I didn’t, but I came close.
Enzo is standing less than a foot in front of me.
I pant heavily, knowing I can’t catch my breath. I’ve pushed my body too hard. I’m about to faint again.
“Breathe,” comes the same steady voice. I hang on to that voice, letting it fill my lungs as if it were oxygen.
The fog covering my eyes lifts, and I see Enzo, really see him for the first time.
He’s so close to me, yet I don’t get the urge to run away from him. He’s not attempting to reach out or touch me in any way. His eyes are locked with mine, and it’s almost like he can see inside my head. Our stupid connection, I don’t understand. One we’ve had for far too long and needs to be severed, immediately.
Enzo nods, encouraging me to continue to slow my body down until I’m calm again, or at least my version of composed.
Once he sees that I’ve returned to my less erratic state, his eyes darken, his lips twitch, and the vein in his head pops out.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” Enzo hisses at me.
My fists clench at his harshness, but I don’t step back. Neither does he.
I stare down at my body for the first time. I was wearing an oversized shirt when I left the bedroom. Now I’m wearing nothing. I don’t remember removing the shirt, but I must have on my way down the stairs, needing the itchy clothing off me as much as I needed the sheets to stop constricting my body.
I huff. “Does it matter? I’ve seen the way you look at me. It doesn’t matter that my body is broken. That other men have touched me. You’re just as sick as them.”
He growls and then steps closer to me.
I don’t retreat, even though I feel the blood frosting my body as it pumps faster. Don’t let him intimidate or threaten you.
“You will wear clothes anytime you leave your bedroom,” he fires into my ear.
I grow rigid. “Don’t you mean, your bedroom?”
He shrugs. “It doesn’t matter what it was, only what it is. You can pretend it’s your sanctuary, your cage, my bedroom, or whatever fantasy you create in your head to make sense of what is happening to you. But while you are here, it is your bedroom.”
He takes three giant steps back, and I can breathe again. Then he does something I don’t understand. He removes the T-shirt he’s wearing.
My eyes hone in on the rippling muscles over his stomach, so defined and tight, then jump up to his hard pecs. He would be a perfect specimen if it weren’t for the healed scars that cover his body—like mine. His make him look stronger though, more rugged—nothing like mine.
He tosses the shirt to the floor a foot in front of me.
I cock my head.
“Put the shirt on, Kai.”
My eyes narrow, not understanding why he cares if I’m dressed. He’s seen my naked body before. He must have, how else would I have gotten out of my clothes? I doubt the good doctor would have undressed me. That means Enzo has touched me.
Fear rakes through my body at that thought. He just touched me; he didn’t violate me.
I finally take the room in. It appears to be a large office, but it is not just occupied by Enzo. Two other men stand behind him. All three men are wearing jeans and dark shirts, and I can see sweat on all of their brows. They’ve been working.
I recognize the two men standing by Enzo; they were the same men at Surrender with him. One of the men tries hard to avoid eye contact with me or gazing at me at all, as if he thinks looking at me will burn his retinas. The other man only looks at my eyes, ensuring his eyes never drop lower to my naked body.
A tiny smile crosses my lips. Enzo is mad because he doesn’t like these men staring at my naked body—whether because he wants me to himself or because he’s embarrassed by the state of my body and them knowing he wasn’t the one to break me in. I don’t care. I kind of like that he wants me to himself instead of sharing me with others. Unlike my last master, I won’t be shared around like a whore.
Enzo’s body hardens as he notices my carelessness about my body. I’ve had disgusting men stare at my body and violate me. I don’t care that I’m making him uncomfortable now.
But my eyes return to the two men. They seem to be Enzo’s right-hand men. They might have the answers I seek. They might be able to tell me why Enzo’s father ordered him to kill me.
The only way I’m going to get a chance to ask is by putting clothes on so they can all stop acting like they are innocent men who have never seen a naked woman before.