Marrying the Mob Prince

CLAIRE

Get out now.

I had no idea what Cainan had planned, but all signs pointed to an indefinite sexual enslavement. He’d drugged me. Smuggled me on a plane. Fucked me with his finger. Spanked me. God only knew what the dawn would bring if I didn’t escape.

But I couldn’t leave while trapped in Cainan’s arms. So I waited. For hours, I gathered my courage, listening to the cacophony of crickets and frogs filtering through the open window.

My head was begging for rest after a day of nonstop adrenaline, but I couldn’t stay here another minute. The male body pressed up against me didn’t help. Our entangled limbs teased my mind with images that shouldn’t be in my head. The smell of him wreathed me in a pleasant mist, mingling with the florals saturating the air. When his breathing labored and he settled into a deep sleep, I inched my hand to his.

It curled around my waist, and I needed it to move. I clasped my fingers on his wrist.

He twitched.

I sucked in my breath. Don’t wake up. Please. My heart jackknifed into my chest as I lifted him off my hip. Waited. When he didn’t stir, I moved his heavy arm behind me. Then I glided across the pillow, inching to the end of the mattress.

Finally, my toes met cooler air. I slid from the comforter. My feet touched tiles. I stood, peering at the faint outline of his sleeping form.

Sayonara, shithead.

I slipped on my shoes and headed to the French doors. Gritting my teeth, I fingered the latch. I muffled the sound with my palm, unlocking it. Throwing a nervous glance at Cainan’s body, I pulled on the sliding glass door. Fuck. That was loud.

I squeezed through the crack and stepped into the unlit backyard. My feet glided over damp grass glowing from the illuminated pool. I hugged the walls as I peeked around the corner at the house, where armed security patrolled the grounds like silent shadows.

The backyard faced a thick wall of silhouetted trees and bushes. The jungle roared its night music, the sound seeding my belly with fear. I couldn’t navigate this terrain with these shoes. I’d wear out my feet long before I reached the airport. If I could even find it.

My gaze jumped toward an opening within the maze of vines. I approached, spooked by the sweeping beams of flashlights, and peered over the cliff. A steep mountainside gave way to a vast valley, where a gray horizon emerged over the black ocean. Staring at it stabbed my chest with a new panic.

I had no idea where I was.

And I wouldn’t last a week without hiking shoes, a map, and a compass. I needed a plan. I had to be patient. Which meant I needed to head inside if I didn’t want to get caught. I turned, then a harrowing sense tingled the back of my neck.

I froze.

A sigh tore through the thick air as heavy footsteps crunched the grass. Cainan stood several feet away in loungewear, a light brown robe with a blue pattern that ended above his knees. The whiteness of him struck my heart with awe as it unnerved me. It contrasted with the dark jungle, but his commanding posture left little doubt that he belonged among the ghouls roaming the grounds.

He strode forward, his elegant face set in a serene expression that mimicked angelic frescos. “Did I give you permission to leave my bed?”

I folded my arms. “You didn’t say I couldn’t.”

“That’s not how this works. You’re not supposed to look for loopholes.”

“Can you blame me?”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

His charcoal eyes seemed to probe my soul before he let out another impatient sigh. His hand met mine in a warm clasp. Then he led me toward the forest opening. “Claire…everyone tries to escape, but they never get far. Most are hauled back before the hour’s out. Navigating a jungle isn’t easy…and those that run don’t live long. Many a time, I’ve happened upon bodies in the forest.”

I breathed in rapidly.

“You’d think surviving a place teeming with life would be simple. But even if you can identify the poisonous plants from the edible ones…strange things happen to the brain when you’re scared, dehydrated, and starving. Your mind plays tricks on you. You lose your sense of direction. You see monsters in the dark. Only one girl made it to the beach…and she drowned. Most die from exposure,” he deadpanned, the ice in his voice chilling my body.

“Stop. I don’t want to hear any more!” I clapped my hands over my ears, but he removed them with a merciless yank.

“You need to understand what’ll happen if you walk in there. You’ll get caught. Or worse, you’ll die. You will not try to escape.” His gray eyes narrowed and hardened. “Promise me you won’t.”

“No.”

He caught my cheeks in both hands. “Promise me, Claire.”

The light restraint flushed my chest, but his plea made my head pound. It sounded like he cared. Was it a trick?

“I will not.” I ripped from his grasp, my heart hammering. “You give this speech to everyone you kidnap?”

His tight frown darkened with frustration as he turned me around to face the villa. “You’re the first I’ve ever brought here.”

My lip quivered. Lucky me.

His gentle touch glided to my waist. “Let’s get you back inside.”

“Cainan, please. I want to go h-home.”

“Your life in Boston wasn’t doing you any favors,” he said flatly, gripping my biceps and marching me toward the guesthouse. “You had no purpose. You were frustrated. Struggling. Desperate for other experiences.”

