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O’Hare’s beautifully-sculpted eyebrows went right up. Wasn’t exquisite personal grooming a mafia-type thing? Along with not being too bothered if you had another man’s dick blood smeared over your designer shirts apparently. “Now that is an unexpected response. You know you can’t just leave a man hanging at that.”
It wasn’t something I’d thought about in detail for a long time. There were too many flickers of memory I didn’t like to have come up: my screams, how effectively he’d been able to hold me in place… the way I’d had to beg him, even if that was part of my strategy. I never wanted to have to feel that way again, and that was why I wasn’t going to do it again with O’Hare.
But he didn’t need to hear all the thoughts that went through my head. He would have to be content with the story I was willing to give him.
“I used to have a taste for seeing how much I could get a boy going without giving him anything in return… well, turns out the answer is ‘a lot’. This one boy… he decided he needed a lot more than I was offering.”
O’Hare’s smile suddenly made me realise just how it must have been for poor Steven when I was bringing all the weight of my charms down on him. I was far too much for him, I’d always known it, but that was the point. I’d just never realised how it felt from his perspective… until I found myself at the mercy of a man who was far too much for me. “Now, Julia… you should know better than to tease young men. They’re not equipped for it the way you women are.”
Even though I’d been having somewhat similar thoughts myself, I bristled. “I can’t say I’m impressed with your sexism.”
“What you’re not impressed with is the fact that I see right through you,” O’Hare said. I wrapped my arms around myself like he’d said he could see right through my clothes. “You’re used to being taken completely seriously, butter wouldn’t melt in this cute little bitch’s mouth, right? Well I’m not one of your little school friends, Miss Julia Mahoney. I can see exactly what you are, and I don’t care… but I’m not going to lie to you because you’re pretty. The fact is, I see a woman in front of me with nerves of steel, and from my perspective that’s not something to sugarcoat. That’s something you need to learn how to take advantage of… before someone else does.”
I felt shaky again. “Why do I have a feeling you’re trying to tell me it’s already too late for that.”
“This is exactly what I’m talking about, Julia. Game recognises game. I knew it when you didn’t make the mistake of trying to escape before morning.”
“Running away from a potential killer and definite smasher of kneecaps in the night, having no idea where I am and no shoes and a feeling the people who run this park are in on your scams? Yeah, would have been a real strategic move.”
I tensed when O’Hare stood and walked around the edge of the bed to sit down alongside me. He was so close he was almost sitting on my hand, but I couldn’t bring myself to move away. Was that because I didn’t want him to think I was afraid? Game recognises game. I’d always thought of myself as having reasonable game, but having my prowess validated by a man who didn’t hesitate to hurt others was not exactly what I’d always wanted.
When he took my nearest hand and pulled it into his lap, I felt my face growing hot.
“Do you want to know what my plan is, Julia?” he asked.
“No, but I do want to get home so I don’t get too behind on my favourite shows, and if this is the way I’ve got to do it…”
“Very good. Well, I’m tired of your parents’ antics. They’ve received enough chances and now they need to be put in their place. Of course I have the power to compel them to pay back the money they owe me, but people who have no respect for the money of others have no care for the lessons taught through it. They’ll be back to their old ways before the money’s had time to find its way out of their account.” O’Hare rolled my knuckles between thumb and forefinger. “No… it’s time to try something more radical. Julia, I’m going to forgive the entirety of that debt. Let them keep the money.”
I knew my eyes were pretty wide as I stared into his. O’Hare’s deceptively innocent-looking eyes returned my gaze without any emotion I could name. “But… you…”
“Sometimes, Julia, you can bring a man down harder by giving him what he thinks he wants. Then, with your other hand, you reach in and take what he really can’t stand to lose.”
I hated that I thought O’Hare’s smile was so pretty, because it definitely meant trouble for me.
“The Mahoneys can have their kneecapping money, plus interest, plus late fees. I’m going to marry their daughter instead.”
Chapter Four
Devin O’Hare made me a cup of herbal tea from the cabin supplies, and I was pretty sure he added a splash of something that wasn’t provided in the tea tray, but it was failing to calm me down.
I thought I’d accepted the situation I was in, but this was much worse than the worst I had prepared for. As a kidnappee, I could be frightened, hurt, mutilated… even murdered, but once it got to that point I wasn’t going to care very much, and anyway O’Hare didn’t terribly interested in inflicting extreme harm on a whim.
Marriage was a life sentence.
Around the middle of the day, O’Hare came in with a little suitcase and a smaller, transparent plastic bag filled with toiletries: a small toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, a shower cap and a few other boxed items I didn’t want to think about the use of.
I pushed them across the bed. “Do you get special care packages made up for the girls whose lives you plan to completely ruin?”
“It’s standard hotel equipment, Julia, don’t be dramatic.” He thrust the items back against my leg. “I actually haven’t kidnapped any other women before—don’t go degrading yourself either by acting like you’re not a grown adult. And if you’re referring to the idea of marrying me when you talk about your life being completely ruined like you really are still twelve years old, well, I was hoping you’d agree to it wholeheartedly.”
“To marry you? Just to make some sort of stupid point to my parents? Are you out of your mind?” I grabbed the toiletries package and was midway through lobbing it at his stupid head when he became a blur in front of my eyes. The next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the bed, the case awkwardly pressing against my legs, and Devin O’Hare had my arms up above my head again like the night before, this time pinned down by the pressure of one hand over my two wrists.
My chest was rising and falling in overdrive, and he seemed hardly to have broken a sweat. I could see his other hand planted right next to my head, the blood on his sleeve—evidence of how he’d protected me earlier. Yes, he could make me do whatever he wanted… but the idea that he wanted me to choose it was kind of… those feelings I shouldn’t be having were definitely coming back now.
I moved my eyes up his body to stare him directly in the face. If I went ahead with this then it would probably mean he’d be in this position for reasons other than stopping me from breaking his nose…
No! Why was I starting to think like this? The man didn’t look even slightly interested in fucking me for goodness sake, even though I was basically gift-wrapped in front of him. He’d already told me it wasn’t about wanting me, so how stupid did I want to be? This was just his strategy for getting me to go along with this bullshit: get me scared with the kidnapping, feed me a few weak lines about my being pretty and interesting, and win all my parents’ money in the long term—or at least half, depending on just how long he thought I was going to be fooled. Probably he had other women he was actually interested in physically who he would laugh at me with when he left me at home to take on the town with them.
