My skin had been scrubbed raw and I still felt dirty. The hand of evil has touched me, and I didn’t know how to wipe myself clean from its touch.
I also couldn’t rid my mind of the horrific images burned in my brain or clear my ears from the unforgiving sounds of someone begging and screaming for their life with no tongue.
The entire ride back to Luca’s penthouse had been in silence. Luca had held me in his lap, but it wasn’t in comfort. He had known I was in too much shock to function. Once we got to Kratos, he had carried me into the elevator and held me the entire ride up. It wasn’t until he stood in the middle of the living room that he had finally set me on my feet. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I silently made my way to the bedroom and got into the shower. I stayed in there, scrubbing my skin raw, until the water had turned cold. Then I had slid down the tiled wall and let the cold water numb my body. I had wanted to freeze myself numb. Any other emotions were just too much to handle.
My teeth and had been clattering and my body had been shivering by the time Luca finally came in and pulled me out of the shower. I let him dry me and dress me in just an oversized t-shirt of his as if I were an invalid child. I didn’t start crying again until I was sitting on the edge of the bed and Luca Benetti came out of the bathroom with my hairbrush. He climbed behind me on the bed, and when he started brushing the tangles from my damp hair, my body shook with heartbreaking sobs.
How can evil have a loving side?
Luca didn’t say a word as I cried. He simply brushed my hair and secured it in a bun on top of my head once it was free of tangles.
My soul shattered and wept like a thousand angels had been slaughtered when Luca bent his head and began placing kisses on the back of my neck and the bare curve of my shoulders. His left hand reached around and snaked up my neck until he was holding my head back, baring my neck in an offering only a crazy person would approve of.
In a matter of a day, I’ve been subjected to so many cataclysmic emotions, I wasn’t sure what I was feeling anymore. Horror, anger, pain, heartbreak, fear, confusion…they were now all just one jumbled mess and it felt like I was losing my mind.
And now Luca’s lips were ghosting over my right ear, and he whispered the words I knew were coming but wasn’t ready to face. “What’s it going to be, baby?” he asked as his right hand reached underneath my arm to cup my right breast. “Do I help you pack and call Emilio to escort you back to your apartment? Or are you going to spread your legs for me so my fingers can fill that tight, warm pussy of yours?”
God, help me, I spread my legs for him.
It was sick and I hated this man right now, but I wanted to feel good. I wanted something-anything to drown out the horrors I just endured. I wanted to get outside of my own head, and I knew, from experience, that Luca’s talents in the bedroom could do just that. Was I using him? Maybe. But he owed me. He damaged me in a way that was irreparable, and it was only right that he be the one to try to fix me.
His hand slid down my stomach and his fingers easily slipped inside my body and my back collapsed against his chest. His hot breath warmed my neck and I felt like I was being ripped in two. One half screaming at me to run, and the other half begging me to stay.
I pushed my hips forward, trying to drown out reality, but Luca wouldn’t let me. As his hands played with my body, he said, “If anyone ever hurt you, Remy…if anyone ever touched one hair on your head, what you saw earlier will be nothing compared to what I would do to them.” A sob tore from my throat because he wouldn’t let me forget. And I just wanted to forget. “There’d be nothing left of them to bury by the time I got done with them,”