Sodelusional …
“I know you don’tbelieve me now,” he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind myear. “But things will get easier. I promise. You have to trustme.”
“But,” I started,afraid to finish my sentence. “I don’t wantthis.”
“Not yet,” he saidsimply, tracing his thumb along my jaw. “But youwill.”
Darren then made amove to prove his point and fucked me in the grass. But it wasn’this usual routine because it was more as if he was making love tome than anything else. He was slow and gentle, taking his time withmy body, feeling and kissing every inch until I found myselfmoaning for more. I was worried about the guards seeing us atfirst, but Darren assured me his guards knew better than to watch.I was grateful because the things we did in that grass were thingsI wasn’t about to forget anytime soon.
I spent the restof the night thinking about Darren and what he had said to me. Ihad challenged him again, but this time, it was for something thatmight actually benefit me. If he could try to just be a littlenicer, a little less demanding, things might be a little moretolerable, but it would never stop me from wanting to escape him. Ididn’t think that urge would ever fade. He thought I’d eventuallygive in and come around, wanting him over my freedom, but he was sowrong … because I wanted someone else far more than he could evercomprehend. My loyalty would never belong to him … because it stillbelonged to someone else.
ChapterThirty-One
Discovery
The following weekhad been better. Now that I was able to go outside, my mood wasbetter, and Darren seemed to respond better to me now that I wasn’tsulking or arguing as much. I hadn’t seen him as much as he wasworking a lot, but he still tried to make surehe, atleast,had dinner withme.
True to his word,Darren had started to lighten up. He was softer and less aggressivewith me, but he was still just as demanding; I didn’t think thatwould ever change. I didn’t think he knew how not to be demandingsince he was so used to always getting his way, but it was nicethat he was trying to make me less miserable in hispresence.
Our conversationswere beginning to change. I worked hard to make sure I didn’t bringup a single topic that would start a fight, but I seriously had tohold my tongue at times when a certain opinion of his came out ofhis mouth. But it was when Darren brought up the potential futurethat I had a hard timenotshutting down. He could tell when it upset me, and I knew itwas upsetting him that it upset me, but I could seesometimeswhenhe himselfwas actually holding back to avoid a fight. Maybe he, too,was trying to keep the peace no matter how temporary itwas.
Darren stillrefused to discuss any of his personal business with me, but Iwanted to know more about his dealings so I would know who to watchout for when my plan to escape came tolife. I tried to payattention to his phone calls and conversations with guards andassociates. Words like Triguard,Audeamus,countermeasures and strikes, shipments, and auction. Anytime Iheard anything remotely close to mentioning the warehouse, mystomach would backflip. And it only motivated me to start payingattention to names—Ron, Matt, Carlos, Moross, Dan, Dominic, andRay. My hit list was getting bigger by the day.
The days Darrenworked from home were strange. Everyone seemed anxious and on theirtoes while people I’d never seen before came and went from hisoffice. Darren’s guards would often usher me away from his office,telling me Darren was busy and not to disturb him. But I wasn’tinterested in him; I was interested in the people he dealt with ona regular basis.
Every now andthen, I would continue to see the gardener here and there, and onetime, I just flat out waved to him with a fake-ass happy smile onmy face, hoping he would see that I was fine. He gave me a smallshort wave back and returned to his work.
One morning,Darren and I talked about our general interests and found commonground. He still liked to pry me on things about my childhood, andit usually brought a smile to his face, so Iobliged.
“You’re going tothink this is hilarious.” I chuckled. “But I used to love flyingkites when I was a kid.”
“Really?” Darrenasked enthusiastically, obviously thinking it washilarious.
“Oh yeah, and Iwas really good at it, too. I could always catch the perfect breezeand make it fly for hours. I could even do tricks and make it spinaround like a bird. I kind of miss it, actually. It was veryrelaxing.”
Darren just gaveme a knowing smile as if he was up to something. He usually alwayswas.
The followingmorning, Darren had told me he would be late coming home and that Iwould be having dinner alone. Shocker there, but he suddenly saidthat he had a surprise for me. He stood up from the chair and wentto pull the other chair out that sat across the table from me. Hethen pulled upa longwrapped present and set it down in front of me. It waswrapped in white wrapping paper with a bright pink bow. I gaveDarren a look, but he just urged me to open it. After ripping offthe paper and bow, I pulled the top off the rectangular box andpushed back the white tissue paper to find what looked like somedark purple fabric, thin plasticpoles,and string. Ilooked at it curiously before I pulled the fabric out and realizedit was the makings of a kite!
“Ha!” Ilaughed.
I pulledeverything out with pure excitement on myfaceand immediately put the kite together.When I looked back up at Darren with a huge smile on my face, thatwarm sexy one of his smiled back.
“Thank you,” Isaid earnestly.
“You’re welcome,”he replied, his eyes soft as he watched me. “Maybe you can show mesome of your tricks when I get back.” Hewinked.
“Be ready to haveyour mind blown.” I grinned.
I gave Darren avery nicegood-byekissbefore he left, and then I spent the remainder of my day outside. Ismiled to myself as I hooked the kite to my string and let it takeoff into the wind, but it wouldn’t stay in flight for long. Thewind wasn’t strong enough to keep it up. I would have to wait untilafter dinner to try again.
Getting Darren tobuy me the kite had been easier than I thought. Sure, I loved itwhen I was a kid, but I couldn’t give a fuck less about flying itnow. I just needed a good excuse to climb one of these fuckingtrees to figure out where the fuck I was. And here I thought Darrenknew when he was being manipulated. Stupid, cockyfuck.
I had dinner lateralone on the patio andafterwardcasually strolled by the edge of the trees while flying mykite. The wind had pickedup asI had hoped. Luckily, it was also pointing just in the rightdirection. I sporadically glanced around here and there, but Icould no longer see the guards who normally watched me. After awhile, they had spread out from the patio as they had more thanjust me to watch over. When I couldn’t see anyone for the nextseveral minutes, I purposefully tripped over myself and let go ofthe handle holding on to my kite. Like a man on a mission, the kiteaggressively flew away and landed in one of the branches atop alarge, tall tree. Absolute perfection.
I glanced aroundone last time to make sure no one was watching and quickly startedto climb the tree, flats and dress be damned.Truthbe told, I was terrified of heights, but I didn't let that stop meas I climbed higher and higher until I finally reached the top andgrabbed the stupid kite, securing it in my hand.
I then eagerly looked out from the tree andrealized I could see Darren’s entire estate from up here. It was alot bigger than I had thought. I couldn’t see his property line astrees surrounded the estate, but from what I could tell, Darrenprobablyhadforty or fifty acresof private land. I could see the gate to the entrance of the estateand it looked like it might have wrapped all the way around theproperty. There were no neighbors, and I could see the privatepaved road that led to the gate.
