thecutedara

Kidnapped, Taken to a private island. I never thought this could happen to me. I never imagined one chance meeting on the eve of my eighteenth birthday could change my life so completely.

Now I belong to him. To Julian. To a man who is as ruthless as he is beautiful - a man whose touch makes me burn. A man whose tenderness I find more devastating than his cruelty.

My captor is an enigma. I don't know who he is or why he took me. There is a darkness inside him - a darkness that scares me even as it draws me in.

My name is Nora Leston, and this is my story.

Two Heart

"Wait . . . What?" I stare at him in disbelief. "Are you crazy? Do you know what you were up against? There's no way you could've done anything—"


"I should've still tried." Jake's voice is heavy with guilt. "I should've done something, anything . . ."


I reach out across the table, impulsively covering his hand with my own. "No," I say firmly. "You're in no way to blame for this." I can see Leah out of the corner of my eye; she's twiddling with her phone and trying to pretend she's not here. I ignore her. I need to convince Jake that he didn't screw up, to help him move past this.


His skin is warm under my fingers, and I can feel the vibrating tension within him. "Jake," I say softly, holding his gaze, "nobody could've prevented this. Nobody. Julian has—had—the kind of resources that would make a SWAT team jealous. If it's anybody's fault, it's mine. You got dragged into this because of me, and I am truly sorry." I'm apologizing for more than that night in the park, and he knows it.


"No, Nora," he says quietly, his brown eyes filled with shadows. "You're right. It's his fault, not ours." And I realize that he's offering me absolution, too—that he also wants to free me from my guilt.


I smile and squeeze his hand, silently accepting his forgiveness.


I wish I could forgive myself so easily, but I can't.


Because even now, as I sit there holding Jake's hand, I can't stop loving Julian.


"You know, I think he's still really into you," Leah says as she drives me home. "I'm surprised he didn't ask you out right then and there."


"Ask me out? Jake?" I give her an incredulous stare. "I'm the last girl he'd want to date."


"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that," she says thoughtfully. "You guys might've only been on one date, but he was seriously depressed when you disappeared. And the way he was looking at you tonight . . ."


I let out a nervous laugh. "Leah, please, that's just crazy. Jake and I have a complex history. He wanted closure tonight, that's all." The idea of dating Jake—of dating anyone—feels strange and foreign. In my mind, I still belong to Julian, and the thought of letting another man touch me makes me inexplicably anxious.


"Yeah, closure, right." Leah's voice is dripping with sarcasm. "The entire evening he was staring at you like you're the hottest thing he's ever seen. It's not closure he wants from you, I guarantee that."


Chapter 64