Chapter 17
Nora
When we get into the limo, I realize that I am tired, the tense excitement of the evening dissipating and leaving me drained.
Rosa again takes a seat across the aisle from us, and Julian pulls me close to him, draping his arm over my shoulders.
As his warm masculine scent surrounds me, I relax against his side, letting my thoughts drift.
My former captor and I just had dinner with my parents. Like a family. It’s so absurd I still can’t believe it happened. I’m not sure what I imagined when Julian agreed to take me for a visit, but this wasn’t it.
I guess on some level, I had simply refused to think about how something like this might go—my kidnapper sitting down to a civilized meal with my family.
It was like a wall I’d put up in my mind, so I wouldn’t have to worry.
When I had thought of going back home, I had pictured myself with my parents…
just the three of us, as though Julian would stay in the background, remaining part of my other, darker life.
It was ridiculous to think that way, of course.
Julian never stays in the background. He dominates whatever situation he’s in, bends it to his will.
And even in this—in my relationship with my parents—he’s taken charge, inserting himself into our family on his own terms, perfectly comfortable where other men would cringe in shame.
Apparently, a conscience is a useful thing to lack.
“How are you feeling, my pet?”
At Julian’s murmured question, I tilt my head to look up at him, realizing I’ve been silent for the past few minutes. “I’m okay,” I say, cognizant of Rosa’s presence a couple of feet away. “Just digesting everything.”
“Oh?” Julian gives me an amused look, loosening his grip on me so I can sit more comfortably. “Food-wise or thought-wise?”
“Both, I guess.” I smile, realizing my unintentional joke. “It was a good meal.”
“Yes, it was.” Even in the dim interior of the car, I can see the sensuous curve of his mouth. “Your parents did a good job.”
I nod. “They definitely did.” I wonder what it must’ve been like for them, having dinner with the man who abducted their daughter.
With the criminal who’s now their son-in-law and father of their grandchild.
Sighing, I snuggle back against Julian’s side and close my eyes.
The insanity of my life has reached a whole new level.
It takes less than twenty minutes to reach the wealthy community of Palos Park.
Growing up, I’ve always known of its existence, driving past it on the way to the Tampier Lake preserve.
The residents of Palos Park tend to be lawyers and doctors, and I’ve never heard of anyone renting a house there for a couple of weeks.
Of course, Julian isn’t just anyone.
The house he chose is on the very edge of the community, isolated by a tall, wrought-iron fence. Once we get past the electronic gates, we drive down a winding driveway for another couple of hundred yards before reaching the house itself.
Inside, the house is luxuriously appointed, nearly as nice as our mansion at the estate. From gleaming parquet floors to modern art on the walls, everything about our vacation residence screams “extreme wealth.”
“How much did you pay for this?” I ask as we walk through an enormous dining area. “I didn’t realize a house like this could be for rent.”
“It’s not,” Julian says casually. “I bought it.”
My jaw falls open. “What? When? You said you rented it.”
“I said I got a house for our visit,” he corrects. “I never said how I got it.”
“Oh.” I feel foolish at my assumption. “So when did you have a chance to buy it?”
“I began making the arrangements right after we agreed on this trip. It took almost a week for the prior owner to move out, but the house is now ours.”
Ours. The word rolls so easily off his tongue that it doesn’t register for a second. Then I process what he said. “We own this house?” I ask carefully. “As in, both of us?”
“Technically, one of our shell corporations owns it, but I made you a fifty-percent shareholder in that corporation, so yes, we own it,” Julian says as we enter a spacious bedroom with a four-poster bed.
“Julian…” Stopping in front of the bed, I look up at him. “Why did you do this? I mean, the trust fund was more than enough—”
“Because you belong to me.” He steps closer, a familiar heat igniting in his gaze as he reaches for the buttons of my dress.
His fingers brush against my naked skin, making my nipples pebble with need.
“Because I want to take care of you, spoil you, make sure you’ll never want for anything in your life…
” Despite his tender words, his eyes gleam darker as he finishes unbuttoning the dress and lets it fall to the floor. “Any other questions, my pet?”
