The Italian Don's Captive Bride

Chapter No. 13

Cassandra Petrova:-

"What do you mean by that, Cassandra? I don't follow. Will you please elaborate?" Eliseo asked with a raised brow, standing arrogantly with his hands in his pockets, going to the forbidden area of the mansion. Why? What is over there that he warned me not to go there, and is heavily guarded? What is he hiding over there?

I cleared my throat before opening my mouth, shaking, and staring into his eyes as I began. "If I fall pregnant, if I carry your child, give birth to the Leone heir, and yet still… still… don’t fall in love with you by the end of the 365 days…" I paused, swallowing hard. "Will I still have rights? As our child's mother? Or you take all of that away from me, too, like the rest of it?"

Eliseo’s eyes flickered for a time. Not pity. Not guilt. Just… stillness. Then his voice was quieter, lower.

"Cassandra, you might think of me as a monster, and I am, but I am and will never be a monster when it comes to our child. I will never, and I mean never, snatch the right from you as the mother of our child. You will always be the mother to our baby, even if you decide to keep your distance from him/her, or if you want to be in our baby's life. I will welcome you as the mother of our child, always, and will be respected for a lifetime."

"Yo..you will not snatch the right from me?" I asked, stunned. "Never?"

"Never. Now go and sign the contract if you agree to the terms. I will see you in our bedroom in an hour," Eliseo said and disappeared into the heavily guarded corridor of the mansion—the forbidden corridor, as I have named it.

Standing stiff, his words jabbed to the scaffoldings of my mind, a vow embossed on stone.

"You'll always be the mother of our baby, for the rest of your life."

The certainty with which he said it—such conviction. But a cold shiver ran down my spine as he melted away into the darkness of the highly secured path off limits to the general public. What was back there? Why was it so guarded?

Why was his voice dipping when he spoke of the child, almost as though there was something else below the surface he wasn’t saying? My stomach twisted. Turning back toward the study, the clicks of my heels were softer than any other sound around me, and my thoughts were the loudest. I had the answer I’d come for, but was more torn up than before.

He wouldn't take my child. He was taking everything else, though. My freedom. My name. My future.

But still… there was something in his voice, something in his eyes back there, that made me wonder. Was this all about a contract, an heir, and a twisted love story, or was there something much darker going on that Eliseo was hiding?

Perhaps,'" I muttered. "Perhaps, there was something behind that forbidden corridor, and I am going to find out what you are hiding behind that door Don Eliseo and use it against you."

I reached the study again and the contract was mocking me, laid out on the table like a loaded gun. Taking a seat, I sat staring at it with pen in hand. Heart in chaos. I pressed the pen to paper and signed my name at the bottom of the contract that had just tied me to Eliseo Leone for 365 days, my hand quivering. A year of my life swapped for survival, power, and the unknown. The last trace of the girl who once believed in love, without conditions, dried with the ink.

In silence, I left the study and dashed up the grand staircase to my newly claimed bedroom with Eliseo. It was a huge, dark room, opulent, just as he was. French velvet drapes, gold accents, and an enormous bed that resembled a throne more than a place for a person to sleep.

But I needed a moment. A breath. Peace before I saw him again.

I stepped into the bathroom bathed in the dimness of scented candles somebody from the staff already arranged. Warm water and rose petals were scattered in the tub. Soothing. Deceptively gentle. Very slowly, I undressed and stepped in, the heat cocooning me. My consciousness didn't drop, but my muscles did.

My eyes closed as my body floated, and I leaned back with my body bare, vulnerable and defiant.

I heard the soft click of the door then. My eyes snapped open and there he stood. The devil and my soon-to-be husband, Eliseo Leone looking all sexy and dangerous in black with lust in his eyes as he stared at my naked body underneath the bathtub.

He entered like he owned the place, and well, he did, because it was his place. He seemed to look me over, with a sinful confidence, but no apology to go with it.

"Comfortable?" His voice smooth, teasing, and dangerous, he asked with a smirk.

I didn’t respond. I simply stared, pushing back the chill that shot through me. I didn't know if it was nerves or anticipation.

"You signed it, didn’t you?" As he walked closer, stripping his black suit at slow and seductive pace as I watched, it fell to the floor.

I murmured, voice barely over a whisper, "You knew I would…"

He chuckled low in his throat, but still caressing her. "Of course I did. You're too smart not to."

I should have told him to go. I should have taken a towel. But I didn’t move. It wasn’t until he got into the tub behind me, pulling me back against him, skin to skin, his skin blazing hot against mine. His hands skimmed down across my stomach, then skimmed up, cupping my breasts with a firm, possessive touch.

His lips grazed my wet skin against my ear, "I told you, you’re mine now."

I closed my eyes again, not in surrender but in acceptance, that this storm I had just signed into. One year. One heir. A dangerously magnetic man who had one hand on the fate of my very life now and the other clamped onto my body as it melted limp in his arms.