Page 27 of Lord of Ruin

My hands were shaking but I managed to slide a finger across the screen, type in my passcode and maneuver to Charlotte’s number. Since I was a fast typist, including with one hand, I’d typed a full message, about to hit send when I sensed his presence directly behind me.

I also gathered another dangerously tempting whiff of his aftershave, the intoxicating mix of spices and woods leaving me in another state of delirium.

And panic.

He didn’t scream at me or slap me as I’d anticipated. Even though I tried to hit send, he wrestled the phone out of my hand just in time. Then he took a full minute to read what I’d written, smirking after doing do.

As he lifted his head, the quick flash of anger was replaced with the same look of amusement I’d seen the night before. “I see I can’t leave you alone for even a few seconds. You are a very bad girl to try and send this. I don’t think you want to risk your friend’s life. Now, do you?”

“How could I be risking her life by trying to dig my way out of this grave?”

“I realize you don’t know who you’re dealing with on both sides, but the men who hired the Russians are quite capable of finding out who you are, securing your phone number and reading your texts. They would then easily be able to trace your friend here, Charlotte Hudson.”

He was frank and I had a feeling he was trying to be direct and honest. “I hate you.”

“So be it, Jenna. However, I’m going to alleviate the problem right now.”

“How?”

The moment he smashed my phone onto the concrete, I yelped and watched in horror as he stepped on the remains.

“Now, any attempt at tracing your whereabouts can’t occur.”

I wasn’t expecting him to snap his hand around my throat, dragging me onto my toes as he lowered his head. “I suggest, my beautiful captive, that you don’t try something like that again. I’m already going to need to punish you, but you do not want to make it any worse. I’m not a man to be toyed with, not even by someone as lovely as you. Now, did I make myself clear?”

Shaking, all I could do this time was blink.

His lips were suddenly so close, I was certain he was going to kiss me all over again. As he rubbed his thumb back and forth across my lips, I was thrown by how intense our connection had become. The desire was ridiculous, but I was definitely breathless around him, wanting his soft lips to capture mine as he’d done before.

“I would hate to feel the need to hurt something so beautiful.”

The magical spell was broken by his statement. I wasn’t used to feeling this way or being put in any kind of dangerous situation. I also wasn’t entirely in control of my emotions or actions so when I cracked my hand across his handsome face, I was just as shocked as he was.

I immediately gasped at what I’d done. I could be a scrappy girl and had taken on a bully in my youth, but I didn’t have a death wish.

As I fisted my hand, pulling my arm away, I sensed we had a very intense audience. I felt like muttering ‘uh-oh’ but I thought better of it.

Stavros took my hand into his, trying to unfurl my fingers. While I did what I could to keep him from doing so, he was far too strong and I was terrified he was going to teach me a lesson by breaking a finger at a time. I couldn’t put it past a bastard like him.

I wasn’t shocked by much of anything any longer. After all, I lived in the Big Apple, but when he did nothing more than to trace my lifeline with the tip of his index finger, I was pushed into a strange vacuum that I feared would eventually suck me into oblivion.

“You have an incredible long life ahead of you, Jenna. You also have a marvelous love line as well. I want that to happen for you more than you know.” When he curled my fingers, pulling my arm to his lips, I sucked in my breath. He rolled the tip of his tongue back and forth across my knuckles, his hot breath creating a wave of haze around me. “But you’re going to need to accept the fact you’re under my control now as well as my protection. Once you do, things will be much easier on you.”

I had no idea what to say. There was nothing that made any sense. When he lifted his gaze, his eyes were full of the same yearning as the night before.

Something inside of me said he was going to be my undoing.

And eventually be responsible for my death.

The entire ride away from the airport, I tried to memorize the roads so I could retrace my step somehow, but I couldn’t recognize anything. If we were in Philadelphia, then he lived on the outskirts. The land was beautiful, serene, and for some reason greener than I’d expected. A second SUV followed us, Christos sitting in the front passenger seat and my captor in the back with me.

He hadn’t needed to shove me into the seat. I’d entered willingly. The gesture from before was a subtle but powerful way of threatening me. He’d made a few phone calls, including telling someone to have my room ready with what he called all the creature comforts. I could only imagine what that meant.

The drive took almost forty-five minutes and while there wasn’t exactly tension inside the vehicle, I did gather a sense that the men in the vehicle behind us were prepared to do whatever it took to keep their master safe.

“Who are you in this organization?” I asked.

“Who am I?”