Sienna
His hand is huge.Hell. He's huge.I reach out, place mine inside it and it feels warm and rough and when he closes his fingers over mine, his grip is firm, this gesture, it's as though I've already agreed.Because I know what I must do. I know why he brought me here. I have no doubt.You owe her nothing.I haven't seen or had any contact with Ciara in years. I didn't know she was in town.And she can't know that I am.I manage to get to my feet, and he's got to be a good foot taller than me.Even with my pumps, the top of my head barely reaches his chin.Heads turn as Giovanni, his presence at my back enough to guide me, leads me toward a door at the back of the room where a man stands sentry. He opens it at our approach.I hesitate."Go on," Giovanni says from behind me. He's standing closer than I realize and a shudder runs through me at the feel of his breath on the back of my neck.I hear the faint hint of his accent.I heard it throughout our conversation, stronger sometimes than others. It's in the way he says his r's.I walk inside and the lights go on. I realize I'm in his office.I don't want to be impressed or amazed, but this is spectacular. The walls aren't walls at all but windows overlooking the Las Vegas strip.Tonight is clear, and the lights blink in a rainbow of colors. This view, it's something out of a magazine.His desk is huge and modern, set at the far corner facing the entrance.There's a sitting area in another corner with sleek leather couches.Everything is top quality. I can tell."This way," he says, beckoning for me to come.I follow.He opens a door and I don't know what I expect, a bedroom maybe, but it's a bathroom. A large and luxurious bathroom and the walls here, too, are glass.I glance back at him."No one can see inside," he says and when he goes to close the door, I stop him."Wait."He looks down at me and I think how strange his eyes are. Different colors. One is a mossy-green, the other half green and half crystal-blue. The green is warm, the blue ice-cold.But I know any warmth I think I see is in my head. This man, he's all sharp edges. It's like someone took a beast out of the wild and put him in a thousand-dollar suit thinking it would somehow tame the animal inside.Somehow contain it.“Sienna?” he says my name and I realize I'm staring."She was going to do that? To pay you back?"He nods.“You want me to do that? Like those women? Because she can't?”"I'm merely giving you an option. It's your choice entirely.""You want to strip me, put me on that stage and sell me to pay a debt that's not my own?"He cocks his head to the side like he's a little annoyed. "Like I said, I'm giving you an option. I thought you'd want to help Ciara, considering you grew up together. She was certain if I could find you, that you'd want to help."“How did you find me?"He studies me and I see his eyes narrowing. He's remembering the driver's license, putting two and two together."Should it have been hard for me to find you? I mean, the house is under M. Williams. Although I am curious about the driver's license."I need to relax. Think. "I just... what you arranged with Ciara, you obviously took advantage of her — ”"Don't push me, Sienna. My kindness only goes so far.""Kindness?"“Yes, kindness. Besides,” he pauses as his gaze drops to my mouth, my chest. “I wouldn't be surprised if you drew more than what's owed.”"Is that supposed to make me feel better? To make this sound somehow more appealing? Not like what it is?"My voice is quaking, it's as unsteady as I feel.He shrugs a shoulder like he couldn't care less and checks his watch. "Let me know in the next five minutes."With that, he takes his phone out of his pocket and turns his back to me to walk toward his desk.I close and lock the bathroom door and lean my back against it.Five minutes.I have five minutes to decide this.Ciara's here and she knows I'm here. But why hasn't she approached me?I hold my hand out and realize it's trembling.I walk to the sink, turn on the cold water and splash handfuls of it onto my face, then dry it. The towel smells like him. I wonder when I noted what he smelled like.I hang the towel back on its rack and looking at my reflection, tuck the hair that's fallen out of the clip behind my ear.Those women that I saw up on that stage, they're in a league all their own. Me, the makeup I had on earlier today has disappeared, the only evidence of there having been any at all is the smudge of mascara on my temple. I wipe it away.I look down at my sweater, at my plain skirt and boots, everything second-hand but my bra and underwear. I look around the bathroom and I've never been in a world like this before. A world of money where a quarter of a million dollars is something you loan out.Where men like Giovanni rule and women are put on auction blocks to be sold to the highest bidder.Giovanni. Is that his first name or his last name? I don't even know.But I do know that I don't belong here. I don't belong in his world.And I am going to be sick.Because I know myself. Because Ciara was a kid when she told that lie and she was scared. As scared as me.But it's hard to remember that sometimes.Hell, I wish I could forget all of it, whole years of my life.We were supposed to leave together but after her betrayal, I ran. I didn't care that I left her behind. Not then.I didn't know much about now.Giovanni That was her decision.Sienna is taken backstage to be prepared.I sit at my table with Axel across from me. He's back from his errand.Axel Drake and I have known each other since I was sixteen years old. He's one of the few men I consider a friend.There were three years when he left Vegas and went east. It's a time he doesn't discuss though, not even with me. All I know about it is that he and his brother, Hugo, a man I've never met, spent time in prison there and I have a feeling it has something to do with that errand he ran earlier.I understand revenge and I don't care what Axel has to do to take care of what he needs to take care of as long as he's available when I need him. It's an understanding we have between us.He drinks the last of his whiskey and I pour him another.The gong goes off and the auctioneer announces this is the last of tonight's draw. They'll be anxious for it. I only have half a dozen girls at each party. Keeps them hungry."Want me to keep someo
I look at Sienna's tear stained, mascara-smeared face. She still can't see me. The spotlight is too bright on her. But she must recognize my voice and know that it was me who bought her.The men take her down from the platform. She still fights as she's removed from the stage. The curtain falls and the lights in the room go on announcing to everyone that it's the end of the night.Axel chuckles. "Told you," he mutters as I resume my seat."Fuck you," I say, the excitement I feel in my gut something foreign. Something I'd forgotten.One hour later, Sienna is delivered to my penthouse by the same two men in about the same fashion as when she threw that fit on the stage.I'm standing at the window with my back to the elevator when I hear the doors slide open. I sip my drink, watching the lights of the strip in this city that never sleeps.A city of vultures.Hungry.Always hungry.Always looking for innocent flesh with which to fill their bellies.I'm hungry, too.I set my empty glass on
Giovanni I don't like clutter or anything messy, not anywhere in my life.My eyes fall on that tartan again. Why have I kept it all these years? I need to talk to the maid. I don't want to have to see it every time I fucking turn around.Sienna lowers herself into the chair nearest her and farthest from me. She hangs her head and her hair falls forward like a veil between us, but I don't miss the tear that drops.She combs her fingers through the thick mass, sniffles and straightens her spine. She meets my gaze."One night," she says.I nod."And I'm free and you won't hurt Ciara.""Not a bad deal if you ask me.""You're not the one who has to fuck you."I chuckle at that. "You could do worse, sweetheart.""I'm not your sweetheart."I shrug a shoulder. I could give a fuck."What are you, anyway? What's your accent?" she asks.She hears it? I wonder if others do too. I've worked hard to rid myself of it. Rid myself of the past."Scots.""You're from Scotland?""Born in the Highlands."
