Mafia Captive (17 page)

Leo stepped in the middle. “How about we watch a Christmas movie, something you all can enjoy?” He wasn’t keen on hearing either group yell at the screen all evening.

“No, that’s lame,” Michael said. “Can we go swim? We brought our suits.”

Leo smiled and shook his head. “Of course you did. Go, then.” In truth, he was happy to have some of the noise dispersed to another part of the house and the kids out of his hair for a while.

Vinny, Uncle Sal, Uncle Bernie, and a couple of the other men sat around the poker table divvying up chips. The women were still in the kitchen, cleaning.

Leo had asked Faith to join him so she wouldn’t be left with the women. After the Caprice incident and the drama the night before with Gemma, he didn’t want to leave Faith to the wolves who would poke around in her head for as many dirty details as they could.

He joined her on the sofa, and she snuggled against him for a long time, not speaking. He wanted to take her somewhere private and find out what she suspected or knew about what had happened that afternoon leading to Caprice’s departure, but he waited until it was time for bed.

His mother gave him a conflicted look as he led Faith to his room. He suspected she knew something had happened with Caprice. If she’d known the details, it would have sent her into a Christmas Day heart attack. It was bad enough she thought something normal and vanilla had happened.

In her head, her son sleeping in the same room with Faith might keep his interest off Caprice, but at the price of living in sin. Such a conundrum. Leo was glad he didn’t have to live in his mother’s mental cottage.

He shut the door and locked it. Faith was beside the bed with the kitten who they’d decided to leave in the box with the top off when they weren’t playing with her until she was fully litter trained. The box was far too tall for the little cotton ball to climb out of, though she made quite an angry and repeated effort.

“Did you decide what you’re going to call her?” Leo asked as he stripped down.

Faith looked away from him when he got down to his boxers and turned her attention back to the box. “Snowball. I know, stupid name.”

“It’s not stupid. She’s too warm for a snowball, but she looks the part.”

His nudity made her uncomfortable, but it was his room and his bed and he didn’t wear clothes to bed. And Faith shouldn’t either. It was unnatural. She should be grateful he wasn’t pushing the issue. After his family was gone, she could go back to her room and feel safe behind her own locked door.

“Get your pajamas on and let’s go to bed,” he said.

She looked relieved that he wasn’t going to insist on her nudity and scurried into the bathroom to change. Even with his liaison with Caprice, he was aroused again, so he couldn’t blame her for the fear. So sweet and defenseless. She always looked as if she’d stepped out of a professional soft-focus portrait.

Caprice was probably right about the woodland creatures. He had a red-haired Snow White in his castle. But weren’t redheads supposed to be more fiery? More opinionated and strong-willed? He’d waited endlessly for that part of her personality to assert itself, but if it existed at all, it came out in small, ineffective protests. He didn’t mind her reserved nature, but it meant he had to be more careful with her. He was never confused on where Caprice was mentally, but Faith held back more of herself. Too much.

She came out of the bathroom in pajamas with images of various chocolate candies on them and slid into bed. He turned out the light and joined her. Squish kneaded the pillow between them and curled against the soft fabric. Max knew better than to get on the master’s bed. The dog briefly raised his head from the chair he’d squeezed himself into, his tongue hanging out happily, as if he knew what was coming for the entitled kitty.

Leo picked the cat up and set her down on the floor. Squish gave him a dirty reply halfway between a growl and a meow, then went to the kitten’s box to lay next to it. Snowball settled with the close presence of the other cat.

It was quiet for a blissful five minutes, until Faith’s previously silent tears got loud enough for Leo to notice.

He turned on the lamp. “Why are you crying?”

“I’m scared.”

“Of?”

Faith’s body was curled away from him, shaking. Even if he hadn’t heard her, the strength of her crying was becoming enough to vibrate the bed.

She sat up. “I know we aren’t in a real relationship, and it’s not my business what you do with Caprice, but this is my
life
at stake. Did something happen with her?”

“It did.”

“What if it gets serious? What happens then? Will you let me go? Will Angelo kill me?”

