“Laura was having a nightmare again,” Pearl said, changing the topic. “When you were out looking for Slade, she woke up and started screaming.”
“The therapist informed me that she might relapse,” Rio said, looking at Laura. “After all, the trauma is too fresh for her to recover from it too easily.”
“If you don’t mind me asking,” Pearl said, hesitating. “What happened?”
“My sister was murdered by her own husband in a fit of rage and anger,” Rio said, looking into her eyes. “Laura witnessed the entire event when it happened. She was hiding under the bed, and she saw her father stab her mother multiple times and then run away from the scene. When I finally rescued her, she was in so much shock she couldn’t speak or move. I had to take her to therapy and counseling, but I think I ended it too soon. She seemed to get better, so I stopped, but it would be wise to resume it again, I think.”
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know.”
“She was the most beautiful, loving, and caring sister anyone could have,” Rio whispered. “She was so happy to be married to the man she loved. I was against the marriage because I didn’t think the man deserved her. She was stubborn and eventually I relented. I think she didn’t want to admit that she had made the wrong decision, which is why she never told me about the problems and fights they were having. I feel guilty about it every single day. I wish I was kinder to her. Maybe if I had acted like her brother instead of her clan leader, she would have shared her problems with me, and I could have stopped all this from happening.”
He felt her hand grab his and he looked up. She softly squeezed it, giving him a soft and warm smile.
“I am sure she loved you a lot, and she just didn’t want to disappoint you,” Pearl said.
Rio shook his head and got up, walking over to look out of the window.
“I am not as nice of a person as you think I am, Pearl,” he said softly.
“I think you are being too hard on yourself,” she said. “You are a wonderful man-”
“I killed him,” Rio said, cutting her off. “I killed her husband as revenge for murdering my sister. I didn’t just kill him. I tortured him brutally for days and days, before finally killing him. Still think I am a wonderful man?”
He turned around to look at her and realized that she walked over toward him.
“I don’t know why,” she whispered, standing close to him. “But my heart refuses to accept that you could be bad. I don’t know you well enough to pass any sort of judgment, but I know that you are a good person.”
Then, she took a step closer and before Rio could tell what was happening, she leaned over and kissed him. It took him a second to get over the shock of what had happened, before his arms wrapped around her and he melted into her kiss. He kissed her with a burning passion of a thousand fires, pulling her closer against his body. Her lips were soft and moist; her hands clutched the collar of his shirt as she pulled his body even closer.
He traced his hand over the curve of her hand, his hands reaching down to cup her ass. He softly bit her lip and she moaned in response. Rio used the opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth and intertwine it with hers. Her hands trailed over his chest as if trying to remember every single muscle in his body. He pushed her against the wall, making out with her fiercely as a fire ignited deep in his soul. Nothing had ever felt so right and so amazing. He had never before felt the feelings that ignited in his chest, and he groaned against her lip.
“Rio, we can’t,” Pearl said, pushing him away suddenly. “I shouldn’t have done that. I am sorry, that was a mistake.”
“Pearl, wait,” Rio said, shocked at the sudden change in the situation.
“I should go,” she said, turning around and running out.
“Pearl, what happened?” Rio asked, running after her and wondering what he could have done wrong.
“Please, don’t try and stop me,” Pearl said, giving him a look filled with desperation before running out of the door, leaving a very confused Rio staring after her.
Chapter 16
Pearl quickly sat down in the car waiting for her outside and gestured at the driver to go. Ever since the incident where the man attacked her in the alley, Rio had insisted that a company car would drop her at home. She had protested, but he had been very insistent about it. She sighed as she leaned against the seat, her mind flashing back to what had just happened.
Her lips still burned from the kiss she had shared with Rio, but she couldn't avoid the fact that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. For one, Rio was her boss and what she was doing was strictly unprofessional. Not only that, but she couldn’t continue to put Rio and Laura in danger. Slade was not going to give in easily, and he was going to give it everything he had to. He proved that today when he attacked Laura, purely as a means to get to Pearl. She knew he wouldn’t hesitate in using Rio or Laura again to try and get her to co-operate.
It was time for her to leave this town and run away. She was finally settling into this new town, and she had been hopeful that she would finally be able to start her life. She had been naïve and stupid to think that she could ever escape Slade. It was time for her to run once again and find somewhere else to hide. This was her life now, and she would have to accept it.
The hardest part would be making sure than neither Rio nor Laura got too attached to her. She didn’t want to hurt them when she finally left town. It was why she had pushed him away and why she hadn’t bothered explaining. It was best if he didn’t know that she was slowly starting to like him and wanted to be more than just his nanny. She would work for another week as she planned on where to go and how to escape. She knew Slade would not attack while she was in the presence of Rio, and it wouldn’t be long before he figured out where she was living with her father.
She finally reached the shady building where she was staying and slowly made her way toward her room. She sighed in relief when she walked in and found her father safe and sound.
“I am home,” she said, sitting down.
“You look a bit sad,” her father said, slurring his words. Pearl realized that he was drunk again, and she sighed.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” she replied.
“You are my daughter,” he said. “Of course, I worry.”
“I wish you had thought of that before you signed me off as someone’s slave,” Pearl snapped. Her relationship with her father hadn’t been good in a long time, but she had been trying to keep him safe despite all he did.
“I am going to sleep,” she said, heading to her bed and thinking of Rio once again. Even though they had barely known each other for two weeks, she had really started to like him, and she felt very sad to leave him. She had a sinking feeling that she had found the one, but she knew that couldn’t be true. So, she suppressed it and turned over in her bed, eventually drifting off to sleep.
*
It had been a week since the incident, and Pearl had been working all day and then planning her escape at night. When she told Rio that she would be leaving and he should find another nanny, he had just grunted in response. He had been ignoring her ever since, barely even acknowledging her presence. It was hurtful, but Pearl knew that it was because of her rejection.