I shake my head, staring up at him. I’m now wearing only a blue thong and a matching bra, and the way he’s looking at me reminds me of a hungry lion about to pounce on a gazelle. He may want to take care of me, but at this particular moment, he also wants to devour me.
“Good.” His voice is a deep, menacing purr. “Now turn around.”
My pulse quickening in nervous anticipation, I do as he says.
Even though I crave the darkness now, there is a tiny, instinctual curl of fear in my belly.
Julian has always been unpredictable. For all I know, the domesticity of this evening reawakened his sadistic desires, unleashing the demon he’s kept in check these recent weeks.
A warm, treacherous throb begins between my thighs at the thought.
As I stand there, I hear a quiet rustling, and then a soft cloth covers my eyes.
A blindfold, I realize, holding my breath. Deprived of my vision, I feel infinitely more vulnerable. My right hand twitches with the sudden urge to lift my arm and tear off the piece of cloth.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Julian catches my arm, his fingers like steel cuffs on my wrist. Leaning down, he whispers in my ear, “Who said you could do that, my pet?”
I shiver at the heat of his breath. “I just—”
“Quiet.” His command vibrates through me, adding to the heated pulsing between my legs. “I will tell you when to speak.” Releasing my wrist, he pushes me forward, causing me to stumble and land face down on the bed. “Don’t move,” he orders, stepping closer.
I obey, hardly breathing as he runs his hands over me, starting with my shoulders and ending with my thighs.
His touch is gentle, yet somehow invasive, like that of a stranger.
Or maybe it just feels that way because of the blindfold.
I can sense him behind me, but I can’t see anything, and he’s touching me like he would an object…
doing with me whatever he pleases. I can feel the calluses on his large, warm palms, and the memory of our first time together flashes through my mind, making my belly tighten with anxiety and dark need.
When he’s done stroking me, he rolls me over onto my back and rearranges me on the bed, placing a pillow under my head. Then he grabs my arm, and I feel him looping a rough-textured rope around my wrist. He secures the other end of that rope to what I can only assume is one of the bed posts.
After that, he walks around the bed and does the same with my other arm.
I’m left lying there like some kind of a sexual sacrifice, my arms stretched out diagonally and the blindfold still covering my eyes.
I’m even more helpless than usual, and that fact both alarms and thrills me, like most of my interactions with Julian.
For other couples, this is only pretend.
But for us, it’s as real as it gets. I don’t have the option to say no.
Julian will take me whether I want it or not, and perversely, that knowledge deepens the needy ache in my sex.
“You’re beautiful.” His harsh whisper is accompanied by a feather-light brush of his fingers over the sensitive skin of my stomach. “And all mine. Aren’t you, my pet?”
“Yes.” My breathing turns uneven as his fingers approach the top of my thong. “Yes, all yours.”
The mattress dips as he climbs onto the bed and straddles my legs.
The material of his jeans feels rough on my naked thighs, reminding me that he’s still fully clothed.
“That’s right. . .” He leans down, the buttons of his shirt pressing into my stomach as he covers me with his hard, broad chest. His teeth graze over my earlobe, causing gooseflesh to rise over my arms as he murmurs into my ear, “Nobody will ever have you but me.”
I suppress a shudder even as my core floods with liquid heat. From a different man, this would be just possessive pillow talk, but from Julian, it’s both a threat and a statement of fact. If I were ever so foolish as to allow another man to touch me, Julian would kill him without a second thought.
“I don’t want anyone but you.” It’s true, yet my voice shakes as Julian kisses my neck, then sucks on the tender flesh under my ear. “You know that.”
He chuckles softly, the deep, masculine sound reverberating through me. “Yes, my pet. I do.”
He climbs off me, and I sense him moving to the foot of the bed. When he catches my right ankle, I know why.
He’s going to tie my legs as well.
The rope is looped around my ankle as I lie there, my heart racing. Julian rarely restrains me so thoroughly. He doesn’t have to. Even if I were inclined to fight, he’s strong enough to control me without ropes and chains.
Of course, I’m not inclined to fight. Not when I know what he’s capable of, what he’s willing to do to possess me.