All Chapters of BOUGHT,TAMED AND TAKEN : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The rain soaked into her bones before she could even breathe again.Aria froze in place, her chest rising and falling with ragged breaths, staring at the figure that had emerged through the storm like a nightmare made flesh.“No,” she whispered, the word barely audible above the thunder.Luciano didn’t recognize him. But she did.She’d never forget that face.The man stepping forward was taller than she remembered. Broader. Time had thickened his features, darkened his eyes, but the cruel smile was exactly the same.“Hello, Aria,” he said, as if greeting her on a sunny afternoon, not in the middle of a gunfight.Luciano shifted in front of her again, tense and alert, one arm held slightly back to keep her behind him. “Who the fuck are you?”The man smiled, eyes flicking to Luciano with a familiarity that turned Aria’s stomach.“You must be the infamous Moretti,” he said. “Heard a lot about you. Not sure I’m impressed.”Luciano’s jaw clenched. “I’ll ask one more time. Who are you?”But

Aria sat up straighter in bed, the silk sheets clinging to her bare skin, but the warmth of the moment had already dissolved into ice.“They found Clara,” Luciano repeated, more to himself than to her, the glow from the phone painting harsh lines across his face.Aria didn’t blink.The name clanged around in her chest like a warning bell. She had only heard Clara’s name once, whispered during a tense conversation between Luciano and Matteo, but it had stayed with her—an unsolved puzzle, a ghost with a name.“Who is she?” she asked quietly, her fingers tightening around the fabric at her chest.Luciano didn’t look at her right away. He was still staring at the message, his jaw set so tightly she thought he might crack a tooth.“She used to be my fiancée.”Aria froze.The silence between them turned sharp.His eyes finally met hers. “It was before you. Before all of this. I thought she was dead.”“What happened to her?”“She disappeared three years ago. Blood on the sheets, her ring lef

The warehouse swallowed her whole.Aria stepped through the rusted doorway, heart hammering like a war drum in her chest. The darkness wasn’t just physical—it felt thick, pressing in on her, carrying the scent of salt, dust, and something metallic.Blood.Her boots echoed against the concrete floor as she walked, every step sounding far too loud.“Clara?” she called, her voice cutting into the silence.Nothing.Then—a faint hum.Lights flickered on above, one by one, in long fluorescent strips. Cold, clinical lighting. They illuminated the center of the space: a chair. A figure. Bound. Head slumped.“Clara!” Aria broke into a sprint.She dropped to her knees in front of her sister, hands shaking as she reached out. “Clara, it’s me. I’m here.”Clara stirred, her eyes fluttering open. Swollen. Bruised. But alive.“Don’t—” Clara rasped through the gag.Before Aria could react, a sharp clack echoed across the space.She turned.The doors slammed shut behind her. Heavy locks clicked into p

The silence in Luciano’s bedroom was too thick, like the air itself had learned how to hold its breath.Aria sat at the edge of the bed, her robe barely clinging to one shoulder, her pulse still running wild from what had just happened. She was trying to process it—his touch, his words, the way his darkness had wrapped around her like velvet and flame. Every inch of her skin remembered him. Every part of her mind tried not to.Luciano stood by the window, shirtless, smoke curling from the cigarette between his fingers. His tattoos caught the faint amber glow of the city lights, each line of ink telling a story she hadn’t earned the right to hear yet. He hadn’t looked at her since it ended.That frightened her more than his anger ever could.“You didn’t have to stop,” she said quietly, the words catching in her throat like glass. “Back there. In the hallway. You wanted to break me.”His head tilted just slightly. “That’s not why I stopped.”Aria stood, her robe falling shut around her

The night air clung to Aria’s skin like a second layer of silk—humid, heavy, and tinged with danger. She stood in the open courtyard of the De Luca estate, barefoot on the cold marble, the moon casting a pale shimmer over the fountain’s rippling surface. Her mind echoed with Luciano’s words from earlier: “You don’t know what you’ve started.”She hadn’t meant to provoke him. Not really.But something inside her had shifted. Maybe it was the ache of wanting him and hating him all at once, or maybe it was the fact that she was tired—tired of being controlled, caged, watched.She pressed her palm to her chest. Her heart was racing, not just from fear—but anticipation.Footsteps.She turned sharply, already knowing it was him.Luciano emerged from the shadows, his suit jacket discarded, shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms. His jaw was tight, and his eyes… they weren’t cold tonight. No, they burned. With restraint. With something darker.He stopped in front of her, so close she could sm