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The confession echoed in the chamber of my heart.
He was so cruel.
Bathing me with honeyed words.
Holding me hostage.
Treating me with utmost reverence.
“Tu joues avec mon âme.” My fingers slipped over his brawny shoulders, down the slope of his muscular back, and caressed old welts. So many secrets slithered under his skin and I wanted to unlock each and every one like Pandora’s box. “You have no shame.”
“Neither do you.” Our tongues twined and our lower bodies ground. “Je veux te baiser.”
“Non, Zeno.” He sucked my tongue and I mewled, fingers curling in the towel around his waist. I couldn’t tell if I wanted to rip it off and beg him to press that thickening cock inside of me brutally, the way I’d come to love, or if I wanted to maintain the last piece of modesty stopping us from breaking my promise. “I told you we can’t do that again.”
With a snarl, he pulled away and pressed his forehead to mine, panting. His desperate hands shaped my waist. “Jet’en supplie.”
I shook my head, trying to dim the lust slamming inside of me with gulping breaths. “Don’t you get it? My mother controlled me my whole life and I barely escaped that. Now you’re doing the same. You may not be mean like her, but it doesn’t change our situation. I’m just a bird in another cage and you did that to me, Zeno.You.”
For once in my life, I wanted to stop feeling like a pawn.
“Be honest for a minute. Did you plan this when we met at Chaleur?” He mentioned the opposite, but I needed the reassurance again. “Was it all a trap to lure me right here?”
“Meeting you was fate, Darla,” he said harshly and cupped my cheek. “I had no idea who you were that night, except for the fact that you…you were the first woman to ever call me beautiful. There was no ulterior motive in your compliment and I basked in your honesty—in your non-judgemental attitude. In that room, my past or my present did not matter.” He brought his other hand to frame my face. “You made me feel human after a very long time.”
In a moment, everything within me slowed.
“That’s my truth,” he murmured. “You made me feel human, Darla.”
He was an untouchable king ruling shadowed lands with an iron grip. Hundreds of men at his fingertips. Every resource imaginable at his disposal. Practically immortal in the eyes of the world.
Yet it was my simple compliment that undid this man, proving once more that words were weapons with the power to destroy or build. “Zeno…”
“Look at me.” He took my hands and placed them on his chest, his eyes gleaming with a yearning that was too grandiose for me to comprehend. “My body is covered in scars and ink, yet you calledthisbeautiful.” His throat worked with emotion. “And it made me want you with a fierceness that robbed me of breath.”
An onslaught of feelings gripped my vocal cords. I kissed the wound I gave him. Tasting the metallic hint of his blood, the zing of it pumping through my veins like an antidote.
“You’ll never forgive me. I know this,” he said somberly. “And while I regret the way I went about things, I do not regret taking you away.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I want to take care of you in ways others failed to do,” he confessed. “This isn’t another cage, Darla. This is your freedom.”
My mind spun with the open vulnerability he displayed. A stark contrast to the man on our wedding night who was consumed with jealousy that halted him from speaking this truth.
“Then prove it,” I challenged. “Prove to me that this is my freedom.”
He stepped back and offered me his hand.
Like a fool, I took it
It was past midnight and my husband led me down dark, lantern-lit hallways, our shadows kissing each other like long-lost lovers. Our hands were woven together and I clung to his side, burrowing heat from his naked chest, his sweatpants-clad legs eating the distance with strides that made it difficult for me to keep up.
Eventually, he hoisted me into his arms in a princess carry and I let him. I tucked my head into his neck, feeling the gradual thump of his heart.
In the far end of the estate, we entered a large enclosure.
Zeno lowered me to my feet and I moved away from him, enraptured by the visual surrounding me.
