Chapter 41 Chapter Forty
ARA
Before I found myself trapped in the Slade family politics, I thought Neil was the worst person alive. It turned out Madison was the queen of the worst people alive.
I blamed myself for walking unguarded right into her trap. At this rate, it would take me a year to prove to Thayne that I was on his side.
I couldn't tell him the truth, not if I wanted to put Madison in her place.
My back ached from lying in bed for so long, and my eyes hurt from staring at the high ceiling twenty-four hours round the clock.
The door slid open, and I expected the new replacement for Claudia to step into the room, but I was surprised to see Thayne.
His face was blank, but his brows immediately furrowed when he noticed the awkward position I was lying in. I'd twisted myself to the other side in order to relieve myself of the backache, but it didn't make the ache go away.
I was only ever allowed to leave the bed if I wanted to relieve myself in the toilet or take my bath. And even in the bathroom, Claudia's replacement, Tana, was always hovering over the tub.
Once again I'd been turned into a glorified prisoner.
“Why are you lying like that?" Thayne asked, his worried tone at complete odds with the hard look on his face.
It had been three days since the night I met Madison at the old gallery house, and Thayne had avoided the bedroom like a plague since that morning he left.
I opened my mouth to speak but only air slipped out. I swallowed, then tried again. Tana wasn't like Claudia. She was mean and stiff down to the bones.
She probably thought torturing me by denying me of water at night and in the morning would give Thayne the impression that she was doing a great job.
I coughed, a dry sound that caused my chest to rattle. Tears burned my eyes, and my throat felt like acid had been poured down my throat.
Thayne was by my side, untying the ropes that bound me to the bed and turning me over so he could run his fingers across my back.
I'd missed his touch for so long that my body betrayed me by shuddering from the delicious sensations crisscrossing my back.
When he reached the middle of my spine, I cried out in protest and tried to shift away from him but he only pulled me closer.
Despite the ache, the heat seeping from him and into my skin felt like a hot brand on my skin.
“Does she let you exercise? Even if for just a moment?" He asked, his jaw ticking.
His question was funny. His instructions had included to never let me leave the room. How the hell would I then be able to do any exercise with the ropes binding me to the bed?
I shook my head. Thayne's eyes turned the brightest shade of green for a minuscule of a second before dimming back to its normal frosty color.
The next thing I knew, I was on his lap, and he was massaging my body.
What brought about this sudden change of behavior?
Thayne worked on my back in silence, and he would have continued for another twenty minutes if I hadn't moaned when his fingers moved dangerously close to my backside.
We both stiffened, and then I was on my back, beneath his heavyweight. All my body-aches disappeared, replaced by the overwhelming urge to lift my hips and rub myself against his front.
I tried to turn my face away, to hide the guilt spreading on my face, but he caught my chin and cupped my face.
“I wanted to leave you in here forever, I wanted to lock you up inside this room until you learned your lesson. But I just can't. You've crawled into my veins and seized control of everything inside my body and bones. Including my heart.” His voice dripped with want, the fire in his eyes growing hotter and hotter until my soul threatened to burst out of me from the scorching intensity of his eyes on me.
I wanted to say something, anything that would convince him I hadn't run. I wanted to tell him that he had crawled inside my veins, and that my body knew nobody else apart from him.
“You ran away, stood me up on our wedding day, but my soul doesn't seem to get the memo. Tell me why I shouldn't punish you, Ara." A dark look crossed his face, and I realized I needed to say something now or I would regret not doing so.
"You've punished me several times before. This time wouldn't be any different.” My voice was small, shaky.
Thayne lowered all his weight on me and heat flared up in my stomach.
“Oh, Ara,” A smile slashed across his face, vicious enough that it introduced a seed of trepidation.
“You're just about to find out just how untrue that is." He growled before crushing his mouth against mine.
And I forgot about everything that had happened in the last three days.
Everything about Thayne was like wildfire, untameable, raw, inextinguishable.
The warmth bleeding from him from earlier had erupted into a full-blown volcano, dripping lava until every nerve ending in my body blazed with
sensation.
My heart thundered with the force of a thousand
galloping horses, and the pounding spread until it throbbed in every part of me—my head, my throat, the suddenly, agonizingly sensitive spot between my legs.
Thayne curled his hand around the back of my neck,
holding me captive while he plundered my mouth.
He kissed like his personality. Hard. Rough. Explosive.
I hated how much I loved it. Even now that I was supposed to be loathing him for keeping me bound to the bed for days, I'd forgotten about all that the moment his lips claimed mine.
A small moan escaped from my throat when he shifted his hips just enough so his hardness rubbed against my core.
He pulled away immediately, taking all the warmth in the room with him as he rose from the bed.
“You're good at this, trapping me with your fuck-me-eyes so you can get what you want. I should have known better than to fall the first time. You're serious trouble, but I don't know how to stay away from you." A lethal edge ran beneath his voice, and my teeth clenched in aggravation.
“You should have stayed the hell away from me then. I didn't ask to be dragged into your dark world of family politics. I just wanted to live a simple life, and now it's like I can't even live one at all. In less than a month I've had everything taken away from me including my sisters!” My throat was parched and raw from thirst, but I pushed that to the back of my mind.
I hated his indifference, the offhanded way with which he always reminded me that he was incapable of feeling anything other than lust and satisfaction.
“Until I know what games you're playing, I will make sure to keep myself out of your sinful allure. You're a siren, destined to tempt and drag me off course. You will always remain under my watch, and if I have to keep you under my armpit just so you don't go running away like a fucking squirrel, I will.” He was going to back to the man he was in the beginning? No problem.
I wouldn't tell him the truth of what happened just so I could win back his trust. He never fully trusted me from the beginning anyway. This was bound to happen one way or the other.
“You have one hour to get yourself ready. I'm introducing you to the board today." He said this without sliding his eyes once in my direction.
“We're going to headquarters?" I asked, not believing I was finally getting the chance to play Madison's game back at her.
“Yes.”
Madison wouldn't see what I had in store coming for her.
I could save my sisters and help Thayne win this battle against his father at the same time.
All I needed to do was lay my hands on the original copy of the signed deal.
But would I really be able to kill two birds with one stone?