Twist Of Fate

ELAINE

FOUR YEARS AGO

I was at another one of Dad's charity things.

Every once in a while, when the fancy took him, he'd throw an elaborate shindig in the name of some obscure charity to remind everyone in the entire state that he was an actual human being with a heart.

And he would drag me with him to show me off as his beautiful heir.

I hated every second of it.

Seated at the bar in a tight red dress that accentuated my curves, I downed my third glass of whiskey. I was always a lightweight, and already I could feel the effects of the alcohol. My vision was starting to blur at the edges, and I was humming along to the classical music flowing through the elegant ballroom.

As was my habit in the three hours we'd been here, I looked around for my father, just in case he needed to show me off to another creepy old man who'd stare at my breasts for the entirety of the conversation. I blamed the built-in push-up bra in this stupidly tight dress.

But as usual, Father was oblivious to my existence as he was in the middle of an adoring crowd, laughing while his fat fingers curled around the stem of a champagne glass. You could always find him easily. He was a big guy with salt and pepper hair that he thought made him look stately, but I secretly thought it made him look like a garden gnome.

I was about to open my mouth to order another glass of whiskey when a broad-shouldered man suddenly occupied the empty stool beside me.

"I'll have a gin and tonic on the rocks and a refill for the lady," the man ordered with a thick Italian accent that made my thighs clench involuntarily.

The bartender nodded and got to work preparing our drinks.

"Thanks, but I don't need you to order for me. I'm perfectly capable of using my own words, thank you very much," I told him.

He turned in his seat, and what I saw set my almost-drunk heart ablaze.

His face looked like it was sculptured painstakingly by God himself. Deep-set green eyes that sparkled with intent, thick dark hair held back by hair gel but still had that one errant strand that stuck to his forehead, a jaw that looked hard enough to cut steel, and lips so pink and full that I wanted to put mine on them. Immediately.

"I know, but how else was I going to get you to talk to me, bella?"

Something about his deep, accented voice turned my stomach into mush and warmed me from the inside before settling to a warm, aching throb in the middle of my legs. This was new.

"You could've used a pick-up line. I hear they're prevalent among your kind."

"My kind?" He gave a devastating smirk that only increased the ache. "And what kind would that be, bella?"

"The kind who targets solitary pretty women at bars."

He let out a full-bodied laugh, and I had to restrain myself from jumping his bones right here and now in front of all these people. Again this was new.

Our drinks were set before us on the mahogany countertop.

"Well, you're right, bella. But not for the reason you think. You see, I saw you looking extremely bored from all the way across the room and thought you were in dire need of some fun." He picked up his drink and stood up. He bent and whispered into my left ear as he was about to pass me. "If you choose to take me up on my offer, I'll be in the garden."

He left, carrying his delectable cologne with him.

It might be the alcohol in my veins controlling my thoughts, but I was ready to leave all common sense behind and join the attractive stranger I had just met in whatever activity he had planned.

I polished off the whiskey and used the counter to balance on my five-inch stilettos before sauntering in the direction of the handsome stranger.

The garden was empty. The full moon watched over a neatly manicured lawn with stone benches arranged around an elaborate water fountain.

I felt disappointment curl low in my belly as the cool air erased some of the molten attraction that the man brought that threatened to scorch me from the inside out.

"Glad to see you're not one of those prissy rich people, bella," came a voice low and seductive in my left ear.

I turned, and two sparkling green eyes met me.

"Well, you promised me fun. I collect everything promised to me."

His full lips curled into a deadly smile.

"Oh, don't worry. I don't ever disappoint."

I wasn't sure which of us initiated it, but soon I was pressed against the closed door leading to the ballroom as this stranger kissed me like I was the glass of cool water and he was a man trekking through the desert.

My whole body erupted in tingles as he kissed me. He bit my bottom lip, and I gasped, which allowed his tongue entrance into my mouth, and we were locked in a battle of dominance.

My hands flew to his nape and tangled in his soft dark hair.

Motivated by a sudden burst of courage, I pressed my soft body into his sturdy one, feeling all the hard muscle and his growing erection.

He groaned into my mouth as his hands drifted into my hair, disturbing the elegant chignon in which the dark strands were styled.

Encouraged by his groan, I continued rubbing myself against him.

"Fuck, bella," he growled into my ear, turning me on even more. "I need you naked right this minute."

I wanted to say a lot of things. How this was a bad idea, how I didn't even know his name, how I was still a virgin at twenty-one, and so much more. But in my drunken state, none of those things came out of my mouth.

Instead, I heard myself say, "Take me."

His eyes flashed with greed and lust.

Somehow he managed to get us past the dancing guests and the hawk eyes of my father to the room he'd booked in the hotel where the party was being held. The door was barely closed when he started back up from where he had stopped.

His tux jacket was the first to go, then I attacked his shirt's buttons as if they offended me. When they were both off, I ran my hands over the tanned skin of his torso, over every well-defined ab, every muscle.

"Like what you see?" he teased with a smirk.

"For now," I sassed.

I was behaving totally out of character, and I loved it.

He guided us to the bed, placing me gently on the duvet. I leaned down to remove my shoes, but his hand stopped me.

"Leave them on," was all he said.

With skilled hands, he took off my dress, slowly, savoring every exposed area of my ivory skin. Before long, I was naked before him.

