of his blood painted across my prison walls bombarded my mind, and it threatened to pull me away from the moment…away from Castello.

  But then there was a load crack, a searing pain, and a liberating feeling that spread through my soul like morphine, numbing every bad emotion that was brought on by the memory of almost being raped.

  “Don’t you dare leave me, Tatum.” He slapped my ass again, the sound echoing around us as I relished the pain that felt so goddamn good. “There is no space inside your body, inside your mind for anything but me.”

  He let go of my arms. “Grab hold of the edge in front of you.”

  Slowly I eased my arms forward, my shoulders aching as I reached for the edge of the desk.

  Castello tightened the belt around my neck and forced my head up as he leaned over my body, his lips touching my ear. “If you let go, I won’t let you come. Do you understand?”

  Good God, no.

  He pulled the belt back some more, and I almost gagged from the pressure around my throat.

  “I asked, do you understand?”

  “Yes…sir.” My voice was nothing but a desperate whisper.

  One hard jab, and he was inside me. If it wasn’t for the belt around my throat I would have screamed out. Not being able to make a sound forced me to endure the pleasure in silence which only intensified everything I was feeling.

  He plunged deeper into me, harder, causing both pain and pleasure to spread up my spine, ricocheting right back down to crash between my legs in an explosion of wickedly decadent sensations.

  “You feel that, little mouse? That inferno blazing through your soul? The fire burning inside your core? Do you feel my possession straight to your bones?” Another hard thrust while his palm came down mercilessly on my thigh. I bit right into my bottom lip, tasting my own blood.

  He pulled my head up more, bringing it closer to his face. “That’s me staking my claim over your body, your mind, and your fucking soul.”

  I kept my eyes closed as he continued to move in and out of me with hard thrusts, pushing as deep as my body w
ould take him.

  “That means you belong to me, little mouse. As a woman, as a lover, as a pet…as a goddamn slave. You. Belong. To. Me.”

  The belt tightened, and my lungs grew desperate as my body ached for release. I wanted to scream. I wanted to beg. I wanted to plead with him to give me what I needed.

  I tried to move my hips as a desperate attempt to find the pleasure that would satiate the hunger that possessed every inch of me.

  He let out a satisfying laugh. “You see, Tatum? Your body talks to me, and right now, it’s fucking begging me to let you come.”

  His arm rounded my waist, his hand cupping me between my legs before his finger started to play with the one spot guaranteed to push me over the edge.

  Without a breath, I allowed the sensation to carry me to a place where my darkest desires no longer had to hide. A place where I was free to embrace the guilty pleasures of my depraved being. My legs quivered, my body demanded, and I succumbed to the darkness which this man so easily evoked inside me.

  He leaned his head closer, and I felt the warm skin of his cheek against mine. “Everything you’re feeling right now, with me buried balls deep inside you means that you belong to me. Never, ever doubt that.”

  I tried to spread my legs even wider, wanting more, wanting him deeper. My need for air wasn’t nearly as strong as my need for ecstasy.

  With one hand clutching the belt, the other grabbing my hip, his fingers digging into my flesh, Castello stood up straight and gave me exactly what he knew my body needed…and wanted. My mind still tried to stray from the truth. It still tried to convince me that all this wasn’t me, it wasn’t how it was supposed to be. But Castello was right. My body couldn’t lie to him. It was proven in the way I erupted. How my core exploded with such intense pleasure that every bone in my body started to quiver. My legs trembled, and I clawed my nails deeper into the wood of the desk.

  The second Castello let go of the belt, I cried out while he kept his hard, fast rhythm, moving in and out of me.

  “Say it. Say what you are.”

  I was in a haze of sensual decadence, my body completely and utterly satisfied, and I was unable to get past it.

  “Say it. God damn you, woman!” His palm came down on my skin, and the pain pulled me out of the sex-induced fog I was in.

  “Your slave,” I cried out. “I’m…your slave.”

  Castello roared like a demon possessed creature as he gave one final deep jab inside me, letting his pleasure fill me to the brim. Every time he came inside me it felt like he was drawing us closer, showing me that somehow, some way we belonged together. It just felt right.

  I all but collapsed against the wooden desk, my body completely spent. By the strong weight that suddenly lay heavily against my back, I knew that Castello experienced the same.

  This was us, Castello and me. There was no way either of us could explain it to anyone. No one, not even us understood what was happening. But whatever it was…it was dark, it was wicked, and it was intense.

  I opened my eyes and stared out the window into the darkness of night. How long had we been here? A few days? A week? I wasn’t sure since I lost my grip on time. Ever since the day I witnessed by father being murdered, how Castello killed his own mother to protect me, I’ve lived in this haze where reality was no longer something I wanted to keep a grip on.

  I wanted to forget. I wanted to wipe every memory of that day from my mind, and create my own reality where it was just me and the man whose touch set me free from the cruelty I’ve endured and witnessed. Some people might not understand how I was capable of sharing my body, soul, and mind with this man as if nothing had happened. As if I didn’t lose my father because of the Fattore family—the same family of the man I allowed to touch me, to kiss me, to fuck me…to hurt me. But without him, without the escape of being completely possessed by Castello and the depraved desires that simmered between us, I would have nothing but the memories, the grief, and the emotional torture of everything I’ve been through.

