Undressed By The Mafia God

(I apologise. I failed. I couldn’t make it as dark as planned. I think I broke myself in the process. I breezed through it. But I hope it still is enough to get them past this phase in their lives)

*****

Luca’s gaze remained on Veronica. "Veronica..." he whispered.

Marceline’s voice cut in. "Not you. Her."

Veronica looked at him. Her eyes moved over his face. Then she answered. "Crimson."

"You know him best," Marceline said. "When you sense he has had enough, use your safe word. The task here...is to lay his shame out in front of him. His failures. His guilt. The things he has buried because carrying them silently feels easier than speaking them. You will not appear weak," Marceline added, "even when it becomes uncomfortable. He has to hear it from you."

"I do not want to hurt him," Veronica said quietly.

"You already have the power to hurt him, Mrs Genovese. Tonight, we give that power structure. We give it a door out." Marceline walked to the dresser and picked up a set of cuffs. The metal links made a soft, cold sound as they dangled from her fingers.

Veronica’s expression hardened immediately.

Marceline lifted a brow. "How does this work? You say I cannot touch him, and you only have good use of one hand."

Vee yanked the cuffs from Marceline. The movement was clumsy because of the cast, but the insult in it was elegant. "I said what I said." Veronica stepped behind him. "Give me your wrists."

Luca obeyed. Slowly, he placed both hands behind his back. Her fingers trembled as she fitted the cuffs.

She struggled. The cast made the movement awkward. At last, the cuffs locked. Marceline handed her the blindfold. She slid the fabric over his head.

"Now," Marceline said, stepping back, "shall we begin?"

Veronica moved in front of Luca. She drew a breath. "Be good, and it will be easier and faster..." she began. "You make me like this."

Luca’s lips lifted in a smug smile. "I don’t mind you being like this."

The flogger cracked across his back again. Luca’s body jerked slightly from surprise, and then he settled again, jaw tight, mouth closed.

If he kept turning this into flirtation, he would hide behind desire the same way he hid behind violence.

That was not why they were here.

"If you’re not going to listen," Veronica said, "then this makes no point. We are here because you stopped being able to pleasure me."

Luca’s face changed. The smugness thinned. His head angled slightly, as if her words had found the exact place Marceline promised they would.

"You think I am going to stand around?" Her stomach twisted, but she forced her voice to remain hard. "You either fuck me or I get fucked."

The words sounded foul in her mouth.

Ugly.

Cruel.

Wrong.

They did not belong to her. She would never throw his pain back at him like that outside this room.

She saw the response it had on him. His breathing shortened. His lips pressed together. His shoulders tightened.

God help them all when this was over, she was going to hold him until every lie she had spoken tonight knew it had no place in their bed.

"Your cock exists for me to fuck it," Veronica said. "Without it, you’re useless."

When Marceline saw that Luca had gotten the point and stayed silent, she gave a gesture for Veronica to move on.

"Whose are you, Luca?" Vee asked. "Answer me."

His breath left him slowly. "Yours... Always yours."

"Whose am I to protect?" she asked.

His jaw flexed. "Mine. Always mine."

"So why didn’t you?"

"I did," Luca said.

"No. You give a good talk. You tell me I am yours. Your wife. Your Donna. Your weakness. Your strength. Your everything. But you have only broken me again and again. Why don’t you just sit back and let me take the power back from you," she said, steel entering her voice now, "since you are such a failure?"

Luca’s fingers curled behind his back.

"You can’t protect me. You can’t fuck me. You can’t even do this right."

Marceline’s eyes moved from Luca to Vee. Vee’s mask was cracking. "Focus," Marceline snapped. "He needs your voice to tell him the lies he has been telling himself."

Vee dragged in a breath. "Is that true?" Vee asked, forcing herself back into the role. "You need me to hold your hand like a fucking pussy? Answer me!"

"I’ve never needed anything or anyone but you." Luca breathed hard. "You shut me out."

Her heart gave a painful twist.

"You."

Veronica stepped back, taken aback.

"Even now," he said. "You shut me out."

Vee’s throat tightened. She had tried to protect him from the way David’s touch still crawled under her skin at odd moments. From the moments she woke and had to remind herself she was in their bed.

Perhaps they had both been idiots. Romantic, traumatised idiots.

Marceline’s voice cut through the tension. "He is channeling his guilt to you. Reject it."

Vee looked back at Luca. "Are you saying I did this to you?" she asked.

"No," Luca said instantly. His head turned towards her voice, panic breaking through. "God, no. That is not what I meant."

"That," she said, voice low and lethal, "my dear husband, I will not let slide."

Marceline, the good assistant from hell, handed Veronica the nipple clamps. Vee lowered herself to her knees in front of him.

Luca tilted his head slightly, sensing her closeness. She could feel the heat of his body, the familiarity of him, the pull that had always existed between them no matter how much disaster tried to interfere. Her fingers fumbled once as she attached the clamps. Her hand was not nearly as steady as she wanted it to be.

Luca felt it and smiled. He leaned forward and brushed a small kiss to the side of her neck. It was barely anything.

Her eyes flew to his face and she yanked the chain. Luca gasped. His body shifted against her. "I was being broken...And you were playing catch-up. Where were you?" she asked. "What were you doing? When I needed you most," she continued, "all I had was myself."

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