Chapter Thirteen Ella
Chapter Thirteen
Ella
Once upon a time, in my teenage folly and, admittedly, many times thereafter, I dreamed about having a man in my life I would feel a magnetic attraction to.
A man who would capture my heart and love me with everything he had. Someone who would move heaven and earth to be with me and let nothing come between us.
I never thought it would look like this.
Be careful what you wish for.
Strangely, I don’t doubt Tiero loves me. And perhaps this connection we share isn’t going away. But for the first time in my life, I find myself wondering if love is enough.
Gualtiero is determined to keep me here. That much is painfully clear. But could I ever be happy living in this golden cage? My life constantly in danger? Surrounded by guards and secrets?
Mariella finds me an hour later, still huddled on the floor of the balcony with my arms wrapped tightly around my legs.
I have completely lost track of time. The heaviness inside me, the dull, crushing numbness, pins me to the ground. I don’t think I could stand even if I tried.
Mariella rushes toward me the moment she sees me, alarm written all over her face.
“Miss O’Neil, you okay?”
Her kindness breaks whatever fragile control I had managed to gather. Fresh tears spill down my cheeks, and the previously timid girl crouches beside me without hesitation, wrapping her arms around me in a tight embrace.
Yesterday morning she could barely look me in the eye. Now she is holding me like a sister.
I don’t resist the comfort.
After a while my sobs quiet to shaky breaths. When she is sure I’m calmer, Mariella pulls back a little and studies my face with concern.
“Signor De Marco ask for dinner,” she says gently. “Time to change.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
Signor De Marco can get lost.
If he thinks I’m going to sit down at a dinner table with him, he has another thing coming.
“I’m not hungry, Mariella. Tell Signor De Marco to eat without me,” I say, my voice dull with exhaustion.
Mariella’s brow furrows.
“Please, Miss O’Neil. It best to change and come with me for dinner. He not like waiting.”
I really, truly do not care what Tiero likes or doesn’t like.
I’m not a puppet on a string.
A sudden thought sparks in my mind.
Perhaps if I make this difficult enough, he will regret bringing me here. Perhaps if I refuse to play along, refuse to cooperate, refuse to bend, he will decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth.
Would he let me go home then?
“That’s not my problem,” I tell her firmly. “I won’t be leaving this room tonight.”
Mariella hesitates, clearly torn, but eventually she nods and slips out to deliver my message.
Not long after, Gualtiero enters the room himself.
Calm. Collected.
Which somehow makes everything even worse.
I bombard him with my plea. “Tiero, please let me go home.”
“I can’t do that, princess. As I said, you’re mine. It goes against my nature to let something of mine go.”
“That’s selfish. I don’t want to be here. I want to go home.”
“Go home to what exactly? You have no family left. Your job is gone and your friends aren’t expecting you back for some time, if ever.”
Thanks for the reminder.
The anger I felt earlier comes roaring back. I glance around the balcony, searching frantically for something I can throw at his head.
Why isn’t there anything? A vase. A glass. Anything.
“Why do you want to return to a life of mediocrity?” he asks. “I will give you the world.”
Mediocrity? The nerve of that man.
Just because I’m not rich doesn’t mean my life is mediocre. I’d bet everything I own that I’ve been happier than he’s ever been.
Entitled prick.
“I don’t want the world. I want my freedom,” I reply through gritted teeth.
“We always want what we can’t have,” Tiero retorts in a measured tone.
“Is this why you want me, Gualtiero? Because you can’t have me? Because I chose not to stay with you?”
“Princess, you know in your heart we’re perfect together. Give it time. We’ll get back to where we were before. This is only a blip in our happiness.”
“You’re completely deluded! How can we possibly get back what we shared? You took me against my will!”
Tiero taps his fingers against his thigh and glares at me.
“You really need to get over this,” he says evenly.
Seriously?
It becomes painfully obvious that no one ever opposes him. He has absolutely no patience for it.
If I were anyone else, I suspect he would deal with it very differently. But with me he can’t. Not if he wants me back in his bed.
He’s in uncharted territory. It pleases me greatly.
“For the record,” I say coldly, “I will never sleep with you again.”
He looks at me as if I’ve said something utterly absurd. As if the possibility simply doesn’t exist in his universe.
“We’ll be together again,” he replies with dangerous patience. “Don’t doubt it. But I won’t force you. You’ll come to me of your own free will. You—”
“Did you not hear me?” I cut him off. “That will not happen. You might as well give up now and send me home.”
Gualtiero laughs.
“Ah, is this your plan?” he asks. “You should know something about me. I never give up.”
He gestures between us. “This will happen. You still want me, even if you can’t admit it to yourself. Your body was screaming for my touch earlier.”
Bastard.
He knows my body and my reactions far too well, and he will undoubtedly use that knowledge against me at every opportunity.
“Unlucky for you,” I say, meeting his gaze, “I also have a principled mind and a very long memory.”
“We shall see how long your determination lasts.”
With that, he presses a brief kiss to my forehead. Stunned by the gesture, I lean away from him, but it’s already too late.
Then he turns and walks toward the door.
“Dinner will be served in half an hour,” he calls over his shoulder. “Mariella will come and collect you. Be ready.”
I grip the balustrade with both hands, watching him leave.
The moment he disappears from view, I start muttering every ugly name under the sun I can come up with.
I drag a shaky breath into my lungs.
I need to get control of myself. If I don’t rein in the storm of emotions raging inside me, I’ll never be able to think clearly.
He has taken away my liberty. But for him it seems to be nothing more than routine. Another decision. Another acquisition. Another thing that now belongs to him.
He truly expects me to simply accept this. To fall back into his arms and pretend everything is the way it was before.
Unbelievable.
Who thinks like that?
Someone who is used to getting exactly what he wants.
I may be completely out of my element. I may have no idea how to deal with a man like him.
But I still have some choices.
He wants me at dinner?
Well, that’s not going to happen.
Screw him.