me, I’m going to ask you a different question: What is your darkest desire?” He plants his hand on the wall behind me again and grips my chin so firmly that I can’t look away. “Your darkest wish?”
My brain is no longer in control as my heart splutters the words before I realize what’s happening. “I want to be punished.”
What did I just say?
His eyes sparkle with excitement as a dirty grin spreads across his lips.
“Good little angel,” he murmurs.
Before I can think about it, before I can even utter another syllable, he’s already grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the library.
“Wait, I’m not done with my work yet, and I—”
He stops near a limo and opens the back door. “Get in.”
I contemplate turning around and walking back inside, but something about the way he looks at me stops me. There’s a possessiveness in his eyes that I can’t ignore, like a warning that if I overstep, he will intervene. And I know full well what he’s capable of.
So instead of fighting him, I sigh and huddle inside.
The door is shut, and the silence that follows is deafening.
What am I doing here? Why did I say those words? What the hell is wrong with me?
The door on the other side of the car opens, and he slides inside, closing it shut behind him. The locks are flicked, and he signals the driver to start the vehicle.
Fear makes me panic again.
Oh God … what did I get myself into?
“What’s going to happen to me?” I ask as he turns his head toward me.
An obscene smile forms on his face, one that predicts both fury and exquisite pleasure.
“I’m going to make your wish come true.”
Chapter 6
Eli
I never imagined she’d come without a fight.
Not a single ounce of resistance as if it had all drained from her. It was as though the light had disappeared from her eyes, like snow before the sun.
All because of a few words.
Tell me your darkest secret, your deepest wish … and I will make it come true.
I don’t take those words lightly. I mean them when I say them, and I will hold myself accountable. A promise is a promise, and I don’t take those lightheartedly.
Even if she might not understand the words she uttered or why.
I know.
I know everything I need to know about her, everything to make her yield.
I admit, it was part selfish desire to force her to come with me, but I couldn’t just take her. No, it had to be her own choice, her own willful acknowledgment of what she needed.
Me.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks, her timid little body still trembling against the couch like a meek animal that knows it’s trapped.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” I reply.
I press the button on the side of the door, and the barrier between the front seat and the back seat rises.
“This will only hurt for a second.” I reach inside my pocket and take out a syringe. Her eyes widen at the sight of the huge needle, but it’s too late for her to register what I’m doing until it’s already pricked her skin.
She shrieks, but the sound quickly dies out after the drugs course through her system.
She might not know me, but she’ll know the real me soon enough.
I’m the one who’s going to make her beg.
Amelia
When I come to, my head feels as though I’ve been hit with a hammer when I know that isn’t true. My ears are ringing, and my eyes are stuck together. I’m so groggy I don’t even know how much time has passed since I fainted.
Since I was … drugged.
It all comes flooding back into my brain. The man who followed me and watched me in the library. The man who made me tell him a secret … a dark wish that had been looming in the back of my mind …
Punish me.
My eyes burst open, and my lungs fill with oxygen as I lean up to peer at my surroundings. I’m in a huge room that I’ve never seen before on a luxurious red velvet bed that’s too cozy for my own good. None of this feels right.
How did I get here?
Then it hits me. That man …
I grab my arm.
I can still feel the puncture wound from the needle. There is a bandage covering it.
My stomach suddenly does a one-eighty, forcing me to throw the blanket off and hurl over the edge of the bed. Fuck. I’ve never felt more nauseous