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“I knew we were pretending to be engaged. I didn’t know we were pretending to live in the Dark Ages.”
He chuckles. “What happened to the woman who was thanking me profusely in the kitchen only a few hours ago? I saved you from my big, bad father, if you recall.”
“Your father didn’t seem so big and bad to me.” I sit on the bench at the end of my bed. Sitting on a bed with him in the room feels like opening the door to a very bad idea.
“Tell me how you feel if you’re ever in a room alone with him. You might change your mind.”
He closes the door behind him and faces me.
If it’s even half as scary as being in a room alone with his son, then no thank you. Every nerve in my body is on high alert.
I thought this mansion would be more than big enough for the two of us. Now, I’m not sure there is such a thing. Thisplanetmight not be big enough.
“He seemed like an asshole.”
Ivan laughs humorlessly. “That’s because he is. A dangerous asshole, though. One you should avoid when you can.”
“Are you worried he doesn’t approve of your fiancée? I guess he was hoping for a Fortune 500 heiress or the princess in line for some foreign throne. Sorry I’m ‘just a waitress.’”
“I don’t give a fuck about his approval. It’s my time now. His reign is over.”
I shudder at the thought of King Ivan on the throne. Crown on his head, all hail, all peasants bow before him.
He’s a nightmare now. What will he be like when the coronation comes?
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter what he thinks of me much anyway.” I shrug.
“What makes you think that?”
“I’ll be gone in a few days.” Ivan stares at me. I squirm under his gaze. “What?”
“This isn’t going to be resolved in ‘a few days,’ Cora.”
“But…” I lick my lips and twist towards him. “But I have to get back to work soon. I have a life.”
“A life you won’t have if you stroll back into that restaurant like you weren’t shot at this morning.” He gestures to the room. “You’re safe here.”
My voice shakes as I respond. “I know I’m safe here. And I appreciate that, I really do. You’ve gone above and beyond to make me comfortable. That doesn’t mean I want to live here. I can’t just quit my job.”
“Yes, you can. The restaurant is blown to bits anyway. They’ll close for repairs.”
“Okay, but that—That doesn’t mean—I still need—” The half-formed sentences stick in my throat. I can feel pressure building in me. My grip on control slips as the well-decorated walls of my cage close in. “You can’t lock me up in here.”
Ivan goes deathly still and his voice drops an octave into a raspy rumble. “Need I remind you that you agreed to our deal?”
“To save my friends,” I point out. “It was under duress. You threatened me.”
His amber eyes turn molten. “If you’re waiting for me to apologize for refusing to let you go back to your apartment and get yourself killed, don’t hold your breath.”
He stalks closer. I resist the urge to shrink away.
I ran before. I ran away from my stepfather, from the life he thought he could chain me into—and yet here I am, back in the lion’s den.
Clearly, running isn’t an option.
If I want freedom, I have to fight.
He’s close enough for his breath to whisper over my heated face. “I’ve done you nothing but favors, Cora. Since the moment we met. I could have left you naked and alone in my office,” he growls. “I could have let fucking Stefanos Genakos have his way with you. He would have, too. No one else at that party would have done a thing to stop it.”
