Page 90 of Tarnished Reign

“You will?” This shocks me, and for a moment, it makes me wonder anew if this is a dream. I was given drugs; perhaps I haven’t woken up yet, and my mind is focusing on Cade because I’m so worried about him.

“Whatever my princess wants, she gets. I’ll give you it all, Adriana. I will pluck the stars from the skies, and let you bring Cade here, and I will make you a marchioness. All I ask in return is to be allowed to worship you.” He sits by me and shocks me when he cups my breast and moans.

I freeze. My entire body goes icy cold.

“Too soon. I’m sorry, my love. You’re just such an astonishing temptation. What a wicked delight you truly are.”

“Barnie,” I sob. “I can’t. You … you’re Sian’s father. This is wrong. She’ll be so hurt. I don’t see you that way.”

He merely smiles. “You will. I’ll train you. We’ll start soon, once you’ve rested. I’ll make your body respond to me like a finely tuned instrument. I’ve done it before, a long time ago. You can condition responses. Did you know that? It’s fascinating.”

His words are insane. Madness. His eyes are almost glowing with the desire he has for me. Desire he’s hidden for so long. “How?” I demand. “How did you pretend for so long?”

“I had my whores to slake myself on. I’d go through them at twice the rate whenever you stayed. Dark haired girls, with pale skin. But they weren’t you. Their eyes were empty. Their tits were too small. Their hair didn’t shine. Now, I have you, and in time you will love me the way I want you to.”

“Like a wife?”

“Like my wife yes, but also like my special whore. My most perfect, beautiful whore, who will respond so elementally to the things I want.”

The tears are back.

“Don’t cry, darling. It’s a good thing. Some men leave their wives because they can’t see them as the sexual woman they want. The wife is good. The lover or whore is bad and sinful. I had the same issue with my wife. I couldn’t, you know … perform, after a while. She was the mother of my child. The good woman. I could get it up for the whores, but I despised them. Then I saw you, and that first day, I knew you’d be it. The only woman to complete me. You see, you’re both. You’re innocent, yet so seductive. You’re pure, yet sinful. You have the face of an angel and the body only the Devil himself could have designed. You’re going to be my perfect partner. It will be beautiful. You’ll see.”

The tears continue to fall. They won’t stop. This is hell. He’s offering me everything I could want and giving me a chance to save Cade, but my entire being recoils at what he wants from me.

He sighs. “I’m getting a little irritated now. I’ve told you that I will worship you. I will give you more than any woman could want. Sian will grow used to this, and your best friend will become your family for real Cade can come and live with us. It will be perfect. I must go now as there is so much to sort. You need some time to rest, calm down, and think. I will try to be more patient. It will be wonderful; you’ll see.”

He gives a soft, deep chuckle.

It pops his dimples, and I think he really is a handsome man, and he’s wealthy enough and powerful enough to keep me safe, and he’s said he’ll treat me like a queen. Most of all, he’ll let me keep Cade with us. Perhaps, in a different life, if he’d simply asked me, we could have started something. Instead, he’s done this terrible thing. His men shot at the staff on the yacht. He stole me away, abducted me. And he’s talking like a madman.

Even if I could contemplate it, my body yearns for another, perhaps even my heart if I’m being honest.

“I can see you’re not convinced. You will be. You will learn to desire me, need me, love me. First, however, you need rest. You can be assured that the next few days will just be about orientation and recovery. We won’t start your training yet. So put that out of your mind. Rest, my darling. If you need anything, there’s a bathroom via the blue door, and through that far door is another room, a living room. You can’t get out of this suite, though. The doors out to the corridor are locked and will be until you are happier with the situation.” He blows me a kiss, like the mad bastard he is. “Sleep tight, my beloved.”

I listen to the heavy key turn as he locks me within my prison.

I curl up in a ball and scream into the pillow. This cannot be happening. It just can’t.

In some ways, what he says is amazing … on paper. He can offer me safety. Money. Opulence. A home for Cade. There’s just one issue. I don’t want him in that way. When he touched me, I wanted to vomit. My body burns for just one man now.

Will that man even miss me? Will he care?

I think back to the way Dimitri made me feel and more tears fall. Then I shake myself. I dry my eyes. I won’t let the terror and the tears win. For now, I must try to keep my wits about me. If I can, I must find a way to get out of this situation, and maybe I can keep Barnaby at arm’s length for a while if I play the terrified damsel. That would buy me time.

Slipping out of the bed, I head to the window. The view is from very high in the house. This must be the top floor. Sian always said she was never allowed up here. The one time she went up the last flight of stairs, she found all the doors locked. I remember once wondering if her mum was still alive, but locked away in the attic like in Jane Eyre.

Now I know. This is where he brings his whores. And now I’m here.

I walk to the door leading into what he said is a living room. I step inside and let out a small moan of dismay.

The walls are lined with erotic art. Japanese erotica from hundreds of years ago. Some prints that look like the karma sutra. It’s all deeply erotic art, and maybe in another world, I’d be fascinated. It’s like the pictorial descriptions of some of the literature I have read, but right now, in this room, knowing this man wants to do these things with me, it makes me want to run. Women being fucked in every way. Whipped. Spanked. There’s even one of a woman with what looks like some sort of mythical creature.

The huge, red velvet sofa is mocking me. I wonder how many women Barnaby has fucked on it while surrounded by these pornographic images.

The painting that has me feeling as if I’m going to faint is the biggest of all, facing me on the far wall.

It’s what looks like a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, except Snow White is not all innocent and childlike. She’s reclined on a bed, a sensual woman with knowing eyes and a languid pose.

I can’t stop staring at it. It looks old, but it’s like looking through a mirror in time because the woman in that painting, the woman Barnaby screwed his whores in front of, is undeniably me.

I’m on his wall. He looked at an image of me as he fucked women he paid to pretend were me.

Now he has the real thing, and I know that if my situation was bad before, it’s a million times worse now.

I need to escape. I must get out of here.

The End

For now…