Page 66 of Don't Break My Heart
A wave of sickness washes over me, because I can see he’s serious. He would let me. And that thought scares the shit out of me more than us being compatible. I take a seat in one of the leather booths, inhaling deeply as I glance over the questions.
One. What do you value most in arelationship?
That one’s easy, trust.
Two. After a bad day, what makes you feel better?
Oh fuck, I might have written this, but answering the questions is going to be harder than I thought. A bottle of whiskey?
For the next twenty minutes, I answer all thirty of my questions. They are supposed to show compatibility based on the five love languages. “Done,” I tell him as he places a glass of whiskey down in front of me. I stare up at him, wondering if he was reading my answers as I wrote them. But he gives nothing away.
Harley’s psychologist helped me come up with them, but I have no idea if Romeo and I would be compatible at all. He wants to own me, control me, and I just want the freedom to do what I want with my life. Even if I don’t know exactly what that is right now.
“Let’s take a look.” He takes the iPad from me and waits while the thing does its calculation.
My palms are sweaty, and my heart is racing irrationally fast since I’m sitting down. I almost don’t want to know the results. “What does it say? The anticipation is killing me.”
He glances up, but his face is unreadable.
“What, did we get like two percent or some shit?” My stomach sinks. It’s then I realize just how important he is to me. The idea of him letting me walk away is inconceivable.
“We got a ninety-one.” He grins from ear to ear.
“How is that possible?” I snatch the thing from him so I can see it for myself. “Did you rig this?” I snap, not sure why I’m pissed about it. This is what I want.
He takes my hand, pulling me up to standing with him. “I knew I didn’t need to. I know everything about you, Sloane.”
“So, you did cheat?”
“If cheating is knowing you so well that I could guess how you would answer the questions, then yeah. Do you really think I would risk what we have on a game?”
Oh fuck, the way he is looking at me has my insides lit up completely. “We still have two more rounds to go. You could still fail.”
His hand moves into my hair, and he tugs me back so I’m looking directly into his eyes. “You know I won’t.” He slips a pair of soft leather cuffs and a black silk blindfold from his suit pocket. “You ready to play bound by trust? It won’t be as much fun without an audience watching and voting, but I’m sure we can still make it work.”
Oh fuck, here goes nothing.
“Turn around, doll face.”
I do as he says, and he places the silky blindfold over my eyes. My heart kicks up a beat even though I know we’re alone in here. I don’t know the space. Our concept was escape room meets obstacle course, and the male has to lead the female through to the end safely with only his words. It’s supposed to be a fun flirty way to build trust. But I already know Romeo and trust is our downfall.
“Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up?” he asks.
“You know I wouldn’t tell you if I could.”
“Sloane, take it seriously,” he snaps, and I know he is.
“I can’t see anything, I swear.”
“Good.” He takes my hand and clasps the cuff in place around my wrist. “Help me get mine on.”
I feel around until I have it in my hand and then find his wrist, carefully locking the buckle in place. “Done.”
“There are a few rules. We can never turn back or we fail. If you don’t trust me to get you to safety at any point, we fail. We also have a time frame to complete the course, twenty minutes, and if we don’t get to the end in time, we fail. That’s pretty much it. Normally therewill be audience votes as well for compatibility, but since it’s just you and me, we can leave that part out.” His lips brush my earlobe, sending a scattering of goosebumps over my skin. My senses are on overdrive, not been able to see. “Can you trust me to get you safely out of here?”
“Yes,” I whisper back. I feel his muscles relax. He was worried I would say no. “You built this course, didn’t you?”
“No, sweetheart, I have no idea what is in front of us. I gave the building team ideas, but this is as much a mystery to me as it is you. Do you still trust me?”
