by Zoe Blake
“I’ve always regretted—”
“You knew about the other women. You knew what he was doing.”
“It was my job, Rebecca. I’ve just done my job for your father, but you… I couldn’t let him hurt you. He didn’t even want to respond to the videos. He said he wasn’t going to negotiate, I had to beg him to help you, and—shit, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“You think sorry is enough for this? For everything you’ve done?”
“No.” William looked down, wiping the gun off on his shirt before he placed it back into her father’s hand, wrapping his hand around it a few times. He stayed in a crouch beside the shape that had been her father. The monster. The man who had wanted to keep her like a prize, locked up in The Tower forever. William sighed and stood. “What can I do?”
“Save him.” She looked down at Adam who opened his eyes to look at her, his brows pulled together in pain.
Will scoffed. “Absolutely not, he—”
“I said to save him. He’s the only bastard in this room who hasn’t lied to me. He’s the only one who will tell me the truth. I don’t care what else happens, but he lives. Understand?”
William paused for a moment longer than she wanted, but eventually he nodded and dragged over the cot lifting Adam face down onto it with her help. Snagging a towel and the bottle of vodka, he poured the alcohol over his back, which made Adam jerk and groan, and then he splashed some on the towel before pushing it into her hand. “If you want him to live, apply pressure, push as hard as you can. I have some calls to make.”
Moving to her knees beside the cot, she overlapped her hands and pressed. A deep groan escaped him, and she could hear William in the hallway on the phone, but her mind was still a chaotic blur. “Listen to me, Adam. You don’t get to die. You’re not getting off that easily. You promised you’d answer any of my questions, and you don’t break promises, remember? You don’t lie. You don’t fucking lie, and so you can’t die now.”
“Now, you’re starting to sound like a bossy princess.” His voice was slurring, and then he coughed again.
She rolled her eyes. “Shut up and focus on not bleeding to death.”
“You should be nicer, I saved your life. I—” Adam’s voice trailed off and she leaned forward to see his eyes closed. A rush of panic surged inside her.
“Uncle Will! Tell them to hurry, he’s not awake!”
“Apply pressure!” he yelled back into the room and she did, putting as much of her weight as she could onto the spot. Shaking her head, she stared at his profile. Those angelic features combining with the memory of every twisted thing he’d done, and she hated him for putting her in this situation. The place where she had to admit he had saved her life in more ways than one. Saved her from a bullet, from her father’s lies, from a life of forced ignorance. Nothing in her life had been real.
Except this.
He’d been her monster, and her savior—and she had no idea which version of him was stronger, all she knew was that she needed him to live.
Chapter Eight
Three Weeks Later
Rebecca double-checked the room number as she turned down the hall, and paused outside when she heard voices.
“You’ll need help for the next few weeks, and I have to encourage you not to lift anything heavy or exert yourself. You still have a lot of healing to go.” The chiding tone of a doctor, followed by a gruff acknowledgment.
“Now, how will you be getting home?”
“Taxi,” a low, rumbling tone that even now she recognized instantly.
“Of course, I’ll call you—”
“That won’t be necessary.” Rebecca walked into the room, and all three faces turned in surprise. “I’m here to take him home.”
“Oh, well, that’s wonderful.” The nurse smiled at her, and then moved to slip past her. “Let me just get the final paperwork.”
“Think you can keep him from doing anything strenuous for the next few weeks?” The doctor looked at her, a joking tone in his voice, and she turned on the smile she’d practiced over years and years.
“I’ll do my best.”
“All right, well, you have the post-op instructions in your folder. I’ll go talk with Sandy and get you discharged. Hope you’re feeling better soon, Mr. Gothel.” The doctor shook his hand and then nodded at her as he left the room.
Adam was almost too still on the edge of the bed, his gaze floating somewhere in the middle distance between them.
“Are you going to say anything?”
He shook his head slowly, staring down at the floor as he gripped the edge of the hospital bed.
“All right, maybe start with, ‘Thank you for saving my life, Rebecca.’ Go on.” She smirked when he looked up at her, those dark brows lifting just a fraction.
“I believe I saved your life.”
“But I kept the pressure on you until William’s medic friends arrived.” Tugging her purse higher on her shoulder, she leaned against the wall and spoke a little softer. “And you did kidnap me, and did a lot of terrible things to me.”
“So, we’re even?” His lopsided smile reappeared, but she just rolled her eyes.
“You owe me a lot of answers.”
Adam nodded and tried to stretch, but flinched and stopped short, groaning. “I believe you may have mentioned that when I was dying.”
“And you stayed alive like I asked, I appreciate that.”
His expression grew dark suddenly and he looked away from her again. “Why didn’t you tell the police about it, about what I did?”
She stared at him for a few minutes, turning over the possible answers in her mind. It wasn’t just that William’s cleaning crew had erased the hard-drives on Adam’s computers, torn down the cameras, and obliterated any trace of her being there. It also wasn’t the strange confusion she’d felt in the last few weeks when the memory of his touch would appear like a phantom on her skin, and she would react with a surge of heat, not fear. The way his voice would buzz in her mind as she touched herself, remembering his strength, his hard body pressed against her. No, it had been something more inexplicable. Something darker, something no one but the two of them could possibly understand. Rebecca swallowed, and told the truth. “I didn’t tell them about it, about any of it, because I wanted you back.”
