365 days

~ Seraphina ~

When I woke, the hut was gone. The rough blanket was replaced by something impossibly soft. I was in a room, opulent and strangely cold.

The air conditioning hummed softly. Heavy, damask curtains, rich and dark, blocked out the world.

The only light came from a single standing lamp, casting a golden glow on the man sitting in a plush armchair.

Alessandro.

He sat perfectly still, his eyes fixed on me, dark and unreadable. The lamp light sculpted the harsh planes of his face, making him look less like the serious boy I remembered and more like a creature forged from shadow and steel. A predator.

My heart began its frantic drumming again. I would faint soon if the tension didn't lessen.

“Seraphina,” he called in a low growl that sent a shiver down my spine, a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold air. “You’re finally awake.”

I opened the duvet that covered me and looked down. New nightgown. No underpants, no bra.

“I didn't dress you. I had maids do it for me,” he said.

I stared at him, my mind reeling, trying to reconcile the seventeen-year-old boy who had said nothing but a smile with the formidable man before me. “Alessandro?”

“The one and only,” he confirmed, a faint, almost imperceptible smirk playing on his lips. It wasn't a kind smile. It was a possessive one. "Took you long enough to recognize me. Though I suppose you've been through quite the ordeal."

"Why am I here? What do you want?" My voice gained a tremor of defiance and I suddenly stood to my feet.

He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "I wanted to save you then, remember? On that wretched schoolyard. But I wasn't the power on campus back then. Dino was. My grandfather was still alive, and I was just a boy, a shadow of the man I am now. Powerless. But I promised myself, then and there, that if I ever had the chance, if you ever needed saving again... I’d be back. And now, I'm back. To get you."

His words wrapped around me like a silken rope that tightened with every syllable. He wasn’t just talking about saving me from Mark. He was talking about saving me for himself.

"Mark… my boyfriend…he'd be looking for me."

He waved a dismissive hand. "He's gone. Removed. And don't worry your pretty little head about him." His eyes gleamed. "I left him a letter. Explained our… arrangement. And I sent money to your parents, a considerable sum. More than you ever would have given them. A letter for them too, explaining you'll be away for a while. A well-deserved vacation, or a job offer, shall we say?" He paused, letting the words hang in the air, heavy with unspoken meaning.

“Are you crazy?” I said to him. I wasn't scared. Whoever and whatever he was.

“Do not raise your fucking voice on me!” He barked.

“Oh…” I said and stepped close to him. “Now he can talk?”

He stood to his feet. Before me.

I saw him clearer. Bigger. Four times the last time I saw him. Hefty. Agile. Protruded chest. Flattened belly with six-packs cutting through his torso. Thicker bi and tri, giving his arm that wideness that opened into his shoulders.

“I am now the leader of house Torricelli and all that's tied to it. You shall not look down on me,” he said.

“Or what?” I asked.

He stared back.

"You have to let me go! You can't just… kidnap me! You can't take me and expect me to respect you. Release me, Alessandro! Let me go back to my life!"

He simply stared at me. "Your life, Seraphina? Was that pathetic existence on the beach, with that swine, truly your life? Begging for scraps of dignity? Fuck No! That wasn't a life. That was a slow death. And you, my beautiful, fragile flower, are meant for so much more." He stepped close to me. He walked to the window, pulling back a corner of the heavy curtain just enough for a sliver of harsh daylight to fall across his face, illuminating the stark reality of my situation.

I saw his face clearer. It was him, but a rougher version of him. His brown eyes, now, fire.

“It's on my free will. And I won't trade that freedom for this…” I gestured at his bravado. “Cage.”

“Well then, you will remain here until you fall in love with me,” he said.

Enough to get a scoff from me. “Fall in love with you? Why would anyone do that? Why would I do that? You kidnapped me!” I barked.

“I took you in,” he shouted and held my shoulder.

He also leaned in. Just so that a little shift would cause a scrattle on his lips. I felt his heated breaths.

His lips moved. His eyes glinted. He smelled me. His lips finally brushed mine. He wanted to kiss me.

Did he want to kiss me? My heart began to race.

“I can hear your heartbeat. You're close to the grave, Sera. Live your life with me in peace and I promise you, you won't need to faint.”

“Let me go!” I whispered.

He pushed me so hard that I landed on the bed. My legs yanked open and the gown fell to a side, revealing my pussy. When I realized this, I put my legs together.

He saw it. I knew.

He pressed his lips together.

What? My mind reeled. Only then did I process his words. He wanted me to fall in love with him? He loved me?

"I knew it would be hard,” he began. “Now you have 365 days to fall in love with the man who will show you true devotion, true passion. The man who will protect you from every vulgarity, every betrayal. The man who has waited for you since you fainted into my arms on that cold, unforgiving playground." He turned back, his eyes burning into mine.

"365 days. If your heart hasn't chosen me by then… On your next birthday, you're free. To go back to that pathetic world. But I assure you, Seraphina, you won't want to." His voice was a promise, and a threat, all at once. "Once the contract is sealed. You are mine for thirty days."

I stood on the bed. Now a bit taller than him. He lifted his eyes at me. “365 days? That's too little. A decade or a century will do, and I will not fall in love with you. You brute!”

His face hardened. His brows furrowed. He was angry.

"365 days, Seraphina. If you don't love me by your next birthday, truly, madly, deeply… then I'll let you go."

“We'll see,” I said to him.

He turned. I thought he was leaving. I wanted to follow him out. Preventing being locked away. But he took a paper from the stool that was beside the armchair and offered it to me. On it was a pen.

I read it. The terms were clear.

365 days! If no love by then, free!

He wouldn't kiss or sleep with me without my permission. If he does, I can leave freely.

I would obey him and not defy him and I shall live as a member of Household Torricelli.

An idea swam into my head. I saw lust in his eyes. Lust from a man who was really in love with me. He would touch me. If he doesn't, I would seduce him. I would win, I said to myself.

I signed and handed him the paper.

He smiled.

“In an hour, be ready to move,” he said as he turned to walk away.

“Move? Where to?” I asked.

“Home, Mexico!” He replied.

The door shut with a slam.