Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire

I’m so fuckin sorry, baby.

These words stayed in the middle of my throat.

I turned her to face me and I caressed her face and stared at her for a minute, trying to say things with my eyes that I couldn’t find the words for and after a minute I pulled her in close for a k**s.

Her lips parted and she let me k**s her but she didn’t really k**s me back. She winced. I think her lips were sore from earlier.

Anyone walking by would’ve thought we looked like a happy couple in love with the backdrop of the Bellagio water fountains.

It’d make a winning post card.

Good thing we weren’t standing there holding one another with thought bubbles dangling over our heads.

My thought bubble: I’m so sorry, Baby, sorry for what I am, for what I need to do to you. I went too far. I wish I could take it back.

Hers: I f*****g hate you. I hope you die, you rotten to the core animal.

Claire’s POV

At the restaurant and walking to and from, he kept stealing glances at me.

I think he was looking to see if I hated him.

He probably wanted to know if I’d stopped caring about him, if he’d killed that.

He’d shown me many sides of him since we’d been thrown together and after seeing this side, after seeing him snap like that with me, and then find it within himself to use me like that; he was probably trying to determine whether or not I could handle this.

The truth was that I didn’t know.

I didn’t know what I felt.

I knew I had to handle it from the perspective of being trapped with him right now but what I didn’t know was if I could handle it in the way that… would it break me?

In the moments when he was being horribly cruel I thought my feelings had shriveled up and died.

I would’ve guessed that now in the public I would take my chances by screaming bloody murder, hoping someone would rescue me.

But then with the reveal of the necklace being some sort of anchor for him, then the way he held me and said he loved me, and fell asleep against me like he was completely exhausted, like he’d been through the ringer, just like after Mexico, it just hit, twisted a knife in me somewhere deep.

I had fallen asleep but just for a little while; I think my brain made me sleep to protect me because I couldn’t process it at the time.

After I’d woken, most of me underneath him, unable to move without waking him, I just stayed still and tried processing it.

I was still processing it.

All of it.

That necklace had come off and on him. He’d been broody for the past few days and then there it was and he settled down. He took it off to be horrible to me when I’d pissed him off and then when I put it back on he told me he loved me and passed out like he’d exhausted himself.

It was on him at the beach after our first date when he’d been so passionate. It was on him in the basement when he wasn’t upset after I’d gone down before he woke up.

I’d seen him take it off a few times when he was about to be particularly horrible.

He didn’t want to wear it in Mexico when he went off to enact revenge against my kidnappers.

He took it off when he wanted to punish me, twice from what I could remember.

What was it with that necklace and more importantly, how could I keep it on his neck?

And how would I convince him that he needed therapy?

He’d been really stressed out since talking with my Dad at the hospital. He’d hardly slept the past few days.

That stress on his mind and his body…did it build up to this and then erupt like a volcano, spilling molten lava all over me?

Azriel’s POV

After I kissed her, I wouldn’t say she responded but she didn’t pull away either, she looked at me like she was trying to de-code me.

Good luck with that, Baby.

I pulled her tight against me and kissed her on the top of her head and we stood for a long time just watching the lightshow.

I ran my hands up and down her back and her arms, just holding her close to me.

I wanted her to relax against me but she was stiff, holding her arms at her sides.

“Ready?” I finally asked after realizing she wasn’t going to relax.

We walked back toward the hotel, hand in hand. Then two beat cops passed us on the sidewalk just before we hit the entrance. My gaze darted to her face.

She glanced at the cops and then straight ahead, the way she’d glance at anyone we passed. I squeezed her hand real quick and then let out a long breath of relief.

I wasn’t sure if she noticed or not.

We got up to our suite in silence and then when we got into the bedroom she disappeared into a bathroom. I heard the shower turn on.

I debated whether or not to get in with her or go to the other bathroom but finally decided I had no choice.

I had to look after her.

I had to make sure we were okay.

I walked into the bathroom, took off my clothes, and climbed into the shower and found her sitting on the tiles inside the shower stall, huddled in the corner, bawling her eyes out under the running water, her face buried in her knees.

She gasped when she saw me step in.

And then it was like transparent shutters came down

And her expression went cold.

No. f**k no!

I had to fix this.