“No,” I say. “I don’t like women. But you should know this. You love digging in my head apparently.”
He kisses my cheek. “I don’t want to dig that deep. I want to give you some privacy.” He growls something in a sharp language and the women back up. “Only you and me then. Like your mother and your father.”
I hear a hint of respect in his voice and that intrigues me. “What do you want from me?”
“Tania,” he rasps. “My little gem. You’ll be very happy here. Earth is quite modern.”
“And smells of shit.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I want to go back home.”
“You are my wife, sweetheart.” He grunts into my ear. “You’ll stay here but we’ll visit your family from time to time, I promise.” His enormous palm rests against my breast and he squeezes it. “I can’t wait to bury my dick in your cunt, sweetheart.”
I wriggle in his arms like a punnica in a trap.
Isabella
I drop onto the low stone wall that encircles the shed near the winery.
“Went good, huh?” My eyes shift to Arnau’s. “My mother doesn’t suspect anything.”
“You’ll be my wife,” he says.
His eyes start blazing and my heart flutters.
“Your tribe won’t listen to me if I’m not one of you,” I say. “If your people don’t join the resistance, we will never get rid of the gods. It’s time to stop this at last. To make everyone free. Free to live, free to love, free to choose a way of life. The gods treat foreigners like they’re items. This must end at last.”
I realise I’m pacing around Arnau. He grins at me and glides his palm over his head.
“I’ll take you to my tribe,” he says. “They will let you speak. I doubt they are going to listen to you though.”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. “Don’t you want your people to stop living in fear that the hunters will come and claim their freedom, innocence or life?”
“I want that, Isabella, I just think you and your school mates are too young and too crazy.”
“That’s why I need you.” I grip his arm. “You have experience, knowledge, honour. You’ll guide us.”
He leans towards me as his hand lands on the back of my neck. “I will be your husband.” There’s an eerie seriousness in his voice.
“That’s the plan.”
He squeezes my neck to the point of pain as the hairs on my back rise.
“You can divorce me as soon as I achieve my goals,” I say.
We have talked about it so many times. Everything is clear. The baby was his idea—very brilliant in my opinion. My mother was so stunned that she wasn’t able to think rationally.
“What if I didn’t want a divorce?” Arnau asks.
I sense menace and wildness from him.
“But we talked about it and you agreed…” My voice falters. “That’s the plan. I need you to marry me and brand me as yours.”
He pulls my long almond hair together and winds it around his fist. My primal instinct screams to escape him.
Then his lips slam on mine.
I yelp into his mouth. My body sways. My mind spins. Heat surges through my veins as his arms wrap around me and his lips crush mine.
I push at his chest and tear my mouth off his. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He pulls my hair down and my skull seizes with pain.
“Listen to me, Isabella,” he says.
I cringe into myself at the tone of his voice.
“I will marry you,” he continues. “I will take you to my tribe, I will help you and those kids from your school, but you’ll be a wife to me, do you understand? A good and obedient wife.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes, I mean you in my bed, underneath me with your legs spread for me.”
My hand jerks up to slap him across the cheek, but I restrain myself.
My heart thumps in my ears. “Is this what you want?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
“This rebellion must be very important to you.”
“My cunt must be very important to you, Arnau.”
He rests his forehead against mine and inhales me. “You are everything to me.”
To be continued…
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