It feels different than it has before. Her touch is hesitant. A different kind of fear is in control of her and shows in her eyes. The kiss is meant to put an end to the conversation. She’s hiding in that act.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I command her although the edge of desperation is evident to me. I don’t think she can hear it. I pray she can’t.
Her answer doesn’t come quickly. She tries to leave me, and I cling to her, but she grabs my wrists and pulls my touch away as she tells me, “I’m scared.”
“You don’t have anything to fear if you obey me,” I tell her, pinning her gaze to mine.
“You don’t understand,” she whispers.
The unspoken words between us are causing a crack in the delicate balance of what we have.
The reality that she’s still my prisoner.
The truth that I won’t rest until her father is dead.
The fact that she won’t forgive me for killing everyone she’s ever known and loved.
And the fact I never want to be without her and I think she feels the same about me. If only she could accept what’s to come.
The Talverys will be massacred. And she, the sole survivor of her name, belongs to me.
Chapter 11
Aria
It’s too much, I think with my thumbnail in between my teeth as I lie in the soaking tub.
Every day, something changes, and I never know how to react or what it means for us. What it means about me.
How could I not have known someone was watching me?
It must have been Mika.
He was always watching and taunting and teasing, but I thought it was just because he was an asshole on a power trip.
I lower my hand back into the steaming water and try to settle against the edge of the tub. My foot slips up to the faucet, feeling the hot water splash against it.
I can feel my fight leaving. The urge to keep fighting and keep holding on to the girl I was before Carter acquired me is trickling out of me day by day.
He’s going to kill my family. My father. Nikolai. I know Carter will, no matter how much he cares for me.
That’s the most painful part. I think he does care for me, but Carter is ruthless and there’s nothing I can do to stop him. There’s no point in trying.
The hopelessness presses against my shoulders, threatening to push me under and drown away my sorrows.
I wish I was numb to it all. There’s nothing worse than being fully aware yet having no way to change any of it. Without fighting, I feel like a traitor. I’m not just surviving anymore. I’m living, and I don’t know how I can forgive myself for having feelings for the man who’s responsible for so many horrible sins.
Just as I feel tears pricking at my eyes, Carter’s voice startles me. “You’re tense.”
I try to hide my sniffling and feel pathetic that I’m crying at all. Carter ignores it though, offering me that small bit of mercy as he strips down and slowly sinks into the tub, scooting me forward so he can lie in the bath behind me. The water sloshes and rises higher up my body as he sinks into the tub.
His touch is gentle, and I don’t fail to notice that he’s hard already. Just the thought of his cock makes my thighs clench and the dull ache that never leaves sends a wave of want through me.
Maybe that’s why I don’t want to fight him. The only thing that takes away the pain and anger is the one thing he gives me constantly. And that makes me a whore of the worst kind.
The water sways and a shiver runs down my spine as Carter’s large hands press against my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. His fingers drift down my body, over the pearls and diamonds of his necklace that I always wear because he told me to, and the faint touch hardens my nipples and leaves goosebumps in his path to the hot water.
“What are you thinking?” Carter’s deep voice rumbles just as I close my eyes and I open them to stare at the tiled wall and answer bluntly.
“I was thinking I don’t want to kill you anymore because you fuck me so often.” The truth spills out easily, not even questioning my answer to him.
His rough chuckle almost makes me smile as he reaches for the sponge and then dips it into the steaming water.
“I’m so tired,” I say absently as Carter runs the sponge along my shoulder and down my forearm.
“It’s late. Later than you usually stay awake.” I spent hours in the gilded room. That’s what I’m calling it now. That’s all it is. Even if it is beautiful, and I do love that he had it built for me and I’m grateful to have my things back… or replicas of them.