“Never apologize to me, Maya.”
“So—” I shook my head. “Okay.”
“Good.” He sighed then ran his fingers down my face. “You are beautiful, young, talented. You will be able to do anything you want with your life, do you believe me?”
I shrugged. I’d always been into science but didn’t get good enough grades, not that I was going to admit that.
“If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?”
“I think...” I chewed my lower lip, the pain so intense that I had to take a minute and remember to breathe. “I think I’d want to help people… maybe become a vet or a doctor?”
“Doctor,” he said. “That fits you.”
“You think?” Nobody had ever complimented me on my life choices, at least that I could remember, which wasn’t much, everything was so blurry and out of focus.
“I know.” He said softly, his fingers still caressing my face like I was precious, desirable. “Keep your eyes closed.”
I squeezed them shut just as I felt his rough cheek against mine. I let out a little gasp as his mouth found my neck.
“Are your eyes still closed, Maya?”
“Yes.” I exhaled as the sensation of his mouth against my skin felt like the most wonderful thing in the world. “Yes, my eyes are closed.”
“When you leave this place… you’ll feel determined… so very determined to work hard, to get good grades, to study, to prove to everyone just how smart you truly are. Do you believe me, Maya?”
“Yes.” For some reason I did. I believed him. He was the only lifeline I had after being in hell for what felt like days. He’d given me water, hadn’t he? And he’d wrapped my arms after apologizing. He was… he was my everything right now, my life. “I believe you.”
“People will try to stop you, but you’ll continue on with your goals… even your father may try to dissuade you, and here’s the gift I leave you with… He will never have any power over you. Do you understand?”
“Power?”
“Your father, Alexander Petrov will never own you, he will never be able to tell you what to do, there will be no fear when you look him in the eyes, only sadness that he is missing out on the wonderful daughter he could know if only he’d look past his own selfishness. The gift I leave you… is peace.”
“Nik, I don’t feel peace.”
His mouth kissed down my neck again and then his warm lips moved across mine in a searing hot kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lifted me off the chair and into the air. My body ached everywhere but he felt so good, so warm, and I was suddenly chilled, my teeth chattering between kisses.
He placed me down on a couch and deepened the kiss then ran his hands down my hips. It felt so good having him in the places that hurt, knowing he would make it better.
I thought I heard him mutter a curse as he ran his hands up and down my stomach.
It was sore.
“Broken ribs… not by my hand, Maya, I would never hurt you in that way… In fact…” I could almost hear him thinking, I kept my eyes squeezed shut for fear that he would disappear or leave me if I opened them. “Every time you crack your knuckles it means you are remembering the bad, not the good. If you crack your knuckles I want you to pay special attention to your breathing then count to five and try to focus on your goals, focus on getting through school, focus on settling down, and focus on staying away from your father.”
“My father?”
“Promise me, Maya.”
“Okay.” I swallowed the dryness in my throat. “I promise.”
“Good.”
“One more thing… and then no more talking.”
“Yes?”
“Remember me…” he whispered, followed by another caress of his mouth. “Remember me in your dreams… not the pain, or the state in which you were brought to me, remember the pleasure, not the pain.”
“Remember the pleasure…” I repeated like an oath. “Not the pain.”
“Good.”
“Now what?”
“Oh Maya, now I show you what I mean by pleasure.”
My mind fast forwarded through moments where he cradled me, where he kissed my head, only to move down to my mouth. He only ever kissed me, barely touched me, but it was enough to fuel the fire of obsession for this man, the man who saved me.
The man who I thought had hurt me.
But had rescued me instead.
The hours went fast, my brain couldn’t catch up.
When the door opened to the room, the blindfold was put back on my face, and I heard my father’s voice.
“Is it done?”
“Of course,” Nikolai said in a smooth voice. “You brought her to me half starved, sleep deprived, and nearly dead, it took me less than twelve hours to finish your task.”
“She looks good,” my father said. “Why is she no longer bleeding?”
“I didn’t think it necessary,” answered Nikolai. “Now, if you no longer need my services?”
“One last thing…” My father grunted. “If I find out that you double crossed me, I will kill her.”
“Why should her life matter?”
“Because… I don’t trust you, and I never turned off the camera, though the sound was too muffled, I saw you touch her, I saw your want. And I’m not stupid, she could easily be triggered by any of the things you did to her. If she relapses, if she remembers, I will kill her and I know, the last thing you want is her death on your conscience. Then again, what would it matter since not only would I kill her, but reveal your family’s true identity to the media. Imagine what they would do if they found out who your ancestors were. You know, they still haven’t found that serial killer last year, what was his name again?”
“Fine.” Nikolai said in a cold voice. “But you have nothing to worry about, I did my best work…”
I was listening to them but it was almost like a dream.
I head more footsteps then Nik was next to me, whispering in my ear. “Butterscotch.”
It was impossible to keep my eyes open.
The next thing I remembered, I was in a hospital room waking up from a coma, and my mother was crying by my bedside… my father said I suffered such psychological trauma from the brain damage that I was lucky I wasn’t a vegetable. When I mentioned the man in the white mask, my father laughed and rang the nurse for anti-psychotic meds. They said to give me a while.
So I buried the memory and soon, it was nothing more than a weird dream induced by medicine, or so I thought.
With a gasp I woke up, to find Nikolai sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. “So now you know.”