CHAPTER 8
ADRIANA'S POV I DIDN'T know what to feel about everything that was happening right now, it was all so unexplainable. Be it nervousness, anxiety or any other emotions, everything happened so fast I couldn't keep track of it. My feelings were a mixture of all the negative emotions you could think of, and in its trail, it left me feeling jittery.I didn't know how to react to the fact that I was going to live with this absolute stranger, and to be used for whatever he intended to do with me.
I tried to study him for a while, his face, his looks. He did look rich– Obviously, but that wasn't the only thing that got my attention. It was this dark looming expression he had that was hard to explain, it was as though he kept it secret for a purpose. We drove in a different car from the rest, with my face glued to the glass as I watched life speed past me.A soft music played from the radio and its peaceful tune made my mind drift away with diverse thoughts plaguing it.
I couldn't help but think about how life was going to be now; it was obvious that something had definitely being changed by fate and circumstances.Deep down I had the feeling that things were going to be fine after all. He did hit me once across the face but other than that there were no signs he would be as abusive as my stepfather had been.
In fact, he seemed way better off.
A few minutes later, we stopped at an astonishing penthouse and for a minute, I had to hold my jaw from letting it fall to the floor.I had initially thought that the other cars were coming right behind us but it was starting to look like we would be the only one staying at this particular penthouse.
He grabbed my bag from the backseat, and I followed him into the house. It was ten times larger than ours and quite extravagant.I began to imagine just how much this man was worth and the thought made me quite scared because I just realized that I had bitten on the wrong finger.
I had stolen from the wrong person and now I was going to pay for every dime I took. I distinctly remembered the amount of money I had seen in his credit card and I shook my head, noting that this man was a lot richer than I had imagined earlier.
He closed the door behind us as we entered the apartment. I glanced around quickly at the artwork and wallpaper adoring the wall, the kitchen filled with steel appliances, the marble floor and the living room. Another separate living room stood right there to the right of me, through the cracked door I could see a stripping pole right in the middle. ‘What kind of man has a stripping pole in the middle of his room’…I thought to myself. He must had caught me looking because he had had a smug look on his face that I so much wanted to wipe off and I swallowed when he shut the back door with anunmistakable click. "…And this is the bedroom." He said not hiding any bit of expression . I was still in shock about how everything was turning out to be but still I couldn't help noticing the way he had stressed the word bedroom and didn’t know how to process it completely, or at all. It felt like I was going through the motions while my thoughts lagged behind; I was divided between what I was going to do and if I was going to deal with every bit of this. There was a need for me to stay away from him as much as I could, I wanted to stay indifferent as I possibly could, but with each passing minute all it left in me was a feeling so impassive there was not a word I would even use to describe it. He dropped my bag into an armchair as he walked toward the mini bar right there at the side of his living room. This place might be an epitome of beauty, but no matter how I tried picturing it, I could not place myself right there into the picture. I stood planted next to the door, watching him move with grace, realizing we've hardly had anything to talk about or rather we've hardly said any word to ourselves since we got in. As a strong feeling enveloped me, I looked around at the room again that still had the curtains closed, and only small shards of light coming through, leaving the room dimly lit. I watched as he poured himself a finger of whiskey while I watched, with the way he looked at me from across the room it made me fully aware of his perverse thoughts towards me. He looked very much like a dangerous man, the type that would break a woman's heart without feeling any remorse but I wasn’t here to get my heart broken or fixed, I was here to pay back a stolen money. He watched me as he leaned against the small bar, running his eyes all over my figure – Head to toe. The longer he looked at me the more my heart pumped faster, pushing nerves through my veins. I could not help but imagine how many women had stripped in the pole I had prior seen.I wondered how many women he had been with and what he expected of me. A lot of other thoughts flashed in my mind as I tried to imagine how many women he had slept with in this bed I was sitting on. I knew deep down I was inexperienced and worried I won't be able to deal with him when it all came down to certain things. He pulled on his tie while walking out of the room, He set the cigar he had been smoking on the island and then looked at me. “you look lost " "Really? I didn’t realize that." I blurted and after realizing that I had sounded rude, I swallowed and nodded my head. With his hands braced on the counter, he nodded his head at me. Instinctively, my stomach fluttered when he glanced at me, his eyes molten. "You can reach me on any of the saved numbers." He said, pointing to the bedside lamp but I wasn’t sure if the numbers were written on the lamp. "…and I will have a phone bought for you tomorrow, your present phone is mine now." He added, looking at me in a way that seemed so daring. He said so many other things that I couldn’t quite make sense of because my mind was so fogged up, nothing else was making sense. At that point, all I needed was a good rest and a peaceful sleep, so when he closed the door and walked out of the room leaving me alone I was excited. I wasted no time getting my ass into the shower and watched as water trickled down my leg into the drain.This was only the beginning but I already knew that I was going to have one hell of a time.
