Episode 14

As Vicenzo made his way to the restroom, Amanda stayed in bed, contemplating how she could so easily succumb to his desires despite knowing he had spent the night with another woman.

The truth was that at Vicenzo's touch, her body seemed to come alive on its own, and she invariably surrendered to him. However, if he thought she would continue to sleep with him, aware that he was intimate with the augmented Sabrina and who knows how many others, he was sorely mistaken. She vowed to resist him with all her might and, should he try to force her into sex, she would fight back fiercely. Suddenly, she remembered Alex's words in his letter, to stay as brave as she always had been, and that's exactly what she intended to do - she wouldn't give in to Vicenzo without a struggle. With this thought, Amanda stood up and picked up the nightgown from the floor, which Vicenzo had utterly ruined when he threw her onto the bed, consumed with desire. Deciding instead to wrap herself in the sheet, she sat waiting for him to emerge from the bathroom. When he did, with damp hair and a white towel wrapped around his waist, contrasting with his tanned, naturally bronzed skin, she quickly looked away from the man who seemed like a true Greek god with his compelling masculine beauty, which rendered her utterly senseless with just one look from his brown eyes filled with tantalizing promises of pleasure.

"The water was delightful, why didn't you join me, mia bella ragazza?" he said, heading for the room, looking at her as if nothing had happened, and then moving towards the closet.

"So now I don't even have the freedom to bathe alone?" Amanda retorted, throwing her head back, tossing her long, disheveled hair from her face and glaring at him over her shoulder, as he turned away, discarded the towel, and reached for something inside the closet. She was forced to admit that everything about him was perfect, from his broad shoulders to his muscular, hairy thighs. Realizing she was growing aroused again, she quickly averted her gaze.

"Yes, of course, you do. But you don't know how pleasurable a bath can become when shared, especially with someone like you, a feisty kitten who turns into purring and melts in my arms with just one, shall we say, compelling kiss," he said, smirking at his sexual sway over her as he slipped on white boxer briefs and then black slacks. Without another glance at him, Amanda stood up in anger, principally because she knew he spoke the truth: just one kiss was enough for her to fall into his embrace. Without a word, she stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. After her shower, attempting to rid herself of his lingering scent, Amanda returned to the bedroom wrapped in a towel to find him lounging shirtless on the couch with a whiskey glass in hand, utterly relaxed.

She resolved to give him the cold shoulder and ignore him completely, but he swiftly grabbed her arm, pulling her down into his lap. He downed the rest of the whiskey in one gulp then seized her hair, delivering a kiss that left her dazed, with the refreshing taste of his lips and the potent flavor of the expensive imported whiskey he was drinking. Amanda wasn't prepared for this fresh sensual assault, and her initial reaction was to respond to the kiss with equal fervor. However, she quickly remembered her promise to resist him and his seductive advances, and without hesitation, she bit hard into his soft lips to make him let go. Caught off guard, he instantly released her and broke the kiss.

"Are you insane! Look what you did!" he yelled furiously, tasting blood and touching his injured lips.

"It’s you who's out of his mind if you think I'll keep having sex with you whenever you want, knowing you’re also messing around with that cow, Sabrina, and heaven knows who else," Amanda spat out, her breath racing, fearful of his reaction to her outburst. Vicenzo stood up, and although she felt far less courageous, she shrunk back, fearing that he might grow violent and lash out. But instead, he sighed heavily as if to temper his rage and went to the closet, pulling out a cloth to dab away the trickle of blood from his lips.

"And don't forget, you have drawn blood from my lips just as I did now. But it was the only way I could find to stop you from using me again and discarding me as if I were just an object," Amanda asserted, clutching the towel tighter to her body.