Page 37 of Captive Vows
I gaped at him.
“What do you think?”
I couldn’t speak. I could only stare at him and try not to cry.
He leaned in, teasing me with the possibility that he might kiss me. He didn’t. Closing in until he could whisper in my ear, his big hands braced on my back to keep me snug against him, he whispered, “Twenty-nine.”
I laughed. The burst of amusement jarred me, and I reared back. “What are those tallies for, anyway?”
“To be determined,” he answered cryptically. “Tell me. What do you think, Gabriella?”
“I think…” I stepped away from him, too overwhelmed to endure his touches any longer. “I think this is wonderful. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. It’s forme?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets as he watched me. “I got to thinking that maybe you refuse to dance for me because you don’t have a studio to dance in.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like you don’t spy through a crack in the door,” I teased back.
He shrugged.
“This is amazing.” It was kind of him. It was even sweet of him. And it made absolutely no sense at all. He’d told me over and over how I was his possession, nothing more, yet he’d go to the extremes of gifting me something likethis?
“Amazing enough that you’ll dance for me?”
I lowered my gaze, smiling wide. “Turn up the music.” If he wanted me to dance for him…
I would.
It no longer felt like a war, to withhold from him. To hide myself from him. I’d been here for a month now. While I was no closer to understanding what he wanted from me, I was tempted to believe I was living a better life—in some ways—like this than I had before.
He walked toward the panel on the wall that controlled the music. As the volume rose, I tamped down this excitement that he’d done this for me. That this rich and powerful man hada dance studio created all for little, oldme. The nobody. The outcast. The poor girl from the bad neighborhood.
The woman who was given to a Mafia boss as a payment.
Shutting out all my thoughts, I let the music reach me. Like always, it flowed through me and I moved. I followed the beat. I practiced my steps. Like this, Iwasfree and would be forever.
While I danced, I felt his stare burning on my skin. All those heated looks he gave me were tangible touches I craved. But like this, while I danced for him in this gorgeous state-of-the-art studio, I wondered if this pleased him. If his giving me something as grand as this meant he had a heart after all.
Maybe he did, but I couldn’t lower my guard any more than I had so far.
I couldn’t.
Not for any man. Not even him. It had been drilled into my head and my heart for too long that the only person I could truly trust was myself.
The song finished. Then he clapped. Slowly and steadily, he clapped as he pushed off the wall he’d been leaning on as he watched me. As he stared at me like I’d given him the greatest reward of all—my submission.
Over my dead body.
“Thank you, Luka.” I did a little curtsy.
“I feel like I should be thanking you.” He approached, shoving his hands back in his pockets as he eyed me from head to toe.
13
LUKA
Gabriella was happy.
She wouldn’t admit it. That would be too much of an allowance for me.
