Page 52 of Stolen Compliance

His dark eyes are unreadable, and I swallow back the litany of promises I want to make, the assurance that I was only doing as I was told.

Until his expression shutters, and once again, he is my father’s perfect Second, and the chasm between us gets that much bigger.

“Get dressed,” he orders. “We still have shit to do.”

His dark eyes bore into mine as I remove the nipple clamps finally, biting my lip until it bleeds as a scream tears up my throat. Fucking asshole smirks as sweat beads down my face from the blinding pain of releasing my poor numbed nipples from the clamps.

I am panting by the time the pain fades and I can shove it to the back of my mind. Putting on my shirt is going to fucking suck.

On legs that barely hold me up, I stand, and though I desperately want to, I don’t help Luca, needing time and space from the bunny who is more than just a danger to my life…but to what remains of my heart.

Ipractically drag my tired body into my bedroom, not at all looking forward to the dog and pony show I have to put on for dinner. But Boss’s orders. Apparently, he wants to hear all about the day we had with an overdone, stuffy meal.

The third shower of the day helps wake me up and loosen the tension that settled in as soon as we made our way back to the house. My nipples are still slightly sore from the clamps, though the teeth marks from them are already fading—thankfully.

My balls are swollen and sensitive to touch and, from experience, will be bruised and smarting for a few days. I can’t hide the shiver that passes along my spine as I gently clean them. At least this time I didn’t vomit. Not that I could have with the “toy” cranked all the way up to the maximum, stealing my breath and probably lowering my sperm count.

Out of the shower, I’m careful to pat dry my poor, abused balls before wrapping the towel around my waist and padding into the bedroom.

Spotting Kari sitting on my bed like she owns the place, I roll my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t I visit my favorite brother?”

I snort and head into my closet as I call out, “I’m your only brother.”

“Semantics,” she replies.

Pulling a suit off the rack, I head back into the bedroom. “Talk then,” I tell her, knowing it’s the only way she’ll leave.

“No underwear?” she asks as I drop my towel and reach for the suit pants.

“Mind your business.”

“So feisty today. Didn’t have a good afternoon with the bunny?”

I glare, but the bitch just smiles innocently, like she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

“If you want to talk before dinner…”

The warning is enough to have her huffing. “Fine, fine. You’re no fun. I need you to step up and be Papa’s perfect heir.”

I eye her as I thread my belt through my pants. “Why? Pretty sure that is the opposite of him passing the Organization over to you.” Not that I’d ever let that happen. I’ve worked too hard to get this far. But I know Kari wouldn’t hesitate to snatch the title of Boss out of my hands.

She looks down, her vibrant red hair curtaining her face as she smooths her hand over the skirt of her dress. “I met someone,” she says quietly. “I want to explore what that means.”

Shrugging into my shirt, I try to figure out how to respond. Kari…is a dangerous enigma, one I stopped trying to understand long ago.

She’s been molded and pampered by Sergio most of her life after her father passed, taught how to live in this world, but with the knowledge she’ll always be seen as weaker because what she has—or doesn’t have—between her legs. Then along comes the true Martelli child, with not only the DNA tests to prove it, but the tell-tale vibrant blue eyes that cannot be refuted.

Forced together as siblings, she’s the one who helped teach me quickly not to underestimate anyone in this life, giving me my first scars—I can still feel Luca’s hands tracing them. Though for all she was forced to give up once I came along, she has something I never will—my father’s affection and as genuine a love as someone like Sergio Martelli will ever have for another person.

Kari and I have had our ups and downs, but somehow, we’ve come out of it with a relationship that means we don’t want to murder each other all the time, just once in a while.

“So it’s serious?”

Kari shrugs. “I think it could be…if I let it. But I need you to stop pussying around and really make Papa believe you’re ready. He is starting to lose patience with me—I can feel it, even if he never says it. I need the chance to explore this before he gets more involved with my marital status than he already is. Let him focus on you for once.”

I huff a strained laugh. “Pretty sure he favors Luca more than me, and he doesn’t even trust him, so I don’t know what to tell you.”