Bound By Blood: The Mafia's Vengeance

Chapter 5: The Bath

Adrian moved like a wolf through the garden maze. He tracked her by the copper scent of blood and the faint drag of her bare feet through dew-wet grass.

He found her collapsed against the old stone fountain. She’d made it up to two hundred yards, maybe three.

Hunger had weakened her, she had last eaten two days ago at the gala and had refused everything he asked his maids to give her, including water.

Serena’s chest heaved. One palm held a broken shard of balcony glass like a dagger. When his shadow fell over her, she bared her teeth.

“Stay back.”

Adrian stopped. He lifted a hand and his guards retreated without a word.

He scooped her up. She was very light, all sharp bones and trembling. She fought him, throwing her fists at his chest, and her nails raking at his throat. But it felt like baby punches.

He carried her through the villa’s side entrance, up the grand staircase, past Lucia’s frozen glare and the guards who dared not meet his eyes.

Lucia’s lips thinned to a blade, her knuckles whitened on the tablet. He’s taking her to his room. The thought caused her chest to burn.

Adrian set her on the edge of the already-steaming copper tub in his room. Her knees gave out, and she swayed and caught herself on his forearm.

“Strip,” he ordered.

Serena laughed. “Make me.”

So he did. He hooked two fingers under the strap at her shoulder and ripped.

The fabric gave way down the front, baring her to the waist.

Gooseflesh raced over her breasts, making her n*****s peek against the sudden air. She slapped him. He caught her wrists, pinned them behind her with one of his.

“Be still.”

He peeled the rest away until she sat naked on the tub’s rim, knees drawn up, trying to hide what couldn’t be hidden.

Adrian rolled his sleeves. The scars on his forearms flexed as he tested the water with two fingers. Perfect.

He lifted her again and lowered her into the depths. She hissed, the heat stung cuts she hadn’t noticed. He knelt, took a cloth and soap that smelled of cedar and sin. Serena’s spine met the tub’s curve.

“Don’t touch me.”

“I already have.” His voice was low, almost gentle. “Every inch of you is mine until I say otherwise.”

He started at her throat. The cloth dragged slowly down the slope of one breast, circling the n****e until it tightened further. She bit her lip to cage a sound.

Adrian looked at her, really looked for the first time. The way her breath seized when he grazed the underside. The way her thighs pressed together under the water.

“You’re starving,” he murmured. “And still you run. Why?”

“Because I’m not your f*****g message.”

The cloth dipped lower, over the soft plane of her stomach. He washed the grit from between her toes, the blood from the arch of her foot. When he reached the apex of her thighs, she jerked.

“Adrian—”

“Shh.”

He parted her knees and allowed the cloth to glide between her folds. Her hips lifted involuntarily. A whimper escaped before she could cage it. He dropped the cloth and used his fingers instead.

Two thick, calloused fingers slid through her heat, circling the swollen knot of nerves until her head fell back against the tub’s rim, mouth open on a silent scream.

The heel of his hand went against her c**t in slow, merciless circles.

“Look at me.” He command

She did. Eyes blown wide, pupils swallowing green. He leaned in, mouth brushing the shell of her ear.

“Your father sold you before you could walk. Signed your life away the night my sister burned in a car meant for me. She was twelve, Serena. Twelve. You’re here because he owes me a daughter. Behave, and you live. Fight…” His fingers twisted and plunged knuckle-deep. She cried out, back arching. “…and I’ll break you in ways that feel like pleasure until you beg for the pain.”

He curled his fingers, found the spot that made her sob. Pumped once, twice. Her walls fluttered, close, so close……

He stopped, withdrew, and left her trembling on the edge, thighs shaking.

Adrian stood and barked into the intercom “Maria, fresh clothes, food, and water now. And send Giulia. She tends to her tonight.”

He lifted her from the tub and carried her, dripping, to the bed. Laid her on black silk still warm from his body.

She tried to crawl away, but he caught her ankle and dragged her back. Pinned her with a knee between her thighs.

“No one sleeps here. Not Lucia. Not even Elena after the nightmares. Only her ghost.” He growled.

Confused fury cracked his mask. “I don’t know why I’m letting you. Don’t make me regret it.”

Maria entered with a tray, Giulia behind her, eyes down. Adrian stepped back, shirt half-open, chest heaving.

“Clean her, dress her, and feed her. She stays in my room tonight. Chain the ankle if you must. I’ll be watching.”

Giulia nodded, trembling. Maria set the tray and fled.

Serena sat wrapped in a towel, glaring through wet lashes as Giulia knelt with salve and bandages.

Adrian poured two fingers of scotch, downed it, and poured another. He paced to the window, back to them, but his reflection in the glass never left Serena’s face. Why her? Why now?

Giulia finished. She slipped a silk nightgown over Serena’s head. Serena’s stomach growled but pride kept her silent.

Adrian turned. “Eat.”

When she didn't move, he crossed the room in three strides, gripped her chin, and forced a piece of bread between her lips. And kept going until she finished the food.

Serena chewed, swallowed, and hated the way her body betrayed her with gratitude.

Adrian chained the delicate gold cuff around her ankle himself. Long enough to reach the bathroom, short enough to keep her close. He tucked the key into his pocket.

“Sleep,” he said.

His gaze lingered on the faint tremor in her lower lip, the way the silk nightgown clung to damp skin.

A raw, clawing need that had nothing to do with revenge and everything to do with the way her pulse had leapt under his tongue, the way she’d almost shattered on his fingers while spitting hate at him.

His c**k was as hard as steel behind his zipper, it had been since the first broken sound she’d made in the water.

He’d stopped himself barely, because breaking her tonight would have been too easy, too merciful. But the leash inside him was about to break loose.

He turned on his heel and headed for Lucia's suite before he did something out of control. The moment the door opened, Lucia’s mouth opened too, she was already spitting fire but he cut it off by fisting her hair and slam

ming her back against the nearest wall. Her gasp turned into a moan when she felt how violently hard he was.