Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“And this is our bedroom.” The hand that gripped my bicep was so tight that it felt like he was grinding my bones into dust. I didn’t fight, though.
I knew I couldn’t win. Plus, fighting would just make him angry and I didn’t want that.
I had already seen firsthand what happened when you made Caleb angry.
“Ours?” I squeaked before I could stop myself. “What do you mean, ours?” Fear made my voice unusually high, and I had to force myself to lower it.
He dragged me into the room. His grip was punishing. “Yes, Ciara.” Pulling me to his side, he wrapped his arms around me. Turning me in a circle, he started pointing out things that literally made no sense to me.
“Don’t you remember?” He dragged me forward. So we were nose to wall with the wallpaper. “You picked out this wallpaper before you left. I remembered, and I kept it. As soon as I knew you were coming home, I had it put up. Everything here is for you. I did it in your favourite colours.”
I looked around and frowned. I liked blue well enough, but it wasn’t my favourite colour. “I like yellow.”
He whirled on me. His hands came down on my shoulders and he began to shake me. My head whipped back and forth so violently that my vision streamed.
He was crazy. Ghost had always said he was, but I hadn’t realised he meant really crazy. Certifiably crazy.
“Your favourite colour is blue.” He continued to shake me. “Do you hear me, Ciara? It’s blue.”
“Ok, you're right, it’s blue,” I managed to mumble. Rule number one when dealing with a crazy mafia boss, just agree with him. Luckily for me, I had always been a people pleaser.
“Come.” He stopped just as quickly as he had started. Grabbing my arm again, he flung open the wardrobe door. Row upon row of clothes met my eyes. Some appeared new with their tags still on, but some looked older than I was.
“I saved your clothes as well.” Caleb began pulling hangers from the rail. Holding them up against me and then flinging them on the floor.
“Most of these won’t fit until you have…” His eyes moved down my body to land on my protruding stomach. Instinctively, I crossed my hands on it. It didn’t offer much protection, but it would have to do for now.
“Until you have the child, but I think you would still look amazing in this.” He pulled one last thing out and I paled. It was bright red, a see through piece of lingerie that would cover my breasts but would flow on either side of my stomach.
“Do you remember wearing it on our wedding night?” He held it up against me and cupped my breast over the fabric. “You were so shy, Ciara.” He kneaded my breast for several long seconds. His eyes closed.
“But you looked so beautiful. Especially with the tears on your cheeks and my cock buried in your pussy.” Narrowing in his fingers, he pinched my nipple. I cried out.
His blue eyes snapped open. “Put it on.”
“What?” I stuttered. I wasn’t sure if I had heard him right.
“Put it on, Ciara. I want to see you in it.” Stepping back, he cocked his head to the side and waited. I didn’t move.
This had gone on long enough. I wasn’t going to strip off in front of the man who had killed my mother, not now and not ever.
“I am not Ciara.”
His eyes turned cold. “Aren’t you? You look like her. Now take your clothes off. I want to see what you look like in this.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I am not going to do that. I am not Ciara. That was my mother. She was your wife. I am her daughter. I could have been your daughter. You have to stop this madness.”
His eyes snapped to reality, and it was the scariest thing I had ever seen. I had thought the craziness was scary, but it wasn’t compared to this. There was a coldness in him. Like he was soulless.
No wonder my mother had been so terrified of him. No wonder Ghost had tried his best to keep me safe from him.
He stepped into my space. His stomach crushed mine and his hands went to my throat and closed around it.
“I know who you are, Chloe, and you aren’t my daughter. You are her daughter. Ciara was mine. My wife and my property.” With one hand firmly around my throat, he ripped my black dress downward, shredding it with one hand. “And do you know what that makes you, Chloe?”
I couldn’t talk because I couldn’t breathe. Not with his hand around my throat.
“It makes you mine as well. I’ll have you in her place.” Bringing his lips to mine, he forced his mouth on mine, parting my lips and thrusting his tongue into my mouth.
The second man I’d ever kissed, and it was with the man who had killed my mother.
“I’ll take you as my wife. I’ve watched you for so long and you have grown into a beautiful woman.
So much more beautiful than your mother.
” Caleb’s hand moved downward and again he pawed at my breast. “And you are fertile. I can see how fertile you are. I like that. I love it.” He dropped his mouth to my shoulder, using his lips to drag my bra strap down.
My breast popped free and his mouth was on it instantly. Suckling.
Only it didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel like it had when Pocket was sucking on my tit. This felt disgusting.
“I like the idea of filling you full of cum when you are heavy with another man’s child. When you give birth, it will be me that you nurse.”
“You are disgusting.” I ripped my body from his hands and mouth. “And crazy. No wonder my mum left you. No wonder she didn’t want anything to do with you.” I screamed the words at him.
My neck snapped back with the force of his knuckles against my cheek bone. I toppled backwards and landed heavily on my back. He was on me instantly, tearing at my underwear and this time I wasn’t frozen in place.
Screaming, I fought back. Mad man or not, I wouldn’t let him touch me like that. Not against my will. I would rather die.
Pinning my arms either side of my head, he lowered his face to me in a hissing whisper.
“You can fight if you like, Chloe. Fight me and I’ll make sure I kick that baby right out of you before I fuck you.
Or you can do as you're told and I’ll let the kid live.
What’s it going to be?” Cruelly, he fisted my hair, slamming my head into the floor over and over again until I couldn’t see anything but stars in my eyes.
“So, what’s it going to be?”
I stared up at him, but I didn’t really see him.
“I can treat you like Chloe and fuck you right here on the floor, or you can put on the pretty thing I have chosen for you and step into Ciara’s shoes.
You can be my wife.” He squeezed my cheeks together, his tongue lapping at my mouth.
“What will it be? My wife, or my whore?” Reaching out, he dragged the red negligee towards us.
“Are you going to behave and put this on, or do I have to punish you?”
I swallowed hard. I could take the beating; it wasn’t my suffering that concerned me. But it wasn’t just about me — he’d kill my unborn child. He had said as much and I believed him.
Caleb would kick my baby to death if I didn’t behave. Mutely, I nodded.
He lifted his weight instantly, dragging me up by my hands so I was standing in front of him. My face and head were pounding in agony.
Thrusting the red scrap of material into my hands, he stepped back. “Then strip for me, Ciara. Slowly. I want to see your body after so long apart.”