Mafia Captive (18 page)

“Could you tell me Caprice Clementi’s room number please?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t give out the room numbers of our guests. I could telephone her for you if you’d like?”

Leo looked like he was there to whack her, so he couldn’t blame the hotel staff for their concern. And he
did
intend to whack her, just not in the way they probably thought. He set down his bag and pulled his wallet out, placing his driver’s license and credit card on the marble. “Leo Raspallo. I paid for the room.”

Panic entered the man’s eyes at the name, then his attention turned to tapping keys at a speed that would impress any secretary. He checked the name on the license and the card number against what was in the computer and cleared his throat. “I apologize, Mr. Raspallo. I didn’t know. She’s in room 912. Would you like a key card?”

“I would.”

Why knock if he was paying for her accommodations? He was here to take what he wanted from her anyway, why pretend with pleasantries and knocks on doors that he wasn’t fully entitled to her body until she got on a plane?

The man scanned the card and slid it across the counter with a weak smile. Leo returned a smile of his own, collected his bag, and got on the elevator.

Inside 912, Leo hung his coat in the entryway. A lush master bathroom was on the left. And then further in, toward the back, was the bedroom. He was surprised when he reached the foot of the bed to find Caprice going at it with a strange man—no doubt an old friend she felt justified in catching up with.

“I’m sorry, Caprice. Did you feel it was appropriate to
hook up
in a room I’m paying for?”

She scrambled off the man she’d been straddling and struggled to cover herself with the bedsheets. The man looked uncertain.

“Hello,” Leo said, addressing the stranger. “I’m Leo Raspallo. Get out, while I’m feeling generous.”

There were moments having that name came in handy. Though his hands were mostly clean of the family business, Leo never hesitated using his name to make an impression.

The man’s eyes widened. “I-I’m sorry. I-I didn’t know she was yours.”

“Hey!” Caprice snapped. “I’m not furniture.”

“Oh, you are if I say you are.” Leo appraised her like a piece of meat he was considering from the butcher. He turned back to the man who was trying to get to his clothing without flashing everyone in the room. “What’s your name?”

“I… uh… um… John.”

“Mm-hmm,” Leo said, not buying that name for a minute. “Well,
John
, I think it would be better if you put your clothing on out in the hallway. Don’t you agree?”

“But… I… uh…”

Leo raised an eyebrow.
John
grabbed his clothes and fled from the room. When Leo was alone with Caprice, he said, “You’re going to have to be punished for being such a rude, naughty slut, of course.”

This would have had Faith huddling in a corner, but Caprice smirked. “Was that scene necessary?”

He shrugged. “I’ve got a lot of pent-up energy.”

“I didn’t know you’d come see me,” she said, pouting.

“Like you said, Faith is never going to be enough.”

She smiled.

“Same rules as before. Starting now, no eye contact, address me as Master, only. Do you understand?”

Caprice looked down at the pattern on the bedspread. A shuddering breath left her when she said, “Yes, Master.”

“Did you manage an orgasm with him?” Leo asked.

“No, Master.”

“I’m not surprised. You won’t be having one with me, either.” His pronouncement excited her more. Perhaps she saw a challenge in it—or a game. She’d find out soon enough he was serious. The only person coming tonight would be him. Or there would be dire consequences.

This time, he took it slow. There were no guests to get back to, and for better or worse, Faith knew where he was. He spent half an hour tying Caprice up. He wanted her immobile and unable to squirm away, while still being accessible and open.

“Ow! These ropes are too tight, and they’re scratching me.”

Leo stepped back to observe his work, ignoring her whining.

“Leo!”

He extracted a collapsible, stainless steel cane from his bag, then with a flick of his wrist, extended it to its full size. He whacked her on the ass, and she let out a squeal.

“What did I say my name was?”

“Master,” she gasped. That tinge of fear was back in her eyes, and remembering herself, she quickly averted her gaze to the floor as the tears started to flow.

Leo went to the minibar and poured himself a drink, then sat in an overstuffed chair, his eyes drinking in his captive.

“Why are you with her?” Caprice asked after a few minutes.

