Everything feels different in the night.
I don't want to lie to myself any longer.
I want this man. I want him to touch me like he does in the visions I keep having.
"Please," I say. "It hurts so bad."
He turns, looking at me with those dark honey eyes. They seem to melt and harden at the same time.
"I'm sorry," he says. "You're going to have to figure it out yourself."
Through the haze of lust, I notice something about my captor. He paid a small fortune for me, but he's refusing to touch me. A little voice in my head tells me it's because he finds me unattractive.
I've been told my entire life that I wasn't pretty.
I didn't have the good looks my sisters were blessed with.
My limbs are short. I'm soft everywhere. I don't have a delicate bone structure.
It's something I've always known. But the thought that this man also feels the same way about me makes my stomach turn.
And before I can get a handle on my emotions, tears roll down my cheeks.
"What's wrong?" he asks immediately.
I shake my head, too mortified to speak.
"Are you in pain?" he asks.
I take a deep breath. I try to pull myself together, but I was made to break.
This doesn't make any sense. Dante is a confident, attractive man. There's no universe in which he'd want someone like me.
That's when it strikes me.
"Did my mother put you up to this?" I ask, seeing him through new eyes.
"What?"
"Is this one of her games?" I ask.
"What are you talking about, Grace?"
I look around the room. "Are there cameras in here? Is she watching this, having a good laugh?"
He rakes his hand through his hair. Even disheveled, it looks so perfect.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he tells me.
"You can drop the act now," I say. "I know exactly what's happening here. I know that you're working for her. It explains why you would take home someone like me."
That catches his attention.
"Someone like you?" he repeats.
"You know what I mean," I say, pulling my knees to my chest.
"I really don't," he says, cautiously walking toward me and lowering himself into the chair by the bed.
