“I knew you’d be there. I knew you’d come home with me.”
“You said you knew I wasn’t invited.”
“I say a lot of things to get what I want.” My answer seems to satisfy her.
She unties the ribbon and lifts the silk.
“A silk robe? Rather presumptuous.” She doesn’t look me in the eyes until the final statement, her slender fingers still running along the fine silk.
“I prefer the term ‘confident’. It was only a matter of time, Belle.”
“You went through all of this . . . for me?”
“I said I wanted you.”
“Why me?”
“Because I saw you, and I imagined something different than what I had for the first time in years. Now put your robe on, it’s time to call your father.”
It was years ago. For years I’ve wanted her. If she thinks she can create an end date for this arrangement, she’s so very wrong.
“Tell him you’re staying here indefinitely.”
5
Anabelle
There’s a fine line of pleasure and fear mixed with sadness. Not for me, but for Calum.
We walk the ornate hallway of his home. He could stride past me without any effort. The man is so tall.
His wealth is so vast, this place could be littered with help, yet it’s vacant and quiet as far as I can tell.
Calum Harrison could have fucked me in a hall closet of that castle, and I would have loved every second without a single regret.
He could have offered me this deal regardless of my father, and I imagine I would have taken it. Especially now, knowing the divine pleasure that’s left me deliciously sore.
The thick wallpaper of deep red paisley lines the hall from floor to ceiling, and although I know this call is going to prove exactly where I stand, I wonder how Calum could even question it.
“You didn’t have to do this, you know.” I whisper the confrontation. His steady strides that he kept to walk beside me halt, leaving me a hair in front of him. I turn where I am, the fine silk of the evening robe grazing along my skin. Wearing nothing else, it’d be rather scandalous if there were maids or butlers hiding behind the corners.
The little touches he’s been giving me make me very aware that Calum enjoys seeing me like this. Wrapped in fine cloth that barely hides a thing from him.
I enjoy it too. In fact . . . I love it.
“It has to happen. You’ll call him, inform him that you’re with me.”
“I don’t mean that.” I’m aware I interrupt him, but he misunderstood. “Of course I have to call my father.”
Content with my response, Calum places his hand on my back, a gesture that we’re to continue.
“I would trade anything for my father’s life . . . but you could have had my body regardless.”
“Your body?”
“You certainly paid a steep price for it.”
“Is that right?” he questions, peering down at me. My heart flutters when he looks at me like that. With genuine curiosity. “You think it’s only your body I want?”
“No.” My answer doesn’t come out half as strong with his darkly spoken question. There isn’t a doubt in my mind what Calum craves. My submission, my pleasure belonging to him. I have to clear my throat as the dirty thoughts of what he’s going to do to me for however long he wants runs a shiver of want down my shoulders.
“You realize this is madness and unnecessary.”
“I wanted you and I would do anything,” he stresses the word, “to really have you.”
“But like this?” I can’t help but to push.
“I do what I have to do.” His hard response doesn’t add to the image of the man everyone else sees. All I see in his gaze is desperation.
My heart breaks for him. Truly.
I wonder if he would have gone about it this way before the accident, back when no one referred to him as a beast. Back to articles with him laughing. Back then . . . would he have sought out my father and offered him that deal at his lowest just so he could maneuver a way to keep me in his grasp?
“Do you pity me?” Calum questions, turning towards me and taking a dangerous step closer. The air around him forces me to take a step back, pressing myself against the fine walls of the hallway.
“Pity? No,” I answer. He’s an enigma, one that my mind wants to dance with. His hand cups my jaw, holding me captive as the back of my head presses against the wall. “Do you know it turns me on?” I question him back in a whisper. His strength, the force of his entirety. “I’ve never felt more alive.” I only hope he feels the same.
“I could break you.”
“I know,” I whisper in response to his threatening tone.
“I could do whatever I want to do to you.” His lips are closer now and the desire rises up from the pit of my belly.
It only turns me on. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.
“I saw you years ago,” I finally confess to him. “And I made a wish that night; that you would do exactly that.” Whatever he wanted.
Calum takes his time slipping the robe from my shoulders. This time when he takes me roughly against the wall, he lets me kiss his scar afterwards.
6
Annabelle
“I don’t care what you tell him; I’m sure he’ll have figured it out anyway.”
The sound of the first ring is ominous. It seems to slow as my heart races frantically.
Tell him the truth or tell the lie Calum wants to hear. As the phone rings once more, I make the decision simple. Which is the choice I won’t regret? Because of the three of us, I’m the only one that will have to live with this decision forever.
“Harrison,” my father hisses, and my heart hammers. “If you touched her, I’ll destroy you and every—”
“Father,” I interrupt him, feeling the ball in my throat grow spikes as I do.
“Annabelle.” Relief is evident, but so is fear. “Where are you?”
“Father, please.” I swallow and close my eyes at the sound of the hardwood floors creaking behind me as Calum shifts his weight.
Although my father protests, telling me to answer him and questioning where I am again, Calum’s hand wraps around my front, splaying across my belly, and he pulls my back into his broad chest.
“I need you to listen to me.” My voice is softer, easier with his touch.
All I’m given in response is a curse of frustration. Until he screams, “I’ll fucking kill him for hurting you!”
“He didn’t hurt me,” I object. “I left with him last night because I wanted to.” Calum plants a soft kiss below my ear in that sensitive spot that elicits the sweetest of chills down my shoulder.
There is only silence on the other end of the line.
“I’m going to stay with him for a while. I want a break, and I can still—” Just as I’m offering to still do the book-keeping, my father’s voice turns questioning.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you have feelings for that beast of a man . . .”