  My body, my desires, my need for an escape had become the scars…and Castello the knife.

  2

  CASTELLO

  I regretted nothing. Life was just too fucking short to regret the decisions you’ve made in the past. And now, while I had my cock buried deep inside the woman that had ultimately changed my life forever, I knew that for as long as I had her, I would never regret a damn thing.

  I would never regret saving her.

  I would never regret killing my own flesh and blood in order to keep her.

  And I would never regret the day I had her kidnapped.

  Did that make me a soulless bastard?

  Yes.

  Did I care?

  No.

  All I cared about was this addiction that took root inside me the first time I fucked Tatum Linscott. It was an addiction stronger than I ever could have imagined. A compulsion that was too strong to fight, too powerful to control. This woman had become my drug, and there was no way in hell I would ever give her up. And by the way her body responded to me every goddamn time told me she felt the same, that she needed my darkness the same way I craved her innocence. I’ve corrupted her. I know that. If it weren’t for me Tatum probably never would acknowledged the part in her that yearned for the sinful pleasures that belonged in the dark. But truth be told, I fucking loved the fact that it was me who lured her to the shadows.

  I felt her body rise and fall beneath me as she tried to catch her breath.

  “Say it.” I needed to hear it again. I needed to hear it every goddamn day.

  “You own me, Castello.”

  I smiled, appreciating the fact that she had gotten to know me so well. “Non dimenticarlo mai.” Never forget it.

  “Mai.”

  I sat up slightly, and with a gentle touch I swept her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Bellissimo.”

  The way her body trembled beneath my touch thrilled me to the deepest parts of my being. Knowing that I yielded that kind of power over her perfect body was downright euphoric. I’ve never wanted to possess another human being as much as her. I wanted to hide her from the world, share her with no one. There was this uncontrollable urge that had me wanting nothing more than to own her like she was a priceless possession whose sole purpose was to please me. But I’d be an idiot if I believed that. This woman had become so much more than that to me. Truth was, it felt like she was starting to own me.

  “Come on.” I placed a soft kiss on her shoulder and removed the belt from around her neck. “I’d rather not kill anyone today.”

  She stood up. “What?”

  I wrapped my arm around her waist, swirled her around and pulled her closer. “I’d have to kill anyone who set eyes on you looking like this.” And that was God’s honest truth. If any man had to see her in the tiny little number she called a nightgown, with her hair all disheveled and that sexed-up look on her face, I’d have no choice but to pop his goddamn eyeballs out of his skull.

  Gently I ran my finger over the red marks around her neck, staring at it. “Why do I like hurting you so much?”

  “For the same reason I like being hurt by you so much.”

  My gaze shot up to hers, and her blue eyes searched my face. “Someone once told me to not complicate the answers to simple questions.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “He must be a smart man.”

  “Smart, and stubborn.”

  I crouched down and picked up the torn panties, sticking them in my pants pocket.

  “Wouldn’t want to leave any evidence behind.”

  She let out a soft laugh, and the sound penetrated the stone cold heart I carried around inside my chest. I had no idea what was happening to me, to us...but by God, I knew that whatever it was, it was something I never wanted to lose. For the first time in my life I was starting to feel like I was living, and not just existing. All because of her, because of the way she was changing me. The best part, she wasn’t even aware she was doing it. It was just fu
cking happening.

  In silence we walked out of my uncle’s study. This was the first time Tatum had left the room ever since we arrived here. She refused to come out of the bedroom, giving me all kinds of excuses. But I knew the real reason. She feared the unknown, and refused to face reality. And the reality of the situation was that her father had died. My mother had died. And there was a full-on war raging between me and my younger brother.

  All this would be a lot for one person to handle, especially since she had been protected from it all her entire life. She knew nothing of a world where loyalty was worth dying for, yet a life held no value. Finding out that your father hired an assassin to kill the man you thought you loved, a man who also turned out to be a blackmailing gold-digger, had to be a bitter pill to swallow.

  Maybe that was the reason for me feeling so protective over her. It was her innocence that pulled me toward her—the fact that she was so pure, yet had a hankering toward the darkness.

  Fuck, I don’t know.

  I closed the door behind me, turned around, and saw Uncle Gino smiling at both me and Tatum.

  “Uncle Gino.”

  “I see you finally decided to take Tatum on a tour of the house.” He glanced down at her naked legs. “In her nightgown, no less.”

  I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Yes. It was a spur of the moment decision.”

  He gave me a knowing look. “I’m sure it was. Anyway, do you have a moment? There are a few matters I’d like to discuss with you.”

  By the look on his face I knew it wasn’t something he’d like to discuss in front of Tatum.

  “Sure.” I let go of Tatum’s hand, thinking she would get her own way back to the bedroom. But then there was the familiar hammering of doubt at the back of my skull.

  What if she decided to leave?

  What if she decided to walk out the front door and leave me behind?

  What if...

  Fuck that.

  I grabbed her hand again. “Just give me a few minutes to escort Tatum back to our room.”