His eyes snapped up to hers with such a look of shock that he almost looked angry. “You what?”
“I want you. You. The person you finally let me see, the one under the mask. The real you. The one who referred to hating me in the past tense, the one—”
“Stop, Rebecca.”
“You saved me, you took a bullet for me.”
“Yes, I did, and I’ve spent three weeks in a hospital because I was that foolish.” His words froze her tongue in her mouth, making her flinch as he turned away from her again. “It’s time for you to go.”
“No, Adam, I—”
“Get out!” He shouted at her and she took a step backwards, shocked by the sudden outburst of rage. This was not how she’d imagined this going in her head.
He’s all you have left.
Turning, she shoved the door to the room closed and then rounded on him. “No! I’m not going anywhere. You promised me answers.”
“Fine. Ask away, princess,” he growled, his knuckles growing white as he clenched the bedding in his fists.
“Do you still hate me? Do you still want to destroy me?”
“Oh, there are a lot of things I want to do to you right now for being this fucking stupid.”
“Answer the question! Do you still hate me?”
“No.” The word came out through gritted teeth, and she could see the monster underneath the angelic exterior, the flash of darkness, but she was hopelessly drawn to it.
“Do you still want to destroy me?” Her voice wavered as those tawny brown eyes met hers with a fierce glare.
“Right now I want to get a belt, bend you over the end of this bed, and whip you until you’re sane again.�
�� Adam shook his head and looked away from her. “But no, I do not want to destroy you. That would be such a waste.”
“I know you’re trying to scare me, but it’s not going to work.”
He lunged forward off the bed, stopping just in front of her as she rocked back on her heels, but she held her ground as he stared down at her. “You should be afraid of me, princess. I’m still a monster. I’m just a monster with a bullet wound right now.”
“A bullet you took to protect me, and I don’t care. You just got caught up in the same shit that I did, only you’ve known about it. It’s been inside you, twisting you, shaping you. Making you this person.”
“And you were blind to all of it. So innocent and wide-eyed.” He stroked her cheek, and then shoved his hand into her hair, painfully ripping her head back. “Tell me you’re not scared.”
“I’m not scared of you. I’m grateful. You showed me the darkness that had always been there, tore away the lies.”
His other hand caught her hip and he shoved her back against the wall, his body crowded close, the fist in her hair keeping her face angled up towards his, but she didn’t get the urge to run. Instead, that tingling hum at the base of her spine returned with a flush of heat. “I almost got you killed using you like a pawn. I took out my rage on you instead of your father. I tore away your innocence, and I tainted you with my darkness. You can’t forgive that.”
“I wasn’t innocent, Adam.”
“You were whole, and beautiful, and pristine, and I tried my best to destroy it.” His grip in her hair tightened, the sting sending lightning down her spine. “I liked trying to destroy you.”
“But you failed.”
“I know.” He leaned in close, breathing in at her neck, his lips brushing her skin in the lightest of touches that made her silently plead for more. “But I can see the darkness in you now, princess, and I did that. I put it there.”
“Yes, you did.” She gasped as his body leaned into hers, pressing her against the wall, his hand inching up to her waist to squeeze.
“You would have been happier if I’d left you in The Tower, you know that, right?” Even his voice was a growl, a texture against her skin that had heat pooling between her thighs.
“It would have been a lie.”
“You’d lived the lie long enough, you could have lived it forever. Been the good little heir, followed in Daddy’s footsteps.” With a nudge, his knee was between her thighs, his thigh rubbing against her, and she chewed on her bottom lip as he traced his mouth over her collarbone.
“It was all fake, this is real. I want real. I want honest.” She hissed when his teeth nipped at the side of her throat, but it turned into a moan as his next movement delivered a delirious friction between her thighs. “I want you,” she breathed, and he laughed low.
“You don’t know what you want, princess.”
“Yes, I do.” She nodded against the grip in her hair, trying to keep her thoughts straight as her body turned into a nest of live wires that he was plucking at his leisure. “I want someone who understands the darkness in my past, the shit they’re talking about on every news station. I want someone who knows the truth, who can see me for who I am. Someone other than a lifeless doll, a hapless victim of circumstance.”
“Rebecca…” A low groan left him as she used his own words against him, his hips rocking against her. “No. I won’t. I’ve already ruined your life, I won’t be responsible for filling you with more darkness.”
He released her and pulled away, leaving her heart racing, her skin hot, but she caught his arm and pulled him back. “That’s my choice, not yours.”
Leaning up on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms behind his neck to bring his lips to hers, and she poured everything she had into the kiss. Desperate to get through to him, to not lose this connection, no matter how terrifying and unpredictable it was.
Adam was stiff for a moment, and then the hum of a growl buzzed against her mouth and he had her back to the wall in a moment. He nipped at her lip, and when she took in a breath he deepened the kiss. Their tongues clashed, warring for a moment, and her skin was alight with energy. It was like all the color in the room was turned up whenever he touched her, like the world was half-asleep, seen only through a window, until his touch set her free.
