‘This is a chipped bracelet.’
‘What?’ I say, confused.
‘Told you I was a paranoid motherfucker.’
‘You gave me a bracelet with a tracking chip and you never told me about it?’ I ask incredulously.
‘Yeah,’ he says, totally unfazed.
I pull slightly away from him. ‘And you’ve been tracking me all this time?’
‘Not really. The chip is in there, but while you were safe there was no need to track you.’
‘I can’t believe you gave me a chipped bracelet, like I’m your pet or something.’
‘You’re my woman. I protect what’s mine,’ he says forcefully.
I shake my head in disbelief. I want to be angry, but I’m all emotioned out. I look at the bracelet that he gave me two weeks ago. Gold with little square pieces of sapphire set into it. It’s a bloody tracking device. Still, I can’t complain, it certainly came in handy today.
‘I know about Vivien,’ I say softly. My heart feels as if it’s a heavy rock.
‘I know. Jake told me.’
I sniff and look at the pulse beating steadily in his throat. ‘I saw a picture of her,’ I say, trying to be casual, and failing miserably.
He puts his finger under my chin and lifts it until I’m forced to look into his gorgeous eyes. They are filled with soft lights, the pupils so large they are almost the size of his irises. ‘Yeah, you look like her. And yeah, I admit, in the beginning I confused my lust for you with a love lost tragically. I thought you’d make the pain go away for a while. I thought I was temporarily re-creating an old magic. I didn’t know you were a thief. That you’d steal my heart, weave yourself into my soul, and make me fall deeper in love with you than I’ve ever done with anyone else.’
My mouth drops open. ‘You … love me?’
‘Yes.’ He beams.
I shake my head in disbelief. ‘You love me?’
‘Yes, I love you, Ella Savage. I fucking love you.’
‘Since when?’ I ask, almost unable to believe what he is telling me.
‘I don’t know. All I know is that I love, love, love you.’ He picks me up and twirls me around. ‘And I’m never letting you go.’
I look down at him seriously. ‘Maybe you just think you love me because I look like Vivien?’
‘Oh, my darling, darling Ella. You’ve no idea. I’m so in love with you, I feel high, as if I’ve dropped an ecstasy tablet.’
‘But how do you know it’s really me you want and not her?’ I insist.
‘No two women could be more different than you and Vivien. It’s you I want to wake up to in the morning. It’s your skin I crave, and it’s your laughter I yearn to hear on the phone.’
‘Oh, Dom. I feel so confused. I don’t know what’s happening anymore. First, I find out about Vivien, then I get kidnapped, then I think I’m going to be sodomized and raped, and then I get rescued, and now you’re telling me you love me! I’m thinking I’m going to wake up soon!’
‘Want me to pinch you?’ His eyes light up. ‘Or, better still, I can fuck you awake? Did I see a chocolate arrow on your thigh just now?’
I have a sudden image of Rob, his long, hot tongue slowly licking the other chocolate arrow from my thigh. I shudder. ‘I need a shower.’
His face hardens. ‘Did he do anything to you?’
‘No,’ I deny immediately. ‘Of course not.’
‘Then how come there’s only one chocolate arrow?’ he demands aggressively.