A calculating smile lifted his lips; his eyes alight with the trap I’d just walked into. “Remember how I said I’d set your worth. That you’d have to pay me back through any task I deemed necessary at any value I gave you?”
I swallowed hard, taking a step back as he advanced on me. I did remember, but I didn’t want to give him any more power. He had enough already. He glowed with it. He rippled with it. Masculine power, master power, power designed to bewitch me and make me forget what I’d been and who I’d served.
His raw energy made my knees buckle to kneel before him even when he’d told me to never do such a thing.
What is he doing?
“She’s yours, Pim. Your value just went up considerably. Therefore, you owe me more than you’ll ever repay. You’ll have to do what I say for the rest of the time we’re together. You’ll have to give me anything I ask. You’ll have to answer any question I deliver.”
My heart grew teeth. “For the time we’re together?” How could he give me a yacht and bind me with it then turn our relationship into something I’d promised myself I’d never be again.
Master and mistress.
“And how long will that be?” Hot tears percolated like burned coffee. “How long must I answer your every request and obey your every command? How long must I remain a slave even if my owner and surroundings have changed?”
Elder stilled, his eyes blacker than I’d ever seen. “You asked for this. I tried to free you, Pim. I opened the door and said goodbye, but you’re the one who fucking asked to stay.”
I hated that he was right.
He hadn’t pretended anything would change and made no promises. He’d been remorseful at taking me against my will. He’d been polite in brokering a deal for me to remain eating his food and living in his hospitality. But he’d never given me false pretences. He’d never hinted that he felt the same confounding, confusing things I did.
He never gave me a sign he wants me the way I want him.
“If this is the cost of my freedom, then the price is too high.” I stood tall even as my spine threatened to hunch beneath the weight of his stare. “I won’t name the yacht as I won’t accept it. It’s yours.”
“Wrong. It’s Alrik’s.” Elder slowly removed his hands from his pockets, inspecting his fingernails as if we weren’t discussing my life or eternal servitude to him. “Alrik paid for this beauty just like he paid for you. His name is on the contract just like his name is on your memories.” He looked up, his eyes catching mine and wrapping me in a noose. With a jerk of his jaw, he strangled me as if I hung on the gallows. “He paid for you, and he didn’t deserve you. You lived with him for years. You put up with his shit, and you survived his abuse, and goddammit if that isn’t the only payment required.”
I froze. “What—what are you saying?”
My head hurt from how he’d twisted the conversation. How he’d left me in the rapids while he’d returned to open sea, calm and deep and still. “You don’t owe me a penny for her, Pim.” He sighed, dispelling the truths he’d delivered by masking them as lies. “No debts. No requirements. This yacht was yours the moment you were stolen.”
His footsteps imprinted on my heart as he moved closer and cupped my cheek. “It’s only fair you inherit what Alrik left behind. You deserve everything for what he put you through. It’s not enough. Not nearly enough for what he did. But she’s yours.”
I backed away, shaking my head, hating how his fingertips seared a brand upon my skin. “I don’t want anything to do with him. Money or otherwise.”
“I understand that, but this yacht is yours. He never saw it. He had no input in the design—that was all me.” He came closer, our eyes latching onto each other’s lips. “It’s not from him. It’s from me. It was always meant to be yours. Don’t you see?”
I sucked in a breath. “But if you give me this, then I still have the issue of repaying you. Despite what you said about it not coming with clauses or conditions.” My heart quickened. “I’m willing to give you parts of me for rescuing and protecting me. I never expected anything for free. I need to pay you back—if only to prove I have self-worth.”
I hated how my voice wobbled; how it quivered with anger as well as frustration. “I have nothing of value, yet you make me valuable. Don’t you see? Don’t you understand how sick this makes me? How much I don’t want to accept this because—”
His mouth crashed against mine, shutting me up with a fierce kiss.
I stood locked in place, shell-shocked, quick-kissed, and entirely ensnared by him.
He stole every thought.
Pop.
He massacred every argument.
Dead.
He melted my ice with the magical feeling of his mouth on mine, his breath with mine, his tongue against mine.
I moaned as he tore past my lips.
A month ago, I would’ve curled into myself and hid.
Today, I reached for him and gave in.
But the moment I touched him, the sudden attack was over.
He backed away, running a hand through his hair with a disbelieving scowl on his face. “Sorry.”
I pressed my bruised mouth with shaking fingertips. “Don’t be.”
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s fine.”
He bared his teeth. “It’s not fine. I slipped. I never slip.” He prowled away; his hand still clutched in his blue-black strands. “Fuck.”
I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there. I didn’t think it would be sensible to mention he’d slipped the other night too. He’d slipped until he’d slipped inside me.
“Sir?” Elder’s staff manager reappeared, glancing between us, understanding something wasn’t quite right but interrupting anyway. “The design team are gathered. If you’re ready?”
Elder groaned. “Christ, I forgot.” Looking up, he somehow managed to hide away the argument, the kiss, and the intensity from before, once again becoming impenetrable. “I’ll be right there.”
“Great.” Charlton nodded, smiled at me, then moved out of hearing distance.
Elder stormed toward me, his arms ramrods by his sides as if he was under strict instructions not to reach for, touch, or manhandle me in any way. “I have to go.”
My belly warmed at the annoyance in his eyes. Annoyance I liked to think was caused by his unwillingness to leave me. “Okay.”
“I won’t be long.”
I nodded.
“You’re free to wander around and explore. Learn how your new yacht is built. I’ll come find you when I’m through.”
“It’s not my yacht.”
“It is.” He held up a hand when I went to argue. “Nothing more to say on the subject.”
“But—”
His eyes shadowed. “But nothing. It’s yours. Figure out a name. If you try to fight me again, you’ll lose.” His voice slipped into a threat as he stepped closer. “Is that what you want, Pim? To pick a fight with me and lose?” He licked his lips. “Because with the way I’m feeling, we wouldn’t fight for long before I lost control and hurt you again.”