“I wanted revenge for so long,” Elian admits before settling on the small stool at my vanity. “I spent years waiting for the right moment, and when your mother came to me, I made a deal and got you, I thought I could make you hurt as much as your father hurt me.”
“Deal? What deal, Elian?” This time, I’m the one moving toward him. I’m not sure how to feel at his admission. One part of me wants to know, and the other part, that stupid bitch wants to hide all the shit and fall into his arms.
Elian shrugs. “Pandora came to me three months ago, asking for my help to kill your father. Her anger and hatred at his cheating had her contacting me. She found me through your father’s contacts. When she came to me, she asked me to put a bullet between his eyes, but in the interim, Senator Adam Davenport disappeared. My revenge ran deep, Arabella. Your dad killed mine.”
“How could you even know that?”
“Your dad and mine were working together for a long while. But then your father decided to pull out of a deal with my dad. The thing is, my father’s organization doesn’t allow people to just walk away and live to tell the tale. I just didn’t think Adam would fake his own death, send you over the edge, and that’s how you’d get here.”
I know Dad wasn’t the best man in the world and he did things behind closed doors, but his admission has now been confirmed. Dad sat me down not long before his death and told me he wanted me to attend Black Mountain Academy. And that’s what sparked a number of events that led me here.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What?” Elian chuckles. “That I wanted revenge for your father killing mine? Or perhaps that the moment I fucked you in my bedroom that first night, every thought of revenge went out the fucking window?”
My mouth falls open at his admission. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that was most definitely not it. Yes, I wanted Elian to tell me why, to explain what’s going on, but I didn’t expect him to talk about us like that.
“This was a game to you.” My voice cracks as the realization hits me right in the gut. All this time, I was falling for a liar. He’s just as bad as my father. The men in my life have acted like heroes. It turns out they’re anything but.
“It was.” Elian nods, pushing to his feet, he stalks to the window close to me. His hands snake into the pockets of his slacks, and it’s only then I realize he looks like he’s dressed for a party. A crisp white button-up, along with the small, black bowtie, and a pair of shiny, black shoes complete his outfit. “I wanted to break you.”
For a long time, I consider his admission. His words, the truth finally spilling free, hits me in the chest. An arrow right to my heart. I swallow past the lump in my throat, and I finally find the words. “You did.”
His head drops, and from this angle, he looks like a broken man. He doesn’t look like the strong, foreboding teacher who rules his classroom with authority. He also doesn’t look like the man who made my body sing under his touch and tremble beneath his control.
“I want to mend you,” he admits after a long silence. “I want to put you back together, mold you for me. I’ve craved you since the first taste, since the moment I laid eyes on you.” He turns his head toward me, blue locking on gray. “I’ve ached for you every night we haven’t been together. You were made for me, Arabella.”
I shake my head slowly. “This can never work.” I can’t be with a man who did what he did. He lied to me, hid his demons from me when he drew mine out into the light. He knew everything about me while he kept his sordid secrets. “What else is there? Are you still hiding something?”
“I met with your mother last night, well … I met with the man who’d been watching you.” I drop into the chair at the window where I’m standing because my knees can no longer hold me. “I hired him to scare you, and I thought perhaps he would push you closer to calling your father. I didn’t know you thought your father was really dead.”
“My rapist. You had the man who violated me when I was younger stalk me?” My voice cracks, the pain of his admission breaking through my strength, and I can’t pull in breaths.
“I didn’t know he’d done that. Of course, he didn’t admit it until last night when I killed him. It turns out your mother had told him to kick things up a notch. Which led to your underwear drawer being violated.” Elian moves closer to me, his cologne engulfing me as he crouches down in front of me. His hands on either arm of the chair, but he doesn’t touch me. He’s close enough, but he doesn’t make contact, which I’m thankful for. “I never meant to hurt you in that way.” The raw honesty in his voice, in his eyes, steals my words.
The moment I blink, tears trickle down my cheeks. “You … I was just a deal to you. Nothing … Everything we’ve done. All this bullshit was all lies!” I shove at him, causing him to stumble backward. But Elian straightens, standing to his full height as I push off the chair and my small fists slam into his chest. “Fuck you! Fuck you!”
Tears stream down my cheeks as my heart breaks, and my throat closes from screaming so loudly. My vision is dimming around me, and all I see are those fucking blue eyes.
“We’re done! Do you hear me? We are done!”
“My little deviant,” he says, the corner of his
