I can still taste her on my lips, and I want more, so much more. “Consider it a warning.”
This time, she brings her hand up and slaps my face hard enough to hurt. I wait for her to race out of the room before rubbing the spot that is no doubt already red. I need to go after her, but for now, I’ll get her stuff packed. If only to give me a minute because damn, I love when she gets violent with me. Seeing that fight in her eyes turns me on quicker than anything else.
14
ROSE
Kai gives me space, as he should. I can’t remember when he started pushing me so hard. It’s like everything has become a fight between us. The more time I spend with him, the more I hate it. I don’t want to fight with him.
But I’m not yet ready to analyze what I really want to do with him.
I stare out at the snowdrifts bracketing the towering evergreens. This place is so peaceful I can’t see myself feeling the same anywhere else. More people, more noise, more things designed to hurt me and break me and take me under it all.
Valentina survived, just like me. She survived, in fact, some of the torture Sal had saved just for her. I can’t compare our experiences since no one told me what happened to her that night, but I know he wouldn’t rape her. Not the same as me. He made that clear plenty of times. She was never the same as me. The jewel to his crown. He wanted his queen unsullied when he took her to his bed, no matter how much he boasted otherwise.
A chill races down my spine, and I spin to scan the room. If Sal came to haunt me, he’s in the wrong fucking place. I’d find his grave and salt the earth before I spent another minute with him, dead or alive.
The sun is rising, casting cotton candy colors over the snowfall. It’s beautiful. So beautiful. My thoughts turn to Kai and the wide cut of his shoulders, and how sweat seems to cling to him when he exercises like it refuses to let go.
A knock drags me out of my head and back to the scenery. From this window, I can’t see the door, but I can spot a mail truck down the drive a little ways, as if it refused to breach the snow to get any closer. How and why do we have mail? Maybe someone else lived here and forgot to forward the address?
I check the stairs and listen, hearing the sound of a shower from above. Well, he’s not about to explore this, so maybe I should. But carefully.
I grab a blanket off the couch and wrap it around my shoulders since I never went back up to put on pants.
At the door, I shout through the wood. “Hello? Who is it?”
A deep voice answers. “Mail delivery, ma’am, for a Kai Aquila? Is he here to sign for it?”
I glance back up the stairs and then at the door. I shouldn’t answer, but what if he’s waiting on a package, something to help us leave here. “Can you tell me who it’s from, please?”
“Valentina Novak.”
I wonder why she’s sending the package under her maiden name. As far as I knew, she only went by Doubeck now. But maybe she’s trying to cover her tracks. There are tons of reasons she’d use that name. The thought of getting something from Valentina is too much to resist. I miss her so much I can’t even think about it too hard.
“One second,” I call through the door and twist the locks. When the last one flips, the door bursts in, and I find myself staring down the barrel of a gun.
With a sigh, I look up at his face. “Well, you sure went out of your way with this getup. Seriously, you committed to the part, bravo. Did you steal that mail truck, or are you like some mail assassin for hire?”
He scowls at me. “Shut up, bitch. I’m not here for you. Keep your trap shut and sit the fuck down. When I’ve finished my business with your boyfriend, I’ll walk out the door, and you’ll never see me again.”
I sit on the couch, but he doesn’t let me be. Instead, he ties my hands in a weak-ass knot, then loops it around the wooden leg of the coffee table. “You told me you don’t want to hurt me, so what’s the point of tying me up?”
He holds the gun up, exploring the first floor, checking for Kai or traps. Who knows. “I’m not a complete moron. You could come at me any second to save him. I don’t need you interfering.”
I catch the twitch of movement above and let the blanket slide off my shoulders. “Well, since he is my entertainment, maybe you could come over here and help a girl out.”
His eyes dip to my boobs, outlined by the T-shirt, then down to my underwear and bare thighs. “No offense, lady, but you’re too fat for me.”
I flinch and scowl. “Well, fuck you too, dick face.”
Insulting him seems to work better than propositioning him. He spins and stalks toward me. “What did you say, bitch?”
I clear my throat and take a deep breath as if I’m about to give a performance. “I said, fuck you too…”
I don’t get the rest out before Kai comes up behind the mailman and drags him down by the throat. There’s a scuffle, and I wiggle my wrists in the bindings until I get free. It doesn’t matter, though. Kai already has the guy’s gun, and he strips the rope he used on me to tie him up.
When he tosses him into the chair, I scramble out of the way behind Kai. It takes me a minute to realize he’s only wearing a towel, and good lord, every time I think he looks good without clothes, it’s like God needs to remind me.