"The only safe place for you now is with me. Under my control."
"I was fine before I met you."
"Were you?" I lean in close. Too close. "Or were you just lucky? Walking home alone at night through one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Working late shifts in an ER where anyone could grab you. Living in a fourth-floor walkup with a lock I can pick in seconds. No security. No protection. Just you and hope."
"That's insane. I can?—"
"Can what? Run? I'll find you. Fight? You'll lose. Scream? No one's coming. You don't have a choice, Francesca. You just haven't accepted it yet."
She wants to argue. I can see it in her eyes. But she can't. Because she knows I'm right.
"I really don't have a choice, do I?"
"No. You don't."
She stares at me, and I see fury and fear and something else warring in her eyes. Something that looks almost like relief. Like part of her has been waiting for someone to take the choice away.
"If I go with you," she says slowly, "what happens?"
"I keep you. I own you. I make sure nothing in this world touches you except me."
"That sounds like a prison."
"It is." I don't soften it. "A comfortable cage. And I'm the only one with the key."
"And if I try to leave?"
"Then I'll stop you." I step closer. I'm close enough that she has to tilt her head back to meet my eyes. "And I won't be gentle about it."
She's unsteady, but this time when I reach out and cup her face in my hands, she doesn't pull away. She just stares up at me with those terrified eyes.
"I need to pack," she says finally.
"No. We'll get you whatever you need."
"My job?—"
"Call in sick."
She opens her mouth to argue, but I shake my head.
"No negotiations, Francesca. Not tonight. Tonight, you come with me. Everything else we can discuss later. When you're ready to listen. When you understand how this works."
She stands frozen. Then she walks past me to the coffee table and picks up her purse and drops the pepper spray in it.
Good. I like her defiant.
"If I do this," she says without looking at me, "if I go with you... I want one thing clear."
"What's that?"
She turns to face me, and the look in her eyes makes heat flood my chest.
"I'm doing this because I don't have a choice. Not because I want to. Not because I'm yours. Because you've backed me into a corner and I'm smart enough to know when I'm outmatched." She takes a step toward me. "But the second I find a way out, I'm taking it."
I smile. I can't help it.
"We'll see,piccola. We'll see how long that lasts once you're in my bed."
