EMILY'S POV

A sound at the door jerked me awake, and I slowly opened my eyes. I was a bit confused, unsure where I was.

The place was dark, and didn't feel like my room. I looked up to see a looming figure approaching me, and let out a loud scream.

"Ahhhh!!!"

"Scared of the dark?"

A deep voice taunted me, accompanied by the rich scent of a masculine cologne.

"Are you a kid, Collombo?"

That tone snapped me back to reality.

Dante.

The events of the day flooded my mind, and I released a low sigh when I remembered how I had been ushered into this room, and locked in.

My chest sank with exhaustion.

The room was quite dark, so I couldn't even make out anything clearly.

The light flicked on suddenly, and I squinted, waiting for my eyes to adjust. When I finally did, I found him standing above me.

My breath hitched.

"Why are you on the floor?" His brow creased slightly.

"Mr. Ferrari…" My voice was weak. "I need to go home. It’s late."

"There’s a bed. Use it." He ordered flatly, ignoring my earlier statement.

It took the grace of God, for me not to have crashed out at that point. Was he serious?!

Pushing myself to my feet, his huge figure easily towered over me. I glanced at him, and looked away almost immediately.

Taking a small step backwards, I tried to conceal how intimidated he made me feel.

"I’ll forgive you… for everything you did today," I muttered. "But I hope this is the last time you harass me."

Sidestepping him, I headed for the door. My pulse hammered, expecting him to grab me from behind. But he didn’t.

So I increased my pace, getting to the door and pulling it open.

Just as I was about to pat myself on the back for a good job well done, I bumped into a wall.

Except it wasn't really a wall. It was the solid chest of.... Mr familiar.

Oh God.

He smirked, clearly amused. Before I could react, he picked me up like I weighed nothing. My words were stuck in my throat as he carried me back inside.

Straight to Dante.

He set me down in front of him, and Dante nodded. "Thank you, Vito."

The man whose name I just realized was Vito, walked out of the room, leaving Dante and I.

The moment the door closed behind him, and I froze under Dante’s stare.

"Bold of you." He said, stepping closer. "Bold of you to think your forgiveness means anything to me. Bold of you to walk out on me." His eyes darkened.

"I don’t answer to you." My voice shook, but I forced it out.

"You didn’t." He corrected, coldly. "Past tense. Because now you do."

"What?" My eyes narrowed.

"As long as my child is inside you...." He trailed off, his gaze dropping to my belly. "...you answer to me."

Heat flared in my chest.

"You must be a joker."

"I believe I bear no resemblance to a clown, Collombo." His face stayed unreadable.

"Emily." I corrected, hating that I had to hear that name from his mouth, over and over again.

"My apologies for being a terrible host. You must be famished." He said, ignoring my words once again.

"I need to return home then."

"You don’t get it, do you? You’ll leave this place only after my child is born."

The words sank like ice in my veins.

"You’re crazy…" I whispered at first. "You’re crazy, Dante Ferrari!" I blew out much loudly.

"Careful, Collombo." His eyes hardened.

He slowly bent to my level, until his lips were just a mere inch away from my ear. My breathing became shallow.

"Be grateful you’re carrying my child," he whispered, his tone low and dangerous, every word hot against my earlobe. "Because I’m worse things than crazy."

For a split second, my body froze between fight and something I couldn’t even name. My heart hammered wildly, as if trying to remind me that fear and something else could feel almost the same, when it was this close.

All so suddenly, a certain memory of few weeks back flooded my mind, and I swallowed hard.

The reminder that this man had seen my intimate parts before, made me feel even more conscious than I had been around him the entire day.

"Step away..." I demanded, a mere whisper.

At first, he acted as though I had said nothing. But after some seconds, he took a few steps away from me.

Our gazes locked, and I could swear that his eyes held a certain kind of hunger.....

Stop Emily.....

Just stop!

There was thick silence in the room for a moment, while I thought of a way out of this mess.

"Marco wouldn't appreciate me being held hostage in your home." I managed to say, swallowing hard.

Something told me that was such a wrong move on my end.

The side of his lips lifted into a frown, and then he slightly shook his head in disappointment.

"I must be doing a lot of things wrongly, if you think that is supposed to disturb me in any way."

Gently pushing his armani suit to the side, he dipped a hand into his pocket and brought out a cigar and lighter.

He put the cigar in between his lips, then lit.

"It is obvious that you think I'm playing around, Miss Collombo." His hard gaze pinned on me.

"N... no.. no. Not at all." I stuttered, a familiar sense of fear overpowering me. The kind I usually felt whenever I had to visit his home to see Alexa.

"If Marco wants you back, he’ll have to crawl into my house to get you. And trust me, he won’t crawl back out."

Maybe during the course of the day, my anxiety and frustration had made me forget who I was actually dealing with.

Before I could get another word out, he let out a puff of smoke in my direction.

"See you tomorrow."

That was all he said, before turning and heading out of the room. I stood there, immobile in my spot.

I guess it was all still difficult for me to understand or believe.

Not long after, there was a brief knock on the door, before a plump looking man made his way in.

Judging from his dress code and the tray of food in his hands, he was a chef.

"Good evening, Signora." He gave a bow. "My name is Antonio, but you can call me 'Totò'. I would be ensuring you feed well for the period of time you'd be spending here with us."

The huge grin on his face, only made my head begin to ache.

It had gradually began to sink in, that I had been caught in the devil's nest.

Dante's nest.