Hedid.Heshowed up yesterday to claim whathethoughtheowned.
I did owehim. A lot.Hesaved me from the sicko monster that was supposed to protect me. From guys likehim. How fucking twisted was that?
And now, even thoughhedidn’t say it or make any clear demands, I knew exactly howhewanted me to pay forhisfavor.Hedidn’t need words. The heat inhisbreath, inhisvoice, inhisalmost touch that even now was wreaking havoc on my body was enough.
Hekilled my father to save me.He—not a miracle—put me and my sister in a good home and school.Hebought me expensive clothes and jewelry. Even my violin. All this to have one thing.
Me.
No. My body.
“Why did you stop? Why didn’t you make me pay? Why didn’t you collect your debt?” I asked the emptiness, the silence driving me crazy. “I need answers goddammit.”
Ci vediamo, my sweet Angel.
Hisdark promise rang in my head, taunting me. Then it suddenly hit me.Hewas toying with me, messing with my head. Yesterday wasn’t about a claim. It was another battle inhispsychological war thathe, again, won.
The gifts—one of them was anangelnecklace because that was howheliked to call me for God’s sake —were to gain my attention, to make me knowhewas there, to make me think abouthimand never forget. Last night was to make me know whathedesired.
To mindfuck me so I’d desirehim, too.
To make me explore that side I didn’t dare tread untilheopened its door for me. To do it while I thought ofhim. My dark, forbidden fantasy.
And it worked.Heknew I’d never been touched by anyone but my father.Heknew I was desperate to replace the horrible memories with better ones that involved another man.
Him.
Hemade sure of it.Hefucked my mind so when the time came, when we met again likehe’d promised, whenhedecided to claim me, I’d be ready forhim. Wantinghim.
I fell intohistrap like a moth to a flame. I did everythinghewanted me to do. Consciously, and now unconsciously, my body would always associatehimwith desire. I’d always want and cravehimeven ifhewas the last person I should ever think of in that way.
Little had I known four years ago I wasn’t really saved. Life had only replaced one monster by another.
Chapter11
Tino
I should punish her.
She was being a brat, destroying my gifts, comparing me to that fucker…
I didn’t install any bugs or cameras in her room, and I didn’t listen to a word she was saying when she threw that tantrum, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Why else would she be so upset? It couldn’t be the dress. It was just another one of the presents she was well aware I was the one bringing, one she annoyingly ruined.
Didn’t she know how much I loved her in it?
I did have access to a live feed of her room now. After she bought a nanny cam to keep me away, she left me no choice. I had to make one of my soldiers hack into her feed, broadcast whatever the fuck I wanted her to see when I was in the condo.
“Nothing is going to keep me away from you, Angel.” I almost snapped my brush in half as I told the unfinished painting. The face that had been haunting me awake and asleep.
I hadn’ttouched a brush and a palette in years, not since my wife died. The moment Angel and I had together was worthy of my time, though, worthy of being captured and framed eternally.
Anger wouldn’t leave me be, though. How could she think I’d hurt her the way her father did? “Haven’t I told you I’m nothing like him? What else can I do to prove to you no one will ever treat you better than I will, no one will ever protect or care for you or your needs and desires like me?”
She deserved a nice, heavy spanking for what she did. However, I must admit it wasn’t entirely her fault. Part of it was mine. I shouldn’t have talked to her the other night. I shouldn’t have talked to her at all until the time was right for me to take her. She was nowhere near ready.
Still, she should have believed me.
For that, she deserved the spanking and more. But I wouldn’t punish her for it. Not yet.
