Chapter 16
Bella
I stand with the phone to my ear until someone knocks at the door, breaking the spell.
It’s Kaiser.
As always, his presence alters the space. The room seems to shrink around him. The balance of power shifts until the lion’s share rests on him. He’s in my father’s territory, but there’s no denying he’s the most dangerous person here.
He sweeps his gaze around the room, scanning for enemies.
Once he gets to my face, he doesn’t say anything, but the muscles in his shoulders and chest slightly swell.
He’s tense, ready for a fight. He turns his glacial gaze on the phone I’m still holding, like a sniper settling his target in his sights.
You will marry Kaiser, my father said. He will be good for you. He will protect you.
He’s here to protect me now.
“Who’s that?” he growls.
“My father.” I replace the handset on its cradle.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I lie. “Everything’s fine. We can go now.”
I hold my head high and walk out of LilyRose, the store named after my mother, with Kaiser shadowing me.
I wish my mom were here. She would defend me. She’d take my side.
If only my father were more like my mom.
I miss her so bad. The sight of her in her floral robes, the scent of rosewater clinging to her skin. She had glossy black hair that hung down her back in loose curls, and she was warm and soft and always ready with a hug.
I could really, really use a hug. Instead, I have to get back into my fiancé’s car and go through with a bunch of bullshit. Alone.
In the car, I don’t dare look at Kaiser. I’m still raw. My eyes ache from the strain of trying not to cry.
The silence stretches.
“We should go,” I say. “You’re illegally parked.”
He takes my wrist and turns it over, frowning. My left palm hurts from where I’ve been digging my nails into it. He rubs a thumb over the marks, soothing them away.
Despite myself, I sigh. I lean back in my seat, letting the tension seep out of me.
“Thank you for coming to get me.”
He raises my hand, and something brushes against my palm, so light, it might not have happened. A kiss.
My eyes are closed. I didn’t see it. I can pretend it didn’t happen.
After a moment, he sets my hand down on his knee. I can feel his muscles flex as he turns the car on and begins to drive.
I intend to pretend to sleep all the way back to Metropolis, but after a few minutes, Kaiser parks the car.
I open my eyes. We’re downtown, tucked in a forgotten corner of a strip mall.
Most of the storefronts are closed or run down, including the one we’re parked in front of.
There’s no sign that says it’s open, but someone propped the door ajar with a giant hardback book.
The windows are full of stacks of old paperbacks.
“What’s this?”
Kaiser shrugs. “Thought you’d like it.”
I’m speechless. He took me to a used bookstore. This doesn’t seem the sort of place Kaiser would know about.
“This is where I bought Viking Thunder. It was hard to find.”
“It’s a pretty old book. I have my mother’s copy.” What he says dawns on me. “You bought your own copy?” He nods.
“Why?”
He doesn’t answer, just gets out of the car. He opens my door, and I pop out, eager to pepper him with questions. “Did you read it?”
He sets his hand at the small of my back and steers me to the bookstore.
“Did you like it? You did, didn’t you? But you’ll never admit it.” He stops then and turns to me. “I liked it. I read it because you like it.” What? I can’t believe this.
We enter the bookstore. The scent of dusty old books hits me, and I inhale deeply. The smell reminds me of my mother’s library. Even the piles of paperbacks... She kept stacks like that beside her bed.
“Get anything you want,” Kaiser tells me. “My treat.”
“You might regret that.”
He shrugs. “Challenge accepted.”
I smirk to myself. There are two places I should never be turned loose: a plant nursery or a bookstore.
There’s no sign of the bookstore owner, only a fat orange tabby cat lounging in a rocking chair. He lets me pet him, kneading his big paws into the plaid blanket he’s using as a bed.
I dive deeper down the rows of towering shelves. To my surprise, Kaiser follows. He even seems to browse, picking up books and reading the jackets before reshelving them. I study him through the stacks.
He’s acting like my dream man. He realized I was upset and did what he could to cheer me up. It’s so obvious he’s doing this so that I will like him. I refuse to like him.
He’s my captor.
I can’t think about my conversation with my father yet. His criticism was so hurtful, I can’t examine it too closely yet. But I do wonder if he made himself the bad guy so I would run into Kaiser’s arms.
And it worked. I can feel the shift. I’d rather be here with him than with my father.
Kaiser’s in the religion section, looking up at a huge Bible. I get close and nudge him.
“Have you read it?” I ask.
