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“We’ll get lunch before we go back,” Stefan says as he helps me into the SUV.
I know we’re close to his uncle’s house and I really don’t want to go there. Or anywhere, really.
“Can we just go home?” Why do I keep referring to it as home? It’s not my home. “I don’t feel like company.”
“It’s just us. You don’t have to be anything with me.”
“Oh. I assumed you’d want to see your uncle.”
He shakes his head. “I didn’t think you’d feel very social after this.”
Well, that was considerate. I bite the inside of my cheek and we don’t speak again until we’re seated at a quiet restaurant in a part of the city I’ve never been to. We’re the only customers and a bartender, a waiter and two other men are nearby to wait only on us.
“Thank you for bringing me to the service,” I say. I know he didn’t have to do that.
“You’re welcome.”
He picks up my menu and hands it to me.
I take it, open it and scan the page, just picking the first item I see, then close it again and set it down. I don’t care what I eat.
Stefan takes his time, though. Is this what it will be like with us? Will we sit quietly, awkwardly like this? Or will he ship me off somewhere once we’re married? Resume his life?
Resume.
That makes the assumption he’s stopped living the life he’s always lived.
My hands in my lap, I finger the diamond on my left hand, feel the weight of it.
My new life. This is it. And I have no more control over it than I did my old one.
But I’m going to do what Stefan told me last night. I’m taking his advice. I’d tell him if I didn’t think he’d get cocky but I’m going to stop feeling sorry for myself. I’ve become weak since this began. And since the kidnapping, I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore.
As if Stefan feels this shift in my mood, he closes his menu and looks at me with those strange, hazel eyes.
I think of his eyes on me last night. Think of how I looked to him when he touched me.
Heat flushes through me, settling at my core.
What he did to me last night, I want it again. And I’m determined to learn this game fast and learn it well, because I have to beat him at it. Let him underestimate me. Let him think I’m laughable. A child. I know what I felt when I touched him. He wants me. And that is a weakness.
The waiter is at our table a moment later and Stefan asks a few questions, then asks me if I’m ready to order.
I open my menu again because I’d forgotten what it was and order the first pasta dish listed.
“That’s all?” Stefan asks.
“That’s all.”
He orders a starter and a main course as well as a bottle of wine. Once the wine comes, the waiter pours for both of us and we drink a sip.
“I want to see my brother,” I blurt out.
“Your brother’s in New York.”
“You have a jet.”
He takes a deep breath in, studying me. “We’ll talk about it.”
“No. I want to see him. Especially now.”
“You have the phone. You can FaceTime him anytime.”
“It’s not the same. And he doesn’t understand why I haven’t been there. I used to go every week, twice whenever I could. Please, Stefan. I just want this one thing.” I pause. “I’ll do something you want in exchange.”
He sighs.
“Anything,” I add.
“Let’s talk about it later.”
“No, not later. Now.”
“If you push me, the answer is no. Let me think about it.”
There’s a long silence while we study one another.
I sigh. “Why were you like that last night?”
“Like what?”
“Mean.”
He makes a face, like he’s going to laugh or say something cutting, but I speak first and cut him off.
“Don’t tell me to grow up. You don’t have to be a jerk to me.”
“You lied to me. How do you want me to be when you lie to me?”
“The thing with Rafa, I should have told you. At least when I recognized the man at that house. I get that you were mad, but the rest, the things you said, I’m not my father. Don’t hate me for his sins.”
“I don’t hate you, Gabriela.”
“That’s the thing. Sometimes, I feel like you do. Then other times, it’s like you’re this other person. The one who carried me up out of that well.”
“Which one do you want?”
His question catches me off guard and it takes me a moment to process because he seems genuine.
Don’t be a fool.
I give a shake of my head. Am I so desperate for affection? He’s just fucking with me.
“My father said there’s a modification to the contract. What is it?”
“Which one do you want?” he repeats.