Adriana’s POVThe cold water from the shower overhead trickled down my face and skin, leaving a numb chillness in its wake and despite the fact that I was bathing with clean water and I could perceive the sweet scenting soap on my skin, I still felt really dirty and stinky, like filth.“No matter what you do Adriana, you’re filth and filth you’ll remain for as long as you live!” Amy’s harsh words rang in my ears like music from a broken tape, and for the first time in my life, I welcomed it. I welcomed her insults and her down talking; and I welcomed every other negative feeling that came with being the unwanted child… the black sheep.I distinctly remembered how I used to desperately clamor for her attention and then after mother remarried, I began to clamor for a sense of belonging, for love, for care until I realized that all I had been doing for the most of my childhood was clamoring for things that I couldn’t get… things I could never have.Tears leaked out of my eyes as I thoug
Adriana's POVTHE music suddenly stopped and so did I. I knew it was unprofessional for me to stop dancing as the music stopped but I had been looking for that opportunity ever since I begun dancing.I could feel his razor-sharp focus running across my skin like trickling water and raking through every fibre of my being, it made me so nervous that when I finally got to the pole, I looked at it as if I did never danced on one before.I couldn’t even bring myself to touch it, let alone hold it due to the amount of anxiety that his eyes were making me feel. It was the kind that an entire club had not been able to me feel as I was able to do this almost every night, but with him it was different. His steely gaze was making me jittery, and this thing quite impossible.As expected, it didn't take long for him to snap and then he began to yell at me asking me if I was going to dance eventually or wait till it was finally Dawn.With trembling lips I responded that I was going to dance and the
Adriana's POVMassimo hadn't been joking when he said he needed me to dance for him every damn night. At first, I had thought that he’d been joking until he literally made me do it. He was like a walking alarm clock. Everyday, the moment the clock hits eight, he would burst right into my room like someone in a hot chase, and then sit on the couch with his legs spread, giving me a very lustful look. It was the usual… it was becoming quite a ritual.Within that look, I could sense impatience, and in most cases I could also sense danger… a kind of danger that would most definitely consume me whole if I didn't get my ass up to do what he wanted. I reluctantly got up, still holding his stare. I had already worn lingerie under, so I stripped slowly, bending over to remove my pants. The pole was beginning to sicken me now that I looked at it, but I didn't have a choice. I wrapped my legs around it, sliding down the pole to the ground.My legs, most especially my inner thighs were every s
Adriana’s POVNow I understand why people in psychiatrist hospitals found it sickening to be cooped up in a room for a long period of time. The fact that it only made them crazier related to my present situation so much that I could almost imagine myself clad in their shabby garments.I could almost think that I was fast turning into a psycho because these days, my routine was basically the same. I'd wake up, sit and stare, and then begin to think of the different ways I could give Massimo a painful but slow death. I only get food if he's in a good mood, and if he's in the best of moods, I get to eat twice.Right now, he was in my room and it seemed like he was in a good mood today. In fact, he had been in a good mood for most of the week as he hadn't even made me dance for him since the week began; moreover his look was different.It was less scornful and it was lighter. He simply sat and watched me from the couch, with a wine glass in his hands and a very heavy look in his eyes.
Adriana’s POVThe only thing I could hear aside from myself thinking was the incessant sound of the wall clock ticking. If I said I wasn't cold, that would be a lie. I was cold as fuck, but I didn't think I'd be able to stand up to get under the duvet or even find something to protect me from the harsh weather. Ever since last night, after Massimo had fired the gun and I had been thrown into this room, I had fallen to the floor and that was where I remained even till now. The tears that had dripped from my eyes continued slipping out even after hours and now I could swear that my eyes were already puffy and red even though I couldn’t see them. The silence that dwelled with me that night was sickening and the darkness… was something else altogether. I was so scared, scared of the dark and scared of Massimo that now he had slowly become an object of my nightmares.I was scared of what he would do to me. If he had been able to kill Jack without a second thought, Jack who had worked w
Massimo’s POVMy hands shook violently as I held the wine glass and tried to take a sip. It was so bad that a few droplets splattered on my fingers and on the table, drawing the attention of a few of my boys to me but I quickly shrugged it off and desperately tried to ignore their curious stares. I shook my head in confusion, wondering what was happening to me but no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think that this was all Adriana’s fault. She was the reason I was like this as I just couldn't get my mind off her. The fact that she had planned with Jack to escape from me angered me. She needed to understand that she was mine and I wasn't going to let her go. That Jack of a guy infuriated me too but thankfully I had been in a good mood, else that bullet would have definitely landed in his skull and not in my sofa.I wasn’t sure why but I had decided not to kill him for some reason, and so I had just preferred to lock him up in one of my cells until I had come
Massimo’s POV“And make sure you ask Micheal to send me those files first thing in the morning! We're behind schedule, Gina." I growled but before she had the opportunity to reply, I ended the call angrily, not wanting to listen to her flimsy excuses anymore. We had been preparing vigorously for a merger that we were trying to get and finally, the meeting was tomorrow. She had called me again this evening after I got home, asking for directions, for the files even though I had told her earlier that day. At the office, I had given her instructions when wewere having our final meeting, but because Micheal and her had been busy eye raping each other during the entire course of the meeting, nothing had gone into one of their ears, making me have to repeat myself which was something I didn’t enjoy doing.I had a long day at the office, trying to make sure that everything went well and was so bothered about it that even after I got home, it was the only thing I could think of. I immediate
Massimo’s POVAs soon as she said those words, my resolve fell and I looked at her face, noticing how her eyes had suddenly filled with tears.“Anna, that's not-"“Don't call me that!" She screamed, making me quickly shut my mouth as I stared at her in both shock and confusion. What the heck?She slowly got up from the chair, pushed the plate in front of her in my direction and began to walk away from me but I wasn't going to let her do that. She hadn't eaten anything all day, and she was about to go to bed on an empty stomach. “Get back here and sit down!" I yelledAt the sound of my voice, she turned around, looked me right in the eye and seethed;“Or what?" “…or I will punish you severely for that attitude… and then I’ll go straight to the hospital right now and pull the plug on your mother." The frown on her face fell and I saw her shoulders fall. My words seemed to have some sort of effect on her as she immediately walked back to the table with her head down and then sat back