“Come here,” hesaid, holding his arms out.
I slowly stood andwent to him. When I closed the distance, Darren wrapped his armsaround me and pulled me against his chest in a tight embrace. Heheld me for a while, his nose in my hair as he took several slow,deep breaths as if he were breathing me in. I rested my cheek onhis chest and listened to his heartbeat. It wasstrong, steady, and oddly calming to me as I focused on thetempo.
Moments like theseconfused me the most. For someone so strong and so cruel, I lovedthat he could be gentle with me and could just hold me like this.Moments like these told me I meant something to him. That I wasmore than just a tight fuck toy for him. And moments like theseleft me hungry for more.
After a shortminute, Darren pushed me away from him by my shoulders and lookedme straight in the eye.
“You will listento the guards and obey the rules. If they tellyouto refrain from doingsomething, you don’t fight or argue. You do what they say, whenthey say it because, believe it or not, it’s for your own protection, Jaden. They’re nothere to just watch over you. They are here to protect you. Let themdo their job.”
“Okay.” I nodded.He turned his head and gave me a warning look. “Yes, Darren,” Icorrected myself.
He relaxedslightly.
“I know how muchyou wanted this, and now, I’m trusting you not to make me regretit. Do not disappoint me, Jaden, because if you do, this will nothappen again for a very long time.”
Darren’s face wasintense with warning, andI didn’t want to think about being shunned back into my roombecause I fucked this up with my stubbornness. I needed to behavelong enough for him to trust me.
“I’m not going todisappoint you, Darren,” I replied, sounding as serious as Ipossibly could. “I promise.”
“Good,” he said.He then leaned down, took my face in his hands, and kissed mesoftly on the mouth. His lips were gentle as they caressed mine,his tongue sliding in and claiming everything it touched. By thetime he was done, I was breathless and disorientated, but I shookit off as he looked down at me and smiled. “I’ll see you atdinner,” he said, then kissed my forehead and walked back into thehouse, leaving me on the patio.
I sat back in mychair with a huff of relief and looked out to the ocean. So manynew possibilities before me and I couldn’t wait toexplore.
Chapter Thirty
NewBoundaries
After runningupstairs to change into some workout clothes and wash my makeupoff, I practically skipped my happy ass all the way back to thepatio. I decided I wanted to go for a run on the beach. But when Icame back to the patio, there wasn’t just one guard standing there,there were three. They were big guys, too, not nearly as tall asDarren, but still much taller than I was. I eyed them carefully asI stepped around them, looking them up and down and noticingeverything I could about them. None of them even looked atme.
“Uh … I’m gonna gofor a run on the beach.” I pointed with my thumb over myshoulder.
One guard, the onein the middle, nodded slightly but still didn’t look at me. God,that wasn’t just annoying, it was plain fucking rude. I rolled myeyes at them, turned on my heels, and headed down to the shore asmy excitement quickly returned.
When I got to thesand, I took my Nikes off and left them on the grass as I walkedbarefoot to the water. A sense of freedom calmed me as I steppedinto the oncoming waves of the ocean, and it felt like bathwateragainst my skin. The perfect temperature.
I took one lastlook at the guards before sprinting off down the shore. I startedwith a slow, easy jog just to soak up the sun and breathe in thesalty air. I must have run up and down the shore for an hour,turning around every fifteen minutes. I was afraid I might leavethe sight of the guards and then I’d be introuble.
The sun wasblazing out, and eventually, sweat covered my body. I could’ve goneback inside and showered, but I wanted to do something fun instead.So I ran into the water and dived with my clothes on with not asingle care in the world. When I surfaced, I floated on my back fora while, just taking in the soft blue sky and watching the seagullsfly above me. At that moment, I forgot everything around me. Iforgot about Darren, about his rules, about his name on my skin,and the cuffs around my body. I forgot about the pain, the grief,and the vengeance and I just … drifted. It was everything I neededas the clarity I had longed for finally came to me. But it wasn’tmeant to last forever.
“Miss Jaden!” Iheard someone shout my name. I immediately rose up from the waterto address the voice, noticing it was a guard calling me from thebeach. “It’s time to come in for lunch!” hecalled.
Lunch? Fucklunch.
Except Ipromised Darren Iwould listen to the guards. I didn’t want to fuck this up, and Iwas actually a little hungry.
“Okay!” I shoutedback to him as I made my way toward the shore.
The guard stoodthere watching me and waited for me to walk to him. He had a largebeach towel in his hand, and he handed it to me when I reachedhim.
“Thank you,” Isaid, taking the towel and wrapping it around myself to dryoff.
I grabbed my shoesthat sat in the grass and the guard escorted me back to thetable on the patio where mylunch was apparently waiting. I ate my lunch quietly, trying toignore the guards as they stood around, staring off into thedistance.
“So are you guys,like, my permanent outdoor babysitters or something?” I askedbetween bites. I probably shouldn’t have been talking to them, but… I was me.
None of them saida word—didn’t even look my way.
I nodded at theirsilence, not really offended but not really surprised. “Lucky youguys,” I said, taking another bite of my turkeysandwich.
When I was donewith
