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Chapter 6 – The Hallway Trap
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2025-04-14 16:10:23The rear hallway of the club pulsed with muted red light and the muffled bass thumping of the main floor. It was tight, bordered by peeling paint and the reek of old perfume—choking, intimate.
Sera walked with her head down, hoodie half-zipped, heels clicking against tile. Her shift had just ended. She was tired, drained, her mind spinning from the last few nights.
More gifts.
More notes. More glances from the shadows. She hadn't seen him tonight.*Good.*
But just as she got to the staff door, she felt it again. That *pull*. The dense pressure of eyes upon her. She stopped.Her breath caught as the air behind her altered—denser now, electric, humming.
And then—
"Leaving without saying goodnight, *bella*?"
Sera turned.
Valerio.
He stepped out of the shadows like he'd been sliced from them. All black suit, open collar, his shirt stretched just tight enough to hint at tattoos and sin.
She swallowed, hard.
The hallway suddenly felt like a trap. Like a cage with velvet walls and gold locks.
"I didn't know you were here," she said, voice low.
His mouth moved into a slow, dangerous smile.
"That's the point."
She backed up, but her back struck the wall.
He didn't touch her.
Didn't need to.
He just stalked forward, one slow, deliberate step at a time, until he was a breath away. His scent washed over her—leather, smoke, spice, and danger. Her knees softened before she could stop them.
He placed one hand flat on the wall beside her head.
The other followed shortly.
Trapping her.
Caging her.
But… not touching.
Her gaze lifted to his, defiant despite the tempest in her breast.
"What do you want, Moretti?"
His gaze dropped to her lips. "You. Dripping. Shaking. Moaning my name like it's the only word you know."
Sera's breath hitched.
Her thighs snapped shut on reflex, the raw want in his voice sending a spark straight to her sex.
"You're disgusting," she whispered.
He smiled more.
"No. I'm honest."
His voice dipped, darkened, until it was like silk wrapping around her.
"Every time you get up on that stage, I'm sitting there wondering what your pussy tastes like. If it's as sweet as you look when you're pretending you don't see me."
Her face burned.
Go to hell," she spat.
He leaned in—*close*, so close his mouth brushed the curve of her ear without touching.
"Oh, sweetheart… if you had any notion the things I'd love to do to you…" His mouth grazed her skin. "You'd be *begging* me to take you there."
Her eyelids fluttered closed.
God.
He wasn't even touching her and her whole body *hurt*.
You think you're in control," she said unsteadily, making herself open her eyes. "But I see right through you."
He leaned his head a little to the side, interested.
"Oh?"
"You're accustomed to having women fall at your feet. And it's killing you that I won't."
He laughed low, and the vibrations of it rippled through her belly.
You think I need you to fall at my feet?" His voice dipped to a whisper. "No, *piccola.* I need you to struggle. I need to *destroy* that defiance… one dirty, shattered moan at a time."
A shudder tore through her body.
She tried to step around him.
He moved with her—still not touching, still boxing her in with nothing but presence.
"Let me go."
His eyes locked on hers, heat and menace sparking behind them.
"I could," he whispered. "But where's the fun in that?"
He leaned in again, this time barely brushing his lips against her ear.
"I'm going to keep whispering filth into your pretty little head until it's the only thing you think about. Until you *want* me to touch you. Until you *need* it."
"Not gonna happen," she breathed.
He smiled.
It was slow, patient, cruelly confident.
"Everyone breaks. Especially the ones who say they won't."
And then, just like that, he stepped back.
The absence of his body was a slap of cold air.
Her knees nearly buckled, but she stayed upright, barely.
Valerio eyed her over one last time, eyes lingering on her heaving chest, the flush of heat in her cheeks.
"Goodnight, Sera."
He walked away, leaving her standing in that narrow corridor with nothing but her racing heart, trembling limbs… and a wet heat between her thighs that belied every word her mouth had uttered.
She hated him.
She wanted him.
And that scared her more than anything on this earth.
