A Love So Wrong: A Forbidden Romance

by Katerina Winters

  Jade made a little noise in the back of her throat, and Gideon walked over to her and kneeled before her. Silently, he took her hand and looked up at her. Anger and worry stared back at her, and she knew he could see the terrified fear on her face.

  "And now Mr. Lattimore," the man continued. "You’re about to learn exactly what "sick shit" as you call it, I'm into."

  Gideon flinched at that and stood up abruptly. "Look, just take your Goddamn hard-drives and let us—"

  "No," the voice was unmerciful. "And interrupt me again, and I'll make sure this video gets to the right people, and you can explain yourself before a judge as to why you decided to break into my home and steal my things."

  Jade felt her blood run cold.

  "Now, as I was saying," the man continued. "I found you two rather odd. Please clarify it for me Jade, are you siblings?"

  It took her a few seconds to register he was talking to her, and she nodded, sniffing. "Y-yes, sir."

  The video on the TV changed until it showed the bedroom. Jade could feel her pulse quicken, and the heat in her face rise as she watched the image of her and Gideon sleeping that night. One of her legs was kicked out to the side while one of her hands clutched the back of Gideon's neck, keeping him firmly in place on top of her as he slept against her chest.

  "This doesn't look how siblings sleep," dark amusement colored the man's accented voice, and Jade was pretty sure now it was Russian.

  Leaning with both hands against one of the chair's back, Gideon hung his head between his shoulders. He was like a prowling lion in a cage, desperate to get out and kill something. "Just what the fuck do you—"

  "You have one more time, Mr. Lattimore," the voice on the line growled back like a boom of black thunder. "Once more, to try my patience," he warned. "I would suggest you shut up."

  Lifting his head Gideon stared off at nothing, but Jade could see the chaos bubbling in his eyes, she could feel the furious tension roll off his lean body. Gideon was not the type of man to talk to this way without serious repercussions. You couldn't simply back him into a corner without a bloody fight. But this man was holding all the cards. The man sounded dangerous in his own right, dangerous in a way she hoped Gideon would never have to be. This man made it seem like taking a man's life was nothing new to him. Gideon couldn't react to this man, not the way he wanted, she couldn't let him.

  "We are adopted," she answered quickly. "We aren't related by blood," she explained, not looking to see Gideon's expression.

  "Do you love him?" The man asked as if he was asking as if it was something as easy as the weather.

  Though she didn't look at him directly, she could see Gideon start to pace in agitation again out of the corner of her eye.

  "Yes," she whispered, feeling her heart twist at the admission she had been avoiding all day.

  "How much?"

  The nail of mortification dug deeper into her chest, and Jade stared down at her hands, twisting together. "More than anything."

  "Good," he said brightly. "This is how this will work, you broke into my home, insulted me, and stole from me. I need restitution." Both she and Gideon met each other's gazes, wariness and fear colliding. "You will pay me in four installments. In half an hour, a box will be delivered to your room, and you will open it and follow the directions. If you decide you do not want to play by my rules, you are welcome to leave, but not only will you go to jail, Mr. Lattimore, something I will personally make sure of," he added happily. "I will also post this video online for all to see."

  With sickening dread, she turned to the TV and watched in horror as a video of herself in the bathroom began to play. Turning her head, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as she caught sight of her naked body stepping into the shower.

  "You fucking piece of shit!" Gideon roared, his voice echoing off the room's wall and through the earbuds.

  Jade winced as he kicked a decorative table across the room.

  The voice simply waited until Gideon's rage quieted for a moment. "Do you understand?" the man asked, unfazed.

  "How do we know you won't just upload the footage after we play your fucking game?" Gideon rasped, his fists balled to his sides.

  "I guess you won't," the man stated simply, and she could imagine the man staring serenely over his casino floor or out a window as he spoke to them. "I can tell you, I will delete them, but you and I both know you won’t believe me. So, I guess you'll just have to trust me."

  "You piece of shit," Gideon said through gritted teeth.

  The man laughed deeply. "I'm going to remember that. By the time this is over, I'm going to have to require that you address me with a little more respect, especially considering all I'm doing for you."

  The line went dead, and Jade felt all her energy wilt out of her. The silence in the room fell over them like a blanket layering thicker and thicker with each passing second. Sitting in one of the chairs facing the sofa, Gideon sat with his head in his hands.

  "What did he mean when he said we insulted him?" she finally asked, her voice sounding raw. It felt as if she had to squeeze the sound out of her tightly clenched throat.

  Lifting his head, Gideon leaned back in the chair stiffly. Not lifting his eyes to hers, he stared at the white rug beneath their feet. "He…" Gideon began reluctantly. "He had a BDSM room that he kept locked in the house. While you were sh-" Gideon closed his eyes, his words stopping short. Pain moved across his face at the mention of her showering, and Jade couldn't help feeling even guiltier. "I saw it on one of those fucking screens, and I called him a sick bastard or something like that," he finished brusquely.

