“Didn’t even stay for a drink. What a pity.”
There’s spite in her voice, real fiery hatred. Roland is gone, but his idea lingers. Marriage. Babies. I have thought about both, though I wouldn’t admit it to myself until now. He and the Order are right. Chloe needs something of more substance to be settled. She needs something to invest in. Her father is gone and I have assumed control of her assets. She has nothing, and that makes her dangerous, to herself and others. I can’t spend every day of my life fucking her into submission. I’m going to have to do some work eventually.
“What do you want in the future, Chloe?”
The question seems to surprise her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what kind of future do you see for yourself?”
“Leather and whips and probably some kind of weird fuck machine,” she shrugs.
“I mean more than that. I mean, long, long term. Family. Do you want family?”
“Are you asking me if I want kids, Darko?”
“Yes.”
She looks at me incredulously. “I don’t want them in this situation. How would that even work?” She puts on a sweet, high-pitched voice. “Okay, sweeties, Mommy has to go be whipped and fucked in the ass now, and oh, Daddy is off to his evil cabal meeting, now you two be good.”
I allow myself a smile. “Two?”
“A boy and a girl. The boy grows up to be a war criminal. The girl grows up to poison the president of Pakistan. Oh, sure, Darko. I just dream of having a family with a madman who can’t offer any kind of real love or affection.” Her tone gets more sarcastic and hits a higher pitch with every passing word.
I grit my teeth and keep my expression impassive. So that’s what she thinks of me. Even now. I have been harsh with her. I have punished her, but it has been for her own good, every bit of it. I thought she understood that. I thought her submission meant something. Now I see that it doesn’t. There’s nothing deeper to her connection with me than her need for orgasm and pain.
“Are you going to turn your sex dungeon into a romper room? Replace the fuck bench with a pool table?”
“It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, Chloe.”
“So you want babies,” she says, pointing a finger at me and then at herself. “With me.”
“Maybe I do.”
“I’m a murderer, Darko. A fucking murderer. I shot a man, in cold blood. And god only fucking knows what you’ve done in your fucked-up life. And you think we can be parents? To human children?”
“There have been worse parents, I’m sure.”
“Well, yeah, real race to the bottom, isn’t it.” She crosses her arms and presses her lips together. “If you try to knock me up against my will…”
“Even I’m not that fucked up, Chloe.”
* * *
Chloe
“Oh!” I throw my hands in the air. “Oh, I see. Now we’ve finally found a limit of yours. Took us long enough!”
I hate the way he is looking at me. I hate the fact that I can see actual disappointment written in his eyes and on that beautiful brutal face of his. I hate that he would ask this of me, and not be able to see why I could never, would never say yes.
“Think about it,” he says, reaching out to take my hands in his. “We can make something good between us. Something innocent and pure. It would be a chance to make the wrongs we have committed right.”
“That’s what every narcissistic asshole thinks,” I say bitterly. “Oh, we’ll make it better, they’ll be better. But they won’t be. They’ll have our genes and they’ll be raised by us. A captive mother and an evil father. They wouldn’t stand a chance.”
He drops my hands. “You think I’m evil.”
“Aren’t you?”
Darko’s face turns blank and cold. He gives a curt nod. “Very well, Chloe. No kids. But we are getting married.”
My anger flares again. “Uh, no, we’re fucking not! Don’t you think I should have a say in that? Isn’t it traditional to, you know, ask a woman if she wants to be your bride?”
He gives me a dark look that chills me to my core. “Evil men don’t make marriage proposals, Chloe. They take what they want. You’re to stay in this room until we leave.”
“Darko…”
He turns and walks away.
“Darko!”
The door shuts behind him. I hear it lock.
“Darko!” I slam my hands against the door. It’s useless. He’s gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Chloe
I never imagined my wedding day taking place on a windswept rocky island, forced to pledge myself to a man without any choice in the matter.
Darko stands next to me, handsome in his tuxedo, as unyielding as the rocks themselves. He has barely spoken a word to me since the day I told him I wouldn’t bear his spawn, and he has touched me only to take me where he wishes me to go. I wonder if he hates me now. Actually no, I don’t wonder. I know. I can feel the absence of whatever modicum of care he managed to muster for me. It is gone. Never to return. And I am here, about to promise to be his until death parts us.