How could he convince her he and Caprice would never be serious? That train had long ago left the station. He pulled her against him and held her, stroking her hair.

“Shhhh. Stop your crying. I won’t let Angelo kill you.”

“But this morning…”

“This morning I needed you to understand I don’t appreciate ingratitude after I saved your life. If you wanted to die, then yes, I would have let Angelo kill you. What would be the point of keeping you alive against your will and shrinking my options in the process? But if you want to live, I’ll never kill you or let anyone else hurt you. Are we on the same page?”

“Yes,” she whispered, but it didn’t sound like she was convinced. A moment later, he knew why. “I just… you’re going to resent me or take what you want, anyway. This isn’t realistic. It can’t go on forever like this. You have to know that.” She huddled in on herself after she’d forced the words out as if he might hurt her for saying them.

“Are you jealous of Caprice?” It might be easier to deal with this from another angle. She’d sent him multiple mixed signals about her desires since the previous day when the family had arrived.

“I don’t know. I know you don’t want me, but this lie… it hurts.”

He lifted her chin. “Faith, look at me.”

Reluctantly, her gaze met his.

“I want you. But I’m not a rapist, and I’m not going to terrorize you with my kinks when they would alarm and upset you. Between Caprice and you, I’d rather have you any day. If only you were wired like me.”

“I can’t do those things you want… in the dungeon… but I could do the more normal stuff. I
am
attracted, and with you mostly leaving me alone these past few weeks, I feel safer with you than I did when I first came here.”

Leo shook his head. “I’d rather be celibate than in a vanilla relationship. I was preparing for a life of celibacy anyway before Emilio.” He didn’t voice that perhaps
this
was his penance. He’d wanted the priesthood to hide and subdue the things inside him that made him feel different. At the same time, he wasn’t going to live vanilla. It would be like Angelo settling down with a woman and having babies.

“I don’t do normal,” he said. “You’re either in it all the way with me, or not at all.”

“Aren’t we in it right now? Is the way you’re holding me in your bed platonic?”

If Caprice had said it, it would have been with an air of sarcasm. He would have wanted to smack the smart look off her face. But Faith was just being honest.

“When my family leaves, you’ll go back to your room in the east wing. I admit it’s dangerous getting this close, but we’ll both get over it and readjust when the holiday is behind us.”

The next thing she said was so quiet, he had to strain to hear it. “W-what if I gave consent?”

His breath stopped and his grip on her tightened. She couldn’t mean that. She didn’t trust that Caprice wasn’t a danger to her. She only wanted to keep him from going to the hotel.

He took a slow breath, not trusting his voice. “If you gave consent for what?”

“T-the things you like.”

“I think you should think about the consequences of that very long and hard. If you give me your consent, you’ll be treated as my slave, and I won’t allow you to take it back. You make that choice and you don’t get any more free choices in this house.” Her body tensed against his. Good. She needed to know she couldn’t tease him with this. He wouldn’t let her play with his emotions by trying to give him something only to take it back every time she became scared of it.

“W-would you be mean to me? I mean… would you be a lot different than you are now? Would I still be safe with you?”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’ll always be safe with me. I would expect you to obey me at all times. If you disobeyed, you would be punished. The dungeon is both for punishment and for play. I play rough, but I’m not mean.”

“I… um…”

Leo placed a finger against her lips. “Not tonight, Faith. You can tell me your choice after the family leaves. You need more than one day to think about it. Trust me.”

She lay against her pillow, the relief of being spared such a drastic decision for another week palpable. When she was settled in, Leo got up and began to get dressed. Now that he was thinking about it, he’d never get to sleep with a willing slut waiting for him at a hotel.

“Where are you going?”

He gave her a stern look as he put on his belt. If she was contemplating giving herself fully to him, surely she knew that prying into his personal life wouldn’t be acceptable.

“You’re going to see her, aren’t you?”

A tear slid down her cheek, and part of him wanted to punish her for it, though she hadn’t yet signed away her free will. Even without malice and intent, tears could manipulate, and he wouldn’t be controlled by her emotional outbursts, no matter how sincere they might be.

