Chapter Twenty
Kaja
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ICOULD HARDLY BELIEVEI was free.
Almost free.
I glanced over at the man beside me, his handsome profile, the strong jaw. Who’d have thought a beautiful man like him could contain such cold cruelty?
Had I sold myself from one stifled life into another? The future was so uncertain right now, I couldn’t even see one for myself. I wanted to believe things would be better for me, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Leo wanted to punish my father, and he wasn’t going to do that by treating me like a princess and setting me up in a whole new life.
I remembered how he’d strangled me the night he’d abducted me and how he’d locked me in the cupboard to have panic attack after panic attack. I shouldn’t fool myself that he was a good man, even if he could do wicked things to my body with his fingers and had taken my virginity in a way I didn’t think I’d ever forget. That was just sex, and sex to men like Leo meant nothing. If I was going to survive this with my heart, soul, and body intact, it would serve me well to remember that.
Someone approached us, and my heart tripped. I was frightened one of my father’s men might have found us, but instead my gaze was met with the uniform of one of the airport staff.
“Your flight is ready for you,” he said.
Leo nodded for me to get up. A golf buggy was waiting for us outside the lounge door. The staff member picked up Leo’s bag for him, and I wondered if they thought it strange that I didn’t have one myself. Maybe they thought we travelled extra light, and my belongings were also in Leo’s bag, or maybe they simply didn’t care.
We climbed on board the buggy, and the driver took us out of the building, onto the tarmac, and right up to the small aircraft.
Nerves fizzed in my stomach. I’d never been on a flight before, never even left the country. I was an adult, but the fact made me feel young and naïve and completely at the mercy of the man beside me. I supposed I was anyway. If he wanted me dead, then I’d be dead, but so far it seemed like he was having more fun with me living and breathing.
The champagne had left me lightheaded but had helped to dull my panic. I forgot everything as we stepped on board the luxurious plane. I might be inexperienced, but I was pretty certain regular planes didn’t look like this inside. The butter-soft, cream leather seats, the miles of leg room.
The captain came out to meet us.
“Mr and Mrs Allen.” He shook both our hands. “Good to have you on board. I anticipate a flight time of approximately three hours and twenty-five minutes since we have some headwind. It should be fairly smooth, though, so make yourselves comfortable, and I hope you enjoy the flight.”
I couldn’t see what there was not to enjoy, if I could only figure out how to stop reminding myself that we were going to be in a metal tube forty thousand feet in the air.
Fingers squeezed mine.
“You look pale.”
I blinked in surprise at Leo’s concern. “I’m okay. It’s just...a lot.”
We selected seats side by side. A pretty female flight attendant told us to buckle up. She leaned over us, checking Leo’s seatbelt. I didn’t miss the look she gave him or the way her hand brushed over the front of his trousers as she ensured he was done up correctly. He was a grown man, I felt fairly certain he knew how to do up a seatbelt.
The surge of jealousy surprised me. Leo didn’t belong to me, even if I belonged to him. There was absolutely nothing stopping him taking the flight attendant into the back of the plane and fucking her if he wanted. I’d have to sit here and listen to the sound of her moaning, unable to do or say anything. The thought tore me up inside.