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I’d reached for her to protect her—to stop her from making shit worse—yet I couldn’t deny what Victor said wriggled into my brain and made all of this seem…inevitable.
She was prey.
I was a predator.
I’d always known that.
Always felt it.
Always been aware of the throbbing in my bones, the blistering in my blood, and the unnatural sensation of a beast prowling in my veins. A monster far wilder, far crueller, far more primal than I’d ever let myself become.
I felt it now.
Growling at the other men.
Claiming this one as mine.
Blocking out the two bastards, I locked eyes with Ily. I played the role I was supposed to play, never admitting it fit me far too snugly. “You’re on a plane, sunshine. You can’t escape this. Your freedom is what I say it is because your life is mine now.” I wedged her hand harder against my pounding flesh, and I was so close, so fucking close to losing my mind. “I suggest you accept it so we can all move on.”
Breathing hard, I let her go.
Ily snatched her hand back and rubbed it along her skirt as if wiping away the heat of my erection. I expected rage but flinched when tears glittered in her golden stare, looking like fractures of a thousand sunrays.
The term of endearment had slipped from me.
Her eyes truly reminded me of a hazy summer’s day.
But they were harsher too. Like the eyes of a lynx or—
“Don’t ever call me sunshine again. My name is Ily. Not sweetling. Not pet. Not sunshine. Ily. The least you can do is grant me that.”
Victor sucked in a breath, and Roland groaned. “Goddammit, I need her. Victor? Please?”
The plane levelled out as we reached cruising altitude. A couple of bumps as lightning forked out the window. The air hostess appeared from the back galley, drifting along each row to close all the oval windows. The snick of the shutters being pushed down made Ily flinch beside me.
Roland shoved down his window blind, motioning for me to do the same. I had questions but obeyed, blocking out the night-wet clouds.
Only once each blind was closed and the entire plane was blindfolded did I understand. “You don’t want us to see any landmarks as we fly to your estate.”
Victor accepted a glass of whiskey from the air hostess with a tilt of his chin. “You’re perceptive, and yes. My home is my sanctuary. I’ve spent decades building a personal Elysium, and until I know you can be trusted, you won’t be given its location.” He saluted me with his crystal goblet. “I’m sure you can understand.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“It’s not hard to figure out,” Ily muttered. “Three-hour travel time from Paris? That means whatever seedy sex dungeon you’re running could be in the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Malta...”
Victor smiled. “You’re intelligent as well as beautiful. Tell me…do you study maps for fun, or do you merely like trivia?”
“If you must know, I’m fascinated about what stones come out of what countries. What pressure and rock composition are needed to form so many different gemstones. Each continent is unique.”
“As are you.” His smile widened; a wicked glint appeared in his navy eyes.
Ah, shit.
She really shouldn’t have done that.
Shouldn’t have tried to make him see her as someone when the only way she’d survive is if he merely saw her as everything else.
I stifled a groan as Victor murmured, “Am I right in thinking you’re a gemmologist?”
