Captivated by the deadly mafia boss

I yank on my arm, but his grip only tightens. “Let me go. I’ll go upstairs and you can go back to your girlfriend.”

He spins me to face him just at the bottom of the staircase. “You’ve embarrassed my father in front of his men, our family. You’re lucky Katina’s family isn’t here, they would demand retribution for your words.”

I stare at him, trying to find an ounce of the man I’d spoken with before he went to his meeting with his father. All I see now are dark, angry eyes.

“No need for retribution.” I jerk on my arm again and get free. “You can marry Katina tomorrow and then all will be well.”

Without waiting for another word from him, I pick up the hem of my dress and hurry up the stairs. I hear him rushing behind me, but it doesn’t stop me. I need to get away from him. To be alone and process my own stupidity.

Of course they will expect some sort of retribution. I challenged and insulted them.

I shove through the main door to our suite and try to run to the bedroom to the right, but Micah’s too fast. His arm wraps around my waist, lifting me from the floor. No amount of kicking gets me free. He merely carries me to the door and locks it before bringing me to his bedroom.

“Micah, just leave me.” I shove at his arm, but he won’t budge.

“I told you, Lena. I told you to behave yourself. I warned you not to let them get to you.” He brings me to the bed and dumps me onto the plush mattress. When I look up again, he’s standing at the edge, his hands fisted on his hips.

“I won’t allow you to humiliate me. I will not stand by watching you have a mistress right in front of my face.” I kick out at him, my heel hits his thigh, but he still doesn’t budge.

“You’re jealous?” He reaches down and grabs hold of my foot, peeling off my heel and dropping it to the floor. Then he grabs my second foot and does the same.

“You can do whatever you want, but I won’t let you try to humiliate me. I won’t do it.”

He runs his tongue along his teeth beneath his lip as he glares silently down at me. After a long pause, he grabs the lapels of his jacket and jerks it off his shoulders.

“Come here.” He crooks his finger at me. There might as well be a neon sign over his head blinking danger.Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

“Your father expects you back downstairs,” I remind him.

“He expects me to deal with my rude fiancee. And if I go down there right now, they will all know that I didn’t deal with your behavior, which will only insult them more.”

“Oh.” I maneuver myself to the other edge of the bed and get back to my feet, placing the California King between us. “So you don’t want to go down there looking less of a man because you didn’t make me regret my words?”

His eyes narrow and his bottom lip half-slips between his teeth. I think he’s trying to control his temper, but I’m not helping.

“I don’t care what they think, but I do care what you think. And right now, you have two very wrong ideas. One, you’ve gotten it in your head that I’m going to be unfaithful and will wave a woman in your face. You can’t be more wrong.”

“I suppose Katina is just a friend then? Not your long lost fiancee?”

“Katina was invited by my father.”

“She was at your restaurant the other night,” I point out.

He nods. “She was. Her cousin works for my father, he brought her to the restaurant for dinner. She came to say hello. After that I sent her away. I hadn’t seen her in two years, Lena.”

The tension in my chest eases a bit. “Two years?”

“Yes. My father had her come tonight as a way to piss you off, to try and humiliate you-yes, I know what he was trying to do. And I told you not to fall for anything that happened. I warned you to keep yourself calm, but you didn’t listen.”

“She was all over you, Micah,” I defend.

“Yeah. She’s good at that.” He nods. “And you should have been good at trusting me.”

“Trust you?” I fist my own hands and put them on my hips. “You’re going to marry me tomorrow, Micah, because your father and my father deemed it so. Not because you love me-you don’t even like me-and not because either of us want it. How can I trust you? You didn’t even fight to allow my family here tonight. You let your father do this, let him try to humiliate me.”

“Do you want me to love you?”

“What?” I’m caught off guard with the question. Do I? “No,” I answer, moving my eyes from his. If he stares too hard at me, he’ll see the truth. Feelings for him have crept into my heart. Not love, never that, but a warmth that feels like it’s being chilled with this entire situation.

