Page 203 of Merciless Desires

“I’m surprised you didn’t break any bones. You fell fifteen feet onto an ancient stone floor.”

I kept my face turned away, mortified that my attempt to escape failed before it had even begun.

“I’m not going to ask why you did it, Rose. But I am going to ask you not to do it again.”

“Why?” My voice cracked.

There was a long pause before he took a slow, deep breath.

“Because I’m so close to being broken myself, if anything happened to you while you were in my care, I would… die.”

“Then let me go.” The second the words were out, I felt empty, as though I’d stored them for so long, they’d puffed out like rice.

He breathed out slowly and I thought I heard a stutter in the back of his throat. “I have.”

In disbelief, I turned to face him. “What?”

A muscle in his left eye flickered as it narrowed. “You’re free to go.”

My eyes were drawn to an object turning in his hands, propelling me back to the day I found him sitting on the bed delivering his ultimate condition. He followed my gaze and stopped turning. When he held it up in the space between us, I noticed it was a key. The key to my room.

“This is yours.” He leaned towards me and took my hand. A current spread through it and I lost all human feeling. He placed the key in my palm then folded my fingers around it, before pulling away. I yearned for him to take it back, just so I could feel his skin on mine again.

“What drugs did you give me?”

He blinked. “Just… painkillers. Why?”

“The pain has disappeared completely, and my skin feels strange.”

“The pain has gone because I gave you Basidiomine – a pain reliever we develop here on the island. It’s only just gone out to market but it’s the most potent pain relief pharmaceutical in the western world. As for your skin feeling strange… I can’t answer that.”

I kept my voice level. “Will I be able to walk?”

“Yes, but we’ll give you crutches and any help you need.”

I watched his eyes for some suggestion he was bluffing but saw nothing but sadness. I pulled my arms back to push myself up but his hand pressed down on my shoulder.

“You need more rest, Rose.”

I stared at him. “You said I was free to go.”

“You are. But I think you should stay one more night. Just to get some rest. Please?”

A beat passed between us. “Are you going to take my virginity?”

He hung his head and shook it slowly.

“No. I’ve put you through enough. You should save it for someone who deserves it. Someone who deserves you.”

Even in my drugged and weakened state I managed a small frown.

“You didn’t care about being deserving before.”

He lifted his head and gaze to the ceiling. “I didn’t know anything before. Anything.” He huffed a laugh to himself. “Now I know too damn much.”

My head spun with everything he was and wasn’t saying and I didn’t have the mental capacity to make sense of it.

I turned my face back towards the ceiling. I was going to be out of this place in the morning, but nothing about that thought lightened me. I was tired. My body had been through more in the last twenty-four hours than possibly my entire life. It had gone from being alive with lust to broken.

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