“Sections.” He moves on, and it’s my turn to follow. “Father Francis assigned passages for us to copy out. To practice our handwriting.”
I blink. That sounds intense. “He said he taught you.”
Kaiser nods.
“He told me you lived on the streets but would go to the church for meals.”
“Yes.” He pulls a book off the shelf. He’s brought me to the romance section.
He’s distracting me, and it’s working. I find an old copy of Wolf and the Dove and hand it to Kaiser. “You should read this.”
I unearth a copy of Silver Devil so old it doesn’t even have a cover. I hide it before Kaiser sees it. The hero in that book is depraved. I don’t want him to get any ideas.
I fill my arms with Beverly Jenkins’ Destiny series. Then I get to the sci-fi/fantasy section and find a hidden treasure trove of Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey. Kaiser has to help me hold the stacks.
“My mom loved these books,” I tell him. “She kept tons of copies of them in our lake house. Anna, our housekeeper, told me my mother called them her manuals for life.”
Kaiser raises a brow.
I frown, trying to make sense of what my mother might have meant.
“I think she meant relationships. Some people aren’t good with emotions.
” Like my father, I think but don’t say.
“Their partners need emotional catharsis and support. A couple coming together to live happily ever after is the dream. The fantasy.” I look longingly at a beautiful hardback edition of Robin McKinley’s Sunshine.
Without asking me, Kaiser adds it to his stack.
“Studies show that reading fiction makes you more empathetic,” he says. “Mental rehearsal.”
“What do you know about mental rehearsal?”
“From fighting. Training for the ring.” Once again, he’s surprised me.
“We need more men to read romance novels,” I say. “Too bad the patriarchy calls them trash and looks down on people who read them.”
“The patriarchy likes it when people fight.”
“What?” I think about it. “When people talk things out and don’t fight, there’s no need for a strong man.”
“The strongest men make peace.”
He dips his head and leads me to the checkout counter. “Not if the leaders keep them fighting. The ones in charge want to stay in charge. They do this by creating fear. That’s how you control a strong man: make him afraid. Of everything.”
“Then more women should be in charge. And non-binary people.” I wrinkle my nose at him, daring him to disagree.
The bookstore clerk finds us like that. He’s a young man, handsome if you like pale, skinny dudes who look like they’re on a grad school stipend diet. His eyes are beautiful, though. Soulful. I bet he writes his own poetry.
And I have an idea. An awful idea. A wonderfully awful idea.
Kaiser
I know Bella’s up to something when she flashes me a warning smile. Then she turns and gives the clerk her full attention.
“Hi! I’d like to get these.” She flutters her eyelashes at him.
He looks surprised but returns her smile. “There are some good finds.”
“Thanks.” She tosses her hair over one shoulder. It’s painfully obvious she’s learned to flirt by watching that stupid vampire show. It would be pathetic, except she’s mesmerizing. The clerk leans in, asking her about books she’s read.
I touch Bella’s back, and she ignores me, her full focus on the guy.
She’s doing this to piss me off.
And it’s working. I don’t feel much, but the one thing I can feel is rage. I’ve kept it close, used it to fuel me. It rises now, speeding my heart. Blood pounds through my veins.
I glare at the guy. I could snap his spine with one hand.
My future wife and this bookstore dweeb reach for the same book, and their hands nearly touch. I’ve had it.
“Enough,” I say, inserting my arm between them and handing the clerk my credit card. “We need to get going.”
“What’s the hurry?” Bella pouts.
I lean down and whisper in her ear. “I have plans for you.”
“Ooh, like what?” Her attention’s on me now, where it should be.
“Like re-enacting page 269 of Viking Thunder.”
Her forehead creases as she tries to remember that scene. I’ve got her curious, but I want more. I want her to look at me with the same interest she showed him. I want her to flirt with me.
The clerk finishes ringing me up, and I grab the paper bag full of books and take her arm to propel her out of the fucking store.
Taking her here was a mistake—except I don’t regret it.
I wanted to cheer her up, and now she has a smile on her face.
I never care about people’s feelings, but I care about hers.
I want her to be happy.
This isn’t good.
She can never find out this instinct of mine, or she’ll use it against me. And I need to fight those instincts. If I give her a long leash, she’ll use it to get into trouble.
I’ll have to set her straight. Immediately.
I wait until we’re both in the car and speeding away before I put my hand on her knee.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Bella. You do not let another man touch you.”
