Page 73 of Vicious Vows

Her head whips in my direction and her eyes squint as she takes in my face. "What are you talking about?"

"There's no one where we are going for you to impress but me. I want you to have a good time. Get out of the house for a little while." I shrugged and could feel the embarrassment trying to lick its way up my spine. I feel pussywhipped. Going out of my way to impress the little woman.

"You shouldn't have done that. I don't want to go anywhere with you." She snapped at me.

"Maybe not but you don't really have much choice in the matter now do you?" I turned back to the window and looked out. I ground my back teeth trying to keep my anger down. I didn't like to feel like I wasn't being appreciated for the effort I was putting in.

When Lionel told me that I was going to have to grovel I didn't think I was going to have to go to this extent. I've never had to lower myself to this level.

And even though I was humbling myself things still weren't going as I'd planned. Faye still wasn't letting down her guard.

I took a deep breath and turned in her direction. I didn't know what else I could do. I needed a clue.

"What do you want from me?" I said between gritted teeth.

"What makes you think I want anything from you? Ever since we took our vows you've tried to prove your power over me. You've tried to control me. Tried to change who I am. I don't want to be here with you and not once have you ever understood or even tried to sympathize with me. I just want to go back to my life, that's what I want from you." She glared at me for a second before turning back to the window.

I wanted to fight her, remind her that she's the one who agreed, tricked or not, to be in my life. I tried to understand what she was feeling.

If I were in her shoes and forced to smile while being held captive I'd go out of my mind as well.

I couldn't let her go back home but I could at least try and make her feel a little more comfortable.

"Sir, we're here," Yuri says from the driver's seat.

I looked out of the window and sure enough, we'd stopped in front of the restaurant.

"Come on," I reached out to grab hold of her hand but she pulled it away before I could grab hold of her. Her rejection stung.

"I'm sure I can make my way on my own." She opened the door and stepped out of the car while I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

I caught up to her and escorted her the rest of the way into the restaurant.

Yuri did a great job getting a private room for me. I could tell that the space where Faye and I were seated wasn't usually open to guests and I wondered how much Yuri had to bribe the restauranter to get what I wanted.

"Your table is right this way." the hostess announced while she looked me up and down. Her eyes roamed over my body as if she were ready to throw me down on the floor and mount me.

I tried to ignore her but she was making it difficult. What pissed me off even more was the fact that Faye didn't seem to care. Only a few days ago, Faye was ready to fight to assert her possession of me and now it was like she didn't even care. I didn't like it one bit.

I clenched my hands at my sides as the hostess led us to our table and pulled out Faye's seat. The both of us sat down, each with frowns on our faces and without looking the other in the eye. This wasn't turning out to be the romantic dinner I'd intended.

"What would you like to eat?" I asked Faye, hoping to break the ice a bit.

"Whatever." She replied.

"Don't be petulant." I hissed in return.

"Petulant? It's not petulance, it's fucking hatred. I don't want to be here Dominic." She snaps at me and I lean back in my chair.

"Faye..." I sigh and squeeze my eyes shut, "I'm fucking trying here."

"No one told you to."

"I know no one told me to but I want to. I know I fucked up. I'm sorry. I don't know how to make this shit better. I've never had to try to atone for my mistakes. I can't let you go, I can't ignore you and I feel like a complete fool for not believing you in the first place. All this shit I can't change. All I can do is try to find the peace we had before even if it was just a volatile facade. I'm fucking sorry, Faye." The words rushed out of my mouth, louder than I wanted them to be. My control was slipping.

"Sometimes words aren't enough."

"So tell me what I need to do. And don't fucking say to let you go when we both know I can't. Tell me something I can do." I pressed my hands against the table finally letting them fall out of the fisted state they'd been in. I was completely stressed out.

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