Page 17 of Temptation
His words come out clipped, and it stirs something inside me at how angry he is about the men who chased me.
I’m not proud of the story. I am the naive girl Hans fears I am, going camping with strangers in the woods. This man is acting as protective of me as Hans would, and I feel a pang of guilt for my big brother. He won’t be expecting me home until tomorrow, and I wonder what I’ll tell him.
I follow Lorenzo out of the dining room and up the hall to the bedroom. I’m not thinking much about where we’re going until I see the bed with the metal bars.
Someone’s been in to make the bed and lay out fresh clothes. I wonder again at who Lorenzo is, that he has unseen staff doing his bidding who don’t find it strange to make up a bed with a cage around it.
But whenever I ask him about himself, he gets evasive. Over the course of dinner, I learned he has two brothers and he’s lived in the mountains most of his life. He’s in business with his brothers, but I’m not clear about what that business is. Something to do with importing goods, I think.
My thoughts snap back to reality when I see the bed and the cage. Lorenzo stops in the middle of the room so suddenly that I almost run into him.
He turns to me, and his dark eyes find mine. This close, I notice the lines around the corners of his eyes and the permeant ones that crease his brow. He told me he’s thirty-six, which is fifteen years older than me. That thought excites me too. Everything about this man exudes sex, and yet he hasn’t laid a finger on me.
My head is hazy with wine, and as I look into his intense eyes, I long for him to kiss me. We stand looking at each other for a long time, but he doesn’t make a move. I’m beginning to think I’ve read the situation wrong when he speaks.
“So, Greta, have you decided?”
I frown at him. “Decided what?”
“Do you want me to drop you at home, or do you want to climb into the cage and explore what might happen?”
His gaze sweeps lazily over my body and lingers on my chest. My breathing becomes labored, and under his look my nipples tighten. A smile spreads over his face, and he watches in fascination as the hard peaks of my nipples press through the flimsy fabric.
All the reasons why I should go back home run through my mind. I can go back to the cabin I share with Hans, pretend the camping went well and none of this ever happened. I’ll go back to my waitressing job, serving wealthy clients like Chad meals that cost more than my nightly wage.
I can stay a virgin, making bad decisions when any man gives me attention, and spend my nights dreaming about the mysterious dark man in the woods who likes to watch.
Or I can climb into that cage and see what happens if I give in to my wildest fantasies.
After a long moment, I walk to the bed and slip off my shoes. My heart’s hammering in my chest as I grasp the metal bars and pull myself through the door and onto the bed.
The slamming of metal on metal jolts my body and sends a shiver of anticipation through my bones.
When I turn around, Lorenzo is holding the key. “We’re going to explore your fantasies, Greta. You’re an innocent coniglietto, but I bet there’s a wild bobcat inside. Let’s see if we can coax her out.”
He puts the key in the lock but pauses before he turns it.
“If it gets to be too much, if you want out at any time, you say lollipop.”
The fact that I need a safe word brings home the reality of what I’m about to do. Never in my twenty-one years did I think I’d be in a situation where I needed a safe word. I swallow my nervousness and nod.
“I need to hear you say it, Greta.”
“Lollipop,” I whisper, my throat almost too dry to speak.
Lorenzo smiles. “Good girl. There’s an intercom system hidden in the left hand headboard panel. If I’m not in the room, that’s how you find me.”
My breathing settles knowing there are safeguards in place. This is a safe space, and despite everything, I feel safe around Lorenzo.
I sit up on my knees, and the satin dress pools around me. I clasp the bars with a confidence I don’t yet feel.
“What do you want me to do?”
9
LORENZO
Greta’s a vision in the figure-hugging dress, half innocent, half temptress. Her expression is a mixture of excitement and fear, like the trapped coniglietto she is.