His lips kick up to the side in a playful grin. “I’ll let you hold on to that for now.”

“We aren’t talking about that right now, Micah. Neither of us expect a romantic relationship. That’s has nothing to do with what’s happening.” I’m almost convincing, except the dull ache builds in my chest again.

“You’re right,” he agrees. “Right now, we’re talking about you acting like the spoiled princess my father thinks you are. I told you to behave.” His hands move to his belt buckle and I’m shocked into silence as he pulls the leather from the metal buckle then zips it through the loops of his pants.

My ass clenches.

“So, you’re going to be a good little boy and do your father’s bidding, to deal with me?” Having the bed between us is lending me bravado.

He huffs a laugh as he concentrates on folding the belt in half and tucking the buckle into the palm of his hand.

“My father’s way of dealing with women is drastically different than mine, Lena.” After hearing the women in the stable crying, I don’t doubt him. Roman is an evil man. Micah may be dangerous, and he may sometimes be cruel, but his heart isn’t as black as I assumed.

“You think this is less humiliating? Everyone downstairs will know what you did.” Tears prick my eyes. This is my own doing. He warned me. Even at the table, he warned me, but my temper flared, propped up by my pride.

“Everyone downstairs will assume whatever they want to assume no matter what happens right now, Lena.” While holding the belt in his hand, he works the buttons open on his cuffs and works them into neat folds up to his elbows.

“Don’t do this,” I whisper. How much embarrassment am I to endure?

“Do you think you don’t deserve a punishment?” He pauses in his folding.

I open my mouth, fully intending to deny I deserve anything, but the sound doesn’t carry forth from my throat.

“I made it very clear what would happen if you behaved badly, didn’t I?”

Not in exact words, but I can’t deny that I understood what would happen.

“Micah.” I say his name as though it will somehow take on a magical spell and convince him to give up his thoughts of taking that belt to my ass.

“Lena.” He sighs. “I’m not fighting with you. Now, get out of that dress and bend over the bed.”

I blink back the tears threatening and shove my chin up an inch.

“I won’t.”

“You won’t?” His eyebrows raise, but there’s a hint of joy in his eyes.

“Don’t make me do this.”

My last plea triggers something in him, and he rounds the bed in a flash. Before I blink, he’s got his hand fisted in my hair and is walking me back away from the bed.

“Make you do this?” He drags me to the settee, spinning me away from him while keeping his hand fixated at my scalp. He grabs the neckline of the dress in the back and rips it downward until the material tears. Pink fabric and lace fall to my feet, beading rolls across the floor.

“Micah!” I twist hard, but only achieve in pulling my own hair.

In one more yank, he tears my panties from my ass.

“No.” I pull, but nothing gets him to drop his hand. I’m shoved over the settee in the next movement and only then does his hand move from my hair. It’s back on me between my shoulders, pinning me down.

The belt buckle jangles behind me, but it’s only a second before the first fire-hot lash lands across my cheeks. I freeze, my body shocked at the immense sting spreading across my flesh. Another lash and then another. He’s five swats in before he pauses.

“Who was rude at the dinner table tonight, Lena? Me or you?”

I suck in a harsh breath. Tears roll down my cheeks; this is so much worse than the hand spanking he gave me the first time. And it’s nothing like the spanking he gave me only a few nights ago.

“Who?” He pinches my right ass cheek.

“Me. But-”

“No excuses. You let them get the better of you, and who won, Lena? You got in a good shot toward my father, toward Katina, but who’s up here getting her ass blistered?”

I fist my hands.

“Don’t you dare reach back here. I’ll tie you down and give you twice the belting. You won’t be sitting at your own fucking wedding.”

The belt crashes down on me again, and I rise up to my toes. It doesn’t help, nothing I do makes it easier for me or harder for him. The leather strap comes down again and again.

