Chapter Eighteen—Blake
The sun is setting over the city when she steps into the garden to join me. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a tee, her feet bare on the perfectly manicured grass, she looks like a goddess. I rise to my feet to meet her, offering her a hand as she makes her way down the path toward the table.
A bottle of white wine is chilling in a bucket full of ice next to two crystal glasses, a perfect setup for a date night. Or, it would be, if it wasn’t for the fact that I was essentially holding the woman hostage. I eye her as she takes her seat, her expression impossible to read.
"Thank you," she murmurs as I push a glass of wine toward her. Her fingertips dance over the stem for a moment, like she’s not sure if she should take a sip.
"You can drink it," I tell her, my voice a little sharper than I’d intended. "I haven’t done anything to it."
She flicks her gaze up to meet mine. "Isn’t it telling that you knew I would be wondering that?"
I grit my teeth slightly. I don’t appreciate what she’s implying. I don’t have to drug women to get what I want. No, she gave it to me in the office, earlier today, when I caught her trying to sneak out. It’s not like I need to do anything else to make sure she gives herself to me.
She finally takes a sip of the wine, pushing aside any doubts that she has. I do the same. Out of the corner of my eye, I can feel her watching me, and I can’t help but wonder if this was a mistake. She could make a break for it at any moment, bolt for the wall and get as far from here as she possibly could.
But I doubt she’ll try.
"You’re not worried I’m going to try and escape again?" she asks me bluntly, like she can tell what’s on my mind. I cock my eyebrow at her.
"Is that what you’re intending to do?”
She’s quiet for a beat. "I tried earlier."
"But that doesn’t mean you’re going to try again."
"You can’t expect to keep me here forever," she protests, and I shrug.
"I don’t. I expect you to prove I can trust you, and then, you can go back to the life you knew before. A life that has nothing to do with me, if that’s what you prefer."
She bites on her lip, her eyes scanning mine. I know she’s looking for something in me, but I don’t know if I can give it to her.
"Is that what you want? Me gone?" she asks, suddenly.
Before I can stop myself, I reply. "No, of course not."
She sucks in a sharp breath.
"You couldn’t tell that from the way I fucked you earlier?" I demand. My words bring a flush to her cheeks, and she shifts in her seat, as though remembering just how good it felt to have me inside her like that. I can still remember the little moans and purrs of pleasure she let out as I was driving my cock deep inside of her. I want to draw them from her lips all over again.
"I figured you could have any woman you wanted, what with being... I don’t know, what with being the person you are."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
She shoots a look at me. "You don’t know?"
"Enlighten me."
She sighs. "I... I mean, you’re Blake Devereaux. You’re the head of the Devereaux family. You have access to all this money, all this power, all this... stuff that I don’t even know about. You own the restaurant and so many other places around the city. And you’re the head of Silencio, too."
"You don’t even know what that means," I snort.
She raises her eyebrows at me. "You could tell me, if you wanted."
"You don’t want to know."
"Of course I do," she shoots back and, to my surprise, grabs my hand. Her touch is unexpected, and it throws me off my game. Suddenly, I’m struggling to think straight, her fingertips burning into my skin.
"You don’t want to know the kind of life I live," I protest. I don’t even know what I’m trying to keep from her, not really. No, after all, I’ve pulled her into my world, I’ve left her no choice but to be part of this, and now, I’m pulling back from her? Even to me, it seems strange. But I know that showing myself to her, letting her see the darkness that pulses underneath the surface of my life, will scare her off. She’s just a normal girl. Her normalcy was what drew me to her in the first place. And I’m not going to let anything ruin it.
"Yes, I do, Blake," she fires back. "That’s why I’m asking. I want to know. I want to know what kind of person you are. I want to know why you took me and locked me up here, I want to know—"
"Because every moment you’re away from me is a moment I can’t protect you," I hiss back at her. The words hang in the air between us, and she stares at me.
"You think I need to be protected? Because I didn’t. My life was totally normal. Until I met you, at least."
I run a hand through my hair. I hate to admit it, but she’s right. Before I came crashing into her world, she was just a normal woman, but I’ve flipped her life on its head.
"Everything started to change when you came into my life," she continues. "I lost my job, I had to start work at the restaurant, and I... I feel like you had a lot more to do with it than you might want to let on, Blake."
I lift my gaze to meet hers. "Is that what you think?"
"Am I wrong?"
I pause. I can tell her the truth, at least some part of it. But I don’t know how she’ll take it, finding out that I’ve been pulling the strings behind the scenes for so long.
"You can tell me," she prompts, gesturing around. "Hell, it’s not as though I can go anywhere."
"I planned... some of it," I confess to her, finally. "Pulled some strings at the places you worked. Made it so you would need to find a new job. And made sure I would be the one in the student support office when you came in to look for help."
"But why?" She doesn’t even seem surprised. I suppose, after everything that’s happened, there’s no reason she would be.
"Because..." I trail off. What kind of answer can I give her? Because I saw her and I wanted her, and I get what I want? Because she stood up to me and made me feel like nobody else has for so many years? Because the moment I laid eyes on her, I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied until she was mine?
"Because I wanted you."
"That’s it?" she exclaims. "That’s what this has all been about? You just... you just wanted me, and you decided to screw up my entire life to get me?”
"You don’t understand—"
"You’re damn right I don’t understand!”
She’s got every right to be mad at me. Hell, she’s got every right to tear chunks out of me right here on the spot. I still can’t entirely believe how far I took things, how far they’ve gone. It's difficult for me to wrap my head around, but I’m used to getting everything I want.
"Tell me why you did all of this," she urges me, squeezing my hand a little tighter. "I want to understand, Blake. I need to."
I hesitate and look up into her eyes again, those sharp green eyes that have entranced me from the first moment I saw them.
"Because I wanted something that could be mine." The words escape my lips before I can stop them. She stares at me, clearly not able to take in what I’m saying.
"What does that mean?"
"My whole life, I’ve picked up where other people have left off," I continue, the words tumbling out of my mouth with a clarity I didn’t know I had. "Whether it was my father, the heads of Silencio, whatever it was. I was the next in a line of people. I never had anything that was just mine. Everyone, everyone I met, they were seeing me through that lens, but you… You were different. You didn’t know anything about me. I was new to you, and you were new to this world, and I..." I trail off again.
She draws her hand back from me slowly, and I wonder if I’ve shared too much. It’s not often that people ask me how I feel. How I feel, usually, is the last thing they care about, the last thing they have to concern themselves with.
"I... I had no idea," she murmurs, shaking her head and reaching for the glass of wine beside her. I can’t help but wonder if she sees me differently now. The version of the man she wanted, I doubt he’s exactly forthcoming with his emotions.
But, as her lips press to the top of the glass, I can see something has shifted in her gaze, something changing in the way she holds herself, as though things are finally starting to make sense to her.
As though, maybe, I’m beginning to make sense to her.