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The Deal With The Devil 32
StefanI woke at my usual time, three o'clock in the morning, and lay listening to Veronica sleep, her naked body pressed against mine. I opened my hand wide on her belly, holding as much of her as I could.Last night had been good. Better than I expected. The physical attraction between us was mutual, but there was more than that. I wanted to hold on to it, to that thing, whatever it was. I knew it was important.And impermanent.Because I couldn't have that, and the reason I'd done this in the first place. It was one or the other.The old man's test only strengthened my resolve.I couldn't forget why I was doing this. Why she was here.I wouldn't.Rolling over onto my back, I stared up at the sliver of moonlight that slipped between the split in the curtains and streaked the ceiling. Veronica made a sound, and for a moment I thought I'd woken her, but then she curled up against me, the top of her head burrowing into me, her body hugging into itself, little fists and knees close. Unm
The Deal With The Devil 33
VeronicaThe next morning when I woke, Stefan was gone. I wondered if he slept, how many hours he slept. Last night, after making love to me—and he had made love to me—he'd washed me so tenderly, so carefully, it surprised me. Although maybe it shouldn't have. Maybe duality was the norm with him. Maybe knowing he had a capacity to be tender would make a difference, would make tolerating him when he was terrible bearable. Because I also knew he would be terrible.Or maybe that knowledge would only make those moments that much harder.After the night in Civitella in Val di Chiana, I didn't know how I'd be able to go through with the wedding. The wedding night. But then he'd told me why. My grandfather had used Robyn like a pawn. He'd seen a window, my weakness, and had used it against Stefan.I needed to talk to my grandfather. I needed to confront him and hear from him his side of the story, about the stealing, about his agreement with Stefan. But I wasn't fool enough to think he'd tel
The Deal With The Devil 34
VeronicaI decided I'd be irritated about Eric instead. I could drive a car. But he didn't want Eric there as a driver. He wanted security. I thought back to the night before, to those men who'd come late, the ones he'd met with in his study. I shivered at the memory of how the one had looked at me."What is it?" Robyn asked."Nothing. Just that we have a driver," I said with resigned smile.Robyn studied me for a minute. She knew I was hiding something but thankfully, she didn't comment."You're not going to wear those sandals, are you?" I said, looking at her feet. "It's a lot of walking." She had on a pair of beautiful, brand-new sandals with a two-inch heel. I'd slipped on a pair of well-worn Toms."They're cute. I have to break them in somewhere.""Siena's probably not the place to break them in.""Beauty doesn't come free," she said, shrugging a shoulder."Nerd."She stuck her tongue out at me.After breakfast, we left Charlie behind. Eric drove us to Siena, where my grandfather
The Deal With The Devil 35
StefanBy the time I got home, it was well past midnight. I went directly to my room, not sure if she'd have done as she'd been told or not, but there she was, asleep in my bed. She was still dressed and on top of the sheets. Her arm hung over the side, and a book lay facedown on the floor.She must have been waiting up for me. Or trying to.I watched her for a few minutes. She wore white shorts and a yellow tank top, and long wisps of chestnut hair had fallen all over her back and arm. Her legs had tanned a little, and looking at her bare feet turned in a little at the toes, it made her look like a child. Like she needed protection.And she did.More than she knew.I touched her face. She made a sound and turned away, still asleep. I picked up her book. When Nietsche Wept. I raised my eyebrows."Interesting choice."After setting her bookmark in the page that was open, I placed it on the nightstand, then sat on the bed and pushed the hair off her face to look at her.She wore no make
The Deal With The Devil 36
StefanWhile my mind warred, she lay sleeping, oblivious and unconscious beside me. She held such a strange power over me.Why couldn't I hate her? I was supposed to fucking hate her.I got out of bed, angry and irritated and frustrated as fuck, and went downstairs, through the kitchen, taking old faithful—my favorite bottle of whiskey—with me. I didn't bother with a glass. Didn't need one. I knew where I was going. To that hated place.Still no fucking lock on the door. I couldn't do it. Couldn't chance not being able to get in there.I opened the cellar door, the smell already taking me back years and years.Was this a twisted sanctuary of sorts? A tangled, dark thing, one I couldn't escape, one I dreaded that drew me back time and time again?I drank gulps of whiskey as I made my way down the stairs. No lights tonight. I didn't need them. I knew every inch of the place, and the two small windows at the top of the one wall let in enough moonlight. It fucking highlighted the whipping
The Deal With The Devil 37
StefanVeronica reached out to take my hand, the one that held the whip, and walked behind me. When the fingers of her other hand traced the scars on my back, I flinched, tightening every muscle. She stopped moving but didn't pull away. With an exhale, I bowed my head, my hand turning into a fist on the post.She followed each line, her touch like a feather. She saw everything. She saw me. And I let her. I stood there, and I let her. And only after she'd acknowledged every scar did she pull away. It was only for a moment, and I remained as I was. When I felt her breath on me, her lips on my back, kissing me softly, kissing scar tissue, I shuddered.When I turned, she straightened. She stood naked. She'd stripped off the T-shirt. Her nipples tightened in the cool cellar air. I looked at them, at her. And when I took her and turned her so she stood with her back to the post, she let me. Even though her gaze warily skimmed the whip, she let me.Kissing her, I drew her wrists up over her
The Deal With The Devil 38
VeronicaI woke up in Stefan's arms. I didn't move and tried to keep my breathing level. What in hell had happened last night? How close had I come to being whipped? I knew he'd needed that scene—that insane scene—to happen. He couldn't tiptoe around the past any longer. Maybe coming back here, maybe subconsciously, he'd sought the confrontation because without it, there could be no relief. I hoped that last night was his victory over the demons that haunted him. I hoped that last night, he'd banished them to the hell in which they belonged.What kind of childhood had he had?What kind of guilt did he carry on his shoulders?He'd told me he'd protected his brothers from his father, and I understood he took whippings to save them. What he'd said last night, though, had his father—once Stefan was too big to beat—had he turned his rage on Stefan's mother?What a beast. What a monster.I looked up at my husband's sleeping face. It was the first time I'd seen him like this. The first time
The Deal With The Devil 39
Veronica"Don't you ever do that to me again, understand?""Which part, this?" I gave him the finger again. "Or the walking away?"He squeezed my arm, his mouth tightening. "You want to play after all?"I narrowed my eyes, but my heart pounded at the look in his eyes, the tone of his voice. I always seemed to forget my inexperience. Forget his power.Or maybe I just thought things had shifted between us last night."We can play."He turned me and pushed me over the footboard of the bed.I made to get up, but he pressed a hand between my shoulder blades and kept me down, then shoved the T-shirt up over my back and spread my legs apart before coming to stand between them. I felt him then, felt his hardness at my ass, and as much as I didn't want to, as much as I wanted to stay angry, my body was responding, like it always did to Stefan."You have a great ass, Veronica," he said, then slapped it once."Ow!""Keep your face on the bed."He twisted my hair around his hand and leaned over m
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