3

"Really?" she asked, arching a brow as I shimmied into the sheer negligee. In any other situation, it would have been cute, and I would have loved wearing it. But now… I felt dirty just being in it.

"You really don't know who he is?"

I shook my head. I had never heard of him before. Was he a new don or a son of one? I doubted it, considering how the woman on stage had addressed him.

"Can't hurt," the woman said after a moment. "You are better off not asking questions and accepting your fate." She took in my frantic expression. "He likes them quiet."

Before I could ask anything else, she was herding me out of the room and down the hall, away from the stage to a smaller room instead. There was a bed draped with sheer curtains and silk sheets, and nothing else. "What is this?" I asked.

"The sampling room," the woman replied. "Get on the bed."

"Wait, what?"

She looked around before leaning in. "Your buyer will come to examine his purchase. If you are a virgin, he has to leave you that way if he wants his money back. But everything else is fair game."

This was all too crazy. I wasn't really here. This was a bad dream because I had eaten some bad delivery or something. At any moment I was going to wake in my own bed in my penthouse and this nightmare will be just that: a nightmare.

This couldn't be my life. "Please, I don't belong here," I pleaded as she moved to the door. "This is all a mistake."

The woman looked back at me, and I saw what I hoped were pity in her eyes. "Blame your father for this one, Miss D'Agostino. He brought this down on your head when he fucked over those men in that room. You are the compensation."

She was gone before I could respond, the telltale sound of a lock letting me know that I wasn't getting out of this room.

My shoulders sagged, my skin prickling from the cool interior of the room and the lack of clothing on my body. I had fully expected to put up a fight against my future husband today, not be sold to the very devil himself! I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know Valentino, but given my brief instances with him, coupled with the warnings of the old woman, I knew I wasn't about to have a savior on my side.

Leda

You're the compensation.

He paid twenty million for me.

He wasn't about to drink wine and laugh over this nonsense.

He was going to hurt me.

I wrapped my arms around my waist, ignoring the inviting bed in the corner. It was clear that this wasn't the first time that something like this auction had taken place, and I wondered how many times Valentino had attended these events. The staff knew his preferences well, which didn't bode well for me at all.

Was he one of those men that preyed on helpless women? Did he beat them?

Well, he wasn't going to get one over on me. I wasn't going down without a fight.

My father was going to blow his lid when he found out about this.

Even though it was my life that was being taken, I couldn't help but smile at the thought. All his carefully laid plans were going to go to shit, and if I died today, it would so be worth it to know that he wasn't in control of this.

A hysterical laugh escaped me.Iwould pay twenty million just to see the look on his face, knowing that he hadn't won. I hated him with every fiber of my being for what he had done to our family, what power he thought he had over both me and Nico.

The bastard still thought he was in control of my life and of his Mafia, but it was clear, given the words that had been said, that he wasn't. My father was going to get what was coming to him, and I hated that I wasn't going to be around to see it.

My smile died, and I felt a wave of despair well up in my chest. I didn't know what was going to happen tonight, but it wasn't going to be good. For twenty million, I was likely to be tortured before I was killed. Valentino was going to violate my body in ways that I couldn't even imagine, all because of my last name.

I would be shouldering the sins of my father, the very one that I hated.

Well, they weren't going to find a weak woman when it happened. I was going to claw and fight to my very last breath. They would know the name of Leda D'Agostino for far longer than my father's.

Realizing I had been wasting time, I hurried about the room, looking for anything that I could defend myself with. There was nothing save the sheets on the bed. I swallowed as I thought about them being wrapped around my neck, but quickly shook that thought out of my head.

My fingernails snagged on the silk, but I stripped the sheet from the mattress and wound it around my wrists like my brother had taught me long ago.

We had nothing else to do when we were younger other than learn how to fight, and he had taught me all sorts of tricks to protect myself.

A well-placed thumb, a good old knee in the crotch, and I might be able to escape. I was petite in a way that my size could be used for an advantage if I placed myself just right against my opponent.

Which was exactly what I was going to do.

When the door opened, I lost all train of thought, my body trembling as Valentino walked in alone. His blue stare never left mine as he shut the door behind him, barely acknowledging the sheet in my hands. Good Lord, he was gorgeous in a dangerous sort of way, exuding power just by standing there. He was tall, with wide shoulders and a flat waist under his open suit coat. His face was tanned, and my eyes strayed to the open vee of his dress shirt, noting the hint of tanned skin there as well.

My brother had taught me to size up my opponents immediately, to figure out what their weakness was and take in all the information I could gather.

At least, that was my excuse for ogling Valentino like I was doing now.

But hey, there wasn't anything else to look at.

My eyes came back to his face, and I saw an arrogance in his eyes and hated him immediately.

That was the problem with the company my father had kept over the years, the men I had been subjected to.

They were all arrogant, thinking that their money and titles made them irresistible to women.

I imagined Valentino was no different. He probably thought that the sun rose and set on his command and that I would do the same.

