“Um, nothing,” I gape. The white shirt he’s wearing pulls tight around his shoulders and chest, all the muscles underneath.
And then I see the gun sticking out of his belt again. I swallow the lump in my throat.
He could actually kill me.
Nikolai held me at gunpoint to keep me in line.
But I think Valerian is waiting for me to stepoutof line.
Which I just have.
My breath catches, as the reality hits me like a ton of bricks.I really am in danger, and not the fun kind.I push off from the wall, swim to the other side of the pool and hoist myself up.
I scramble to my feet and make a beeline for the side gate. The guard is there, watching me, loading his own weapon. I don’t care. I’ll deal with it later. The guard isn’t the problem. Valerian is. He punished his own fucking son. There’s no telling what he’ll do to me.
“Let me out of here!” I yell to the guard as I cross the garden. “He’s fucking crazy. He’s gonna murder me.” I make sure to really scream that last sentence, just in case the neighbors are listening.
But Valerian doesn’t have neighbors. He lives at the very top of Beverly Hills. He has land. Enough for my cry for help to disappear into oblivion.
“Please!” I beg, approaching the gate. Tears stream down my face. My vision is blurred. But I can still trace the gun in the guard’s hand as he unsheathes it from his holster. “Please. Let me go. I’ll sign a non-disclosure. Anything you?—”
A pair of arms wrap around my midriff, stopping me.
I gasp, choking on air. Tears fall down my cheeks.
I’m not done living yet. Sure, my life isn’t perfect. At the moment, I don’t have much to live for, besides Mom and Lila and our work out classes. But Valerian can at least let me live longer so I can see what else is out there.
Valerian throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing. I kick. Wrap my arm around his head, bringing him into a headlock. It’s no use.
There’s simply no way I can get out of this. But that doesn’t mean I should give up. I’ll fight until the very end.
My heart sinks as we make it back inside. I continue shoving him off, twisting, turning as he brings me upstairs.
“Stop!” I scream, my voice bouncing off the marble balls. “Please. Don’t.”
Valerian keeps me stable on his shoulder. He has one hand on my hip, the other resting on my back. I’m petrified. A shiver runs down my back. But when it reaches the base of my spine, it becomes something else.
Heat starts to expand. I feel the excitement again.
Especially when I realize where he’s taking me.
Valerian opens the door to his bedroom and throws me on his bed. My back hits the mattress.
I bring my knees up to my chest, hugging myself as I watch him rifle through wooden doors, slamming them shut.
Then I hear chains rattling.
Fuck. Me.I gasp when I see what he has in his hands.
Valerian has a cruel expression written across his face. He stalks back to the bed, grabs both of my wrists and pins them above my head.
“Shuffle up a bit,” he commands, skimming the bottom of my ass cheek. “There’s a good girl.”
I hear the familiar sound of metal fastening around my wrists. He ties me up to the headboard, my back pressed into the wood.
I’m sitting on the cushions, my legs scrambling for purchase on the mattress. I keep slipping. It’s hard to balance when your arms are tied over your head.
Valerian stands back, watching me. He trails a finger over his bottom lip, pondering something.