Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire
Chapter 46

“Okay. My cousi……uh, sisters will make you their friend. Just because they’re my sisters doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply. Okay?”

“Kay.”

“I mean it.” There was an edge to his voice.

“I know you do.” My heart sank and my body stiffened.

So much for that.

He snuggled me closer, maybe in response to my tensing up, “I’m very pleased that you didn’t run away from me. Or that someone hadn’t taken you.” He sighed and played with my hair.

“I woke up early and I just wanted to explore, uh…….. You said I could go down and—”

“I know.” He nuzzled into my throat and then twisted me so that my face was buried in his chest, “But you need to know that running away, had you done it, would be bad, Claire. Real bad.”

Taken me? Who’d take me? The police? Was he worried Lily and my family were trying to rescue me? And how would I get away, anyway? This place was locked down like a prison!

“I didn’t,” I reminded him.

“I know,” he cuddled me closer, “I’m glad.”

I started to cry, like ugly cry right into his chest. I couldn’t hold the tears back. He tilted my chin up toward his face.

“Talk to me.” His expression was soft.

I grimaced, “One minute you’re being sweet and the next minute you’re threatening me. One minute you’re rough, the next minute you’re not. Is messing with my head a sport for you?” I couldn’t even believe I was having this conversation with him. I couldn’t believe how weak I was, letting him f**k me and then crying like a baby again. Yet again.

He sighed, was silent for a minute, then whispered, “I need control,” he was searching my face for something with roving eyes, “I need you to keep being exactly who you have been so far, okay? You’ve been perfect.”

I didn’t know what that meant. Most times he was one guy and sometimes he was another. Gangster Azriel and what? Dinner Date Azriel? How could I keep being perfect? I was a mess.

Last night I’d hit him with a lamp and messed up his face. How was that perfect? And today I had to have dinner with his family and pretend that I was happy to be with him. How would I pull that off?

He twisted in the direction of his nightstand and reached for the heart-shaped box. He looked at me with a stone-cold serious face, “I want you to wear this. My family doesn’t need to feel any awkwardness between us. I don’t want them worrying the way you’ve got Rosita worrying.”

Right….. The engagement ring. I had to force myself to not laugh in his face. He’d told me I don’t know how long ago that I was about to be married to him and that we were engaged…. I hadn’t had a panic attack or been shocked surprisingly enough.

I was too numb to take things seriously anymore.

Being held captive could do that to you.

I frowned.

He was already keeping me prisoner here……. might as well get f*****g married.

He continued, “So you’ll wear this and it’ll be reality to them. Okay? Like our dinner date the other night. Alone with me, always be real, always be you. But when it’s not just us, no one can think things aren’t perfect, that you’re not ecstatically happy to be mine.”

I was speechless. He was teetering between the two personalities, it seemed. Hadn’t I just been responsive while we were alone?

That hadn’t been enough to keep him sweet, though. I didn’t understand. And now my reaction would probably tip him one way or the other. I sat up, pulling up the blankets to cover my nakedness and chewed the inside of my cheek. Me being real was f****d up. I didn’t know what to be right now.

He opened the box. Inside was a gorgeous diamond ring. It was cushion cut with a big stone and then surrounding round diamonds and then round diamonds took up 2/3 of the band. I’d never seen something so sparkly, so beautiful.

I wanted nothing to do with it.

I wanted nothing to do with a proposal that I’d had no choice but to accept from a man who threatened me every time he looked at me, either with this mouth or with his eyes.

But what could I do? If I showed him an emotion other than what he wanted to see, would he hurt me again? I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

Azriel’s POV

“Shhh, don’t say anything. Just wear it. When my sisters ask questions about setting a date or anything like that, say we haven’t discussed it yet.”

My cousin sisters were incredibly shrewd…. it would be hard to fool them….. but I would still try. Because cousin or not…. they were my sisters and it mattered a lot what they thought of me.

She nodded at me and I could see she was trying but failing to guard how she was feeling — freaked. I put the ring on her finger and then I leaned over and touched my lips to hers. She stayed still. I leaned up and kissed her forehead, “I’ve got stuff to do but I’ll be back here to pick you up at 4:30 and then we’ll head over to my family’s. Best behavior there, yeah?”

She nodded at me but in her eyes I could see she was confused. I couldn’t exactly blame her. I was confused, too. I knew I was acting like a psychopath.

I left to get a shower and get dressed. In the shower, I tried to get my head straight. This girl, she was doing something to me. I didn’t feel like me. Yeah, I felt the desire to dominate her but I also had this strange desire to be the nice, gentleman guy she’d told me she’d fantasized about.

Could I be that guy?

Did I want to be that guy?

I hated the sadness on her face and I hated the way she seemed to be beating herself up for enjoying it when I f****d her. So far she was everything I wanted. But I was me.

One minute I found myself being sweet to her but inevitably I’d become me again. The way she’d responded to me downstairs? That was f*****g amazing. I loved that she reached for me, that she kissed me back, and it felt real.