Mine to Keep

Chapter 15

Yeji's

Stunned, I stare at Ryujin, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. A part of me can't believe she's going to do this to me against my will tag me like some dumb animal, depriving me of any semblance of privacy and freedom.

While the rest of me is screaming that I'm an idiot, that I should've known that a tiger doesn't want to change the stripes.

It's just that the last few weeks had been so different from anything we've had together before.

I'd begun to imagine that Ryujin was opening up to me, that she was truly letting me into her life.

Despite her dominance in the bedroom and the control she exerts over all aspects of my life, I'd started to feel less like her sex toy and more like her partner.

I let myself believe that we were becoming something like a normal couple, that she was beginning to genuinely care for me to respect me.

Like a fool, I bought into the delusion of a happy life with my kidnapper with a woman utterly lacking in conscience or morals.

How stupid, how gullible of me. I want to kick myself and cry at the same time. I've always known what kind of person Ryujin is, but I still let myself get taken in by her charm, by the way, she seemed to want me, need me.

I allowed myself to think I could be something more than a possession to her.

Realizing that I'm still sitting there, reeling from the painful disillusionment, I push back my chair and get up to face Ryujin from across the table.

The kicked in the stomach sensation is still there, but now so is anger. Pure and intense, it's spreading through my body, sweeping out the remnants of shock and hurt.

These trackers have nothing to do with my safety. I know the extent of the security measures on the estate, and I know that the chances of anyone being able to take me again are beyond minuscule.

No, the renewed terrorist threat is just a pretext, a convenient excuse for Ryujin to do what she's probably been planning to do all along.

It gives her a reason to increase her control over me, to bind me to her so tightly that I will never so much as take a breath without her knowledge.

The trackers will make me her prisoner for the rest of my life and as much as I love Ryujin, that is not a fate I'm willing to accept.

"No," I say, and I'm surprised at how calm and steady my voice sounds. "I'm not getting these implants."

Ryujin raised her eyebrows. "Oh?" Her eyes glint with anger and a faint hint of amusement. "And how would you prevent it, my pet?"

I lift my chin, my heartbeat accelerating further. Despite all the hours of training in the gym, I'm still no match for Ryujin in a fight.

She can subdue me in thirty seconds flat not to mention she has all these guards under her command. If she's set on forcing these trackers on me, I won't be able to stop her.

But that doesn't mean I won't try.

"Fuck you," I say, clearly enunciating each word. "Fuck you and these chips of yours." And operating on pure adrenaline driven instinct, I shove the dinner plates across the table at Ryujin and bolt for the door.

The plates crash to the floor with a shattering noise, and I hear Ryujin cursing as she jumps back to avoid getting splattered with food.

She's distracted for a moment, and that's all the time I need as I sprint to the door and out into the foyer.