Angelo

I've never been so angry with Rosalia, not even when she made a bit of a scene at that first dinner party, not even when she mouthed off to me afterward. And I have no intentions of hiding it, or making this easier on her.


I march towards her, ignoring the way she shrinks back as I reach for her, the security parting around me like a wave as I do. She lets out a small yelp of protest as my fingers close around her elbow, but I ignore that too, leading her at a quick pace towards the door that goes to the smaller living room down the hall.

'No one is to disturb us," I tell one of the guards sharply. 'Make sure that no one does."

'Angelo—" Rosalia's voice is a thready whisper, and it stabs at my chest, but I swallow back the urge to go a little easier on her. I wait until we're inside the room, the doors securely shut behind us, and then I round on her.


'Do you haveanyidea how worried I was for you when I got the call that they'd lost sight of you? Do you have any idea what I imagined could have happened? Who could have taken you? You arevaluable, Rosalia, and your father's murderer is still out there somewhere! You were irresponsible, and you put yourself in danger, and—"

Her wide blue eyes are welling with tears. I try to ignore it, try to tell myself that she needs this, to have the magnitude of what she's done drummed into her without hesitation, but I can't help the way it makes me feel to see her like this.


She can't put herself in that kind of danger again. I can't lose her, too.

The thought startles me with its intensity, hinting at the sort of feeling that I can't let myself admit that I feel—not now, not for her. I take her elbow again, a little less roughly this time, and steer her towards the sofa in the center of the room.

'Angelo, what—" Her voice trembles, and I stop at the edge of it, looking down at her.

'You put yourself in danger today," I repeat firmly. 'You forced your security team to go on a wild-goose chase looking for you. You made me worry,terrifiedme that something was going to happen to you. You caused unnecessary upheaval in everyone's day, and for what? To explore on your own? To get coffee?"

Rosalia's lower lip trembles. 'I just wanted to feel normal for a minute," she whispers. 'Like a normal college student signing up for classes. I'veneverfelt normal. Not even a little."

I feel my chest tighten at her admission, and I want to sympathize with her, to let this go, to comfort her. But Ican't. I tell myself, as I look down at her, that this is for her own good. She has to learn the severity of what she did, the necessity of following the rules—especially right now.

'I can understand that," I tell her, allowing a little gentleness to seep into my tone. 'But all the same, Rosalia, what you did today was unacceptable. And you're going to be punished for it." I nod to her jeans. 'Unbutton your jeans and push them down to your thighs. Your panties, too."

Rosalia's eyes go round, and I see a red flush stain her cheeks. Her lip quivers, her hands trembling, and I harden my voice as much as I can—at the same time as I fight desperately to keep my cock from doing the same. I can't have an erection while she's across my lap—that's not what this is about. And I don't want to give her the wrong idea.

'Now, Rosalia," I tell her sternly, and the blush on her cheeks deepens even more as she raises her shaking fingers to the button of her jeans. 'You may turn around while you push them down, if you like."

She nods, swallowing hard as she turns, her hands still undoing the front of her jeans. My mouth goes dry as I see her start to push them down, her thumbs hooking in the denim and the glimpse of silky pink fabric that I catch beneath as she pushes both her jeans and her panties to her hips, just as I instructed, facing away from me.

When the creamy, perfect curve of her ass comes into view, I don't know how I'm going to keep myself from getting hard. She stops just below it, at the tops of her thighs, and I take her elbow again, guiding her down over my lap. She gasps the instant she realizes what I'm doing, resisting me just a little.

'Angelo,please, you don't have to—"

The sound of her begging me sends a jolt of blood straight down to my already-swelling cock. 'I told you that you need to be punished, and I meant it, Rosalia. Don't make this harder than it needs to be."

'But do you have to do it like this?" Her hand plants on my thigh, resisting being drawn down across my lap, her voice a small whimper. 'You could do it like last time—"

'No." I lift her hand off of my thigh, bringing her down across my lap. Her breasts brush against my arm through her silky tank top, the perfect upturned curve of her ass hooked across my other thigh, and I stifle a groan as I look down at her. She's a vision—a glorious, perfect vision, and I've never wanted a woman more in my entire life.

This is starting to feel like as much of a punishment for me as it is for her. I struggle not to think about it as I lay my hand against one side of her ass, fighting the urge to stroke my hand over the curve. 'Twenty this time," I tell her, and Rosalia makes a small nodding motion with her head. I can feel how tense she is under my touch. 'Count out loud."

When I bring my hand down against her smooth flesh, she lets out a high-pitched, whimpering cry that once again feels as if it goes straight to my cock. 'One!" she gasps out, her hand flailing out to grab at the coffee table, and I see the glint of the diamonds on her wedding band. The same feeling goes through me that I felt on the day of our wedding, when I slipped it onto her slim finger, a possessive feeling that grips me like a vise. Mine, I think, gritting my teeth as I bring my hand down again, feeling her flesh heat under my fingertips.Mine, mine, mine. My wife. My—

'Three!" Rosalia cries out, her voice more breathless now. 'Four—"

At five, I feel her starting to squirm against my lap. My cock, already struggling not to get hard, thickens and swells against my thigh, quickly rising as she wriggles against me. 'Six!" she gasps. 'Seven—Angelo—"

She nearly moans my name as my hand comes down again, her hips pressing into my thigh, and my cock stiffens instantly, the sound sending most of the blood from my brain straight down to my groin. This is going in the wrong direction, and unless I course-correct quickly, every defense I had against sleeping with my own wife is going to rapidly crumble.

