I spent the rest of the ride home wrapped up in my dress and his suit jacket, with my head in the crook of his arm and my nose buried in his neck. His scent filled my nostrils and kept me calm.
Later on, I noticed a mysterious smile on his lips as he led me out of the limo, but I didn’t understand what it was about.
Once we walked into the house, my jaw dropped.
There were canvases all over the hallway, some still covered with white sheets, but enough of them uncovered to let me know what he’d done.
“Master…” I whispered, my eyes going to his. “You didn’t.”
“I did,” he smiled wide. “I knew you’d like the art, so I bought it all. You can decide where you want to put it, my Rose.”
I jumped into his embrace and he held me close, chuckling as I rained kisses all over his skin. I realized it was one of the happiest moments of my life, standing amidst the art my lover had bought for me, knowing I had a lifetime of happiness by his side. I wondered whether any day would be able to compare to what I’d just experienced, but I needn’t have worried for long. Thorn would always give me this… happiness and fulfillment like I’d never known it before. And as he leaned to whisper in my ear, my smile grew wider and wider.
“I love you, little Rose,” he told me plainly. “One day, I’ll figure out how to show you just how much… Until then, this will have to do.”
Ten
Thorn
Waking up next to the woman of my dreams was becoming a regular occurrence.
I cherished those early morning moments. The powdery scent of her skin, the way her hair shone in the dawn of a new day. I fell in love with the woman next to me all over again. I would never get enough of her. One look and I was hooked again.
I let her sleep that morning. Some days, I needed to wake her up, if only to see that she was real. She was so beautiful I sometimes felt like I was sleeping next to a doll… But there were other mornings when the sick stalker inside me just wanted to watch her. Fucking feast my eyes on her beauty, her innocence, and the raw sensuality her young body already showed off.
Slowly raising my fingers to her lips, I touched her mouth, prying her lips open until she sighed in her sleep, rolling over closer to me. Right into my arms. Straight into the beast’s home.
She was so innocent. Rose still had no idea what kind of monster she’d fallen in love with, and I hoped one day, she would love me despite it all. Maybe it was time to reveal some of my deepest, darkest secrets… Though I wasn’t completely convinced she could handle them just yet. My only worry was that someone would tell her before I did – I couldn’t let that happen.
The weight of my sins lay heavily upon my shoulders, and she slowly roused from her sleep, I knew it was time to tell her more. To trust her. To show her my life – the ugly parts of it that I’d kept under wraps for too fucking long, worried that she would push me away, or worse yet, run from me if she found out.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I said softly as she nestled against me, pulling the covers tighter around us and trying to ignore the sunlight.
A small smile was playing on her lips, and I knew she was pretending she couldn’t hear me, acting like she was still asleep. It filled my heart with warmth and happiness for some reason, and I chuckled at her, tickling her until she giggled and got on top of me, her lips landing on mine and giving me what I truly needed. A taste, a feel, a fucking promise that she was mine and would remain by my side no matter what the fuck else happened in our lives.
“Good morning,” she whispered against my lips, and I held her in my embrace as gently as I would a porcelain doll.
She felt breakable and light in my hands. The urge to break her appeared out of nowhere, sadistically reminding me of the moments we’d spent together in my playroom. Of bending her to my will however the hell I wanted, and making her love the pain more than she did the pleasure, mixing them together into a mess her brain couldn’t comprehend, but her body did, twisting and turning for my pleasure.
“What are we doing today?” she asked, her voice light-hearted.
We didn’t spend all our time together, but I found myself taking more and more time out of the day to spend it with her. Every second, every minute of my time felt wasted unless my Rose was there, the desire to be with her cutting down on all kinds of things that took priority before her – mostly work.