The look on his face darkens. “Now tell me the truth.”
I back away as he takes a step closer … and closer … and closer. “What truth? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do, Amelia,” he muses.
He plants a hand on the wall beside me. “I know what you did.”
I shudder in place as his energy drips over onto me, making me lose my will to fight.
I don’t know why I’m overcome with the sudden urge to cry and scream, but he covers my mouth before I can.
“Shh,” he whispers. “Don’t want them to hear us.”
“Please,” I mutter through his hand.
He cocks his head. “I only want one thing from you.”
Dread fills my bones, but something else is brewing underneath the surface of my skin. Something I can’t describe as anything other than shame. Something I’m desperately trying to hide.
“Tell me,” he says as he leans so close I can feel his breath on my skin, “your biggest secret.”
My lips part, but all that exits is a choking sound.
He smiles as his hand leaves my mouth, but still, I can’t utter a single word.
“You want to tell me, but you can’t … can you?” His eyes narrow, and he grabs my chin and forces me to look at him.
Tears spring into my eyes. “I don’t know—”
“Yes. You. Do.” That same commanding tone makes my whole body tremble. “But if you refuse to tell me, I’m going to ask you a different question: What is your darkest desire?” He plants his hand on the wall behind me again and grips my chin so firmly that I can’t look away. “Your darkest wish?”
My brain is no longer in control as my heart splutters the words before I realize what’s happening. “I want to be punished.”
What did I just say?
His eyes sparkle with excitement as a dirty grin spreads across his lips.
“Good little angel,” he murmurs.
Before I can think about it, before I can even utter another syllable, he’s already grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the library.
“Wait, I’m not done with my work yet, and I—”
He stops near a limo and opens the back door. “Get in.”
I contemplate turning around and walking back inside, but something about the way he looks at me stops me. There’s a possessiveness in his eyes that I can’t ignore, like a warning that if I overstep, he will intervene. And I know full well what he’s capable of.
So instead of fighting him, I sigh and huddle inside.
The door is shut, and the silence that follows is deafening.
What am I doing here? Why did I say those words? What the hell is wrong with me?
The door on the other side of the car opens, and he slides inside, closing it shut behind him. The locks are flicked, and he signals the driver to start the vehicle.
Fear makes me panic again.
Oh God … what did I get myself into?
“What’s going to happen to me?” I ask as he turns his head toward me.
An obscene smile forms on his face, one that predicts both fury and exquisite pleasure.
“I’m going to make your wish come true.”
Chapter 6
Eli
I never imagined she’d come without a fight.
Not a single ounce of resistance as if it had all drained from her. It was as though the light had disappeared from her eyes, like snow before the sun.
All because of a few words.
Tell me your darkest secret, your deepest wish … and I will make it come true.
I don’t take those words lightly. I mean them when I say them, and I will hold myself accountable. A promise is a promise, and I don’t take those lightheartedly.
Even if she might not understand the words she uttered or why.
I know.
I know everything I need to know about her, everything to make her yield.
I admit, it was part selfish desire to force her to come with me, but I couldn’t just take her. No, it had to be her own choice, her own willful acknowledgment of what she needed.
Me.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks, her timid little body still trembling against the couch like a meek animal that knows it’s trapped.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I reply.
I press the button on the side of the door, and the barrier between the front seat and the back seat rises.
“This will only hurt for a second.” I reach inside my pocket and take out a syringe. Her eyes widen at the sight of the huge needle, but it’s too late for her to register what I’m doing until it’s already pricked her skin.
She shrieks, but the sound quickly dies out after the drugs course through her system.
She might not know me, but she’ll know the real me soon enough.
I’m the one who’s going to make her beg.
Amelia
When I come to, my head feels as though I’ve been hit with a hammer when I know that isn’t true. My ears are ringing, and my eyes are stuck together. I’m so groggy I don’t even know how much time has passed since I fainted.
Since I was … drugged.
It all comes flooding back into my brain. The man who followed me and watched me in the library. The man who made me tell him a secret … a dark wish that had been looming in the back of my mind …
Punish me.
My eyes burst open, and my lungs fill with oxygen as I lean up to peer at my surroundings. I’m in a huge room that I’ve never seen before on a luxurious red velvet bed that’s too cozy for my own good. None of this feels right.
How did I get here?
Then it hits me. That man …
I grab my arm.
I can still feel the puncture wound from the needle. There is a bandage covering it.
My stomach suddenly does a one-eighty, forcing me to throw the blanket off and hurl over the edge of the bed. Fuck. I’ve never felt more nauseous in my life.
Suddenly, the door opens, and in walks a girl with a tray filled with pill bottles and a cup of water. She immediately puts it down on a dresser near the door.
“Oh, no …” she mutters. She grabs a towel hanging from a hook near the door and walks toward me. I lean back against the bed and crawl away from her, curling my knees up to my chest in order to appear small. Meek. Not worthy to start a fight with.
This is what I’ve always done to ward off any attackers. I am not the proud lioness fighting to defend herself. I’m the roadkill that pretends it’s dead so it doesn’t get caught.
But so far, that strategy has failed. Big time.
So I grab the nearest object I can find, a lamp, and hold it up like some sort of shield.
The girl raises her hand in surrender. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
I stare at her as my heart races out of my chest. I don’t know who she is or if I can trust her. I don’t even know where I am or how I got here.
“I’m just gonna clean this up,” she says, still moving slowly as though I’m some kind of animal that could attack at any moment.
Maybe I am. Right now, with all these drugs leaving my body, I don’t know what I’m capable of, and neither does she. All I know is that guy drugged me, and now I’m stuck in some bed. God only knows where I ended up.