I didn’t have to wait long before I saw a car on the parking lot. I didn’t know enough about cars to know if it was more expensive than the one Olyvar picked me up in, but it sure was longer.

A limousine awaited, and I didn’t want to go. Fuck. I knew him well enough to know that he was here. I hadn’t been this close to him for a year. I wasn’t ready to see him at all. It took all I could do to keep myself from turning into a shaking, crying, mess.

I needed to face him. I needed to stand my ground, and I needed to focus on the deal I made with Barrie.

Doubt seeped in again. Did I really want to be free from him so much that I would put him in jail?

The thought came but is immediately thrown away by a memory of me screaming and crying behind a locked door. Chains on my wrist. A dark room without a window. My anger fuels me and makes me stand upright.

There was a reason I left. A reason I was terrified of him. A reason I had thought this might just be my best chance.

I had barely managed to steel my resolve in time for the door of the car to open, and for ‘him’, no, for Sean, to step out. I refused to cower in front of him.

I couldn’t get a good view from my apartment door, and I refused to meet him halfway. He can come and get me, like he said he would. I’m not moving a single step towards him on my own accord.

As he came closer, my stomach clenched. I’m lucky that I didn’t eat anything this morning, because I have no doubt it would be trying to come back up right about now. Without my notice, my hands were in fists and my nails were digging into my palms.

This feeling of being prey. I had forgotten just how intense it was. Olyvar had the same stare for a short while, but it was absolutely nothing compared to how Sean made me want to dig a hole and hide. Not that I would willingly let it show.

Anger. Illogical and fiery and overpowering. It’s all I could do to not flinch as I watched him come closer and closer, taking his time, one step at a time.

The arrogance swayed around his every movement, from the way he walked, the way he moved his arms, and the self-important smirk that had placed itself firmly on his lips.

Without meaning to, I stare a bit longer on that smirk of his. Memories I would rather have stayed buried tumbles out. Those lips on mine. Sucking, biting, teasing, kissing.

Fuck, I can’t let myself get swayed. This was important. Again, I focus on my anger. At him, the situation, myself, Barrie, Olyvar. Everything and anything I can use as fuel, I will. I needed the energy.

One last step and he was directly in front of me. He was indeed taller than Barrie, I noticed.

“I’m here to pick you up.” Sean’s voice was much smoother than it was on the phone. He held out a hand for me to take, and I wondered for a second if I should slap it away. Before I decide, he instead takes another step forward, and before I know it, he has swallowed my breath.

He put his lips on mine. My confusion took away my ability to act, and when I finally caught up, he had already drawn away. Fuck. He made it damn easy to get angry.

“What the heck?” I spat.

“It was an ‘I missed you and am very happy to see you’-kiss.” He grinned, and before I could give him a piece of my mind, he had taken his arm around my waist, and directed me towards the car. There he told the two men to go into my apartment and pack up. I try to stop them, since all I wanted to pack was in the bag I was holding, but I was pushed into the car before I could say anything.

There, he sits me down in a seat. Then he rustled with something that made a metallic clinking sound. I could never forget that sound, even in my sweetest dreams.

“You promised.” I choked out, but he hadn’t. He hadn’t promised anything about those. Fuck, I knew there was something I had forgotten. A loophole I hadn’t seen. Fuck.

I do the only thing I can think of to stop him from putting chains on me. I grip the forefront of his shirt, pull him down to me, and kiss him. He kisses me back immediately, like a savage beast that hadn’t eaten for months.

For a year, I correct myself.

And then he is on me. His tongue teases my mouth open. Hot breath on my mouth, as he deepens the kiss. I can do nothing but let him. His hands go behind my neck and he pull me closer, moving me onto him, reversing our previous positions.

To my surprise, he doesn’t try to undress me. He simply ravages my lips, touches my hair, my neck, my back, my ass. Pulling me closer, like he was truly starved. Like he had forgotten how to breathe without me.

His hands and lips make my mind go hazy and I give myself over to the game he is playing.

His kisses changes to something slower and deeper. His erratic movements become harder and tighter. If he squeezes me any closer, I wouldn’t be able to breathe.

A sound from the outside gets my attention, and I notice the two men that was sent to get my things outside the window.

I try to pull myself away, but he doesn’t let me. His hold on me is tight. I had thought he meant he metaphorically would never let me go once he had me again, but this single gesture makes me think he might have been entirely serious.

He finally pulls his lips away from mine, and I notice how sore they feel when the heat is gone. We sit face to face, my hazy mind trying to figure out what to do next. He stares intensely at me with his grey eyes, dusted with yellow in a starburst around the pupil.

How much of my life had I spend staring into his eyes, I vaguely wondered when he turned me around, but didn’t set me back on the seat. I was still sitting on his lap. Then he took hold of a seat belt and crossed it to cover the both of us.

“I can’t imagine this is very safe.” I tried but was shot down with a chuckle. He stretched out an arm, and I heard the previous ominous clinking. I try to turn around to see what he is doing but can’t get a good look.

Then chains envelopes my neck, cold against the patches of skin it touches. I stiffen up. Can’t move, can’t speak.