Page 31 of The Predator
“Not sure if you noticed, or even care, but you are my wife. Marriage is important to me, believe it or not, and it’ll be hell or high water before I let you go. Not even death will keep us apart.” He leans in, and there's something manic in his expression. "You belong to me, Elyse, and the quicker you accept this reality the easier all of this will be.”
I swallow around the knot in my throat. "Why? Why would you want me after everything that happened? After I told you that I don’t want you and that I hate you?"
"You’re upset, and I understand that but I made you a promise a while back, that I’d keep you safe, and so far, I've been shit about keeping that promise. That has changed. Going forward, I will do whatever I need to do to ensure you’re safe.”
"What about...?"
"You killed Yanov, rather spectacularly, I might add…?" I flinch at the menace in his tone. "Or let me guess, your father? Are you worried he’s going to come after you, or maybe me?”
The thought terrifies me, but I say nothing. Sebastian merely stares at me as if I’m the most important thing in the world, looking past that fear and down in the dark depths of my soul. “Who the fuck knows what your father’s next move will be. It doesn’t matter, not when you now share my last name.”
"I see how it is. You only married me to protect me, huh?”
His eyes lose some of their warmth, and the muscles of his jaw clench tightly. "I wouldn’t go through the trouble of marrying you if I didn’t plan to keep you, to fill you with my seed, and watch your belly swell with our children. If I didn’t want to show off my ring on your finger, and my marks on your skin.”
The air becomes electrically charged, and I bite back a moan. The possession in his tone and words…how could I ever run from that? But how can I stay, knowing it was never real? That he kept me around because he wanted to know if I would remember anything important, anything incriminating.
“I married you because you’re mine. Giving you my name is merely another layer of protection, but don’t think for one moment anything about this marriage is fake. I want everyone to know who owns your heart and soul.”
God, I should be terrified. This man is a killer. But then…so am I.
"Okay, so now what? I’m yours, we’re married. What happens next?”
He shifts over on his knees, and I wince since he's no doubt ruining his pants.
What the fuck do I care about his pants right now?As he slides closer I realize he's trapping me, boxing me in with his body. At the last minute, I shift and jerk away from the corner but he’s fast and sly like a fox. With little effort I’m trapped by his broad shoulders, muscular arms, and thick thighs. I look everywhere but at his face, because one look and I’ll unravel at the seams.
That must be what he wants, since he captures my face between his palms and forces me to look at him. His gaze pins me in place, so heavy I nearly whimper from the weight of it.
"Please. Just let me go." Am I begging him to release me, or let me walk out of this house, away from him?I don't know.
Something twists on his face, and I can instantly see the way he takes it. "Let you go? Do you really think I’d walk away so easily? That I’d leave you to fend for yourself?”
I try to calm my breathing as I’m now almost panting. "I...I don’t know what to believe anymore. I thought I knew you, and I don’t. All of this is a bad idea. I won’t let you be responsiblefor my wrongdoings. We both know you don’t want the publicity that something like this brings, and especially not on your family name.”
"I don’t care what anyone else thinks. All I care about is you. Your safety, your well being, your happiness. Which is why we are here, right here, in this situation.”
A dark cloud of anguish fills the room. Or maybe that’s just me.
“Tell me you understand, Little Prey. Tell me that you see how important this is. If your father gets a hold of you, who knows what he will do? We both know an international human trafficker has developed an interest in you."
His last statement feels like a slap. I can’t do this. Not when he says things like that. I try to force my way around him, but there’s no escaping him. He even crouches down, balancing on the balls of his feet in front of me.
"Are you saying that to scare me?"
He scoops some of my hair behind my ear and leans in, inhaling. "No, I'm not trying to scare you. I’m trying to make you understand. To believe it. I'm the same man you met months ago, the same one who carried you out of that hellhole. Doesn't that earn me a little leeway here? No matter what else you think about me or what happened, you know deep down if my intention was to hurt you in any way it already would’ve happened."
I consider his words carefully, thinking about them, shifting them inside my head. What he says makes sense, and I know it’s true, but when I close my eyes all I see is the cold blank look on his face, eyes that were devoid of life and humanity as he stared at his grandfather right before he pulled the trigger.
He’s given me that same look a time or two, but he’s never hurt me…but what if it’s only a matter of time? All over again I’m confused, caught between love and hate, anger and sadness.Why does he make me doubt myself all the time? My every choice, my every decision. If I'm not worrying about what he's thinking, I'm worrying about what he's going to do next. A constant loop of darkness.
A darkness he's brought into my life.
No. That's not fair, as I remember Yanov's hands on my body. No—Sebastian didn't bring the darkness; I was already dealing with it for years before him. He showed me there's a different kind of darkness, one inside me, that answers to his own.
"Just please, tell me what you want," I whisper.
Pushing off the floor, he stands, and when he extends a hand down to me I stare at it for far longer than necessary, until I finally place my hand in his and let him pull me to my feet.