Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
I counted on conversation on the way from the airport at least, but a tension filled the air between us, and Corvus didn’t seem to want to speak much in the driver’s presence.
By the time we drive into Manhattan, my stomach is in knots, but my heart elated. I was half-expecting Corvus to live in the penthouse of a skyscraper, but the limo stops in front of a row of brownstones. Unlike its neighbors, the house Corvus leads me toward has dark curtains covering all windows, but other than that it doesn’t differ from the others much. It has the same ironwork fence around a small patch of greenery at the front, the same bars in the semi-basement windows, and the same steps leading to the entrance.
I step through the threshold of where I was told I’d be staying (I didn’t argue), too stunned to think straight. In under twenty four hours, I’ve moved from a cell under the Van der Horn mansion, about to be shot dead and never seen again, to being engaged to Corvus and getting to live with him? Maybe I did die and go to heaven?
Everything is pitch black until Corvus switches on the light, revealing a hallway and stairs with an intricately-carved bannister. The herringbone parquet floor feels a bit old-fashioned, but the dark wallpaper is anything but. Large leaves and vines in dark teal climb up to the black ceiling, and I gravitate inside, my eyes trained on a marble hand reaching out from the wall and holding a lightbulb.
I open my mouth, about to praise Corvus’s taste in decor (even though all the crows, skulls, and moths looking at me from the gallery wall freak me out a bit), but before I can face him, jolts of burning ice pass through my body, and everything goes dark.
I vaguely remember being dragged and pain enveloping my body like an electrical snare. I’m still dazed, my muscles twitch, but I’m catching my breath as I open my eyes to light that is too white and too bright.
Did he… did he taze me?
My limbs are all wobbly as I struggle to sit up, but I’m too big of a guy to let this stop me. I swear I noticed movement in the corner of my eye a second ago, but now as I blink away the confusion, the reality in front of me is immobile and very, very sharp.
Just like in that underground room where Corvus led me out of the cell, this is undoubtedly a place for torture. It smells of bleach, Corvus’s tools of the trade adorn the wall next to a steel table reminiscent of those at the hospital, and the gray walls are covered with large tiles, for easy cleanup.
Is this what he’s into?
Will he keep me here like an animal until he’s bored, and then disposes of me?
I must have really been dazed because I only now realize I’m in a cell even smaller than the one I was in before. This one doesn’t have walls, just floor-to-ceiling bars of steel.
I’m gonna be sick and I’m starting to regret the delicious steak I had on Corvus’s dime.
“I know this isn’t convenient.” His voice feels like a leash, and I stiffen, focusing on the dark corner, where my captor sits in an old leather-upholstered chair. Corvus is wearing black joggers and a T-shirt featuring some kind of bald monster with long claws. His body language speaks of fatigue as he exhales, pinning me with that blue gaze, which now resembles the glint of a blade.
I have no words to describe how I’m feeling, so I let him continue in the same monotone. “My home isn’t equipped for guests. You will need to stay here until I prepare something better.”
I squeeze my fingers on the bars, staring him down despite the precarious position I’m in. “You fucking tazed me! What the fuck’s going on?” My blood pressure is spiking by the second, but unlike my usual agenda of punch first, think later, all I can think of is him under me, squirming on my dick but begging for more. It’s so confusing I don’t know what to do with myself, because he’s out of my reach.
Corvus shifts his weight, resting both elbows on his thighs as he leans forward, handsome face devoid of the passion we shared for those brief moments together.
He’s a fucking psycho.
“What did you expect? That I’ll just invite you to my bed, like you couldn’t murder me in my sleep?”
I blink, holding on to the thick bars. I try to pry them open, but it’s no use. They’re steel. This isn’t even a cell, but a cage. A cage, like the ones they keep animals in.
Despair worms its way into my heart, but I summon all the reason I can and meet his gaze. “But… you brought me here as your fiancé. I thought—”