She smirks. “If I do, what will you do about it?”
I wait until we’re stopped at a red light to turn to her. “Break every bone in his body. Then slit his throat and fuck you in his blood.”
She blinks rapidly. That’s right, little bride. There’s a hand on the leash.
Her chest rises and falls. She’s so quiet, I wonder if I’ve gone too far. But then a sweet, musky scent floods the car. She’s turned on.
Fuck me. The blood roars in my ears.
I put the car in gear and lay on the gas. I need to get her home, now. My cock is throbbing in time with my heartbeat.
If she says anything else, I’ll pull over and spank her ass pink. My palm itches, so some thuddy impact will feel good.
She keeps quiet, though. Every so often, I glance over and find she’s watching me, her lips parted.
Fuck, I need to stop staring at her mouth.
She told me kissing was a hard limit, but now all I can think about is taking her lips.
Claiming her. Winding my hand in her hair, pulling her head back, and dominating her mouth with mine.
I want to kiss her so much her lips will be perpetually puffy and sore.
I wouldn’t feel much. My lips would feel weird, numb on hers.
But I’d kiss her hard enough to feel something.
I’d touch her pussy at the same time and make her come whenever my lips touched hers. Train her to crave my kiss.
We get to the house, and I park. She twists in her seat, reaching for the books.
“Leave them,” I order. “Go to your room and wait for me. On your knees in the middle of the bed, facing the door.”
I wait for her sass, but she just gives an unsteady nod. She wants this.
After a moment, she opens her door and slides out. I would be a gentleman and open her door, but I don’t trust myself to move. I need to get myself under control first so I don’t lose it and break her. And I think she knows it.
“Bella,” I call after her. She pauses.
“You will wait for me naked.”
She gives me an unsteady nod and slips up the steps and inside her house.
Bella
I’m shaking as I hurry up to my room. I poked the bear only to realize the cage holding him is made of paper. And now he’s about to come raging toward me.
I’m so freaking excited. I can’t wait to see what happens next. Will he punish me? Use the flogger and rope? Is this the training he keeps threatening me with?
I race through the house and burst into my room. He’s coming and I want to be ready for him.
I go to the bathroom first to freshen up. My cheeks are flushed, and my eyes are black. I look scary and horny.
On my sink is a new box of samples from one of our bottling companies.
They use our botanical blends to make scented lotions.
The box was delivered this morning. I picked it up with the morning paper, but I haven’t had a chance to open it.
I was too distracted by an article about a warehouse fire down by the docks.
A building owned by the Saint family. There are no suspects, but I bet it was the Vesuvios. They’re always up to no good.
I’ve noticed some thugs with pentacles tattooed on their cheeks hanging around Three Diner, but I always pretend I don’t see them. Kaiser seemed very aware of them, but I’m still playing innocent. I’m not ready to take on the Vesuvio Family.
I have to deal with my intended first.
That’s where this box comes in. I rip it open and dig through the samples until I find the perfect one. I want to bathe my skin in a signature scent. One that will always make Kaiser think of me.
Among the pretty samples is a white packet of something that doesn’t belong. Hmmm. “How did you get in here?” I hold it up to the light, imagining all the things I could do with it. I don’t have time now, but when I do, I could add it to some lotion… later.
For now, I smear a silky cream on my skin, one that smells like lemon and sugar.
By the time Kaiser comes upstairs, I’m waiting in the bed like he asked.
The stairs creak under his weight, and I know he made some noise on purpose to let me know he’s coming. I suppress a giggle.
He opens the door and sees me lounging back against the cushions, my copy of Viking Thunder in my hand, and I’m still wearing my clothes.
“I told you to kneel.”
“Oops.” I give him an innocent look. “I forgot.” I wish I could ignore him and pretend to find page 269 in my book, but I can’t tear my eyes away from him. I’d sooner look away from a crouching panther.
“You love being a brat.”
“YOLO.”
He prowls around the bed. My heart beats faster at the intention I read in his eyes. First, he plucks the book out of my hands.
“Did you really buy your own copy?” I ask.
He nods. “I broke into your bedroom and marked down your favorite scenes.”
What?
He lets the book fall open and shows me the page number—269.
I read a few sentences and remember the scene. “When he dicks her down six times? I asked my online friend Mina, and she said that it’s impossible. No man can do it.”
He sets the book on my bedside table, holding my eye the entire time. “Challenge accepted.”