"Which one?"
"Why you care so much about my safety. Why you haven't handed me over to the LaRiccia's. Why you think Giovanni is a monster, why my collar triggered you into seeing white, and why you're not answering his calls. I mean, I get that last one, at least on the surface. You broke into his house. And—" I sigh, panning my hand to indicate the apartment as a whole. "—all this makes sense now. The security stuff, I mean. I don't knowmuch—anything, really—about Giovanni's security. But I'll tell you what I do know." I narrow my eyes at my handsome, heroic kidnapper. "He's way more paranoid than you. In fact, you're just the kind of person he might hire to install his security."
Lorcan laughs. It's not even sarcastic. It's real. "Ah, yeah. Ya got me."
Did he just breathe a sigh of relief?
"I did his security. I've got all the passwords. I just turned it all off. I didn't plan on findin' you, Emmaleen. I didn't plan on findin' anythin'. I was goin' through the motions. My uncle sent me down there to check shit out. He was ordered to do this by the LaRiccia family. I was ordered to get it done. It didn't matter what I found in Giovanni's mansion. It never mattered. I was gonna report back and say I found nothin'."
"Why?" My voice sounds very small right now.
He waits for nearly thirty seconds, before answering me. But when he does, he's different. Not cold. Lorcan really isn't a cold man. Just… resolved. "Like I said earlier," he finally says. "There are things you're never gonna know about him. Me. Us. And that's it. The end."
There is a big, black period at the end of that sentence.
The End.
"Can I call him?"
Again, Lorcan laughs. "You want to call himright now?"
I nod. "I bet he's worried."
"Oh, I bet he is," Lorcan agrees. And though these words are low, they are not soft. "I bet he is."
"Is that a no?"
"It's a no. For now. And not because I care if you talk to him, but if you talk to him, I'll have to talk to him. And I'm not ready to do that."
"So it's real?"
"What?"
"This kidnapping. I'm your prisoner."
"I feel like there are worse things for you to be right now."
"Better things, too."
"Like Giovanni's sex slave?"
"It wasn't like that."
"Wasn't it?" His eyebrow goes up. "You're wearin' a collar, Emmaleen. I don't care if it was your choice, it's weird."
Weird.
Weird.
I hate that word. And I hate that Lorcan says it to me now. Because I had just come to terms withnotbeing weird. Jino had me convinced that my submission was something natural. Maybe not 'normal' when considering the number of people whodon'twant a live inside a power exchange relationship. But it felt good to me.
"I like it," I tell Lorcan.
He shakes his head. "Nah, Emmaleen. Ya don't. You were programmed to like it."
"That's just… not true. I was happy. You took me away from my happy. And now you're… what? What are you doing with me? Because the moment you let me leave, I'm going back to Giovanni. There's nothing you can do to stop it."
He walks over to me, reaching for my hand. He takes it, squeezes. "Good to know. I guess I'll have to make sure you never get the chance to leave."