'Stand up." I take her arm, urging her up off of my lap, watching to make sure that she doesn't stumble and fall as she obeys. Her jeans are still around her thighs, and I grab for them, jerking them up before I can get more than a glimpse of the soft black hair at the junction of her thighs, hiding most of her pussy from me—but not before I catch a breath of her arousal, the warm scent filling the air between us and making my cock jolt painfully against my fly.

'That's not what this is about," I tell her sternly. 'That—sound you just made. The way you reacted. This isn't for pleasure, Rosalia. This is apunishment."

Her eyes narrow at me, rebellion flaring in them. I never knew brattiness could turn me on so much until Rosalia. 'You can't make menotenjoy it," she breathes. 'You can't control that."

'You have no idea what you're talking about." I grit my teeth, fighting the urge to reach down and adjust my straining erection. 'You have no idea what you're doing to me, Rosalia."

'Don't I?" She raises an eyebrow, her gaze dropping pointedly to the thick bulge in my lap.

'You're too innocent and sheltered to really understand." I shake my head. 'We'll do this a different way. I won't be responsible for—"

The color in her face deepens, flushing a darker red as she glares at me. Her eyes glisten, and the frustration on her face is almost palpable. 'I might be innocent and sheltered," she snaps through gritted teeth, 'but I'm not an idiot, Angelo. There's a library in this house, for fuck's sake, with someveryenlightening books. And I have a phone. I can look things up—"

Thatdoesmake me angry. 'So you cajoled me into giving you those ‘lessons' for what? You could have just looked up the answers yourself. Watched someinstructionalvideos. Or were you too afraid of getting caught watching porn? Innocent Rosalia, watching filthy videos—" I break off, the throbbing in my cock at the idea of her touching herself under the blankets while watching porn almost too much to take.

'I wantedyouto teach me. I wanted to see the real thing, not some performance." Rosalia frowns at me. 'But once it was clear you weren't going to show me anything else, yes, I looked some things up. And it was very enlightening. So yes, Angelo, I know some men like submissive women. I know they like to be in charge sometimes. I know they like to tell women what to do. Or am I wrong?" She cocks her head, taking a step back, her gaze landing on my hard cock again.

'I still don't understand why you're fighting this, Angelo," she says softly. 'I know you want me. I know it turns you on to punish me. And I want it, too." Her teeth graze over her lower lip, that flush deepening all over again. 'I want you to tell me to lay down over your lap again, and this time, I don't want you to stop when I start to moan and squirm. I want you to tell me to get down on my knees and do the things to you that you taught me about. I want you to teach me all the things you like and then tell me to do them. I wantallof it, Angelo."

Her voice deepens, turning husky and rich, and I know she can't possibly be doing it on purpose. She doesn't know enough about seduction for that, but she doesn't need to. She's seducing me without even trying, making me harder than I think I've ever been in my entire life. I stare at her, grappling with all of it as I feel my defenses crumbling, just as I'd feared.

What she's offering is everything I want. I've always had a fantasy of having a woman be my submissive in exactly that way, in that kind of twenty-four/seven dynamic—a woman who took equal pleasure from it, who craved it in the way that I can hear in Rosalia's voice.

She wants it. She understands it better than I'd thought, though I can't imagine she has a thorough understanding. And even as I tell myself that I'm supposed to protect her, to not take advantage of her, I wonder if any of that reasoning even holds up any longer. She's standing in front of me,tellingme what she wants. Any argument against it, even the shaky one that legally she was my stepsister, falls away until I don't know how to fight against what I want—what webothwant—any longer.

It feels too good to be true.

'I liked being cared for and protected by you," Rosalia says softly, her wide blue eyes searching mine. 'I want you to take care of me in every way. I want you to tell me what to do, to cherish me, and keep me safe. I want you to teach me what you want. I want a different set of lessons, Angelo."

She bites her lip, looking at me pleadingly. 'I like that you punished me today," she whispers. 'On the way home, I kept thinking about what you would do. I wanted you to. And I think deep down—part of why I ran off today might have been to see what you would do."

Every word she says crumbles what little resistance I have left. The want, the need for her, feels palpable, uncontrollable, like I have no defenses left against it. I take a deep breath, searching for any will left to tell her no—and find none.

So I make a decision.

'If this is really what you want—" I say it slowly, feeling my throat tighten with desire, time slowing down around us as everything narrows down to Rosalia, and what she does next.

'Then take off your clothes," I murmur. 'And lay back down over my lap."