“What kind of question is that? She’s my fiancée.”

“But she’s not like us. I just don’t understand what you see in her. Are you trying to be a martyr? I can give you what you want. If you break off the engagement, I’ll do anything. I swear. We shouldn’t have broken up.”

He downed the rest of his drink and placed the glass on the side table, his eyes narrowing. “You’ll manipulate and connive and cheat and get whatever you want while pretending to be my slave. You’ll play the good girl when I’m watching and do whatever the hell you want when I’m not. I put you up here as my guest, and I walk in to find you screwing another man under the sheets my credit card paid for. We might not be in a relationship, but that’s tacky by anyone’s standards.”

She turned away.

“Well, am I wrong?”

“You want too much,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“Yes, and that was the conclusion we came to the last time we had this conversation when we were breaking up. You gave me an ultimatum, and I told you to leave. The fact that you felt you could give me an ultimatum is 90 percent of the problem. I don’t want to play a game with you!”

“Then why are you here playing one? Is the vanilla suburban wife game going to be any more appealing to you? Missionary position, lights off. Is that better than this? I can’t give you everything, Leo, but I can give you something.”

Two women in his bed in the same night, both promising him half of the whole he craved. It wasn’t enough. From either of them. He rose slowly, alcohol and predation running through his veins and bent to grab the back of her neck.

His face moved in close to hers. He practically growled when he spoke. “I’m not playing into your manipulation again, Caprice. We are not getting back together. If you can’t handle that, I will pack up my things and leave now. I want to hear you say it, say you understand me and you accept the terms of what we’re doing here.”

She glared up at him. “What
are
we doing here, Leo?”

He released her and picked up the cane again. With one hand, he covered her mouth, and with the other, he raised the implement. A blur of silver sliced through the air and connected with her flesh. She let out a muffled howl against his hand. When she’d composed herself again, he released her.

“You can’t follow the simplest rules. I said while I’m here you will call me
Master
. If that’s too complicated for you and too much for you to remember, I’ll leave.”

Panic filled her eyes. “No, wait. I’ll be good. I’m sorry, Master. I’ll do what you want. I promise.”

“Say you understand and accept my terms. I have to know that you understand you won’t gain a relationship out of this. If that’s what you think your goal is, lose the delusion.”

“I understand, Master.” Her head dropped to the bed and a single tear slid down her cheek.

Leo had a moment’s hesitation where everything paused and went quiet. Inside the stillness of that moment, he knew the truth. She loved him. Or what passed as love in her world, anyway. She felt for him as much as she was capable of feeling for another human being, and he didn’t return that affection. It was wrong to keep going here, to play with her. No matter what she said, deep down he knew she believed if she pleased him enough, he might keep her and send Faith away. She didn’t know how to be honest, and that was a deal breaker for him.

And yet, here she was all tied up, begging him to use her. Faced with a long stretch of celibacy and no outlets for his sadism in sight, Caprice was too much temptation. She was a last meal on death row.

But like before, being here with her was weak satisfaction, like masturbation that results in a bad orgasm, where you go through the motions only to find the resulting pleasure is such a dim shadow as to have been a complete waste of time.

That was how Leo felt standing in the deluxe courtyard room on the ninth floor of The Plaza hotel. Having driven half an hour from his estate to get to the edge of the city and then another forty-five minutes fighting traffic, and here was a willing woman tied down, waiting for him to use her in whatever way appealed to him.

But when he looked at her, in his mind’s eye, he saw Faith there, pushing past her fears to submit. It would mean more because it was a sacrifice for her. As much as Caprice wanted to do anything to be with him, once she had him, her tune would change. Her resolve would melt like snow to reveal the dead grass underneath. Her willingness to do anything would drift away and he’d be left with yet another sham.

Caprice, he would never own. She wasn’t the kind of thing a man could own. Faith, on the other hand, was his. Even with his resistance to hurting her, she belonged to him and would never be able to walk out the door and out of his life. If he wanted to tie her down and whip her, he could do it. He could do any depraved thing to her that his mind could dream up. The only barrier was his conscience. If he didn’t do this with Caprice, if he didn’t take the edge off the hunger, he would end up losing control with Faith. Then he’d be the monster he’d always suspected he was.