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Velvet Chains Chapter 7 – Bruises and Butterflies
The dressing room was silent, dark.The other girls had already left for the night, their heels echoing down the hall, their perfume lingering like ghosts. Sera sat alone in front of the mirror, removing her makeup in slow, tired strokes. Her lashes fluttered, smudges of eyeliner staining her cheeks like war paint.She didn't gaze at her reflection anymore.She gazed at the past.The way it coiled around her neck in quiet moments. The way it slid into her chest and tightened until she forgot how to breathe.And tonight—after Valerio's whispered obscenities in the hallway, the heat of his breath on her ear, the way he didn't touch her—but could have?It all came rushing back.**The first man to touch her without her permission was when she was fifteen.**The sun had already set behind the red roofs of the trailer park. Her little brother Ezra was asleep on the sofa after another asthma attack. Her mother was working the late shift again, which really meant she'd be stumbling home drunk
最終更新日 : 2025-04-16Velvet Chains Chapter 8 – Dancing for the Devil
The club throbbed with its late-night energy—red lights, pounding bass, guys with too much cash and too little heart. But for Sera, time was slowing to a crawl.Since that night—since Valerio had touched her with more gentleness than she thought him capable of—something had shifted.He wasn't returned yet, but she could *feel* him in every darkness.The girls noticed.“You’ve got a secret admirer,” one teased as they slipped past her in the hallway. “Big spender, too.”Sera ignored the comment. But the weight of Valerio’s presence was impossible to shake.Another gift had arrived that morning. A simple thing—a black velvet ribbon tucked into a box. No note. Just the ribbon. A whisper of a collar.She’d left it at home.Still, it burned in her mind.*Dancing for the devil*, the phrase repeated.She hadn't even seen the club owner until his deep voice shook her out of the haze."Valez wants to see you," Gregor said to her.Sera blinked. "Now?"He nodded toward the back of the bar, where
最終更新日 : 2025-04-16Velvet Chains Chapter 9 – The Non-stage Stage
The club pulsed with the strobe of red lights and thick bass, bodies crowded against one another in smoke and lust. But Sera was not on stage tonight—not before the catcalls of the crowd, not before the glare that reduced every dancer to a product.No. Tonight the rules had changed.Tonight, she was dancing for *one* man, alone.And she hadn't agreed to it."Sera," Carmen spat across the bar, dark eyes bulging. "He bought out the whole goddamn VIP room. Said he'd double what you make in a week.""I didn't consent," Sera growled, arms clamped around her chest."You actually think that's going to count? You think anyone ever says no to Valerio Moretti?"Sera's back bristled at the mention of his name.*The devil in designer black. The man who whispered ugliness without so much as a touch.*He had darkness for eyes and lips like sins soaked in promises. And he *wanted her*. Not the Ice Queen. Not the fantasy.*Her.*And that was what scared her.But curiosity had burned hotter than fear
最終更新日 : 2025-04-16Velvet Chains Chapter 10 – Silk-Tethered
The club was quiet tonight.The music was muted, a soft beat in the shadows, a throb like the beat of an unseen heart below the surface of the building.Sera was in front of the mirror in the dancer's lounge, standing there staring at her reflection and not seeing it.Her fingertips caressed the outline of her collarbone.She'd never stopped thinking of last night. Of the way he'd *gazed* at her.About how she'd danced in clothes and somehow still made him hard.She hated the way it clung to her like a vice to sin—this said unspoken hunger but felt just as real.And she hated more the way that when she came out to the main floor, *he was already there waiting*.Valerio.The devil with eyes that promised everything she feared to want.He was in the same VIP room—again bought just for her. He wasn't appearing impatient. Didn't demand. Rather, he was reclining in his chair, arms on the armrests, that lazy, wicked smile playing at the edge of his mouth.When she entered the room, he didn'
最終更新日 : 2025-04-16Velvet Chains Chapter 11 – Owned and Bought
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最終更新日 : 2025-04-17Velvet Chains Chapter 13 — The Price of Disobedience
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最終更新日 : 2025-04-18
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Velvet Chains Chapter 72 - Valerio & Sera
The aftermath of the attack on the safehouse left a thick tension hanging in the air, heavier than the smoke and blood splatters they'd all but escaped. It was early dawn, but Valerio's world had been rewritten. The game had new rules.He stood on the edge of a cliff, beyond the forest clearing several miles from the desecrated safehouse, the wind cutting through his coat and nibbling at him. Sera followed him, silent. The night was silent too, too silent. Out in the distance, there were owls hooting into the night, peacefully unaware of the war raging in silence beneath their branches."We have to go," she whispered.Valerio changed, his face carved from stone. "Where?""To whoever's next on your list."She kept pace with him, slipping her hand into his. He glanced down at the manner in which her fingers curled around his—tight, unyielding."This doesn't stop until we find the one pulling the strings," she continued. "Until you're free."Valerio's face twisted. "Then we start with Da
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Rifle fire cracked through the underbrush like a fury of vengeance, echoing across the destroyed manor. Sera winced, racing heart still within her, as Valerio shielded her body with his. His arms wrapped around her, driving her behind a blackened pillar as rounds spat stone and ash into the air."Down!" he bellowed, voice booming over the chaos.His men returned fire, moving as precisely as surgeons. The ambush hadn't surprised Valerio—it had merely reinforced what he already knew: there was a mole in his organization, selling information to the enemy.Sera clung to the icy stone, her breathing short and shallow. She could feel the shock of the gunfire through the floor, smell the bitter flavor of metal and smoke. But it wasn't fear that bound her.It was rage.Whoever had enough guts to come for Valerio—enough guts to disrupt what they were building—would regret it.Valerio whirled, dropped down beside her. His mask was streaked with dirt, eyes burning hot with fury. "You believe me?
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Velvet Chains Chapter 64 - Valerio & Sera
The storm didn't wait.Thunder exploded overhead as rain pounded the roof of the estate in waves, washing away years' worth of dust. The air inside the mansion turned cold, the kind that crept into bones. Valerio and Sera did not move from the drawing room, though. They stayed on the bench of the broken piano, hands still loosely clasped, the resonance of their bond suspended between keys.Valerio's voice broke the silence. "I used to sneak in here when I was a kid to avoid my father's. lessons. This piano was the one thing that I did not find intimidating."Sera looked at him, her throat constricted in her throat. "Lessons?A muscle flexed in his jaw. "His way of making me 'a man.' Violence. Power. Control. Made me fight bigger boys until I couldn't walk. Made me watch things a child shouldn't."She touched him, her hand tracing along his. "And you came back here to confront it?"He met her gaze. "I came because the ghosts only let up on their chase when you meet them head-on.".Ligh