“Dammit, Rapunzel,” he broke the kiss, pressing his forehead to hers. “I’m not a good man.”
“You’re not good? I’m the result of so much horror that there’s a court case being put together about it. You said it yourself, every file in that room was about me.” She twisted her hands in his shirt and pulled him harder against her. “I’ve got plenty of darkness to share.”
“None of that was your fault. I was being an asshole.” His hands squeezed in at her waist, and she lifted up to press another kiss to his lips.
“What happened to your father wasn’t your fault either, and you got your revenge. Everyone knows the truth now. The world is digging through those files. You fulfilled his mission.”
“I’m still not a good man.” He rubbed himself against her, the erection straining the front of his pants, his hands roaming up to brush her breasts through her top, and then his lips were on her neck. “Even right now I want to hear you scream again.”
“That’s fine, I’ve been fantasizing about it anyway.” A smile spread across her lips as he leaned back to look at her in surprise.
“Have you?” he asked, a low rumble in his chest.
“Yes.” It was the truth. He was at the center of the storm with her even though his name wasn’t in the media. They were two halves of the same fucked up coin, except she’d only ever seen the light, and he’d only had the dark. It was time for them to share. He deserved some light, and she had discovered that she craved the dark. Lowering her voice, she traced the hard ridge of his cock through his pants. “When we get back to my apartment, I’ll scream for you, I’ll cry for you, I’ll beg you to fuck me. I want you, Adam, and I’m not confused about who you are.”
“If I touch you right now, will you be wet, princess?” That wicked grin spread across his perfect lips, and she shifted her feet a little farther apart in invitation. One fist caught her by the hair, holding her back against the wall, and the other slid down her side until he could gather her skirt up and push her panties aside. The first brush of his fingers between her lips made her hips buck forward, and he teased her clit for a moment, too light, his eyes tracing her face as she bit down on her bottom lip to stay quiet. Then he thrust two fingers deep, and she couldn’t hold back the gasp as the heat blossomed and rushed through her veins.
“Adam,” she whimpered, and he captured her lips again as he teased and tormented her, winding her up until she was slick and grinding against his hand.
He stopped as suddenly as he’d started. Lifting his fingers to his lips, he drew them in and groaned low as he tasted her. “You still taste like heaven.”
“Does this mean you’ll come with me?” Rebecca asked, breathless.
“I’m going to ruin you.”
“You’ve already ruined me, I’m just asking you to fulfill your promise.” She rolled her hips against him and he groaned and pinned her back against the wall.
“What do you want from me? It’s yours.”
“I want to know all of it.”
“All right,” he nodded, his hips rubbing against her in a method that was almost too distracting.
“I want you to always be honest with me.”
“If we don’t leave soon, I’m going to fuck you on the floor until you’re in need of medical attention.” He bit down on her shoulder, and she felt a growl in her own chest as she squirmed against him. “How’s that for honesty?”
“Perfect.” She had to stifle a moan, focusing. “And I want a promise.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t call me Rapunzel again.” A moan slipped from her lips as he rocked between her thighs. They were making out like teenagers and she could barely think straight.
<
br /> “Okay, princess. Now choose where I’m fucking you, because it’s either here with Nurse Sandy as an audience or somewhere else.”
“I rented an apartment.”
“How far?”
“Ten minutes.”
He pulled her away from the wall and with great effort pried himself back. His eyes were wild with energy, his beautiful face flushed, his hair a mess from her hands in it. “Lead the way.”
“You’re not going to walk with me?” She smiled when he growled.
“I’m going to follow you, and then in the car I’m going to describe in detail what I will do once I have you naked behind a locked door.”
“Do I get a hint?”
“It’s going to make you scream.” Heat hit her cheeks and she had to swallow as a dizzying wave of arousal almost made her knees buckle. “You should start moving now, princess. I’ve spent enough years waiting to have you.”
Rebecca ripped the door open and started back down the hall, but she could feel him behind her, like a stalking animal. Yes, there was darkness in her too, and she loved the way he called to it, loved the way her body answered, loved the way he was unapologetically honest.
As she passed the nurse’s station, she saw yet another news broadcast about the dissolution of Monarch Systems, a flash of The Tower on the screen that had been her home for her entire life. A prison with glass walls that she hadn’t even been aware she’d been locked in.
She could have gone back to it, could have tried to save the company, the empire—but why would she ever choose The Tower, when she could have her dark prince?
The End
About the Author
Jennifer Bene
Jennifer Bene is a best-selling author of erotic fiction who loves wine, hiking, whiskey, and keyboards – not necessarily in that order. She’s been writing for years, but it’s always been the dark stuff that makes her tingly, so her books are full of aggressive alpha males and Doms, feisty women who may or may not have a submissive streak, and intense, psychological storylines. Whether it’s showing up in erotica, paranormal romance, ménage, or anything else she decides to venture into, it’s always a little dark. But, don’t worry, she also insists on having a nice little happily-ever-after! After all, without the dark, we’d never notice the light, now would we?