Chapter 31 Chapter Thirty
ARA
I woke up with a start, my brain struggling to catch up with my surroundings.
The first thing that crossed my mind as soon as my brain booted itself to life was to run, but I relaxed when I scanned my surroundings again.
I was back in the penthouse, and I didn't know if to feel safe or worried.
Thayne's mother was safe, Darius was dead. I stiffened when I remembered how Thayne had snapped his neck like it was made of twig and not flesh and bone.
Had I been hallucinating when Thayne referred to me as ‘the woman I love’, or had he really said them?
It was more likely that I'd been hallucinating. I'd been heavily sedated, after all. Thayne would never say those words.
He'd strictly warned me not to fall in love with him. So why would he claim to love me? No, it didn't make any sense.
I swung my legs down the bed and pushed back the duvet.
Right then, the door slid open and Claudia stepped into the room, carrying a tray filled with food.
She stopped in her tracks on seeing me awake.
“Good evening, Miss Irvington. Nice to see you again." She said warmly as she continued in her tracks.
Good evening? Was today ‘today’ or ‘yesterday’? I was confused.
"When did we return?” I asked her as she set the food down.
"Two days ago. The doctor left an hour ago after Mr Slade forced him to confirm you had fully recovered.”
Two days ago? My goodness! I'd been knocked out for that long?
“Where is he?" I asked her, my feet hovering over the floor.
“The doctor?" She frowned.
"Thayne.” I said.
Right on cue, the door slid open and Thayne marched into the room like a Warlord about to step into a conquered territory.
If he was surprised that I was awake, he didn't show it. The first thing he did was to order Claudia out of the room.
She obeyed without a fuss.
He came over to my side of the bed, watching me intently. His face was blank, void of emotion.
“Thayne," I whispered, waiting for him to speak.
“I'll burn the world down for you, Ara. Did you know that?" His voice was deep, steady and smooth.
"No.” I replied sincerely.
"I want the world to know you're untouchable.” He continued, his eyes never wandering from my face.
"Okay.” I said simply, because what was I supposed to say when he was talking like this?
“You took my mother's place. Why?" He asked.
I considered the question. “I don't know… I just thought it was right to do something. He would have killed her.”
"Did you do it out of love for me?” He stepped closer, blocking out everything behind him with his expansive shoulders.
I stuttered like an idiot. Was he trying to bait me in order to get the truth from me?
“I did it because your mother deserved to be rescued. Maggie wanted her dead, and I couldn't just stand by and watch things go wrong when I had the power to change things." I only gave him half of the truth.
I'd done it out of love for Thayne. After everything Munroe had shared with me, how could I not love him more? How could I bring myself not to do something?
“Munroe told you." He said flatly.
I blinked. Of course he'd figured it out. Thayne was smart. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have been able to outsmart his father the way he'd done.
“It's not his fault, I asked him to tell me. I wanted to know more about you -"
“There's nothing to know about me. Stop digging grounds that are out of bounds.” He spat the words harshly, his features hardening.
Why this outburst from him?
“Did you mean what you said to Darius after you killed him?" I asked him, changing the subject quickly so I wouldn't have to think too much about the fact that he didn't appreciate me playing heroine.
What should I have done? Watched them kill his mother? Was that what he wanted?
“Said what?" He asked in a bored tone.
What was wrong with him? Oh, I think I knew.
Thayne was starting to feel exactly what I was feeling for him. And he hated it.
But if he hated it, why had he said what he'd said to Darius? Calling me his woman? Saying I wasn't a property to be owned when infact he treated me like one?
“You referred to me as the woman you love.” I stated, licking my lips.
“You must have heard wrong." He countered, his eyes tracking my tongue as it darted out to moisten my lips.
What?
"I heard you. You -”
"You must have been hallucinating. You were drugged with a powerful substance that clouded your brain.”
"What's going on?” I asked softly, wanting to understand his aloofness.
Perhaps I'd been under the influence of the drug in my system, but at least I remembered he'd kissed me right before he asked Munroe to take me to the family villa.
“You want to know what's going on?" He leaned over me, forcing me back into bed.
His icy green eyes bore into mine, and I reached out without thinking to touch his face.
He shuddered.m, like he wasn't used to being touched lovingly.
Growing bolder, I grabbed the neckline of his top.
“Yes. Tell me." I said, brushing my lips against his, relishing the feel of having control over him.
It was a dangerous game to play, especially with a man like Thayne, but I liked it.
“I don't want to fall in love. No, let me rephrase that. I cannot fall in love. I have no heart to love with. If you've been thinking I'm capable of feeling or reciprocating the feelings you have for me, you're utterly mistaken." His hot, pepper-mint breath fanned my face as he spoke.
I went so still, it was a wonder my brain didn't shut down from the abruptness of it.
“What?" I asked him, my fingers around the neckline of his top loosening.
"I told you before. This is an arrangement. I have your stepfather locked in jail as we speak, for double-crossing me.”
“Why won't you just admit that there's something growing between us?"
He barked a laugh, tucking a stray strand of my hair behind my ear.
His actions clashed with his words.
"What I want is for something to grow in your stomach, not between us.”
He'd warned me. He'd asked me not to fall.
And like a fool, I'd fallen.
Thayne didn't want anyone pitying him or caring for him.
That much was obvious now.
“My mother, who hasn't been able to make a full sentence without breaking into laughter or forgetting what it was she even wanted to say, has decided I bring my wife-to-be to her." He spoke the words as if they burned his throat, as if it hurt him to say them.
"I don't understand.”
"Munroe told you everything, didn't he? My mother stopped making sense years ago, and all of a sudden, she told me yesterday to bring the heroine who saved her life. She wants to give us her blessings for the marriage.” Like bolts in my head, his words screwed missing pieces back together.
Right! The wedding. There was supposed to be a wedding.
“The wedding - "
“Is tomorrow." He finished for me.
I would be the first bride in history who forgot her wedding date.