  She should have never showered. What was she thinking? She didn’t even want to be there, so why did she take that shower? Tears stung at her eyes, and Jade clenched her eyes shut tight. No, she couldn't cry. Not right now, they had to get out of this, out of whatever game that man wanted to play with them.

  "Maybe if we go to the police first and explain," Jade began carefully. "Maybe they will-"

  "They will what, Jade?" Gideon glared at her, and a part of her shrank a little under its fury. "Put us in jail while a video of you undressing and showering spreads across the internet. Fuck that. No, that's not going to happen."

  Wiping the tears that fell down her cheeks, she ignored the pain in her chest. "It's ok," she tried to infuse hope in her tone. "There are plenty of women who suffered from revenge porn or whatever it’s called. I can handle it."

  "I can't handle it, Jade, and no matter what you say, neither can you," he shouted, standing back up to resume his pacing. "It will shatter your pride, and you can't tell me it won't. You'll be self-conscious every time you meet anyone wondering if they saw the video or not. It will ruin our dreams of going back to Stardust because no matter how polite everyone is there, it’s a small town Jade, and once one person sees it, everyone will see it. I won't, Jade. I won't let him do that to you because I fucked up."

  "So, what do we do?"

  "I don’t know," he shook his head and turned away. "Just give me a few moments to think."

  Leaving her alone on the couch, Gideon stomped into the bedroom, and Jade let the tears fall freely.

  Chapter 14

  The knock came at the door promptly at the half-hour mark.

  With purposeful strides, Gideon crossed the room and yanked open the door. He was more than ready to see that smug blonde bastard again or anyone really. He just wanted to connect his fist to someone's face. He needed to see someone else's fear at his hands, anything to help him feel not so fucking helpless.

  Yanking open the door, his mounting adrenaline dropped when the empty hallway stared back at him. Stepping over the black box sitting in front of the door, he looked down the hallway in both directions—empty. Fucking cowards. Snatching up the box, he backed back into the room and shut the door. Not looking up, Gideon kept his eyes on the box in his hand as he walked over to the cart, still sitting in the middle of the room. He could feel Jade's quiet gaze on him as he moved
, and Gideon couldn't decide if he wanted to shout or just sink to his knees. He failed her. He fucked up bad. Everything they had dreamed of and worked for was gone now. Every time he thought of that video, he felt sick. Jade had trusted him to take care of her, she had pleaded with him last night not to go into that house, and now look where they were at.

  Setting the box on the cart, he pulled off the black velvet bow and pulled off the top. Inside lay a gold mask and another note. Picking up both items in each hand, Gideon read the note.

  Jade will wear the mask. Put the hard drives into the box and set it back outside the door. Once you have done that, both of you go to the second bedroom, put in the earbuds, and wait for my instructions.

  "What does it say?" Jade's voice pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts.

  Looking up to her, he frowned at the lance of guilt slicing across his soul, and he could see her shrink back from his no-doubt dark expression. He wanted to comfort and reassure her, but how could he? Any soft words he whispered would be a lie. If he wiped her tears away now, what could he do about the ones that came next? Looking away from her, Gideon felt the weight of their situation press down on him further. He hadn't felt this inadequate for a long time. When he was younger, he used to question as to why his mother abandoned him. He used to think about how the Lattimores originally didn’t even want him. His thoughts used to weigh him down at night, and sometimes maybe once or twice, he even hoped they would press him so far down into the covers of his bed they would simply swallow him whole. In the end, it was Jade who had saved him from those dark feelings of worthlessness. Jade looked at him as if he were a superhero. In her mind, there was nothing he could not do or accomplish. Years and years of being in someone's spotlight must have gone to his head because look at him now, look where her "hero" got her now.

  He handed her the mask. "You're to wear this," he murmured.

  Like a bird gently eating from his hand, she plucked the gold mask and examined it. With knobby curving horns, the golden half mask resembled a deer with its leaf-shaped ears and a tiny turned-up nose.

  Walking over to his bag, Gideon took out the hard-drives and replaced them in the empty box before setting it outside the door. A part of him wanted to wait by the door to tackle whoever came to retrieve them, but every time his mind entertained that and similar ideas, he thought of the video of Jade. Gideon had turned away from the screen when the video had played, but he could hear Jade's gasp, and he had seen just a flash of her naked flesh to gather the full scenario. If there was even a sliver of a chance this nutcase would keep his word and delete the footage Gideon had to try, for Jade's sake.

  Turning back around, he looked at Jade, who stood holding the note and the mask, and she gave him a fearful look. Swallowing the bile of apprehension that climbed into his throat, he gave her an understanding look as he approached. Taking the mask from her hand, he stepped behind her and lifted the mask. Up and over her face, Gideon leaned to the side as he watched her profile, lining the mask with her eyes. Inhaling, he felt some of the tension in his shoulders relax at the sweet smell of her shampoo filled his lungs. Her hair was still down from her shower, falling around and past her shoulders in a waterfall of coffee-colored curls. Tying the black satin ribbons of the mask together, he secured it to her. Stepping back around her, Gideon could feel his pulse quicken at the sight. There was something very stirring about her being masked.