Caprice didn’t resist when he took the gag from his bag and pushed the rubber ball into her mouth. The truth was, even being who she was, her words could still touch him. Without them, she was a mere thing, a masturbatory sleeve, a blow up doll, a punching bag. Without a voice she had no life or form to stop him or create uneasy guilt. The guilt would come later. With or without consent, it always did, and yet, he couldn’t stop himself from gorging on the hedonistic delight of a woman’s naked and bound body taking pain for his gratification.

Faith thought she was safe with him? She was a fool. If he couldn’t keep the beast in check, she’d find out how much of a fool she was soon enough. Wanting to be with him? She had no idea what she was asking. Neither woman did.

With the gag in place, it was safe to take his time to wring out every ounce of agony he could take from the woman who had stupidly put herself in his hands. Although it was lightweight, the steel cane was more harsh than the rattan. It would be dishonest to say he’d chosen the steel only because it was collapsible and fit easily into the bag.

The welts and bruises he’d left on her that morning were more visible than before, so he moved on to an unmarked area on her thighs. She screamed around the gag, as if she was dying with every stroke, the tears streaming down her face.

When he’d marked all of her he could safely mark, he collapsed the cane and returned it to the bag. He watched the relief fill her and then drain back out again when he pulled a whip from the bag.

“It’ll hurt more if you’re tense.”

She whimpered behind the rubber obstruction. The display was pitiful enough for him to show some mercy. What was more, it wasn’t a calculated act meant to control him. It was real begging. After the cane, when she was still overloaded from the soreness of earlier in the day, her distress was genuine.

Leo unsnapped the leather from the gag and pulled it from her mouth. “Tell me, what did John have to say about the welts and bruises on your ass? Do you think he realized it was me who put them there?”

“I didn’t let him see them. I was on top so it wouldn’t hurt and he wouldn’t notice.”

“Ashamed?” Shame didn’t fit on Caprice. He’d always envied her that.

“He wouldn’t understand.”

“I see. So it appears I’m not the only one dipping a toe into the vanilla pool.”

Even in pain, she rolled her eyes, breaking the spell of the few moments he’d had with her before. “Andy is an old friend. We went to school together. We ran into each other in a bar. We were lonely. It just happened.”

Leo put the gag back in her mouth and started on her back. When he drew blood, he moved on to a fresh area until she was marked to his satisfaction.

Half an hour later, he cursed himself as he surveyed the damage. She would heal. He hadn’t done any permanent harm, but if she went into a nasty streak, she had evidence to show the police. There were witnesses placing him here. Just another example of how she held all the power and why he didn’t want this.

If Leo wanted to break free of Caprice, it wouldn’t be until after the holiday when she was home. He’d have to be more careful about leaving marks the rest of the week. As vindictive as she could be, she would use what had been consensual to put him behind bars. He didn’t do well caged.

He untied the ropes and unsnapped the gag, placing everything carefully back in his bag. There would be time for other toys another day.

“Why are you stopping?”

“Stretch out on your stomach and don’t question me. The rules are still in place.”

“Yes, Master,” she managed.

Leo removed a smaller bag from the larger one and unzipped it to reveal bandages and ointment. He went to the bathroom to wash his hands, then he smoothed the cream over each of her whip marks and welts and bruises. After the ointment he sprayed a soothing antiseptic spray, then applied bandages.

When he was finished, he undressed and got in the bed, pulling her against him and cradling her, much as he had Faith a few hours before.

“You don’t want to be with me, Caprice. You like the idea of me. The reality is never quite as good.”

“That’s not true,” she said, her words muffled against his chest.

“Yes, it is.”

Chapter Fourteen

Faith wore a glitzy black evening gown and some of the jewelry Leo had given her for Christmas. When she’d first unwrapped the dress, she couldn’t figure out when or where she would wear such a thing, but as it turned out, Leo’s New Year’s Eve party was more of an affair than Christmas.