Brutal Husband (Brutal Hearts #3)

Chapter 14

14

Rieta

M y eyes snap open, and I’m lying in bed with Nero’s arms locked around me like a steel cage. This is the first time we’ve ever slept in the same bed, and he’s keeping me captive in it.

What the hell was last night?

Behind me, Nero stirs and nuzzles the nape of my neck. There’s a hot, thick swelling pressed between my ass cheeks. He must have taken Viagra before he clambered onto me last night, and then again this morning before I woke up. That seems excessive.

Nero’s mouth seeks the curve of my neck, and he mumbles sleepily, pulling me closer against him. The head of his cock is dangerously close to my slippery entrance.

“You shouldn’t take so much Viagra. It’s probably bad for your heart.”

Nero bursts out laughing, and he thrusts his cock against my pussy, sliding through my sex. “Viagra? My Viagra is my wife’s plump, tender ass first thing in the morning.”

“It never used to be.”

There’s a long silence, and when he speaks again, there’s no humor in his tone. “That was before. Things are different now.”

Different how? I squirm in his grip. I’m not trying to get away, I’m trying to face him. Eventually he lets me, but he makes it clear from the way he pulls me against his chest that I’m not getting out of bed. “Where have you been?”

His gaze is locked on my lips as he pushes my hair slowly back from my face. He rumbles, “That’s my business.”

My fingers tighten on the muscles of his shoulders. After all these months, I desperately need answers. “Please, just tell me.”

“I could. Or I could sheathe my cock in my wife’s heavenly pussy.”

I look down between us. My thighs are spread, and his thick cock is ready to arrow right into my core.

“I want you out of this house.”

Instantly, his expression hardens in anger. “Over my dead body, wife.”

“Stop calling me wife .”

“I will fucking call you wife. I love saying it. Wife . My fucking wife. I fucked you, and I married you, and that makes you mine forever.”

“Are you some kind of caveman?” I shove his chest, trying to push him off me, but he doesn’t budge. He thrusts hard into me, making me scream.

“Yes.”

It’s almost painful to have so much of him inside me suddenly, but on the second thrust, the burning turns to pleasure. Nero hooks my knees up to my shoulders, and the angle, the weight of his body, and the long, dragging motions of his cock send pleasure shooting through me.

I realize I’m moaning as Nero talks coaxingly to me. “That’s my beautiful wife. You love being railed this hard, don’t you? Tell me you’ve missed me. Don’t even try to pretend you haven’t.”

“I hate you,” I gasp as he hammers into me. “I hate you. I hate you .” I’m still saying it as my orgasm tears through me.

Nero takes my face in his hand and makes me look at him as I come. He thrusts his tongue into my mouth with a violent kiss, and then he’s climaxing as well. He wraps his arms around me with a groan, and for a moment, just for a moment, the world slips, and he’s the loving but sweetly sadistic man I started to fall in love with all that time ago.

Nero gets off me, but he puts a heavy hand around my throat, keeping me where I am. There’s a nasty glint in his eyes that makes the sweat on my skin turn ice cold.

I glare at him. “I want to get up.”

He keeps me pinned down with one hand and positions himself between my legs. For a moment I think he’s going to start screwing me again, but he does something even stranger. He reaches down to my pussy, collects the cum dripping out of me on his middle finger, and pushes it back in. He does it lovingly, taking his time like he’s enjoying every second of this.

“There’s a good girl. Don’t want to waste a drop.”

My heart withers in my chest. I know he’s had a vasectomy, and there’s no chance I can get pregnant by my husband. I want a baby so badly, and he tricked me all this time. A sob rises in my throat. I don’t want to cry in front of him, but a tear leaks out of the corner of my eye before I can turn my head aside.

Nero notices and arches a dark brow. “Does the idea of my baby disgust you so much? I love seeing you humiliated, Rieta.” He braces his hands on either side of my head and leans over me. “I’m watching you. Try to take Plan B, and I will tie you naked in the city’s main square, spank your ass until its black and blue, and then fuck more of my cum into you.”

I hate him so much.

After staying right where he is for several seconds longer, he sits back on his heels.

Finally free of him, I scoot off the bed and head for the bathroom, my arms wrapped protectively across my breasts. “I’m taking a shower. When I come out, you had better be gone.”

I run the shower as hot as I can, scrubbing my body and lathering my hair until every inch of my body is clean, including between my legs. Especially between my legs. My mind is racing faster than my heart, and I can barely keep up with them. I didn’t discover the answers to any important questions, namely, why did he leave, where the hell has he been all this time, and why is he back now?

