The backless cocktail dress does little to warm my chill.
My nerves are at the end of their ropes. Not only am I about to leave this property for the first time in over three weeks, but I’m about to do it with my father’s worst enemy. On top of that, we’re actually going to see my father. The man who sold me into this life of servitude.
Aiden says Father will be waiting for us. Which makes it clear that this isn’t some date night to top off the whirlwind of passion we just stumbled out of. This is all part of the plan to make Father suffer for what he did to Aiden and his family.
And now I know what that was. But does that mean I think Father deserves to suffer?
If what Aiden told me is true, then I can’t help but think that he might. Who could do that to a child? My hands haven’t stopped shaking since Aiden’s confessions in the garden. Meave had to help me into my dress. Tara was taking the night off. God, I could have used her warmth. The whole world seems to have frozen over.
Aiden has suffered even more than I could have imagined. And it was all at the hands of my cruel father. Why was he so brutal with the young boy?
When Aiden enters my room, I see him in a whole new light. No longer does he appear as some beastly bully. He’s a survivor. A deeply scarred and vindictive survivor.
But why does that mean I have to suffer?
As much sympathy as his story roused in me, the irony of it all never seemed to dawn on him.
I’m the captive now. I’m the tool being used and broken for the sake of some game I never asked to be a part of.
If I wasn’t so numb with anxiety, I might even be angry at my handsome captor. Because that’s what he is, lest I forget it. Not my boyfriend. Not my fiancée. Not my love.
He’s my owner.
“I don’t want to go.”
From the moment Aiden told me the plan for tonight, I’d had that thought in my head. I don’t want to go. I’m scared and vulnerable and I don’t know what to think about anybody anymore. But I didn’t think I’d have the guts to say it.
Looks like I have a little more courage than I suspected.
“That isn’t an option,” Aiden grunts. His mood is still sour from earlier. He clearly isn’t happy with how much he revealed in the garden. It wasn’t just his story that he confessed to me, it was how he felt about it all too. He opened up. He brought me to his mother’s grave and he showed me his heart.
It was too raw for either of us to handle, and now we’re standing in my bedroom more like two strangers than two lovers.
We got too close, and now everything we’ve shared threatens to push us apart, rather than bring us together.
“I’m serious, Aiden.”
“You look beautiful,” he says, ignoring my question. But his voice is flat. Those stormy eyes of his are a million miles away. This is business. I don’t want his business; I want his heat. That same heat that kept me going while we explored each other in bed. But I know I won’t find it now. He’s falling, and not towards me.
“Aiden, I don’t want to go.”
“You don’t want to see your father?”
The truth is, I don’t really have an answer for that. Two sides play tug of war with my heart. “You can bring him here.”
Aiden steps towards me. By now, I know there’s no point in stepping back away from him. I just wish this Aiden was the same one I woke up to this morning. The beautiful fallen angel whose wings hadn’t fully disintegrated quite yet. There’s no sign of them now. “Ciro will never set foot on this property. He won’t ever set foot on any of my properties. In fact, after tonight, he might never set foot anywhere else ever again.”
Dread catches in my throat. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve been keeping your father around for very specific reasons. One of those reasons is so that he could see you become mine. He’s not proving to be much use in the other areas I’d hoped to use him for, so if you don’t want to see him again, then he becomes useless. A dead weight. I don’t carry dead weight, Elisa. I let it go.”
“You’re going to let him go?” The implication is clear, but something in me wants to play dumb. Maybe it’s just for my own sake, to shield me from the harsh realities of this world.
Aiden shakes his head and reaches for my jaw. “You’re not that naïve, princess. Not anymore. If you don’t want to see your father, that’s fine. But then no one’s going to see him ever again.” His thumb brushes my lower lip as he threatens to kill my father.
I’m caught between two monsters.
Either I do as this one says, or I doom the one who raised me.
“Can’t you see that you’re doing the same thing to me that he did to you?” I blurt out.
Aiden’s grip tightens around my jaw, his fingers quietly falling around my throat. “This is nowhere near the same thing,” he growls.
“Yes, it is. You think he’s a monster. But you’re acting just like him. You two are—”
Aiden shuts me up with a violent kiss. There’s no passion in his lips. What little warmth passes through us isn’t from lust or desire, it’s from anger. This isn’t a caring kiss. It’s a threatening one.
“Enough of this, Elisa,” Aiden says after his warning. “Don’t ever compare me to your father again. You know the difference. I hated every second of the time I was under him. But you enjoy every moment that you’re under me.”
“I’m not enjoying it right now,” I say, my voice hoarse and quiet.
“We’ll make up for that when we return.” Aiden grabs my wrist and yanks me to his chest. “Come, princess. We have work to do.”