“Have you any idea how delusional you sound?”

He gave my wrist a sharp yank, and I stumbled and hit his chest.

“I’m not. I’m just good at what I do.”

“Which is what? Breaking people? Grinding them down until they do what you want? Enslaving them? Fucking them?”

“Yes. But I don’t expect you to break.” Cainan pulled me into the bedroom and closed the sliding doors, a smile flashing across his perfect lips. “You’re here because you’re strong enough to survive what I have to do to you.” Wearing a grave expression, he untied his robe.

A lump lodged in my throat.

“We’re taking a bath.” He eased a muscled shoulder out of his robe. “If I have to drag you into the water, I will, but I’d rather not risk you hurting yourself. So be a good girl and take off your dress.”

He pushed me into a marble bathroom with two sinks. The door slammed shut with his kick, trapping me with him. He released me. I clutched the counter, my heart pounding.

He truly was a monster.

Bewildered, I watched him undress. His blatant beauty distracted me, the robe uncovering more of his sculpted body. Much more than he’d teased through the text messages. I drank in his impressive chest, the sheer work he’d put into his physique. My gaze flicked on his thick thighs, landing on the biggest uncut cock I’d ever seen. It stood at attention, obscene in its size, framed by a trimmed bed of dark hair. He gripped his cock and gave it a slow tug.

Flushing, I returned my gaze to his face.

“You can’t want me this way,” I breathed, clutching at my waist as though he’d tear into my clothing. “Look at you. You don’t need to do this.”

“What if it’s the only way I know?”

“I think that’s another lie you tell yourself. You’ve shown me that you can treat a woman right. You spent weeks doing it with me.”

“Men like me aren’t content with that lifestyle.”

“You seemed pretty happy to me.”

His narrowed gaze softened as his long legs ate up the distance between us. “It was fun while it lasted, but the plan was always to bring you here.”

“Is that why you took me fruit picking?”

“I needed your trust, so I Googled cute date ideas and checked them off like boxes on a list.”

“You needed nothing.” I backed into the wall. “You could’ve kidnapped me anytime. Instead you took your sweet time getting to know me.”

“Seducing you.”

He was close enough to punch, but his calming presence stopped me. He was too serene. His whispering purr dismantled my rage. Confused me. When he spoke about forcing me into submission, I felt his yearning. His hunger.

“You’re desperate to believe that I’m not a bad person…because of what happened to you in college.”

I hugged myself and inhaled deep breaths. I tried not to picture him, but his face popped into my mind. Shame, swift and hot, engulfed my body. Hot tears welled in my eyes, and Cainan’s mouth flattened as though the sight of them disturbed him.

“Is that why you picked me?” I asked him, my voice tearing from grief. “Because I was the perfect victim?”

“Victim?” He gently grasped my jaw, and I flinched. “No. You’re a survivor. What I’m going to put you through will be hell, but you can take it. Your strength is why you’re here.”

“Tell me what that means.”

“What I will do to you will be worse than what he did.” He transferred his grip to my elbow and pulled me out of the bathroom so that I faced the bed. “You can bathe with me, or you can spend a few hours there.”

He pointed at the black bars I’d mistaken for the bed frame. It was a fucking cage. A cage underneath his bed! My mouth opened as my gaze landed on the iron door wide enough for a person to slide through. “You…you lock women in there?”

“Yes.”

Of course he did. Cainan had been very transparent with his reasons for kidnapping me. I gaped at him, and his free hand moved to my neck. “And you get off on that?”

He nodded, immune to my judgment.

My heart hammered, my pulse beating into the palm that still held me. I wasn’t a coward, but the thought of being forced through that narrow door naked, being locked up, and waiting for him to change his mind, intimidated me.

“It’s not always a punishment,” he said with a silky caress in his voice. “Sometimes she hasn’t earned the right to my bed.”

Heaviness bottomed out in my stomach. “I…I guess I should feel lucky I skipped that step.”

“You should.”

A bolt of lightning shot up my spine as his touch skimmed my collarbone. The softest strokes caressed my skin in winding paths. He followed my shoulders, the sensation tickling. Then it reached more intimate areas.

“I don’t allow women the liberties I’ve given you.”

A tremor shook my leg. “I can’t wear the clothes I want. I can’t go for a walk. I can’t say no if you want to fuck me. And apparently, disobeying your orders, no matter how insane, is off limits, too. What liberties?”

“You don’t understand yet. But you will.”

“I won’t! I’m getting the hell out of here.”

Cainan tutted, shaking his head. “Threatening escape? I thought you were smarter than that, Claire.”

The taunt buried in my chest. “And I thought you were a good person. I thought you were sexy and fun and witty, but now you’ll always be the man who lied to me.”