CHAPTER THIRTEEN A Reason She Can’t Refuse
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A Reason She Can’t Refuse
Monsters don’t always look like nightmares. Sometimes, they wear expensive suits and sit behind mahogany desks, watching you shatter piece by piece. He was just like that. Cruelly handsome and sinfully arrogant.
I could still feel the anklet biting into my skin.
I should never have walked into this room.
I should have never stepped into his world.
But now, I was trapped.
He casually pushed himself off me and sat in his chair like he owned the universe, one arm draped over the leather rest, fingers idly tapping against the dark wood.
The scar on his face only made him look intensely ruthless, scheming as if he was already planning my demise.
I would’ve punched him, but looking at him, I felt like he knew more about me than anyone else. This man was so much worse.
The rhythm was slow, unhurried—like a clock counting down the seconds to my annihilation.
“Take a seat,” he said.
I didn’t move. But I did slip from his desk and grabbed the chair to steady my trembling legs.
His lips twitched. Not in amusement. Not in frustration. Just... something cold. Detached. “Suit yourself.”
He reached into a drawer, and then with a sharp thud, he pulled out something.
I flinched.
A stack of papers lay in front of me, bound together in a way that made my stomach twist.
“Read it.”
I didn’t reach for it. My hands curled into fists at my sides. It must be some other contract he must have fished out for me. “What is it?”
He tilted his head like he was indulging a particularly slow child. “A contract.”
The word sent a chill through me. Fuck him and his contracts.
His gaze was steady, and his tone awfully flat. “You’ll obey. You’ll submit. You’ll belong to me. I don’t have to say it twice.” He gestured at the papers like they were nothing more than a routine business deal. “Sign, and I’ll make sure you never have to wonder about her again.”
I swallowed hard. “Who?”
His fingers tapped the desk again. Tap. Tap. Tap. Then he said it. “Your mother.”
The world tipped sideways.
My breath hitched. My heart twisted violently inside my chest.
“You’re lying.” The words scraped my throat.
His expression didn’t change, and my stomach dropped. “Am I?”
A muscle in my jaw twitched. “She’s dead.”
“Yes,” he murmured. “But you don’t even know why, do you?”
My stomach clenched. I felt sick. He didn’t know anything. He couldn’t. No one did.
His voice dropped lower. “Or should I say, you don’t know who she really was?”
The floor beneath me might as well have disappeared.
My body locked up. My fingers dug into my palms. “You’re bluffing.”
He leaned forward, forearms resting on the desk. “Sign, and I’ll tell you everything.”
A sharp, hysterical laugh burst from my throat before I could stop it. “Do you think I’m stupid? You’ll say anything to get what you want.”
He sighed, slow and measured, like I was testing his patience. “Do you want proof?”
I stayed silent.
His fingers found the chain around my ankle. A reminder. He tapped it once, then again—like I wasn’t a person, just another object in his possession.
“Listen closely, Stina.”
My entire body stiffened.
That name. Stina.
That fucking name.
No one knew. No one.
My mother was the only person who ever called me that. And she hadn’t spoken it since— My legs gave out before I could stop them.
The floor met my knees in a harsh collision, but I barely felt it. My breath came fast, shallow, and uneven.
How?
I forced myself to look up at him, searching for something—anything—that made sense.
Nothing did.
His expression remained unreadable, but his voice was merciless. “Do you believe me now?”
I shook my head. I wanted to scream. To demand how he knew. To claw the answer out of him.
But my voice failed me.
I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. “How do I know you won’t lie to me?”
Something flickered in his eyes—something dark. Dangerous.
He leaned down, fingers grazing my jaw. Not gentle. Not cruel. Just… possessive.
“Every time you let me play with you, let me fuck you,” he murmured, “I’ll give you another piece of the truth.”
The room spun.
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
No, this wasn’t happening.
He couldn’t just… he had no right to…
But deep down, I knew he did. He had every right when he held all the cards, when he was the only one who could give me what I had spent my whole life chasing.
Answers.
“What the fuck do you even want from me?” I whispered.
His slow smile sent chills down my spine.
“I want you on your knees.”
My breath hitched.
His fingers traced the curve of his lips as he looked lewdly at me, and I resisted the urge to cover myself.
“I want you at my feet, plaint, obedient, fucking mine.” His voice dropped, taking a deeper edge.
“Every time you let me have you, Dolcezza, I’ll make sure you know what your mother was.
I’ll feed you what you crave. Until you beg for the next. ”
Heat coiled low in my stomach. Not the good kind.
The terrifying kind.
“The fuck is wrong with you? You’re sick!”
I shoved the chair back so fast it scraped against the floor. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to…”
“Dinner.”
I froze.
He smiled. “You have until dinner to decide. I’ll be waiting in the library. Or,” he glanced at the contract, tapping it with a single finger, “you can walk away. But I promise you if you do…” His voice dropped to something lethal. “You’ll never find out what happened to her.”
Terror curled around my throat.
He wasn’t bluffing.
And that was the worst fucking part and feeling.
I turned on my heel and stormed out, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Because no matter how much I told myself I could fight this…
I already knew what my choice would be.