Page 7 of The Beast Who Bought Me
“Where did you even meet this guy?” I ask hoarsely.
Jesse leans in. “That’s the secret part,” he whispers hot against my cheek. “I met him at the Obelisk.”
CHAPTER 3
CALIGULA
“The Obelisk,”I repeat, feeling no more enlightened. But something about the word itself—tall, imposing, undeniably phallic—makes me shift in my seat.
“Shh!” Jesse hisses unnecessarily. No one could possibly overhear us with the level of the music, and the way we’re huddled together on the sofa, heads close. “It’s an underground place. Billionaire bad boys. Invitation only, of course. It’sincrediblyexclusive.”
“How didyou…” I trail off. The alcohol is getting the better of me again. Jesse just laughs it off, though I detect a note of bitterness in the sound.
“How didIget an invitation? I met this hot Russian here at Kismet one night. He took me to the Obelisk. Passed me around his friends—God, what a great fucking nightthatwas,” he interrupts himself with a happy sigh. “Anyway, they told me I could make some easy cash by auctioning myself off—just for a week at first. That’s where my owner bought me. And, well,” he finishes with a giggle, and I think he’s trying to give the impression that he’s blushing, “one week led to another, and another, and another…until I signed a ten-year contract.”
“Tenyears?” I practically choke on my champagne.
“I’m not sayingyoushould do ten years,” Jesse says hastily. “But I mean, a month would be doable. Right?”
“But I’m not—” I stop. Recalibrate. “I’m not very experienced.”
I haven’t been withanyguys, not even to kiss. Because, as a Clemenza, Icouldn’tbe queer. It was unthinkable. The fear that the Family would find out always overrode my horniness. So I went out, I had fun, but I never…
Never let it go too far.
And then I stopped going out.
Cold panic grips me at the idea of some billionaire paying top dollar, only to discover that the guy with the name that promised ancient Roman debauchery was actually a terrified virgin who didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
Jesse’s eyes are gleaming. “But that’s even better, Cal! These guys, they fuckingloveinnocence—even when it’s fake. The price goeswayup. So, like, even if you’re not technically a virgin, you should totally say you are.”
“Virginity is just a social construct,” I say automatically, because that’s what I’ve always told myself. And it’s true; itisa social construct.
But in my case, it’s also a fact. I am a virgin by any conceivable metric. The most action I’ve seen is my own right hand and a very overworked imagination.
The irony of it all—that I’d be worthmorefor my inexperience. The very thing I’ve tried so hard to hide, the thing that marked me out as different in the hyper-hetero environmentof the Families, could now be my most valuable asset. It never occurred to me that in staying away from sex, I might only make myself more desirable.
I imagine rough hands forcing my legs apart, something blunt and hot piercing its way into me…
I should feel sick about Jesse’s suggestion. And I do, I swear on every dead Clemenza that I do, even as I listen to him chatter on about the Obelisk. But under that queasy sensation is something worse, something I can’t acknowledge even to myself. A pulsing in my body, a tightening in my chest, a heat at the back of my neck.
I’d be sold off like cattle to some sadistic asshole who would take what I’ve never given anyone, who would own me, control me, use me…
And for no rational reason, the Giuliano from last night swims up in my memory once more.
No. It’s disgusting. Clemenzas don’t give up control; we don’t submit.
“I can’t do it.” I stand, desperate to escape these thoughts, this place, my own treacherous body.
With an air of exasperation, Jesse stands too and grabs me by the wrist once more. “Of course you can. You’re just freaking out because the idea is new. Let me explain?—”
But I yank out of his grip as the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, a primal warning: I’m being hunted.
My body knows it before my mind does—that prickling sensation of being watched.Stalked. It’s an instinct I’ve honed during my time on the streets.
Jesse seems to sense my fear, looking around just like I am. “What is it?”
“I need to get out of here.”
