He intended to make this as easy on her as possible, if she’d let him. Each tiny step toward complete submission would be rewarded. Each misstep, punished. By the time he was finished with her, she would crave him so deeply, she wouldn’t remember this had all started with her forceful loss of freedom.

It had been a long night, especially so close to Christmas. Though he couldn’t imagine the men in the family caring one way or the other about how Faith had come to be here, the women and the children didn’t need to know. He’d have to come up with a cover story before family started streaming in for the holidays.

Once he’d made the choice to get involved in Angelo’s warped offer, he was committed, the course of his life irrevocably changed, his own options narrowing. Her death wouldn’t only be a sin on Angelo’s soul, but on Leo’s as well.

He couldn’t get bored with her or decide it wasn’t working out and send her packing. Not without the price of her life. He’d been kidding himself if he’d thought he could be in this family without being tainted by his environment and pulled into an increasingly amoral world.

Leo dropped the list off with one of his men and went to take care of some business. When he returned a couple of hours later, he found her on the love seat with Max’s head resting on her lap. The dog had an uncanny ability to sense distress and bring comfort, and right now he was doing what he did best. Her hand trembled as she stroked the dog’s fur.

“Faith.”

She looked up, startled. The fear in her eyes pulled at him. He wanted to lock the door, toss her down on the bed and ravage her within an inch of her existence. But instead he rolled the cart in, letting it come to stop next to her.

“Are you hungry?”

Her gaze drifted to the floor as if she couldn’t look into his eyes while she acknowledged her status with him. “Y-yes, Master.”

There was a hesitance in her reply, though Leo guessed the hesitance wasn’t about the title he’d insisted on. From the look in her eyes, she was afraid of what she might have to do to earn the food. He brushed a stray tear off her cheek and put a plate on her lap. Max repositioned himself on the floor beside her feet, looking up at Leo with accusation in his gaze. Or maybe Leo imagined it, needing someone to disapprove of his actions. No one else in the house would.

If a dog was to be his moral compass, so be it.

He sat across from her with a plate of his own, watching as she hesitantly brought the sandwich to her lips. God knew what kind of fears the poor girl harbored. And he couldn’t promise that at least a few of them wouldn’t come to pass. Though there existed sadists far worse than him, if she was a complete vanilla, any of it was going to terrify her. And on some level that excited him more.