Chapter 3: The Awakening

The first thing that returned to Olivia was the sensory heavy-handedness of her surroundings.

It wasn’t the stale, artificial smell of her dormitory or the familiar damp chill of her morning commute. The air here was warm, smelling faintly of polished mahogany, rich leather, and the lingering, smoky wood-spice scent of expensive cologne.

Olivia stirred, her eyelids heavy as lead, her head pounding with a dull, throbbing ache behind her eyes. She tried to lift a hand to rub her forehead, but her arm refused to move. A sharp, metallic clinking sound echoed through the silent room.

Panic rushed through her system like ice water, instantly snapping her fully awake.

Her eyes flew open.

She wasn’t in her room. She was lying on a massive, low-profile bed made of dark, heavy wood, surrounded by deep charcoal walls and subtle, warm ambient lighting built into the perimeter of the high ceiling. There were no windows. No sunlight. No door immediately in her field of vision.

She pulled her right arm again—harder this time. Her wrist slammed against a thick band of thick, heavy leather. Above her head, a thick steel ring integrated into the headboard rattled violently against its mountings.

Olivia gasped, twisting her torso, only to find both her wrists pinned firmly above her head. She looked down at her feet. Her ankles were similarly bound to the footposts, her legs held slightly apart in an uncompromising spread. The restraints were lined with soft, plush velvet, but underneath the softness lay unyielding steel and heavy-gauge leather. She was completely, entirely immobilized.

“No, no, no...” she gasped, her voice hoarse and raw. She pulled against the cuffs, thrashing her hips, her heavy sweater bunching around her waist as she tried to wrench her limbs free. “Help! Somebody help me!”

The hardware rattled loudly, the sound echoing off the soundproofed walls, but nothing gave.

“I wouldn’t strain yourself, dolcezza,” a deep, controlled baritone spoke from the dimness to her left. “The leather is reinforced with Kevlar weave, and the anchor bolts are set six inches into solid titanium. You will only bruise your wrists.”

Olivia froze, her breath catching violently in her chest.

From the shadows near a heavy marble fireplace, a tall figure rose from a plush wingback chair. Salvatore Capone was no longer wearing his charcoal suit jacket or his tie. He wore a simple, dark cashmere sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, dark trousers, and crisp leather shoes. He looked utterly at ease, relaxed, and entirely in control of everything within his sphere.

In his hand, he held a crystal tumbler half-filled with amber scotch, which he set down on a side table as he stepped into the light.

On his right cheekbone, three faint red lines stood out starkly against his pale skin—the claw marks she had left on him in the back of the SUV.

Olivia’s stomach dropped into a abyss. The memories came flooding back in a terrifying rush: the café, the rain, the black SUV, his hands on her throat, the agonizing sting of his palm against her rear, and the suffocating darkness as he cut off her breath.

“You...” she whispered, her voice trembling despite her desperate attempt to sound strong. “You’re the man from the coffee shop.”

“Salvatore,” he corrected gently, walking toward the side of the bed with slow, measured steps. “My name is Salvatore. It’s time you started using it.”

“Let me go!” Olivia screamed, her voice cracking as she renewed her frantic struggles, pulling against the leather straps until her skin pinched painfully. “Let me go, you sick bastard! This is kidnapping! You’re going to rot in prison for this!”

Salvatore reached the edge of the bed and stopped. He didn’t look angry; in fact, he looked mildly amused, his sharp hazel eyes scanning her thrashing body with cold, dark appreciation.

“Prison is for men who get caught, Olivia,” Salvatore said calmly. “And no one is looking for you where I have placed you. As far as the world is concerned, Olivia James has packed her bags and left the city.”

“My school—my job—”

“Handled,” Salvatore interrupted smoothly. “A resignation letter was emailed to The Daily Grind from your account early this morning. Your dormitory belongings were packed into three neat boxes by two of my associate’s team and cleared out before sunrise. A leave of absence was submitted to Columbia University.”

He leaned down, placing his hands flat on the mattress on either side of her hips, bringing his face inches from hers.

“You don’t exist out there anymore,” he murmured, his breath warm against her cheek. “You exist only in here. With me.”

“You’re insane,” she sobbed, tears finally breaking past her defense and spilling down her pale cheeks. “You’re a monster. I hate you!”

Salvatore reached out, his long, calloused thumb gently wiping away a tear from her cheek. Olivia jerked her head back to avoid his touch, but he caught her chin in a firm, unrelenting grip, holding her head steady.

“Hate is fine for now,” he said, his tone dropping an octave, becoming lower, rougher. “Hate has energy. It means you’re still fighting. But we are going to fix that attitude, step by step.”

His eyes shifted down to her body, taking in her disheveled state. “First, you need to learn how to speak to me. When I enter a room, you do not yell. You do not curse me. You address me properly.”

“Go to hell,” she spat.

Salvatore stared at her for three long seconds. The air in the room felt instantly compressed, heavy with an absolute, lethal authority. He slowly let go of her chin, stood up straight, and walked toward a dark oak wardrobe near the wall.

He opened the door, reached inside, and pulled out a long, dark leather implement consisting of several thin, flexible tails bound together by a wooden handle wrapped in silver wire. A flogger.

Olivia’s heart thundered against her ribs, her breath coming in fast, shallow gasps. “What... what are you doing with that?”

Salvatore tested the weight of the leather in his hand, flicking his wrist slightly. A soft, sinister thwack echoed in the room.

“I told you in the car, Olivia,” Salvatore said, turning back toward her, his expression unreadable. “Every infraction has a consequence. I don’t tolerate disrespect from anyone in my organization, and I certainly will not tolerate it from the woman who belongs to me.”

He walked back to the side of the bed, trailing the leather tails over the mattress near her knee. The cool, heavy leather made her shudder violently.

“I am going to ask you a simple question,” Salvatore said softly, leaning over her. “And depending on your answer, we will see how your first morning in your new home begins. Who do you belong to?”

Olivia swallowed hard, her tongue feeling like sandpaper. She looked at the heavy leather in his hand, then up into his hazel eyes—eyes that held no mercy, only an iron, uncompromising will. She was terrified, her whole body shaking violently against the velvet restraints, but deep inside her, a stubborn, buried ember of survival flared up.

She glared at him, her chin lifting slightly.

“I belong to myself,” she whispered defiantly.

Salvatore smiled—a dark, slow, predatory curling of his lips that sent a chill straight down into her soul.

“Wrong answer, dolcezza,” he purred.

He reached down, grabbing the hem of her oversized sweater, and with one swift, smooth motion, pulled it up over her head, leaving her exposed in her thin lace bra. He tossed the sweater onto the floor, his eyes darkening as he took in the pale, trembling line of her throat, her chest heaving with exertion, and the smooth skin of her stomach.

He raised the leather flogger.

“Lesson one,” Salvatore said, his voice cold as ice. “Begging begins when the pain starts.”