My Love Forgive by Anna Antonia Read Free Book Online Page B

strong thighs. Or perhaps I’d crawl to him on hands and knees where’d I end up at his feet for the rest of the night.
    Now all I could do was fix my attention down on my lap. I felt defeated and I didn’t do defeat well. Given enough motivation, I could usually talk my way out of anything. But one look at Damian’s face and I knew I’d be better off saving my breath.
    Still my brain and mouth didn’t get the message. Grudgingly, I asked, “You didn’t win the lottery so how can you have a place this big? I mean, I’m guessing it’s large if the size of this room is any indication of the rest of your house.”
    “Is that really the question you want to ask? The square footage of your new home?”
    “What? New home? What do you mean, Damian?”
    “Is it, Risa?” he countered neatly, completely dismissing the phrase ‘new home.’ “Is it really what you want to know?”
    Damian’s soft smile, coupled with the tenderness in his gaze, almost ruined me. “No, it isn’t.”
    He patiently waited for me to ask the obvious. If I didn’t want to know so badly I probably would’ve let him rot with expectations.
    “How long are you going to keep me chained up like this?” I gestured to my fettered limb with a deliberate tilt of my head.
    “For as long as it takes.” Damian reached up and tucked a wayward lock of hair behind my ear. “It’s really going to be up to you.”
    I withdrew deeper inside myself, unable to process the gentle and sweet Damian with the man who had rendered me unconscious, spirited me away to this isolated manor, and imprisoned me like a wild animal.
    Like something to be broken.
    My gaze watered, breaking the threads of my sight. Nothing could ever look the same again. “I see.”
    Damian climbed up onto the bed and sat next to me. “I don’t think you really do.”
    “No, I guess I don’t.” Tears tracked down my immobile face. I kept still when Damian wiped them off with the pad of his thumb.
    “Are you scared of this or of me?”
    “Both.”
    “I’m sorry for that, Risa. I really am.”
    Numb, hurt, and devastated, I wondered if I could’ve done anything to make this different. I found myself talking just to talk. Maybe it was a helpless way to normalize my new circumstances.
    Or maybe it was my way to begin negotiations with a madman.
    “I think this might be the first time you said sorry.”
    Damian considered it. “No. I apologized to you when Gretchen was waiting at my door.”
    “Gretchen. I remember her very well. She dressed so beautifully. She was so, so beautiful.” I drew my knees up and rested my chin. The weight on my left ankle felt impossibly real. I still half-expected Damian to turn to me and say, “Just joking!”
    Except I knew Damian never joked.
    Desolation swallowed my whole.
    How could you do this to me? Don’t you know how much I love you? How the fuck could you break my heart like this?
    I wanted to wail my despair. Instead, I sat there as Damian petted me as if I was the most beloved pet in his collection.
    “It didn’t have to turn out this way, Risa, but I’m glad that it did. You’ll understand sooner than later.”
    I looked at the closed door with its brand new lock. I had watched him put it on earlier, still not fully comprehending what had happened to me, only to have him smile when I asked its purpose. Instead of an answer, Damian had given me a gentle upturning of lips to indicate pity.
    Just remembering it made me furious. Anger boiled and my words grew sharp teeth. “It didn’t have to turn out this way, Damian? Really?”
    “No, it didn’t.”
    I looked away. “I think you’re lying to me. I think this would’ve happened no matter what I did because you’re obviously a sick bastard.”
    Damian guided my face back to his with one finger. “I know this is…disconcerting…but the rules still apply. You are to behave like a lady, Risa.”
    “You’ve got to be joking!” I snapped my neck to the side. “A gentleman