Chapter 26

***Adrian.... ***

The door cracks open just a fraction. A dark outline edges inside. I reach out and turn on the nightstand lamp. Soft light spills around me, allowing me to watch my brother make his way towards me.

“Hey. You okay?” Concern glimmers in his eyes as he takes a seat beside me.

“Yeah. My head is throbbing but I will survive. Why are you up so late?” I sit up on the bed and lean my back against the headboard.

“Couldn't sleep. My insomnia decided to kick in at this moment. Anyways, why didn't you holler for me if you were awake?”

“I didn't need you.”

Bert winces. Crap! That came across worse than what I'd thought in my mind.

“You couldn't have been more subtle. Prick.” He scowls at me and I hide my smile.

Then I swallow, once and I ask him the question that won't let me sleep or relax. “Did she escape?”

He stares at my bandaged forehead for a full minute, his jaw working. When he meets my eyes, they are filled with rage. “No. She didn't escape. I don't know why she didn't grab the opportunity but I'm determined to find out soon.”

The slowly brewing tension leaves my muscles and I relax. I don't know what happened after I'd passed out but the only thing that had been gnawing at my insides since I became conscious was the thought that she left me behind and took her own freedom, though I'd promised to set her free.

I still have to figure out why I'd passed out. I'm barely hurt anywhere. The wound on my head couldn't have been enough to knock me out like that. If my hunch is right then I'm in deepshit.

“Where is she? I just hope she isn't hurt because of my reckless driving.”

I've been swimming in guilt too. I had let my feelings and overthinking get the better of me and crashed into the tree. I don't know what the hell is going on inside my head. It's all just a jumble of thoughts and emotions. There are so many things on my mind that I can't focus on one thing solely.

Maybe it's time I restart my medication.

I'm in a desperate need of an emotional retrieve.

This whole fucking situation has got me on the edge.

When I turn to look back at Bert, he's staring at me with a conflict of thoughts in his eyes. He's confused or unsure about something. Hesitant about asking it.

Shit! This can't be good.

“What did you do, Bert?”

“I didn't do anything. I just….” Running his hands through his hair, in an obvious show of frustration, he gives me a troubled look. “When I found you off the road, she was kneeling beside you and crying her eyes out. I thought she was faking it to manipulate me into believing that she didn't cause the accident. And she won't speak to me when I asked her to tell me the truth when we got back. She wanted to sit with you but I didn't trust her so I refused. She shut down on me and that pissed me off. I handed her over to Lucas. He's interrogating her in the basement.”

The words spill out of his mouth in fast successions. As soon as the full meaning settles down, I jump out of the bed, glaring at Bert and without any explanation, bolt out of my room. I fly down the stairs and go to the basement.

I find Lucas and my esclave in the torture room, sitting across the wide table that's covered with a number of instruments that I use on my victims to force the information out of them. I come to a sudden halt and stare at my esclave as her wide eyes scan the table over and over again, a strange look on her face. It's not fear, that I'm sure. It's something much more profound.

Lucas asks her something in a low voice and I snap out of my mind when he grabs her hand. My blood boils over. I lose my temper.

“Get your fucking hands off of her!” I launch myself at him and we both tumble to the hard ground, the chair knocked aside. I land on top of him and without thinking, I start plummeting his face with punches. Soon enough, his face is raining with blood and he's on the verge of losing his senses.

After a moment, I hear a soft cry and feel small and cold hands on my back. Esclave. I freeze then glance back over my shoulder. Her dark fear filled eyes meet mine and she shakes her head, tugging at my arm to pull me up.

“Please stop, Adrian! He didn't hurt me.” She whispers in a soft and pleading voice. But I'm not done yet. I glance back at Lucas, who's now spitting blood on the ground. My temper simmers again but my esclave's persistent voice forces me to climb off of him and turn my attention to her.

“You alright?”

She nods as I cup her beautiful face in my hands and search for any bruise or cut. Other than a slight swelling in her forehead and bloodshot puffy eyes, her face looks alright to me.

My heart thuds loudly against my chest as I cradle her up in my arms and carry her back to my room, ignoring everything else. Bert leaves the room when I give him a stern look, telling him that I'll deal with him later. He gives me a tight nod then goes out to take care of Lucas as I instruct him.

“Don't go.” My esclave hangs on to my neck when I try to straighten away from the bed after laying her down.

Something inside me melts and I soften my expressions to reassure her. “I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to sit on the armchair. Alright?”

Her chocolaty eyes search mine for a beat, as though looking for a sign that I'm telling the truth. Then her head moves in a nod as she unwinds her arms from around my neck. I swallow through the thickness of my throat then walk to the armchair a few paces away from the bed and carry it back to take a seat beside her.

My emotions are completely out of control and with this slight throbbing in my head, I'm worried that I won't be able to control myself if she kept up doing all that. Blinking up at me with those seductive eyes and biting her lip every now and then.

Fuck if I don't want to grab and put her across my thighs for tempting me like that.

I can sense that this accident has done something to change her perspective of me. Either she would have been scurrying away from my touch instead of letting me cradle her like the precious jewel she is for me.

“How's your head?” She asks me in a soft whisper, after a long time of seething silence. The atmosphere feels charged in between us. I have to decrease the rapidly building tension or she's going to get her virgin pussy fucked.

Christ! Where did that thought come from??

“I just have a light headache. Nothing to worry about. How are you? Do you think you can fill me in on what happened after I went unconscious in the car?” I lean forward, staring at her pale face expectantly and put my forearms on my knees. My fingers clasp in front of me.

She sneaks a peek at me through her thick black lashes, giving me a shy nod as she bites down on her plush lip again. Fuck me!

Stop doing that. I want to chastise her, punish her for making my cock respond to her innocent acts but I clamp down my lips and listen to her as best as I can, without getting lost in my own head, in my fantasies about her.

She starts off in a tentative tone. “I think I can tell you but first of all, I want to apologise for something.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Go ahead.”

She takes a deep breath. “When I woke up, I saw you hunched over the steering wheel. Your head was still pressing down the honk. There was black smoke puffing out of the hood and I thought the car was going to blow up. So…. I slammed down my side of the door and dragged you out of the driver's seat, away from the car. I didn't realise that I had dragged you on your stomach, so when I turned you over, you were covered in dewy grass and dirt. And I think the scratches on all over your face are probably the result of that dragging. I'm really sorry for that. I didn't do it intentionally. I was scared out of my mind and didn't know what to do —”

“Okay, okay. Calm down. It's okay.” I try to sooth her from my seat, though I want nothing more than to pull her in my arms and quiet her with my mouth.

She's fucking adorable!

I can't believe she'd started to hyperventilate as she explained everything to me. I don't think I would need her to tell me what happened again. She's told me everything already. This girl definitely has a conscience. She is actually stressing over such a nonsensical thing, though I haven't even threatened her with any kind of punishment.

I can fucking crush her to me for that sole reason.

I don't know what the hell happened to change her so much. But now that I know she's capable of giving me everything and anything I want, there's no chance I'm letting her walk away from me. I'm already afraid of how far I am ready to go in order to keep her by side.

I want her to want to stay with me. I want her to want all of me. I'm not going to fool myself into believing that I'll change for her. No, that's never going to happen. I crave her in the most twisted way and I'm going to have her that way.

And to make that happen, I will have to take a big risk…. A really very big one.

I am going to have to leave it up to our fate. I will do everything in my power to make her yearn for me, but it'll all come down to one thing…. Trust…. Which has already been broken.

Now the question is…. How am I going to do that without losing my self-control and taking her against her will? Or at least, manipulate her mind and soul into wanting to be taken against her will, without breaking her?