Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 135378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135378 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
I nuzzle into him and close my eyes.
Absently, he caresses my face and kisses my hair.
We lay like that for a while just enjoying each other’s company, the mindless bliss.
When it fades and reality pulls me back to its side, the horror of it all settles in on me.
It isn’t sexy that he talks like a madman about possessing me because we don’t agree on that point. I don’t want to be his. That’s what he wants. It’s not like I was in any hurry to date anybody else when we met, but as long as he thinks I belong to him, that door is closed to me, and that’s not fair. I’m not his to claim.
It’s definitely not okay for him to keep coming inside me. I can’t believe I got so carried away and said that to him. My god, what was I thinking?
As crazy as he is about keeping me locked down now, imagine if he actually managed to get me pregnant.
I need to get away from him, but I don’t know how.
The weekend’s over so I don’t have to play the polite captive anymore, but I don’t know how to get back to my life when he won’t let me.
Maybe I wasn’t living my best life before him, but at least it was mine.
I pull out of his embrace and roll out of bed. I head to the bathroom to clean myself up and so he’ll think that’s why I’m moving away from him, but when I get back into bed, I stay on my own side.
I don’t know how I fooled myself into believing he might not notice if I was slick about it. My move fails to accomplish anything. When I come back and stay on my side of the bed, Silvan just scoots over into my space, locks his arms around my waist, and pulls me back against him.
“What are you thinking?” he asks.
“Lots of things,” I answer honestly.
My stomach is twisted up in knots. I want to pull out of his embrace again, but he’s left me nowhere to go. If I move any farther toward the edge of the bed, I’ll fall off.
And then he’ll just pick my ass up and pull me back into his arms on the bed.
“I need to go home tomorrow.”
“Why?”
He asks casually enough, but his question surprises me. “I’ve already told you.”
“You’ve given me all the bullshit reasons, yeah. Not the real one.”
“You know the real one, Silvan. I haven’t made it a secret, have I? I don’t…”
I don’t know what to say. Anything I could say that’s true feels mean.
I don’t want to be with you.
Mean.
I’m only here because you forced me to be. As soon as you stop forcing me to be, I won’t be here anymore.
Also feels mean.
The thought of saying anything like that to him makes me sad, which I guess is absurd, but despite his forcefulness in pursuing me, Silvan isn’t really mean to me. I don’t want to be mean to him, either.
I just want to be let go.
“When I was a little girl, I loved Beauty and the Beast.”
His lips tug up. “Yeah?”
I nod. “It was my favorite movie. I’d watch it in any form, but the Disney cartoon was my favorite. I’d watch it over and over again.”
“When we have a little girl, we’ll have to watch it with her.”
Oh my god, Silvan.
“We’re not having a little girl.”
He shrugs his shoulders but doesn’t let me go. “With our son, then.”
Despite myself, I find myself thinking about it too much. “Actually, I think if I have a daughter, I’ll navigate her away from the classics for a good long while. She’s starting off with Frozen. Sneaky villains preying on sheltered princesses so you learn not to trust so quickly, not falling for the kidnapper. Just in case that shit got in early,” I say, tapping my head.
Silvan laughs, squeezing me a little tighter. He kisses the side of my face and rumbles, “That mean you’re falling for me, farm girl?”
My stomach flutters, and I swallow. “No. Where I was going with that before you distracted me with talk of babies was… Have you seen the movie?”
He nods. “When I was a kid.”
“Well, obviously, she started falling for him while she was still his captive.”
“Right.”
“But it wasn’t until he let her go and she was able to come back to him that… she was really able to choose him. If he’d never let her go, how would we have ever really known it was her choice? Maybe she was just making the best of a bad situation.”
He cracks a smile. “That’s funny.”
“What?”
“We watched that movie very differently. Even as a kid, I was like, ‘What’s this asshole doing sending the girl he loves out into a snowy forest at night to help her dad all by herself?’ He’s a prince, for god’s sake. Keep her there and send someone to bring her bumbling father back to her. Or, hell, go with her and bring him back yourself. It’s no reason to let her go.”