Page 127 of Sin & Sapphire

“I’m sorry!” I wailed. “I’m not trying to escape again, I swear!”

“Ana, take a deep breath,” he snapped, using the edge of command he used when he expected instant obedience.

I sniffled and sat down on the curb, my stomach in knots, watching the other residents of the building mill around, frustrated that their evenings were interrupted.

“I’m sorry,maître,” I whispered. “So sorry.”

Valentin sighed deeply. “Princess, tell me what’s going on.”

“I wanted to make you and Angelo dinner,” I whispered. “But I fucked it up and set off the fire alarm. I swear I wasn’t trying to escape.”

The silence on the other end of the line broke my heart. My breathing sped up as fear sliced through me.

“Valentin?Maître?” My voice cracked.

“Where are you?”

The bodyguards who now surrounded me studiously pretended not to see me sitting outside, sobbing my fool heart out, looking like a fucking idiot.

“I’m outside the building, with your bodyguards.”

“You’re safe?”

“Yes,” I whispered. Safe from danger, though not safe from Valentin’s disappointment. “I don’t—I don’t know how to cook, maître. And there wasn’t any food in the apartment. And I?—”

Another sob tore out of me. How was this somehow even more humiliating than all the sexual bullshit they’d put me through over the last few weeks?

“I swear I wasn’t trying to escape,” I repeated. “I swear.”

“Princess,” he said. “I believe you. I’m coming, all right? Stay where you are.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Okay,” I whispered. “Okay.”

“Good girl.”

Thirty minutes later, the fire department had cleared the building, given me a stern talking to about cooking butter on too high a heat, and approved the residents to go back in.

I waited on the curb, following Valentin’s instructions, embarrassed that I was such a mess, and that the world was witnessing Ana Costa lose her shit in public, but unwilling to disobey him, even to go back into our apartment.

When his black sports car pulled up, my heart leapt into my throat. He stepped out, and I rushed to him, throwing my arms around him and sobbing into his chest. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I repeated it like a prayer as he awkwardly wrapped his arms around me so I could burrow into the comfort of his warmth.

Valentin didn’t stop me, didn’t berate me, didn’t do anything but hold me until my sobs subsided and I’d collected myself enough to look up from his chest into his warm brown eyes.

“Salut,” he murmured, his brow crinkled with concern.

His shirt was soaked where I’d buried my face in it. I patted it awkwardly. “Salut,” I answered.

“Ça va?” Are you okay?

No, I wasn’t okay. And I wasn’t okay with not being okay. I’d reacted out of fear, not of punishment, but because I didn’t want to disappoint Valentin, my captor and owner, and because I didn’t want to hurt Angelo’s feelings.

Who the fuck was I turning into?

One of his hands stroked up my back and tangled in my hair, gently holding my face in position, forcing me to meet his eyes, so I couldn’t hide from him, but not hurting me. “What happened?”

“I wasn’t trying to escape,” I promised again, searching his eyes for a sign that he believed me.

“I know,” he said and brushed his nose against mine so sweetly it took my breath away. “Tell me what happened.”

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