Page 153 of Spark

As I climbed up her body, her eyes never left mine, even as I sunk deep into her liquid heat, filling her up entirely. Her body arched under me, a soft moan leaving her lips, while her hands moved up and down my arms.

“Tell me what I want to hear.”

“I belong to you,” she said instantly, but it wasn’t just the fact she said it. It was the way she said it. I could always taste the disdain in her voice when she said those words—the reluctance and blatant annoyance when I forced her to say it—but now, as I was buried deep inside her, she said it with passion, like she was finally happy to be mine. And hell if that didn’t have me fucking her like I owned her.

I decided to let Jaden out of the room a week later, ready to release my little hellcat from her conditioned captivity into her old habitat. She’d woken up that morning in my arms in my bed where she belonged. She’d been so grateful for her release that she’d cried in my arms, pleading with me never to send her back down there again. She would be good; she would make me happy as best she could. She would do anything.

I’d never felt more victorious in my life.

Though I worried this was still all a trick, that she was manipulating me again and being the best damn actress on the planet. Only time would tell, which was why Sid watched her every second of every day, especially when she was alone. I wanted him to assess everything she did. I wanted to know if it was real as I felt it was.

When Clive and Owen came back to assume their positions, she barely even looked at them, barely even smiled at Camaro. I had Clive and Owen training with her dog on advanced combative commands while Jaden was away. For a puppy, she was doing very well.

Daniel and Katherine had their baby girl a few weeks prior, and I wondered if taking Jaden to see the baby would entice her motherly instincts, but I thought better of it, considering her fragile state. In all the years I’d regrettably known Katherine, I’d never seen her look happier than when she was looking down at Ella, sleeping peacefully in her arms. It surprised me when my chest started to ache, and I realized I wanted that with Jaden. Not now with her so fragile, but within the next few years, after we were married and happy.

For the next few weeks, I spent as much time with Jaden as possible, which was difficult to do with everything going on. I discovered my traitor had not been alone in his schemes, and I was still hunting for his partner as shipments were still either getting hit or coming up missing. It was pissing me off, especially because it took me away from Jaden.

Jaden was still sad when I left her, and sadder still when she was alone. Even though she was back to exercising in the gym, she still didn’t technically train. She didn’t even look at the punching bags anymore. She either ran on the treadmill or practiced yoga. She barely played with Camaro, only taking her for walks or occasionally petting her. Her paintings held no color, mostly blacks and white, sometimes gray. She didn’t smile unless I was in the room, not even for Anya and Irina who still maintained her hair, nails, and skin. She barely even looked at them and never said a word. Her head was always down everywhere she went, her hands clasped in front of her. Somehow, in the midst of everything, I’d managed to turn her from a fiery hellcat into a quiet little mouse. And that was when I realized I had finally, successfully broken her.

This was different from last time. Last time, she acted like this to annoy me, but this time, it felt real. She’d lost hope of any escape, the idea of revenge completely obliterated. The only hope she held on to now was for me to make her happy when she made me happy. And though I was enjoying my victory of finally having beaten Jaden into permanent submission, I would not have her remain this way for very long.

I had expected this type of regression. It was phase one in a sense; break her down to nothing and build her back up the way I wanted her. She was certainly broken, and now, I had to re-create the glue that would hold the pieces together. But before I pulled her back into the right direction, I needed to make sure this was real. I needed to make sure she wasn’t just fucking with me again to piss me off.

I sat at my desk with my eyes fixated on my computer screen. Jaden fiddled with her hands as she sat on the couch, talking with Sid. I’d hoped this session wouldn’t go nearly as bad as the last one had. Although that would determine if she was a liar or not.

“Hello, Jaden,” Sid said politely as he sat on the opposite couch in front of her.

“Hi, Sid,” Jaden replied, her eyes not making full contact.

“How are you doing?”

Jaden shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“Just fine?”

She didn’t say a word, just nodded with the tiniest ghost of a smile barely visible. She was doing it to be polite.

“You don’t seem fine,” Sid commented, leaning in to regard her.

Jaden’s eyes widened for a moment like she’d been caught doing something wrong.

“I swear I’m fine,” she insisted. “Have I done something wrong?”

Sid shook his head. “No, you’re not in trouble. I just want to make sure you really are okay. You look tired. Are you sleeping well?”

She hadn’t been. She’d wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, believing she was back in the basement. She’d calm down immediately when she realized she wasn’t, but it was still hell getting her back to sleep. I finally had to drug her to get her to sleep through the night.

“Not really,” she said.

Sid regarded her closely.

“Bad dreams?”

Jaden looked away toward the floor. “Sometimes.”

“They will pass eventually.”

“I know,” she said with a slight nod.

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