Page 102 of Coal Hearts

He admitted it.

He’s a cop.

My shoulders slouched with unmeasurable relief, but then I tensed again.

The thought of him electrifying me? Of being inside me? It was easy to say I wouldn’t fight when there was no one around and he wasn’t hurting me, but how would I cope out there? With so many men leering? With so much greed and filth swirling in the air? How long would I last in the pantomime when panic rose and preservation commanded I retaliate?

I didn’t know.

I couldn’t predict my reactions.

But...this wasn’t just about me.

Peter, Kirk, Rebecca, and all the other slaves I’d yet to meet had been here years. They’d endured for years. They’d survived for years.

They’d had no one, and now...they had Henri.

I asked a final question.

A question I didn’t really want an answer to. “You’re telling the truth...that you’ll enjoy it?”

He jerked on the spot. Flicking another look at the cameras, his entire demeanour bristled, but then, in a blaze of twisted honesty, he pressed his lips to my ear. “Yes.” He swallowed hard. “I wish I could tell you I’m repulsed at the thought of hurting you, but... I’ve been honest from the start, and I’ll stay honest for as long as I can. The things I will feel when I’m hurting you will haunt me for the rest of my life. I will enjoy it, I will want more, I will fight myself every second of every damn day, and...I also know whatever I end up doing to you, I’ll pay for a thousand-fold. Don’t think I won’t get my comeuppance, Ily. I will. Believe me.”

“Because of karma?”

“Something like that.” He sighed. “As long as you don’t fight me, we can get through this. Together.”

Together.

Such a comforting and condemning word.

“Just...promise me someone is coming.”

His jaw clenched; he looked away.

But then, he nodded. “Someone is coming.”

“In that case, do whatever you need to do. Do whatever it takes to save the jewels.”

His mouth suddenly crashed on mine.

His body crushed me against the spines of so many tragic, romantic stories.

The kiss was violent. Vicious. Stealing my breath and kicking my heart with connection.

As quickly as he’d kissed me, he fisted my hair, marched me to the centre of the library, then kicked my feet out from beneath me.

I cried out as I landed heavily on my knees.

My palms smarted as he shoved me forward.

And my ears rang as he stomped back to the towering shelving, selected a leather-bound volume thick enough to be used as a doorstop, then marched back toward me.

Chapter Fifteen

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Henri