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I vault over the low hedges separating the pool from the gardens, and Michael does the same, landing on the damp grass beside me. In the moonlight, it’s hard to see much out here, but at least I know what shadows are supposed to be here and which ones are not.
We move slowly in a practiced military fashion. We don’t have to speak to one another to effectively communicate anymore. It’s one of the many reasons that he is my most trusted man. I signal for him to take the far end while I search this side. She better hope that I am the one to find her.
It takes some searching, but eventually I hear a rustling coming from some nearby hedges. I follow the sound only to find a raccoon scurrying about. The sound gets louder, the rustling sounds are moving faster, and I realize almost too late in the darkness that it’s coming from behind me. I turn just in time to see Helena standing behind me with a small garden shovel raised up over her head with both hands. Her face is contorted into a mask of fury as she starts to bring the thing down on me with a silent but feral expression.
I raise my arm to block the thing, and it glances off my forearm and scratches my cheek just under my eye. I hiss in pain and knock the rock out of her hands and as far away from the pair of us as possible. The hell is she thinking? I see red. I shoot upward and snatch her by the wrist and start to yank her down. She manages to slap me and land a glancing blow with her elbow off of my jaw.
At least she’s not stupid enough to scream. Then it would bring every security guard on my property charging this way instantly. She grunts in frustration beneath me as she pushes and shoves at my chest trying to liberate herself. I find it almost funny how desperately she’s fighting to get away from me when she was fighting just as hard to get me inside of her earlier.
Oh, if only Michael wasn’t going to come check on me in just a moment, I would have her right now. I would pin her to the ground this very moment and fill her over and over again. I would paint her in white until she had sufficiently learned her place once more. I’m getting hard just thinking about it.
Something that I know she feels because her squirming stops. That look of hate and lust mixing on her face right now is partly why I haven’t killed her. I should have spared myself the trouble. I press myself more firmly between her legs, and she turns her head away from me while pushing at my shoulders. “Why do you fight what you want?” I chuckle and push her face into the earth with my palm. “Did you just want to get caught? I see you helped yourself to the presents I left for you.” I slide my hand up the crop top that she found until I fit her breast into my palm. “If you had only behaved… I could have given you so much more.”
I push off of her and she lays there, curled up on the ground. Her wet blonde hair is now muddy-colored from the dirt. It shouldn’t be appealing, but it is. I want her so badly. She’s the single most intoxicating creature I have ever encountered. I hope she never loses that fire. A part of me hopes that she will fight until the very end.
“I should make you crawl all of the way back to your room as punishment. If you want to act like a bitch, then you will be treated accordingly,” I say affectionately. “However, as this is only your first offense, I will be lenient with my pretty new pet. Are you going to walk, or do you want me to drag you back to your kennel?”
She deliberates for a moment, pretending to weigh her options but finally she slams her fists down into the soil in frustration. Then she rolls over and pushes herself to her feet.
“Did you really jump out of a window to free yourself?” I say with a hint of amusement.
She glances over her shoulder in surprise. “How did you—”
“I have cameras everywhere, sweet thing. You should have expected that. Now march or don’t. I would love to have a reason to punish you.”
I stay only two feet behind her. My body courses with adrenaline. I almost want her to run just so that I can have the thrill of chasing her.
She walks with an awkward gait when she starts moving back in the direction that she came from. I text Michael that I have found her and that I am returning her to her pen, so they can call off the search for her. At first, I think that she’s just stalling for time by walking slow, but then it becomes increasingly obvious that she’s favoring one leg, then full-out limping. I hear a soft hiss of pain escape her lops where she’s biting her own tongue to keep from making any noise.
“You’re hurt,” I say. It’s not a question, but rather a statement. “You hurt your ankle when you fell, didn’t you?”
She stops walking and nods slowly. The gesture is so small that I almost don’t see it in the darkness.
“If you had done what I told you, then you wouldn’t be hurt. Isn’t that right?” I walk around to the front of her, but my resolve wavers when I see the tracks her tears have cut down her dirty face. My jaw clenches, and I deliberate for only a second before I carefully scoop her up into my arms and carry her the rest of the way back to the house.
Helena’s struggling to muffle her tears. I can hear her soft sniffles as she attempts to keep her attention anywhere but my face. It seems that the fight has finally left her. She no longer struggles to get out of my arms.
“If you had listened, you wouldn’t be in pain right now,” I say evenly. I have to swallow back the knee-jerk retort that would not have been so kind. If she hadn’t stubbornly attempted to run away from me, then she wouldn’t have gotten any more injured. Now I will have to punish her once her ankle has been tended to.
I refuse to admit to myself that I might have been afraid. Not even for a moment. If I admit it to myself, if I admit that I was worried about her wellbeing, then it’s going to be more difficult to punish her.
One of the guards from my security team opens the front door to the house that I’m keeping Helena in. I pause only to give him a warning glance.
“I want security on this house doubled. If she manages to pull a moronic stunt like this again, I will be very angry. Do you understand me? Have the bedroom and the rest of the floor searched for anything that she can use to pick locks and have it removed in the next thirty minutes.”
“Yes, sir. Right away,” he says quickly and moves into action right after he closes the door behind us. I can hear the heavy, automated locks click into place with a heavythudthat makes Helena flinch in my arms. I wonder what sort of nefarious things her mind is tormenting her with. What does she imagine I’m going to spend the next half hour doing to her, I wonder?
As much as I hate to admit it, there’s a part of me that’s almost proud she took the jump from the second-floor window in her desperation to get away. Not many people would have had the courage to do it. I know her survival instincts are strong, but I did not think that they werethatstrong. A part of me admires her.
I carry her back through the bedroom door and into the ensuite bathroom. At least she’s not foolish enough to try to run away from me when I set her on the edge of the bathtub. She curls her hands slowly around the lip of the tub, and I catch her wincing out of the corner of my eye. She lifts her leg gingerly as if she’s going to place it on the tub beside her and quickly thinks better of it.
I walk around her to turn on the faucet and dip my fingers beneath the stream of water once it’s warm. I knock a bath bomb from the edge of the tub into the water and watch as the bubbles start to fill up the space. A soft, floral fragrance wafts on the air, but the silence hangs heavy between us. I shouldn’t bother getting her clean after her behavior. I shouldn’t care. If I do what is expected of me, I’m just going to end up killing her anyway. The very thought of it makes a knot form in my throat.
I move back to Helena and start to pull the small shirt up and over her body. I can’t deny how surprised I am when she lifts her arms and allows me to pull the garment free. I toss it aside and help her up onto her good leg. She wobbles a bit but grabs my shoulders to keep herself steady. Even such subtle contact is enough to have my imagination stirring once more.
I undo the button to her jean shorts. My thumbs sweep over the expanse of her skin slowly, savoring the feel of her. It’s impossible to fathom that this might be the last time I get to see her like this. Who knows what Nikolai is planning on doing with her once he has his hands on her again…
Helena shudders at the contact, and I doubt it was voluntary. Her fingers tighten on my shoulder as I slide her shorts down and off her once more. I can see the evidence of her arousal on the shorts and her inner thighs. She liked struggling in the woods just as much as I did. Though the mud clinging to her bare legs is drying now and starting to chip off, making a mess of the floor around us, I can’t bring myself to care. Something in the air is shifting between us and I know that we both feel it.
