Coming to a stop, Elder pressed a silver button by a single set of elevator doors. He looked down, catching my gaze. “Pay attention. When you’re summoned for a check-up with the medical team, you’ll need to remember which deck to go to.”
You mean…I’ll be allowed to wander around unwatched?
The thought was mildly terrifying.
I’d had free roam of Alrik’s mansion, but the cameras kept me heeled tightly on my proverbial leash. I had no doubt Elder would have cameras too, but I didn’t mind him watching me nearly as much.
Why is that?
He’s still a man.
Still a dominating bastard.
But that kiss…
My mind flittered back to the kiss as the elevator dinged, opened, and Elder stuffed us into the small mirrored box.
My lips sparked as he pressed the button for deck two, and we flew upward. The air in the lift intensified, crackling with awareness.
Would he kiss me like that again? Was that why he’d stolen me? To finish what he’d promised the night he’d let me sleep unmolested beside him?
Even if he wanted to kiss me again, he couldn’t. I had stitches in my tongue. I was hurt.
That never stopped other men.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. Elder was a lot of things, but the more time I spent in his presence, the more I suspected he wasn’t like other men. And if he wasn’t like the others, how could I predict what he wanted? How could I ensure my survival if I couldn’t mentally and physically prepare for whatever would come next?
The elevator doors opened, spewing us out onto a new deck. This one had rose-gold carpet with bronze accents glinting from subtle wallpaper and pretty sconces on the wall. It reeked of classical money and award-winning interior design.
Elder let me go, marching ahead, expecting me to follow.
My bare feet sank into welcoming carpet, whispering of happiness and a future so much better than my past. My pink nightgown that’d replaced the yellow from yesterday fluttered around my legs.
It was a conscious effort not to tear the material away. I didn’t find comfort in the softness, merely torture.
Elder finally stopped outside a rose-gold door and opened it. There was no key or barrier, just an ornate handle in the shape of a clamshell.
Striding into the space, my jaw fell open as I followed him.
A maid jumped as she turned around with a plump pillow in her arms. “Oh, excuse me, sir. I was just making final preparations for your guest.”
Elder crossed his arms. “The room looks fine. You may go.” His head remained high; his gaze locked on the pretty servant with blonde hair and not the exquisite room with its double doors leading onto a small balcony and cascading sunlight.
She bowed slightly, placing the pillow just so on top of a mountain of identical ones on the bed. The mattress was the biggest I’d ever seen.
“Right away, sir.” With a quick glance my way, she dashed from the room and closed the door.
Elder didn’t speak. Prowling forward, he opened the French doors and stepped into fresh sea air.
I craved to join him on the veranda and inhale freedom. To witness the rushing waves on the horizon and watch the gushing tide beneath my feet. But I didn’t know if he wanted me to follow—if it was an invitation or purely for him.
So, I lingered.
Pressing my stitched tongue against the roof of my mouth, cringing against the pain, I peered around the boudoir.
To my left was a sunken lounge where a couch big enough for eight people rested low enough to jump onto from floor level. An inbuilt coffee table had grooves for cups and racks for magazines to keep things in place regardless of how determined the ocean was at disrupting order. A large abstract painting hung on the wall, and the bed slumbered beneath a canopy of pale cream silk matching the elegant dark chocolate bedspread and ivory lace throw cushions.
Once again, the scent of money oozed from every fixture and fitting. A dining table sat beneath a window beside the French doors, and a bathroom was visible through a linking door to a full-sized Jacuzzi tub and a two-person shower in the same cream and chocolate décor.
The richness of colour was not lost on me after an eternity of white, white, white.
“Are you going to stand in the middle of the room forever or will you come here?” Elder’s voice whipped to my ears with the aid of muggy sea air.
My feet moved of their own accord. My entire body tingled as I stepped outside. I wasn’t a mute with a butchered tongue. I wasn’t sold into a new nightmare. I was just a girl standing beside a boy in the middle of the ocean.
My shoulder brushed against his bicep as we stood watching the view. Sunshine tinkled like gold on turquoise glass. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.