"Molto bella," he whispered as he bent to take one ever so sensitive pink nipple into his warm mouth.

I let out a guttural moan as I closed my eyes to the many sensations my brain was overloaded with. His hands once again reached to my other breast and captured the other pink nub. As he sucked and kneaded my flesh, I went to heaven and back.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, tesoro. You can't come just yet."

I whimpered at the loss of his very skilled mouth. Prying my eyes open, I watched through heavy lids as he dug through his wallet.

"Maledizione, (damn)," he swore under his breath. "The one day I need it, I leave without a condom."

Even in my inebriated state, I knew what that meant. And I couldn't have that. I wanted— no needed him inside me. So I blurted the first thing to enter my head.

"I'm on birth control," I told him.

Of course, I wasn't. This would be my first time, but it didn't matter. There would be no consequences for this little fib.

He smirked and leaned down to kiss me, taking me back to cloud nine.

As it turned out, there were consequences for one little drunk fib, as I found out two months later.

I was pregnant.

It didn't take long for Father to find out because I was scared and panicking, going out of my mind all over the place.

After making me describe in meticulous detail my drunken one-night stand with the stranger, his eyes flashed in a way I'd never seen before, and he made the most shocking suggestion: I get an abortion.

In retrospect, that was where the crack in our already strained relationship widened.

A snap to my face brought me out of my memories and back to the present.

This horrific present where the man with the green eyes who'd worshipped me and my body what felt like forever ago was the stuff of my nightmares. The boogeyman here to take me down to hell.

I tried to move my arms for the umpteenth time, but the rope holding them to the chair were so firm I was starting to lose feeling in my wrists.

"There you are, bella." He sported a maniacal grin. "I thought I'd lost you for a second there. Now, do you understand what I have told you?"

What I have told you?

I didn't hear the shit he just said to me. I didn't know what was used to knock me out, but whatever it was, it was potent, as I could still feel the effects dulling the edge of my consciousness.

He could sense it, too because he bent and peered directly into my eyes. "Are you asleep with your eyes open? Do you need another bath?"

My eyes widened, and I shook my head frantically. I would get pneumonia if he kept this up. "No, please . . . I'm begging you. I just need you to step back a bit, that's all."

Green eyes narrowed, but thankfully he didn't order his henchmen to drench me again.

"I said if you make one wrong move, if you go to daddy dearest or any other family for help, it will result in your child being forcefully and permanently taken from you. Maybe killed. Maybe locked in a cold, dark room forever. It really depends on my mood" His grin widened.

I froze. My entire being froze. My heart, my brain, the blood in my veins. Everything that made up my existence ground to a halt.

I briefly wondered if this was the beginning stages of pneumonia before panic flooded me.

"How the fuck do you know about my child? You stay the fuck away from him, or I swear . . ."

His laugh cut off my empty threats. "My, my, such feistiness in one tiny body. Save some for the rest of us. And to answer your question, I have my ways."

I stiffened. There was something seriously wrong with him, yet he'd given me something precious, something priceless, the one thing that made my life whole. My son. If this psychopath found out he had a son, I shuddered to think what would happen. I had to make sure he remained clueless.

"No matter what you do," he started. "I know you're still your father's daughter, and I haven't forgotten that our families are feuding. One measly fuck four years ago isn't going to change that."

He came closer and wrapped a hand around my neck. "Do you understand me?"

He started to trail his fingers higher, and I couldn't help but flinch in disgust. I couldn't believe I had once craved the feel of his rough, calloused hands.

His fingers reached my lips, and he swiped his thumb across the bottom one.

I shook my head to tell him I didn't like what he was doing.

As usual, he laughed at my discomfort.

Enraged, I turned my head and spat on the concrete floor. It would've been on his stupid face if he wasn't still clutching the knife.

"You wanted to tell me how to pay your money back before, well, get on with it. I haven't all day."

He chuckled and muttered something in Italian.

He nodded to something behind me, and the two men who'd kidnapped and tied me up exited the room.

Squatting in front of me, he leveled his green eyes to my blue ones.

"Before I tell you what I have in mind, I have a question for you."

I remained silent.

"Why did you sneak off before I woke up that morning, four years ago?" His voice was so soft it was almost nonexistent.

"I had some things to attend to after our measly fuck." It gave me great satisfaction to throw his words back at him.

He continued, unfazed. "So what did you do to warrant your father discarding you like trash? Because from every indication, it seems you're cut off from your family and their vast, how do I put it now? Ah yes, resources."

It's your fault. I wanted to scream. It's all your fault I'm this way. You're responsible for everything.

I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from uttering those words.

He leaned closer. "I'm waiting for an answer, Elaine."

His hands crept up my thighs, drawing lazy circles before squeezing purposefully.

I hissed as an unexpected thrill of pleasure shot straight to the middle of my legs.

I looked right into his green eyes, matching his gaze steel for steel. I opened my mouth fully, intending to tell him to stop, but the smirk he made stopped me.

"Fine then, tesoro," he finally said, that deep voice warming my belly. "Don't tell me. I'll tell you what I have in mind for my payment. I'll give you two options: pay me back my money, with interest, in 14 days or . . ." His wayward fingers reached up slowly. Under the hem of my dress, higher, higher, until they grazed the outline of my cotton panties. Until they skimmed the entrance of my core. "Pay me back with your body."

An involuntary gasp left my throat. "What the actual fuck?!"