Leo didn’t give her the satisfaction of an answer. Instead he grabbed his wallet and keys off the night table and flicked off the light. “Go to sleep. I’m locking this door behind me. I’ll let myself in when I get back.”

He was a bastard for doing this, but Faith would never consent to his desires. She didn’t have it in her. She was merely bargaining for her life. Caprice was his last chance for a while to get his needs met from someone he wasn’t in danger of developing an emotional attachment to or damaging beyond repair.

Leo went through the kitchen to the wine cellar door, then down below to the den and grabbed his large, black medical bag from the secret compartment behind the bookcase. He unlocked the door to the dungeon to load the bag with the things he would need. Ropes—the scratchier and more unpleasant against the skin, the better—a gag, blindfold, various whipping implements, various clamps, a couple of dildos but no vibrators this time.

He was angry with Caprice, with himself, with Faith, with Angelo, with the whole fucking world. Some of it was nobody’s fault, but for each troubled thought and motivation spiraling through his mind, Leo needed to assign a villain. He didn’t plan on letting Caprice have an orgasm tonight. All he wanted was for her to feel raw and used to appease him.

She was such a masochist that it would be fine with her. Whatever he wanted to do, she just wanted him to touch her. If it weren’t for her personality, she’d be the perfect woman. But Leo couldn’t trust her. He’d always be paranoid about her motivations. Relationships were all one big chess game to her, and he wasn’t going to be a pawn on her board.

Standing outside in the snow, bundled in a black coat, holding a bag filled with torture devices, he felt like Mr. Hyde going to set about the dirty business of feeding the darker impulse so the mild-mannered Jekyll could continue to go about life in peace during the day.

“You know it’s a bad idea.”

Leo jumped at the sound of his brother’s voice, and Angelo stepped around the corner he’d been lurking behind. He dropped his cigarette into the snow and it hissed as the frozen water put it out, sending a spiral of smoke up from the ground.

“Damnit, Ange. I know it’s a bad idea.” He didn’t pretend confusion. They knew each other well enough to dispense with the ritual of denial.

“Isn’t Faith in your room?” Angelo pointed up at the window.

“She is.”

His brother shook his head. “I practically gift wrapped your new toy and you won’t even play with her. It’s enough to give a brother a complex.”

“It’s not right,” Leo said.

“And using Caprice is?”

When Angelo became the moral one, you knew the earth had tilted fully off its axis and only flaming apocalypse could follow.

“There are degrees,” Leo said. “Caprice knows this isn’t going anywhere. She’s not a victim. She’s never been a victim for one day in her life. Faith is different. She’s at my mercy, and that wasn’t her choice. I can’t stand the thought of hurting her.”

“I’m pretty sure
this
hurts her. I’ve seen the way she looks at you,” Angelo said. “She’s ripe for picking.” He was determined to play matchmaker and see that his gift was put to good use. His new strategy was temptation. Leo was surprised his brother hadn’t followed him and Faith around with mistletoe.

“You know what I mean. I mean
damage
her. We aren’t in a relationship. We’re two people stuck together by circumstance. That’s all.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Angelo pulled out another cigarette and leaned against the building. He flicked the silver lighter, and his face glowed as he took a drag to catch the flame. When he was finished being dramatic, he said, “Maybe you’re afraid to be happy. I never noticed it before, but I think you aren’t satisfied in life unless you feel guilty about something. My brother the saint. Tell me, does the weight of the world ever get heavy?”

“Fuck off.”

Angelo’s laughter followed him through the snow to his car.

Chapter Thirteen

Leo had called five hotels before he’d found one to put Caprice up in. The last thing he’d expected was for The Plaza to have an opening on Christmas day or to have a room available for an entire week block. Sometimes life was funny. He’d set her up in a deluxe courtyard room on the ninth floor. It was the least he could do, isolating her during the holidays as he was. But he didn’t want her around Faith.

He hadn’t bothered calling, and it was coming close to midnight, but Caprice would let him in if she knew what was good for her. He’d caught the floor when he’d made the reservation, but now the room number escaped him. He took a breath and approached the registration desk, trying not to look sinister.