“So why are you turned on right now? I just killed a man before your eyes.” He nuzzles my inner thigh. His beard slightly scratches my skin but it also makes me feel more alive.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand it,” I cry out as my tears hit me. “I don’t understand it.”
He places a kiss straight to my folds. The sensation makes my hips jerk up and a loud gasp escape me. But as soon as he touches me, he pulls back. “I am going to claim all of you one day. I am going to take your virginity. And you will scream my name as I do it. But not today.” He slips my underwear back into place and closes my legs. I don’t move as he brings my dress back down.
“I don’t understand.”
For just a moment, there’s a softness in his eyes. He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. “You look beautiful like this.” I don’t have the courage to ask him for more.
He stands up and from this angle, I can see his length pressing against his pants. My mouth goes dry.
Gabriel turns to George’s body and takes out his phone, calling someone. “I need you to come do a cleanup for me. In the maze. Got it.” He hangs up. “Go back inside, Aurora.” When I don’t move, he snaps, “Now.”
I scramble to my feet and run to my room without looking back. My heart is pounding while the sensitive spot between my legs is throbbing the entire time.
Chapter Eight
Aurora
Iam haunted all night by the memory of Gabriel killing George and also kissing me between my legs. It was just a little touch, nothing more, and yet it has driven me wild.
How can a man kill another person and then touch me like he did?
Gabriel doesn’t make any sense to me but I can’t deny that my body responds to him. Why do I have to be attracted to the man who kidnapped my father? Shame wracks through me.
I can’t let Gabriel get control of me like he did last night. The only way to control him is if I have information and to get information, I need to go into his room. I know he’s keeping something in there. But what, I have no idea.
I wait until the middle of the day when I know Gabriel won’t be around. He usually leaves for work or remains in his home office. This is my chance.
I tiptoe to where his room is. The grand door stares back at me with the lion’s head knocker glares at me like it’s trying to tell me I am doing something wrong. I guess in a way I am. Gabriel told me I was not allowed to go in here and yet I’m disobeying him. But I am a grown woman. Gabriel doesn’t get to control me like I’m a child.
With a deep breath, I pull on the lion’s head and open the door. It’s heavy so it takes a lot of my strength but I manage. The first thing I notice is how chilly the room is like it’s devoid of any kind of life. The second thing I notice is how dark it is. It’s light out nowso there should be light coming into the room but the blackout curtains keep everything sealed in tight.
I walk carefully into the room and pull back one of the curtains, letting light in. Now, I can finally see. The bed is large – four poster. Black sheets. The rug is ornate and helps muffle my steps. A fireplace dominates one of the walls. It looks like it hasn’t been used in years. There’s no sense of anyone living in this room. No pictures. No knickknacks. Nothing.
A drawer beside the bed catches my attention. I open the top drawer to reveal a picture. It’s not in a frame. It’s a printed out photo like people used to take all the time before cell phones became common.
Picking it up, I see that a young woman, a slightly older man, and a young boy sit on a park bench, smiling together. The woman has a baby bump.
Is this Gabriel’s family? I study the young boy more closely. It does look a lot like him just without a scar. So Gabriel wasn’t born with it. He somehow got it later.
This picture doesn’t answer the question to how he got the scar but it does answer other questions I’ve had. Gabriel is hiding this photo away just like how he puts curtains over the mirrors. He doesn’t want to look at this photo.
But why exactly?
“What are you doing in here?” Gabriel’s deep voice startles me. With a gasp, I spin around, still holding onto the photo. His eyes flick right to it and a deep, intense anger crosses his face. “Let that go. Let that go!”
I immediately drop the photo from my hand. Gabriel storms over and picks it up, setting it gently back into the drawer.
“Is that your family?”
He gives me a cold, hard look I can feel all the way into my bones. “I told you to never come in here.”
“I know. But –,”
“There are no buts, Aurora. I told you and you didn’t listen.” He grabs me around the waist and throws me onto the bed.
“What are you doing?” I ask as a spike of fear flits through my heart.
