It doesn’t stop me from wishing otherwise.
Conor came into the room and narrowed his eyes at my expression. “Are you okay, Zarren?”
He must’ve seen my expression because he quickly closed his mouth. Forcing my thoughts about Aurora down, I only winced once or twice as I closed the distance between us. When within arm’s reach of him, I grabbed his collar and tugged him close.
“What the fuck am I doing here? I told you not to bring me back yet.”
“Yes, I know. You were unconscious, so we thought?—”
“Who in the fuck gives the orders around here?”
“You, but?—”
“Please tell me that Aurora hasn’t seen me.”
He gulped harshly, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. “She treated your cuts.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I said as I released him. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I looked down at my chest, and although the cut looked bad, the heavy bruising was worse.
“We tried to make her go upstairs, but she insisted.”
“I’m sure she did.” And I hadn’t even meant that sarcastically.
Since arriving here, she’d been stubborn, and even more so than I had ever thought she’d be. I couldn’t blame her, though. Not only had she been ripped away from her boring life, but she’d been confronted with the betrayal of her best friend and boyfriend, who should’ve been the closest ones to her. She lost those relationships... her career... her freedom...
But she also lost her inhibitions and became the woman she was meant to be.
Where others might think her meek, I thought her assertive...
Where others might think her weak, I knew her to be strong...
Where another might think she was soon to be his, I knew she was only mine.
I covered my face with both hands. I needed to stop thinking like this. I’d intended to stay away until I knew the transaction was going down immediately. Conor and Liam had betrayed me, and that defiance would be punished, but not right now.
“You should’ve left me in a fucking ditch. Anywhere but here.”
“It was my decision,” I heard Liam say as he came up behind Conor. The two men were cousins, and Liam was the oldest and, more often than not, would try his best to protect Conor from my wrath. “I did try to get her to go upstairs. She’s so fucking stubborn. I don’t think she’s ever heard the expression about ‘a hard head making a soft ass’ because she doesn’t care.”
I smirked.No, Aurora gave no fucks once she put her mind to something. I’d been proud to watch her blossom into a stronger woman, at least stronger than she’d been the night I’d made that wager with Drake.
And she’d need to remain strong, too. There was no telling how she would be treated by Mikhail Bocharov. I knew of the man and the lengths he would go to when it came to his own family honor and duty, but I had no idea how he would treat Aurora.
Deep inside, she was still fragile, and I’d try to remember to be ashamed over trying to break her at some later time. Right now, all the blood I had left that I hadn’t lost at the fight clubs over the last two nights rushed straight to my groin.
I was the worst of the worst for wanting to fuck her. It’d been inevitable, which was why I had asked Conor and Liam to keep me away from here. I didn’t trust myself around her. After I fucked her the last time, it’d been the first time since I had been ripped from my mother’s arms that I’d felt helpless. Aurora had taken my control and burned it to fucking ash. She might as well have taken a shard of that broken glass and plunged it straight into me.
“Where is she now?”
Conor quickly answered. “She went upstairs after making sure you were warm.”
“Warm?” I asked, and almost laughed. If my Bellezza only knew how she always set my body on damn fire, she might’ve been better off getting an ice pack instead of wrapping me in a blanket in front of the fireplace.
“She’s a very caring one,” Liam offered up, causing me to arch a brow.
“Dare I say that almost sounded like a compliment?” I teased him, especially knowing he’d never been in her corner. He’d even suggested once or twice that I bring her to the underground prison in a safe house on the outskirts of the city to await her fate.
“She has her moments,” he said before grunting. “She did tend to you quite well, and even left some aspirin and a drink for you right over there.”