I sag over the settee. After another sharp lash, he drops the belt beside me.

“You’re not being fair,” I whisper, dragging in a shaky breath and trying to get myself composed.

“There is no fair in our world, princess. You know that.”

“You want me to roll over and let them abuse me.” I crane my neck, looking at him over my shoulder. “I’ll never do that. Never.”

His jaw tightens, but the sharpness of his eyes softens.

“You won’t have to do that. I won’t allow them to hurt you, and if you had kept your temper in check for another moment, I could have handled them. Instead, you took matters into your own hands and now we’re here.” He smacks my ass again, but only half-heartedly.

“I didn’t know that,” I admit.

“Was I unclear before?”

I turn back away from him. He’s not angry about what I said, he’s upset because I didn’t trust him enough to let him deal with his father. Me stepping on Roman’s toes caused more trouble than if Micah had done it. I made Micah look weak in the eyes of his men.

“I’m sorry,” I say softly. “I thought you wanted Katina, that you wanted me to see that you’ll be keeping her, and I would just have to watch.”

He releases the pressure on my back and sits beside me, running his hand up and down my spine.

“I will never do that to you.” He brushes away a stray hair that’s stuck to my wet face. “I promise, Lena. I would never do that to you. Once I make my vows, I’ll keep them.”

A weight lifts from me with his proclamation. And I’m more confused than ever.

“Come here,” he says as he lifts me from my position and pulls me into his lap. His pants are rough against the tenderness of my ass.

“I’m sorry that I embarrassed you or made you look bad, but I’m not sorry I upset your father,” I confess once I’m settled on his lap.

He breaks into a laugh. “What am I going to do with you, princess?”

I shrug. “I suppose letting me out of all this is out of the question?”

He knuckles my chin toward him. There’s a seriousness in his eyes, a stern set of his features.

“I’ll never let you go, Lena. And not because of my father’s orders.” He kisses me, soft at first, then hard and possessive. Everything inside me comes alive. I’m left wanting when he pulls away.

“I’ll never let you go, because I don’t want to. You’re mine, princess. Like it or not, you belong to me.” He wipes his thumb across my cheek, clearing away the streaks of tears. Hopefully, my mascara has held up and I don’t look as lousy as I feel.

“And Katina?” I ask, lowering my gaze. I shouldn’t feel this level of jealousy, but it’s nagging me nonetheless.

“She’s the past and that’s where she stays. You have to promise me not to let my father get you riled up. You only let him win when you lash out.”

He’s right. It felt good, seeing his cheeks turn red, hearing the surprised gasps of the guests, but in the end I lost.

“I’ll try.” It’s the best I can do.

He sighs. “Try a lot, unless you’d like to have more evenings draped over the couch instead of beneath me in bed.”

It’s my turn to frown. “So… no reward?”

He laughs. “You’re lucky I’m not making you go back downstairs.”

I jump off his lap, ready to lock myself in the bathroom to avoid being dragged off.

“I said I wasn’t making you.” He stands from the couch. “I do have to go back down though. I need to talk with Niko before he takes off and I’m sure my father has a few words for me as well. You’ll be going to bed.”

“Going to bed, like some bad little girl,” I scoff, grabbing my panties from the floor.

He snags the panties from me.

“Yes, because that’s exactly how you behaved. To bed early with no dinner. Sounds like a just punishment.” He smiles, and pockets my panties.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep. It’s early.”

He kisses my cheek and pats my still tender ass.

“Don’t leave this room.”

I can work with that. “I won’t.”

He stares at me a long moment. “It’s going to be a very interesting day tomorrow.”

“I’ll be good.”

He laughs as he collects his jacket and begins rolling down his sleeves.

“I’ve heard that before. Good night, princess.” A quick peck to my cheek, and he’s gone, closing the door to the bedroom behind him.

I glance down at the belt coiled up on the settee. Apparently, I’m going to have a love-hate relationship with more than Micah.