As Raaf pinched the bridge of his nose, he heard Sara quickly rise to her feet. "Are you alright?"
No, he thought. How the fuck could a monster like him be al-fucking-right when a young innocent girl like her was so easily driving him crazy?
She stepped closer towards him, so much like a deer showing concern for the big, bad cat that planned to eat it whole, and the thought made it harder for him not to smile.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
How was it that his composure had never failed him whenever his life was on the line, and yet where his Sara was concerned it had become anything but reliable?
"Raaf?"
She had finally found the courage to approach him, and he even saw the way her hands were clenching and unclenching as if she was fighting against the urge to reach for him.
It was amusing as hell, and while such a thing would normally be enough to have him fuck her then and there, he still did have a lesson to teach her, and so Raaf heard himself say, "It's my work..."
His Sara paled and gulped, but to her credit, she somehow managed to put her fears aside in order to respond with what did seem like real-enough sympathy. "Is there something that troubles you?"
"Just the usual. Investment trust, profit margins..."
"I see."
He could practically see his Sara making air quotations in her head as she repeated his words to herself, and he was almost amused. Almost being the operative word, but if push came to shove, what he really was would be exasperated. And still offended as hell.
"I suddenly have an idea, my dove." He rose to his feet and took her hand, saying, "Perhaps I need a pair of fresh eyes—-" He pretended not to hear her squeak as he tugged her close. "Perhaps you can help me figure out what's wrong?"
"Uh..."
He could feel her literally dragging her feet, but since he was a lot stronger than her, she still ultimately found herself following him as they descended the steps.
"I'd like your opinion about cold storage." She crashed into his back at the words, and he clenched his jaw to keep himself from smirking.
"Your, um, work...has need for cold storage?"
"My work would be in danger without it."
"Oh..."
She sounded as if she was close to tears, and he needed just one extra moment to compose himself yet again before he could trust himself to turn around.
Ah, fuck.
She really did look like she was about to cry, and the monster in him liked it. Actually, the monster in him liked it very much, and since the things one liked should be made to last...
"Why do you look like you're the one having work trouble instead, my dove?"
"It's, um, nothing."
"Is it school? Did something happen?"
"No."
"Is it your father?"
She shook her head.
"Then..." His brows met in a frown. "Is it because I want to show you my work?" He took her hand, which turned out to be icy cold. "I thought you'd be pleased I'm sharing another part of my life with you." As soon as the words were out, he realized that he might be laying it a little too thick, but when his gaze went back to hers, it was to see how his Sara's eyes were now filled with guilt.
"Oh, Raaf, I'm sorry. Of course I'm pleased."
Maybe she did need to be kidnapped, if only to save her from other monsters...even if no one could be as bad as him.
"I do want to be know more about you, but it's just—-"
He pressed a finger over her lips, and her eyes widened yet again, but this time in complete and utter fascination. So much fascination that he might never tell her he had also stumbled across a bucket list she had written when she was sixteen. In said list, his Sara had enumerated the things she wanted her "badass hero" to do to her, and of course one of those was this.
His finger on her lips, because apparently her fictional kidnappers had a thing for making their women shut up with such a technique. Personally, he would have preferred to stuff her mouth with his cock, but then again, he was a monster that was real, and they were not.
In any case, it was time to teach her that lesson, and so he slowly lifted his finger off her lips and whispered in his best killer voice, "Not one more word, my dove, until I show you my cold storage."
Her face went white as a ghost, and she swallowed so many times that he stopped counting after eleven. But in the end, his beautiful good girl whispered back in her best captive voice, "Okay."
He took her hand and led her down, and once they reached his office, he invited her in, and she entered without hesitation.