“I want proof that my family is okay,” I insist. “I want a phone call.”
He looks at me with an amused expression. “You must be joking.”
“No,” I say, ironing the tremble out of my voice. “It’s a reasonable request. Just one call to make sure they’re all okay.”
“And what will you give me in return?”
That stumps me. I realize that that is exactly what he’s hoped to achieve. “I… I don’t have anything to give you.”
“Exactly. You have nothing to bargain with. So why would I even bother negotiating?”
My jaw goes slack. He gives me a condescending smile and an arrogant nod before turning away from me.
“I’ll have someone escort you back to your room.”
“No! Wait.”
He turns again, his eyes grazing up my body before settling on my face. “So you do have something I might want? Information, perhaps?”
I realize almost instantly what he means. “You really think I’d tell you anything about my brother? Even if I knew it?”
“It’s the only card you have to play,” he points out. “So why not play it?”
“Because blood is thicker than water.”
He smiles. “You’d be surprised.”
I decide not to analyze that right now. My mind is pivoting wildly, trying to think of some way I can get through to this man. But it feels more than a little like I’m just banging my head against a brick wall.
“I’m not going back into that room,” I say, trying to infuse my voice with the kind of confidence that Dad always promised I had deep inside me. “I won’t do it.”
“If you would prefer different accommodations, I have a cell in the basement that you might prefer.”
So much for subtlety. The threat is so direct that it makes the hair on my neck stand on end.
I know I should keep my mouth shut unless I want rats for cellmates. But something about the way he’s looking at me now makes me reckless.
Correction: something about the way he’s looked at me from the very start makes me reckless.
“Is that where you kept her?” I snap.
I expected a violent backlash. Instead, Aleks chuckles darkly. “Is this the part where I’m meant to confess to taking your brother’s woman?”
“She was his fiancée. Not his possession.”
“I don’t see the difference.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I say angrily. “In my world, taking a woman against her will is definitely not the same as cherishing her. One is love. The other is a crime.”
“There are worse sins.”
“And I’m sure you’ve committed them all,” I say.
“Many times over.” He inches closer to me again. “A smarter woman might watch her tone, if she believed I’ve done what you seem to think I’ve done.”
I frown. He has a point, as much as I hate to admit it. But something else hits me at the same time: if this was just about me, it would be so much easier to keep my mouth shut and wait for this to play out.
But this isn’t just about me. It isn’t even about me at all.
This son of a bitch threatened my family and injured my brother. He’s probably monitoring their movements as we speak, waiting for a chance to slaughter them all if Rob doesn’t bend to his will.
That’s not something I can just ignore. I’m brave enough to know that.
I take a step towards him, ignoring the way he drenches me in his shadow, his scent.
“As long as my family is in danger, I can’t and won’t keep my mouth shut. I will do whatever it takes to make sure they’re safe.”
“And would your brother do the same for you?” he asks coldly. “Or does he care more for the woman he lost than the women he has?”
“Let me talk to him,” I say, trying a different method. “Maybe I can convince him to drop the investigation.”
He gives me an amused smile. “It takes a devious mind to manipulate, Olivia. It also takes skill. You have neither.”
“Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter, eh?” I bite back.
“Something like that.”
“A call won’t cost you a thing.”
“Not the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
“I want your brother to sweat,” he says viciously. “I want him to lose sleep wondering what I’m doing with you. I want him to be so plagued by guilt and worry that he simply does what I ask him to do. Whatever I ask him to do.”
I shake my head in dismay. “You’ve got the wrong man for that then,” I say. “Rob has principles. You might be able to get him to back off, but if you expect anything more than that, you’ll be disappointed.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you.” He looks at me confidently. “I have a way of getting exactly what I want.”
The predatory glint snakes back into his eyes. I feel my skin flush with heat. I drop my gaze just as Aleks takes another step toward me.
Our bodies are maybe half a foot apart. His presence is as claustrophobic as it is titillating.
I hate myself for still feeling this way, knowing everything I know now. It makes no sense. But the animal part of my brain has been awakened by the beast in him.
That’s all this is, I tell myself. Carnal attraction. It’ll fade.
God, please let it fade.
“What’s wrong, Olivia?” Aleks murmurs. “Can’t look me in the eye?”
He takes another little step towards me.
“No,” I say, wishing my voice was stronger, wishing my tone was more commanding, more assertive. “Stay back…”
“What are you so afraid of?”
I shake my head while still managing to avoid his eyes. It’s like he’s getting bigger, his smell getting stronger. He dwarfs me in every possible way. “Just… don’t. Stop.”
“Is that guilt I’m seeing on your face?” Aleks muses. “Or shame?”
I gasp as my back hits the wall. I hadn’t even realized I was moving.
The door is just a few feet away, but even if I tried to make a run for it, I know my legs would never carry me that far.
“Please leave me alone,” I whisper, still trying and failing to muster up some authority in my tone.
“A little too late for that now, darling.”
He stops maybe an inch from me. If I dared to lift my eyes, I’d be staring at his chest. He’s so big that I feel breakable in comparison.
In some ways, it feels like he’s already broken me. The small, fragile part of me that felt like I was good enough when he deigned to look my way in the airport has crumbled into dust.
Of course he had an ulterior motive. I should have seen it from the beginning. But I was lost in the fairytale of it all.
“You’re scared your brother will find out about us, aren’t you?” he asks.
I pretend not to know what he’s talking about. “There’s nothing to discover.”
“How about the way you came on my cock?”
I cringe, angry tears jumping to my eyes. “You lied to me. You manipulated me,” I say, defending myself. “I didn’t know who you were then.”