  Clearing his throat, Gideon stepped back. Grabbing his earbuds, he walked to the other set of double doors. Inside, the room was dark and just like the other room in layout, except for the slight difference in artwork. Gideon looked around, not sure what was supposed to happen. Was there going to be something in this room?

  The earbud in his ears beeped.

  His hand went up at the same time as Jade's as they both activated the earbuds.

  "Shut the door," the man's voice commanded.

  Swallowing the lump of fury lodged in his throat, Gideon reached behind him and closed the black double doors.

  "Jade, please stand in front of the nightstand facing Gideon and turn on the light."

  Complying, Jade stepped over to the left side of the bed nearest the window. With the curtains pushed back, the brightly lit city below cast an odd hazy glow through their room. The light by the bed was dim and not much better than a candle giving the room a sleepy intimate feel.

  "This room, the living area, and your bedroom has a total of thirty-six cameras hidden throughout the rooms," the man announced.

  Anger bloomed in Gideon’s chest, curling around him like black smoke. "You fucking liar! You said if we played your fucking game, you would delete the footage, not take more."

  "And I will, but I can't play the game properly if I can’t see you. Or would you rather me to come up there with you?" There was a diabolic note to his voice that sounded as if he would love nothing more to play this game in person.

  Gideon stamped down the urge to tell the piece of shit to come up and try. Looking to Jade, who stood motionless, still in her assigned spot, he could see her wide hazel eyes glimmering with apprehension behind her golden mask.

  "I'll take that as a no then," the man chuckled in their ears. "Now, Gideon, please walk over and stand in front of your lovely sister."

  Gideon didn't hide his sneer. The man seemed to be in love with referring to them by "sister" and "brother" each time it felt like a bucket of cold water on top of Gideon's head. They had gone months without ever referring to each other like that, and now this piece of shit was using the terms more than he had ever heard them in his life.

  Stepping in front of Jade, Gideon waited. Just what the hell did this man want them to do? He began tracing his gaze along the edges of the room and up the ceiling, wondering where exactly the cameras were placed.

  "You know," the man said thoughtfully. "If you weren't so focused on your anger or with figuring out my game, you would see that your sister is very literally trembling in fear."

  Gideon looked at her, and his guilt intensified. Standing there with her hands tightly fisting the hem of her shirt, Jade's eyes glistened behind her mask. The slight tremble to her shoulders was her only movement. When she met his gaze, he could tell that she must not have been able to hear what the man had said that time.

  Without a word, he reached for her, letting his palms slide around her waist and pull her towards him. As if she had been waiting for his touch, her body melted eagerly to his.

  "Gideon," she cried in a whisper so low he almost missed it. "I'm…scared."

  The gold mask crushed into his shoulder but stayed in place over her eyes. He held onto her tightly as her body rocked with her tears. Spearing a hand through her curls, he cradled the back of her head. Dropping his head, he let his mouth brush past her ear. He wanted to kiss her, to lay with her on this bed, and hold her, but he knew he couldn't.

  Stepping back from him, Jade sniffed and reached under her mask to wipe her tears before adjusting it back again.

  "Now," the man on the line spoke again, and Gideon could see Jade startle and knew she could hear him now too. "Gideon, I want you to take off your shirt and pants."

  Even through the eye slits of the mask, Gideon could see Jade's eyes widen in shock. But she couldn’t possibly be more shocked than him, it felt as if he had just been struck. Whatever he was expecting, it sure as fuck was not this.

  "Now," the voice snapped.

  Fury was the only thing that kept his hands from shaking and his gaze from nervously seeking out Jade's. Pulling his shirt up and over his head, Gideon tossed it on the bed. His heart was pounding now as he reached for the front of his pants.

  "Better yet, I want you to do it, Jade," the man said, the smile evident on his voice.

  Jade's hands clenched into fists. Gideon stood frozen, unsure of everything. He had dreamed of this, but never like this. He wanted her to touch him, but this felt wrong. Spellbound, his body tightened, and his voice caught in his throat as he watched her slowly rea
ch out with one hand for his pants. His abdominal muscles jumped at the brush of her soft knuckles, and he heard the tiny noise she made in surprise. This was wrong, he reminded himself, but his body didn't give a damn. This was a dream come true, and his body was conditioned to respond. Heat pooled in his loins as her other hand shakily came up to help the other. Tugging at his waistband, she gently pulled the button free from the hole. Dear God, he breathed, tilting his head back to the ceiling. Shame and pure lust surged within him as he heard her breath catch. With no need for help, the zipper practically glided down on its own as his dick began to swell.