“Were you ever gonna tell me?” I questioned.
His eyes cut into slits and shot to my face. “Tell you what?”
I cleared my sore throat, flinching as I sat straighter. My body was sore and my legs ached. Now the familiarity between how Beast fucked me and how Kairus did became present. Both were like animals in the bedroom, ungentle and always in control. I should have put two and two together.
“That you were Beast.” My voice came out shaky. A crude, taunting grin split his face. One of his brows rose in amusement.
“So youfinallyfigured it out?” His condescending tone caused my stomach to roll over.
I swallowed hard. Mirth bounced around his eyes as if this was all a game to him. My skin prickled with goosebumps.
Running my eyes down his body I took in how truly in shape he was. This was the first time I got to lay eyes on all of him and his body was built like an Adonis, with a dick to match. Even against the scarred tissue he was still beautiful. Still I couldn’t even appreciate it because I was too caught off guard.
“You knew who I was before my dad came to you?” I blinked slowly, trying to comprehend this. Did he purposely seek me out for his own twisted game? Was his plan always to keep me captive? He glowered at me with a penetrating stare.
“You give me too much credit.” He chuckled darkly. “When someone comes to me wanting to borrow money, I do my research because at that point they’re an investment and my money is something I don’t play about. Your dad was no different. People with something to lose are less likely to try and fuck you over.” That taunting grin reappeared. “Once I learned about you and laid eyes on you, I deemed you as mine.”
My brows dipped in confusion and my mouth turned upside down. The high I was just riding was starting to dwindle. “Is that why you suggested I stay here for six months? Has this all been some sick, twisted game?” My voice rose as I spoke.
He reached out to touch my face but I flinched away from his touch. He frowned and did it again this time, grabbing my hair, causing me to gasp. My heart slammed against my ribcage. He moved his face closer to mine, his dick brushing against my leg causing me to shudder.
“I told you that you were my toy, did I not? My reasoning was simple. I saw you, I wanted you, so I got you.”
“I’m not an object!” I spat. “You can’t claim me like I’m not a human being!”
“But I can and I did. And be honest, Beauty, you like that I claimed you, don’t you?” He brushed his fingers across the inside of my thigh. The same spot he’d cut me a couple weeks back. I stared at the still healing lines in disbelief.
“You’re ridiculous,” I whispered as my heart hammered away. I bounced my eyes around his face. Emotions I couldn’t put into words traveled through me.
“I’m a man taught to not let anything stand in his way. The moment I laid eyes on you and saw your smile, I felt like the part of me that died a long time ago had come back to life somehow. The first time I entered you in that hotel room, I knew I would do whatever I needed to make you mine.”
Kairus’s claim on me shouldn’t have made my heart skip a beat and my stomach feel fuzzy. “So why not just approach me like a normal person?”
He moved in, lips just inches from mine. “Be honest with yourself. If I approached you as I am, you wouldn’t have given me a second thought. Plus, what’s the fun in being normal when I can play with you before I attack?” His words stuck out to me. They made my chest hurt and my heart bleed.
I went to speak but he covered my mouth with his, pulling my bottom lip into his mouth and sucking on it roughly.
My eyes closed as passion shot up my spine. I tried to ignore the desire I was feeling for him knowing I needed to address what he just said.
“Kairus,” I moaned, pulling away from him. “Wait.” I swallowed hard, staring into his orbs. For the first time since being here I noticed how haunted they truly looked. Slowly I lifted my hand and went to touch his face but he grabbed me, frowning. “Kairus, you know your face doesn’t bother me, right? I wouldn’t have turned you away because of how you look,” I confessed sincerely.
The rumors I had heard about him would have had me running the opposite direction, but never how he looked. I believed a person was more than just their looks. Kairus’s inside might be jaded and tainted, but I was starting to see it was because of unprocessed trauma from his past.
Like a switch flipped, he shut down. His eyes clouded like a brewing storm, his face went blank. He stepped away from me and straightened his spine.
“Kairus,” I started but snapped my mouth shut when I saw the coldness on his face. I didn’t want him to shut himself off to me. Something told me Kairus hid behind this cruel demeanor to purposely push people away.
“Go clean yourself up.” That was it. He didn’t say anything else as he turned and walked out the room, like a bomb hadn’t just been dropped on me.
I wasn’t sure how long I stayed sitting where I was after he left my room. I didn’t like the sinking feeling that danced around in my stomach either. I wanted Kairus to open up to me and let me in. I wanted him to know that I saw beyond his scars and I wasn’t turned off. It was clear they were a sore spot for him.
I brushed my hand through my now sweated out hair, then ran my eyes around my room, pausing on the rose. Another petal had fallen and it made me frown. I was trying to keep it healthyand alive for as long as I could. Still staring at the rose, I made it my personal mission. While stuck in this house I would find a way to break down Kairus’s wallsandkeep my rose healthy.
“Let’s go,” Kairus demanded, busting in my room.
My head shot up and instinctively I hid my phone. My nerves had been bad the past couple of days. Today my mom was going in for surgery and I was tryna decide how I was gonna sneak out to be with her. My only issue was Kairus had been home all day. He didn’t leave the house as often as he had when I was first taken. When he did leave I assumed it was to go handle his financial firm, which the internet said was very successful despite people fearing him, or to go kill some poor soul that owed him money.
“No need to hide the phone. We both know you have it by now,” he mentioned. A grim expression was on his face. I scraped my bottom lip with my teeth and clenched my phone tightly, looking down at it. We hadn’t said much to each other since we had sex and I learned he was the man in the hotel room. Since then he’d been his usual detached self, except he still made sure we had breakfast and dinner together. It was usually silent and when I tried to spark a conversation he either shut it down or was short with his reply.