I wouldn't. I wasn't going to be the pet he expected me to be. I wasn't going to beg for my life, beg for him to let me go.

He wasn't in the business of mercy.

And I wasn't in the business of submission.

Still, it was a shame that this man standing before me was so gorgeous. Like straight off the runway, panty-melting gorgeous. His suit was expensive; the watch on his exposed wrist glittered in the dim lighting right along with his cufflinks on his white cuffs.

But his eyes and the way he looked at me scared me.

His gaze lingered here or there, not with lust but with blank practice, like a man looking at a horse he wanted to buy and counting up every dollar on every inch. How much did each part of Leda D'Agostino cost? Hair? Ten thousand. Hips? Twenty thousand.

When he spoke, I thought he was about to tell me to open my mouth so he could count my teeth.

But instead, he spoke in a voice that was hard and flat:

"Leda D'Agostino," he said. "What do you think you are going to do with that sheet in your hands? Choke me with it?"

His gaze drilled into mine and goaded me—daring me to do something.

I trembled, my bravado slipping. I didn't think that I could actually intimidate him. Somehow, it was a lot easier to intimidate him in my head. And now that he was in the room, I realized just how big he was. How he practically towered over me.

With each second he looked at me with that blank, practiced stare, I can hear his mind counting up the price on my body.

A fighter?Five hundred thousand.

Needs to be taught a lesson?Two million.

A chance to ruin something beautiful?I took a shuddering breath.Stop it.

But I couldn't fight reality anymore.

My fate was sealed. I could talk myself up that I might have a chance of getting out of here. But the truth was:

I didn't know what was going to happen, and I was afraid.

Lucas

I watched the range of emotions flicker over her face when she realized that her efforts were futile. Her body betrayed her, and started shaking under the weight of realization at what she knew was about to happen.

Leda D'Agostino. The daughter of Carmine. Princess of the D'Agostino Mafia.

And all mine.

I could hardly believe that she came up for auction tonight. Guess that explained why there were so many dons here tonight. Everyone wanted a piece of Carmine D'Agostino, and what better way to make the old man fucking hurt than to ruin his little girl?

All mine.

I kept my smile to myself as I watched the fear flicker in her eyes. She was scared; whatever plans she had cooked up looked like they weren't going to work. She knows it, she knows I know it, and she knows that there's nothing stopping me from doing whatever I wanted.

I lived for moments of clarity like this—when someone knows exactly where they are with me. And they're looking at me like I was going to break out my favorite set of knives and play the worst game ofOperationon them. For the most part, that was the best and most accurate guess.

And Leda…

Fuck, I could practicallysmellher fear. But there was still a sliver of defiance.

And that excited me even more. It made me want to do more than just scare her. It made me want totoywith her. And I felt my heartbeat rising at all the possibilities.

I savored the moment, letting it reverberate throughout my own body as I waited for her answer.

"Well?" I asked, nodding toward the sheet wound tightly in her hands. I'll admit, Leda had more spunk than I expected, which boded well for what I planned for her.

It meant that destroying her will be all the more fun.

"What are you going to do to me?" she asked finally, her voice hard.

Good. Straight to the point.I cocked my head and let my blank look slip to give her a hint.

I wanted to see the hope flicker out of her eyes, knowing that I held her life in my hands.

I wanted to watch the defiance slip away, become fear, and then ultimately transform into surrender.

Nothing would give me more pleasure.

I allowed my eyes to drift back over her body, feeling my cock stir as I drank in each and every curve. Up on that stage she had looked innocent enough. But now? Dressed in a negligee that hid nothing to the imagination?

She had no idea what a world of shit she just landed in.

I was going to enjoy ripping that band-aid off. Along with something else if I had to.

By the time I'd finish training her, she'd be nothing more than a shell of her former self. A princess no longer but my obedient pet.

Then I'd break her.

"Well? Are you going to answer me?" she asked. Her chin tilted with stubborn defiance. "Or do I have to ask it in asshole?"

I couldn't help arching an eyebrow at that. Okay, maybe Leda had more balls than I thought.

"You just bought a human being, you sick fuck!" she continued. But her voice wavered as I stepped forward and invaded her space. "Who do you think you are!"

My hand flexed at my side, not to hit her, but to grab her and bend her over that bed until she was screaming all sorts of obscenities at and about me.

She thought I was an asshole?Good. I wanted her to think that way. Because I could be the asshole of her nightmares.

"Your owner," I told her.

Her eyes hardened, and my cock throbbed painfully in response. It had been a while since I saw such defiance. If I were a less patient man, I'd have already buried myself in her tight warmth. "There are rules," I continued. "Rules that you will follow."

"Or what?" She challenged. "You'll kill me? I've already come to the conclusion and accepted that fate, asshole. I know I'm going to die. So, you know what? Why don't you take your best damn shot."

There it was—that last bit of defiance that I needed to stamp out. What I had planned for her was worse than death. "Drop the sheet," I growled.

Much to my excitement, she did the complete opposite. Her hands tightened around the silk. "Make me."

Very poor choice of words.