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

"It was the nursing assistant at the clinic." My voice comes out sounding cold and distant as I place my champagne glass back on the tray. "Angela. She was on Al-Quadar's payroll all along."


Nora's eyes glitter brightly. "That bitch," she whispers, and I can hear the pain and anger in her voice. Her hand shakes as she puts down her own glass on the table. "That fucking bitch."


I nod, trying to control my own rage as images from the video Majid sent me slide through my mind. They tortured Beth before killing her. They made her suffer. Beth, whose life had held nothing but suffering since her asshole of a father sold her to a brothel across the Mexican border at the age of thirteen. Who had been one of the very few people whose loyalty I never questioned.


They made her suffer . . . and now I will make them suffer worse.


"Where is she now?" Nora's question brings me out of a pleasurable reverie where I have each member of Al-Quadar strung up and at my mercy. When I look at her blankly, she clarifies, "Angela."


I smile at her naïve question. "You don't have to worry about her, my pet." All that remains of Angela are ashes, scattered on the lawn of the clinic in the Philippines. Peter's brand of questioning is brutal but effective, and he always disposes of the evidence afterwards. "She paid for her betrayal."


Nora swallows, and I know she understands exactly what I mean. She's no longer the same girl I met in that club in Chicago. I can see the shadows in her eyes, and I know I'm responsible for putting them there. Despite my best efforts to keep her sheltered on the island, the ugliness of my world touched her, tainted her innocence.


The scar on my head begins to throb, and I touch it lightly with my left hand. My head still aches occasionally, but other than that, I'm almost back to my normal self. Considering that I spent a good portion of the last four months as a vegetable, I'm quite content with this state of affairs.


"Are you all right?" There is a concerned expression on Nora's face as she reaches up to touch the area above my left ear. Her slender fingers are gentle on my scalp. "Does it still hurt?"


Her touch sends pleasure streaking down my spine. I want this from her. I want her to care about my well-being. I want her to love me even though I stole her freedom—even though, by all rights, she should hate me.


I have no illusions about myself. I'm one of those men they show on the news—the ones that everyone fears and despises. I took a young woman because I wanted her and for no other reason.


I make no excuses for my actions. I feel no guilt either. I wanted Nora, and now she's here with me, looking at me like I'm the most important person in her world.


Chapter 73