“It means that much to you that someone is coming to save you? You truly believed no one would?”
“Why do you sound so surprised?”
“Because when I did research into you, I saw that you have a mother. A sister. Alek. I assumed you would know that one ofthem was coming for you. Why did you think they wouldn’t? Is it that darkness I was talking about? The one that’s inside of you?”
“There is no darkness inside of me,” I snap.
“But there is, Susanna. We both know it. It’s why you’re drawn to me. You can’t deny it.”
“Shut up.” My tears have finally stopped but it only leaves me feeling drained, like I have nothing else inside of me.
He wipes the rest of the tears from my cheeks. “I have to say that you’re beautiful when you cry.” Gabriel presses a tender kiss to my lips and I let it linger before I pull back.
“That’s a sick thing to say,” I whisper against his lips.
“I’m a sick man. You know this. You finally cried for me. All it took was letting you know that you have people that love you. Interesting. Do you really think you’re that unlovable?”
I inhale sharply. “I don’t think I’m unlovable.”
“Then why the tears?”
“I… I just haven’t been the best in the past,” I admit. “You know this. You told me you knew that I tried to ruin my own sister’s wedding.”
“But that doesn’t make you evil or unlovable. Have you done something worse that you’re not telling me about?”
My mind flashes back to four years ago when I was sixteen. When I pushed Alek’s wife, Katya, into a pool and she almost drowned. I was filled with so much jealousy over Alek choosing Katya to be his wife that I was so angry. I’ve never been that angry since then but it still haunts me to this day.
“Tell me,” he demands in his dark voice. “What have you done, Susanna?”
“I don’t have to tell you all my secrets.”
“And yet, you’ve let me put my mouth on your pussy. I think we’re past formalities here. You can let me in.”
“Just so you can hurt me with it? No.”
“Who says I want to hurt you with it?”
“You’re my kidnapper,” I snap. “Of course you want to hurt me with it.”
“But I don’t have to be your kidnapper.”
I gasp. “Are you saying you’ll let me go?”
“Just so you can return to your home? Were you happy there?”
I hesitate because he’s not wrong. I wasn’t exactly happy at my home. It’s partially why I acted out so much. I haven’t been happy since my dad died when I was a kid. It left a hole inside my heart.
But with Gabriel, I haven’t felt as angry. I have felt more… excited than I have in a long time.
“Exactly,” he says like he knows everything about me. “But I can offer you something more. You don’t have to be my prisoner but I don’t want to let you go.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying… become my wife.”
All the air leaves my body and I grow lightheaded for a moment. “Become your wife?”
“You would be mine. I could take you out of this cage. I would trust you more not to run.”