“I don’t care,” I tell myself beneath the beating water. “He abandoned me. I don’t care one little bit.” He doesn’t get to waltz back in here after all this time, claiming to be my husband like nothing happened.

I turn off the taps, wrap my body and hair in towels, and open the bathroom door. There’s silence in the bedroom. When I emerge on a cloud of steam, there’s stillness and emptiness as well. Nero’s not there.

“Nero?” I call cautiously, expecting him to spring out of nowhere and shove me into a wall with his hard body.

The house is silent. He appeared so suddenly and disappeared so suddenly that I wonder if I actually dreamed his visit. Why I would have such a lurid dream about a man I despise, I have no idea.

Then I spot a telltale wet smear on the mattress. All right, his visit wasn’t a dream.

“Nero?”

I walk from room to room, even checking behind the doors and sofas in case he’s hiding from me, though I don’t know why he would now that I know he’s back. But there’s no sign of Nero anywhere but in our bed.

“Who’s my sweet little girl? Are you Auntie Rieta’s little angel?” I hold my niece Mirabella on my lap and smile at her. Really smile at her. For months it seems like I’ve barely felt any joy. Maybe I would have smiled more if I had a baby of my own.

With an ache in my heart, I hand her back to my sister Mia, who feeds Mirabella apple sauce with a spoon. Laz is wearing a pristine white T-shirt and jeans and is lounging back in his seat with a lazy smile on his lips as he watches his wife and child.

The four of us are sitting at an outdoor table on a restaurant terrace, eating eggs Florentine and granola and enjoying a family brunch. No Mom and no Isabel, as Isabel can’t stand Laz after what happened, and Mia refuses to see Mom at all. Rightly so, in my opinion.

“That’s enough hearing me go on about the baby,” Mia says with a laugh. “How have you been, Rieta?”

I play with a piece of wilted spinach on my plate and try to calm my suddenly pounding heart. Do I tell them Nero has returned? That will only invite follow-up questions that I’m not ready for like, When did you see him? and Why are you blushing red to the roots of your hair?

“Um, I’ve been fine. No news, really. How’s the garage, Laz?”

That works to distract the conversation away from me for a little longer. I’m frantically thinking of more questions to ask them when Mia’s expression changes from listening to Laz with a smile on her face to shock at seeing something over my shoulder.

She suddenly gasps and sits up. “Is that Nero?”

My hand clenches on my glass of orange juice. Don’t look. Don’t waste one more scrap of energy on that hateful man.

I look.

My head turns, and I seek out the man who was in my bed uninvited just a few hours ago. Yes, it’s him. Striding toward us in a dark suit and sunglasses, with dark stubble on his jaw and a predatory smile tilting his full lips, is my husband.

My gaze travels slowly down his body and then back up again. My husband was never this sexy. My fiancé? Yes, but that was a long time ago, and I never thought I’d see Nero looking so confident, dangerous, and delicious ever again. I desperately try to figure out what the difference is, but I can land on only one conclusion. The Nero I was engaged to was crazy about me, but he shut down and became hateful and suspicious ever since our wedding night. My fiancé was obsessed with me to the point of insanity, and now that man has returned with a vengeance. Apparently, that’s extremely sexy to me.

A hot sensation twines through my lower belly and flashes through my nipples. It feels wickedly good to have all of Nero’s attention once more. I swallow hard, reminding myself that I’m angry with him, and I can never forgive him for abandoning me and lying to me.

Laz sits up, his dark brows drawing together in a glare. “It can’t be. That man wouldn’t dare show his face around here again after so long.”

But Nero does dare, and he strolls onto the terrace and stands between me and my sister, smiling down at her. “Good to see you again, Mia. What an adorable little one you have. May I?”

Without waiting for Mia’s assent, he plucks Mirabella out of her lap and settles her in his arms. Mirabella gazes at her unfamiliar uncle with huge eyes as he tells her how pretty she is.

I’ve never seen Nero hold a baby before. Being around children always made him wince and move away, like they were an affront to his sensibilities. Now, he bounces Mirabella in his arms, his sleek dangerousness thrown into sharp contrast by her sweet innocence. Her chubby hand pats his jaw, and he smiles, showing off all his strong, white teeth.

A jolt goes through me.

How dare he come here and interrupt my time with my sister. He must have followed me when I left the house.

Nero reaches out and cups my chin, making me look at him. “Isn’t your niece so cute, cara mia ? I can’t wait until we have an adorable baby of our very own. Can you?”