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We continue this motion, me feeding her, and offering her small drinks of water in between, with her actually eating until the entire plate is empty. Leaning back against the pillows, she groans. I move the tray and place it on the chaise lounge.
“I’m so full, I think I might explode.”
“I wanted to tell you that I’ve decided to move the wedding up. It will be in a few days, and I hope by then you’re behaving better.”
“A few days?” She squeaks. “Why have you moved it up?”
“Your father’s motives mostly. You’ll be my wife by the end of the week.”
She doesn’t say anything to that, not that her objecting would change a damn thing. I would still marry her even if she begged me not to, though strangely, she hasn’t fought me on that at all. Being locked in the room, handcuffed, and trapped, yes, but everything I’ve asked her to do, she has done.
Stripping out of my clothes, I walk into the bathroom. I start the shower and jump in, washing my hair and body quickly. When I’m done, I walk out of the bathroom without even a towel slung around my hips.
Elena pretends as if she’s not looking at me, but I can feel her eyes roaming over my naked form, and I swear I can see her cheeks turning pink even from a distance. She is an enigma. One moment she wants my touch, and the next, she wants to claw my eyes out.
Walking into the closet, I find a pair of boxers, tug them on and return to the bed. I slide beneath the sheets and turn away from her.
“Good night, Julian,” she huffs, tugging against the cuffs. “At least one of us gets to be comfortable.”
“Be a good girl, and the cuffs might not be needed.”
“What do you mean might not be needed?”
“They might not be needed to restrain you all the time, only when I want to restrain you.”
“There is something wrong with you.” She twists and turns, ruffling the sheets with her movements.
“You have a lot to learn, sweetheart,” I whisper and turn the light off, blanketing the room into darkness.
“So do you, like this isn’t how you get me to listen to you.”
Rolling over, I face her, and even though it’s dark, I can still make out some of her features. “You ran, knowing I would punish you for it. That sounds like the only person who has a listening problem is you.”
She sighs. “I ran because I thought you were going to hurt me, and I wasn’t going to run initially.”
“Then what were you going to do?”
“I thought you were with someone else, and I was upset. You rejected me, and then I heard your men talking… they said you moved the timeline up. I thought you were going to kill me or do something worse. I panicked.”
I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I understood. Deep down, I got why she ran, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a slap to my face. Had it been during the day, or one of my men had found her, it would’ve looked bad for me. Worse yet if she got away.
“I understand, but a punishment is a punishment.” Fluffing my pillow, I rest my head on it and do my best to ignore the heat of her body calling to me.
I don’t say anything else and let my eyes drift closed. My body itches to bring her closer to me, to hold her in my arms, but lately, she’s been feisty, refusing to let me touch her, and I don’t want to rehash anything with her. I just want to sleep.
Eventually, her breathing evens out, and I decide to let the exhaustion pull me under.The sound of someone crying fills my head, lifting me from a foggy sleep. Soft whimpers fill my ears, and I roll over to find Elena with her eyes squeezed close, struggling against the cuffs, her tiny body trembling.
A nightmare. She’s having a nightmare.
Gently, I grasp onto her shoulders and give her a tiny shake. A sob breaks from her lips, and her cries get louder when her eyes blink open.
I find myself wrapping her up in my arms, pulling her closer, rather than pushing her away. My eyes are glued to her face, watching as the tears cascade down her cheeks like raindrops on a window. In all the time she’s been here, she’s never looked as broken as she does right now, and the emotions swirling in her eyes grab onto me, digging their claws into my subconscious.
Her vulnerability is pushing through, and I can’t do anything but cup her by the cheek and wipe the tears away. My mouth makes soft shhh sounds, the noises I’m expelling are so foreign, I didn’t even know I could make them.