Giovanni "Stop calling me that. I am not your sweetheart.""You'll be whatever I want you to be. You're bought and paid for, remember? Now get on your knees before you piss me off."Her face goes red, and rage rolls off her.I open my mouth to say something, but I don't expect what she does next.I don't expect her to slap me, not after my warning.Her gasp comes an instant after her hand collides with my face.I force a long, deep breath, feeling the sting of the slap. Feeling the rage bubble inside me. I tighten the muscles of my gut to tamp it down, to control it.I'm bigger than her. Stronger. I can hurt her in a way she can't hurt me. I have to be careful.When I shift my gaze back to hers, she has her hands to her mouth, and her eyes are huge. She's staring at me like she can't fucking believe what she just fucking did.It takes me a long time before I speak."You want to play rough, Sienna?" The words are a low, almost whispered threat.She swallows, shaking her head. Streaks
GiovanniI dip my head down and lick her and hear her sharp intake of breath as she goes dead still.I do it again, circling her clit, then taking it into my mouth."Please!" she cries out and when I suck that hard, little nub, it's moments before her back arches and she lets out a long moan. Her eyes are closed, face tense, hands fisted in their restraints and she's coming. She's coming hard and fuck, she tastes good. She tastes amazing.I don't go down on women. I haven't in too long to even remember their taste.But her. I can't get enough of her and when I ease my grip on her thighs, she bends her knees on my shoulders, squeezes and whimpers.I suck harder, drawing out her orgasm, wanting another."Oh God. Please stop!" She's panting and her thighs are squeezing and she's coming again, bucking with her release even as she begs me to stop.I taste her, relish her every breath, every whimper. I only let up when she falls limp on the bed.I kneel up between her legs, look at the gapi
SiennaI walk back into the bedroom and close the door.I look around, take in the sophistication of the place and for all its beauty, it's sterile. Cold. Too clean and impersonal. Only the rumpled sheets and the smell of sex make it less clinical.I walk into the bathroom, glancing at the lights of the strip as I go. The bathroom is big and it's the only room without windows for walls. I lock the door behind me although I don't think I need to. He won't come in.It smells like his aftershave and I wonder if he ever has women here because everything is so masculine.Switching on the shower, I step beneath the flow. Even his soap, when I lather it, smells like him. Like he's in here with me."You're safe."For some reason, being here, in his shower, in his room, in his bed, I feel safe. Which just goes to tell you how screwy my radar is.It's not that he's not dangerous. He is. But not to me. At least not right now.Tonight, I don't have to double-check the locks. Test every window.Ci
GiovanniShe's asleep when I wake in the early morning.It took her a long while to fall asleep but when she did, she slept heavy, not moving once as I held her. Her hair is still a little damp and I smell myself on her. My shampoo, the cologne still lingering on my T-shirt that she's wearing.Even after my shower and while I dress, she remains a still form beneath the covers of the bed.I leave instructions for her by the coffee machine. When she's ready, one of my men will drive her home. If she wants breakfast, she can go downstairs to the restaurant. They'll know to look after her.On the elevator, I type a text to my attorney.Find out what you can about the Williams family, Senator Sean Williams of Maine. I'm interested in the years Sienna Williams was fostered there. She was eleven years old so I'd guess twelve or thirteen years ago. Goes by alias Sienna Chase now. Photo to follow.I send both the text and a photo of her fake driver's license and it seems as soon as I hit send,
GiovanniI've known Jack for over a decade. Met him when I started to work for Lanigan.Murray Lanigan was about eighty when I met him in an alley where two idiots were trying to rob him. I say idiots because the fools didn't realize who they were fucking with.I knew. I knew from the minute I set foot on the strip.What the old man thought he was doing without his bodyguard I have no idea. To this day, I'm certain he suffered from some sort of dementia.The casino I own used to be his, but by the time I started working for him, he was old news. A legend, but old news.I beat up the two-bit thugs trying to rob him, and he hired me on the spot. I still think it's because he mistook me for one of his sons, long dead by the time I came on the scene. It was partly my accent, heavier then since I'd just gotten into the country about a month earlier.During one of his rare lucid moments, he changed his will, leaving the casino, hotel and the building itself to me. His children were pissed,