I straighten. “Matters to me,” I say, spanking her ass a few more times.
“Stop!”
“Tell me the truth or I’ll use my belt.”
“Belt?”
“Did Michela give you the knife? Think hard. If you lie to me, then you’re betraying me, Cristina.”
“What about you lying to me?”
“I haven’t. Tell me.”
“Is this some sort of loyalty test?”
I don’t answer. Instead, I unbuckle my belt.
She looks back, eyes growing huge.
I watch her as I draw it out of its loops and double it over in my palm. I raise my eyebrows.
“Well?”
She looks from my face to my hand. I step backward and raise it.
“No. No. No. Wait!”
“Talk.” I lower my arm.
She looks up at me. “You have to promise not to hurt her if I tell you.”
I have to laugh at that. “Right now, right fucking now, you’re worried I’m going to hurt her?”
Her gaze slips to my belt hand, then back to me. “Just promise. I’ll tell you but please promise. She’s scared, Damian.”
At that I snort. “She’s not scared, sweetheart. She’s a manipulator.” I raise my arm again.
“Promise!”
“I fucking promise.” I don’t really want to hurt Cristina although I’d gladly wring my sister’s neck for this latest betrayal.
“She gave it to me on our wedding night. To protect myself.”
“Against me?”
She nods. “What you did to her…her back…”
“I’ve told you that I regret that. And if I could take it back, I would. I am not making an excuse, but you don’t know the circumstances.”
“You whipped her from the tops of her shoulder blades to her ankles. No circumstances would ever justify that, and you know it.”
I bite the inside of my cheek as I exhale. “Yeah, I do.”
“Let me up.”
“Tell me about my brother. When did he tell you, he was your ally?”
“I went downstairs to eat something. I was hungry, my head hurt, and I didn’t think anyone was there, but then he was in the kitchen, and he was…nice to me.”
“Right.”
“He sat down and ate a sandwich with me, and I don’t know, we were talking. I can’t remember.”
I lean over her, angry with my brother as I squeeze her butt cheek, run the leather of the belt over it. “Try harder.”
She nods. “Let me up. Let me up and I’ll tell you.”
I straighten, look at her ass. I like her like this. My cock likes her like this.
“Please, Damian.”
Meeting her eyes, I relent and release her.
She turns to face me. We’re so close she has to crane her neck to see me.
“I asked him why he came back, and he said to take back what you took from him.”
“Well, at least he was honest.”
“He looked at me strangely then, and I don’t know, he wasn’t nice anymore.”
“Did he touch you?” My hand tightens around the belt buckle.
She shakes her head.
“What did he do?”
“He asked me if I was curious what that meant for me.”
I grit my teeth. “And are you?”
“No.”
“They’re not your friends, neither Michela nor Lucas. You know that, don’t you?”
“I know that I’m among enemies, yes.”
If she means for it to cut me, it works. I don’t show it, and I don’t know why the words even have that power, but it does.
“He’ll try to take you from me,” I say.
“Does it matter what I want in this?”
“What do you want?”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
This obviously surprises her. I guess it surprises me too. “Why?”
I set the belt on the table and lift her to sit on the edge of it. I push her knees wide and stand between them. I tug her nearer. She’s so close I smell her shampoo. Her skin. And all I want to do is kiss her. I think a part of me knows how fleeting this is. How easily it can all collapse around us.
I kiss her mouth, undoing my pants to take myself out before I lay her down, pulling her knees up so her wet cunt presses against my cock. I push into her and her muscles tense instantly around me. She’s too tight, and I know it hurts her, but I can’t help myself. I need this. Need her like this.
Will I always need her like this?
I give her a minute, licking my thumb and setting it on her clit, looking at her like this, my cock stuffed to the hilt inside her pussy, my thumb on her clit, her passage growing wet as I play with her.