“More like full grown tiger cute,” Icountered.
“You’d have to be full grown for that.” Helaughed.
“I am full grown!” I defended myself.
“Are you sure? I think you may have gottenthe short end of the stick.” He winked at me.
My jaw nearly hit the sand. Was he callingme short?!
“Well, maybe someone else cheated and doubledipped,” I shot back and walked off down the shore.
I could hear him laughing behind me as he caught up to my pace.
“Calm down, killer.” He chuckled. “I didn’tsay it was a bad thing that you’re short.”
“I am not short,” I corrected. “I’m just aninch or two below average female height.”
“Relax. I like that you’re short. It justmakes you cuter.”
I scowled at him in disgust, releasing anagitated grown. Why were we even having this irrelevantconversation?
“I am not cute,” I said quietly under mybreath.
He chuckled,taking my hand again, and we continued down the beach towardthe sunset while I kept my feet inreach of the water. And then I wondered with his new sense of calmif now would be a good time for a little family history.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked himsoftly, hoping he would sense the innocence in my voice.
“Of course,” he replied cautiously. “But Ican’t guarantee I’ll answer it.”
I paused for a moment, hoping he wouldnotice my trepidation.
“What was your childhood like?”
He was silent for a minute, surprised by myquestion, and I was sure he was calculating his answer. He said hewould never lie to me, so I waited patiently for his impendingtruth.
“Let’s just say there wasn’t much time forme to be a child,” he said plainly.
“Why?”
“Because my father didn’t have time forchildren, and with my mother gone, he decided it was time to raisea man, not a boy.”
“What happened to your mother?”
“She died when I was eleven.”
“I'm sorry,” I said.
“From what I can remember of her, she was alot like you. Tough, but she still knew her place when it came tomy father,” Darren said giving me a side glare.
“Do you know how they met?”
“The same way I met you.”
“That's unfortunate,” I said beforerealizing I had actually said it out loud.
“How so?” he asked sharply.
“Because … don’t you think you'd feel betterabout your existence if you knew your mother had wanted to be therewith your father in the first place?”
Fuck, I was bringing up an old argumentnow.
“She did,” he said, a little turned off bymy audacity.
“What do you mean?”
“She was the one who begged my father to buyher.”
“Why would she want that?”
“Because the life she came from was brokenand miserable and she saw my father as her escape from somethingthat could be potentially worse.”
Now, I was disgusted. His mother was nothinglike me. She was weak.
“And that is where she and I are different,”I said turning to him, now piecing his puzzle together. “My lifebefore you was not broken ormiserable. It was happy and fulfilling, so if you're trying tojustify your acquisition of me by thinking you're providing me witha better life, then you aremistaken.”
“Don’t you remember what I said to youbefore? I could provide you with a life worth living, and that’sexactly what I’m going to do. You might not like it now, buteventually, you will get over it. Besides, you should be happy youdon’t have to work some boring desk job or go to schoolanymore.”
“But I want to work and I wantto go to school. I have dreams and goals I want to accomplish on myown and you are preventing me from doing that.”
“Jaden, I told you already, your only goalin life now is to please me and that should be enough for you. Ifyou have a goal or a hobby you'd like to indulge in, I’ll doeverything I can to make that happen. I may be a monster, but Istill want you to be happy. Our children deserve to grow up in ahappy household.”
“You’re out of your mind if think I’ll evergive you children,” I snarled, ripping my hand from his andstorming back toward the house.
I didn’t know why I thought it was a goodidea to turn my back to him, but I was obviously too pissed tothink otherwise. His hand shot into my hair and he yanked me backtoward his chest while his large hand wrapped around the front ofmy throat, squeezing tightly but not fully cutting off my oxygensupply.
“You’ll do what I tell you, and that will bethe end of it," he barked aboveme. “Unless you’d rather spend your defiance back in yourcage?”
“No,” I gasped. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Iwinced, pain now influencing my answers as I waited for my hair torip from my scalp.
“That’s what I thought,” he growled,loosening his grip on my throat and then turning me around to gripmy hand. Fucking asshole.
We were silent as we continued our walkalong the beach heading back toward the house. I just focused onthe scene of the sky and water ahead of me. The breeze of the oceanblew through my hair and as thesun finally went down, a chill began to creep over my skin. Being anatural redhead, I had readsomewhere that we don’t adapt well to changes in temperature, and Ifound it so true as I was always cold when others were warm, and ondays I did find myself too hot, I was a cranky little bitch aboutit.
“What day is it?” I asked, innocently,suddenly feeling brave again. I was hoping for some sense of timeto finally come back into my life. I couldn’t even remember whatday I had been taken.
“Friday,” he replied. Fuck, it must havebeen well over a week since I went missing.
“Will you be going into work tomorrow?”
“No. I’ll be working from my home office,but I’ll be around here and there,” he said with a hint of enthusiasm I found unsettling.
“Oh, goody,” I replied excitedly, but hesensed my sarcasm. He chuckled at me.
“There’s my little hellcat.” He smiled,tucking me into his side, shielding the chilling wind with his arm.“I thought I scared her away.”
“Fat chance,” I replied. “You don’t scareme.”
Ah, fuck, that was stupid.
“What the fuck did you just say?” hesnarled, gripping my arm andwrenching
