Submitting To The Devil - The Devil's Snare - Book 2

Chapter Twenty Nine

Bianca

Sven's inquisitive eyes and calculating stare kept me on edge throughout our journey around the island and back to the beach that houses Dimitri's home.

I couldn't shake the burning sensation left by his gaze, nor could I stop the anxiety that overwhelmed me at his company.

I should have appreciated the surroundings and been in awe of their magnificence, but all I could do was dwell on the troubling futures that loomed in my mind.

Visions of Sven drawing a gun from his waistband and aiming it at the back of our heads before pulling the trigger on our lives made me uncomfortable. Yet, the most surreal aspect was the intense urge to protect Niko that emerged in my thoughts.

Something is changing within me, and I'm uncertain about what is driving this new direction in my needs. It feels as though my concerns for my own freedom are diminishing—and they shouldn't be.

Niko had dropped me at the house door, stipulating that I should go in while he dealt with Sven alone. It was then that I should have taken the out, to have gone off on my own to sort out the mess that was my mind. Instead, I hid behind the pole that found itself sitting in the middle of the room, in the pitch black.

Niko was outside for ages, talking to Sven and making my brain go haywire.

What were they talking about?

Were plans being made to end my life right before my very eyes?

I almost quit hiding when Niko turned away from the shore and toward the house. My mind had me believing he was doing me dirty and that I should run. Chance, the ocean and the uphill battle the current would present me with in my attempt to escape this life, but I found myself rooted in the spot, awaiting him to enter the house as if self-punishing myself.

He did it only a few moments later, and he saw me immediately, of course.

"Is he gone?" I asked immediately, wanting to have the upper hand on our interaction.

"He's gone. He didn't want to, but I managed to get him to leave," he smiled surely.

"I don't like him?" I admit, though, should I admit my deepest feelings to someone I'm still unsure of.

"No one does; he's unlikeable, Bee. You want dinner?" he asks as he passes by me. I follow him without moving, my eyes ensuring he remains in front of me as he reaches the island.

"I could eat," I whisper.

"I'll cook; why don't you go relax?" He smiles.

"Relax?"

"Yeah, flip the switch for me as you pass it?" He points behind me.

Relax, he says.

Walking away slowly, I smirk at him.

I guess he wasn't trying to off me at the first sign of chance.

Heading upstairs, I strip out of his shirt, leaving me in my bikini. I'm not at all sure of what to do with myself to relax.

Relax is not even in my vocabulary.

For the most extended moment, I find myself standing before the windows and staring out at the sea.

The last dregs of daylight are illuminating the waves.

It'd sure feel freer out there than it does here, trapped with no one but Niko as company. If only I could gather the strength to swim as far as I could or float the rest of the way to land.

Of course, I'd have to survive the efforts, but many docks are on the mainland. I could gather the strength needed to run there.

I have this rock on my finger. I could sell it and go into hiding, escape this life.

That's all I want at this point, even if escaping means hiding below ground for the rest of my natural life.

Yet again, I ignore the opportunity, even if a slim one, to stay here with Niko.

Why do I keep doing that?

Fuck knows, but he seems to have a pull on me on a deep level I cannot fathom.

With that admitted, I decided to head back downstairs with a new purpose.

If I can't leave Niko, I may decide to live alongside him. I'm tired, mentally, of course, of fighting him at every opportunity.

So very tired.

I just want to have one person, just one, to be in my corner. Is that so bad?

Am I an awful human being for wishing for the bare minimum in this life where most women get sold as scraps of meat for their orifices?

My feet slap on the hardwood of the stairs as I descend them; I instantly have Niko's attention. I feel his gaze bore into my skin, warming and chilling simultaneously.

I could walk up to the kitchen counter and bask in his presence, but I walked past him, heading out into the garden.

He stares after me, the glass walls giving him a perfect view of me walking away from him. I sway my hips, and I smile secretly to myself.

I've always been able to catch men's attention, but only once did I feel the need to keep it.

"Shit. Ow!" Niko hisses from the house as I climb up and into the hot tub; one leg is already inside the bubbling water, and my arse faces him, the material of the bottoms slipping in the cleft between my cheeks.

A small giggle erupts from inside me. I have no doubt in my mind that I distracted him enough for him to hurt himself somehow. But I fight the temptation to look back to the house. Instead, I enjoy the view of the ocean under the diminishing sun. It's barely there, the horizon darkening with each passing second.

It's serene here; the island is nothing short of astonishing.

And yet, I still allow my past to taint the beauty around me.

Sighing into the night, I lean back and turn my gaze upwards. The moon shines bright above, promising hours of illumination as the nightlife awakens.

Why can't I just let him in as he requested?

Would it be so bad to allow myself one person?

Stop this, Bianca. Stop letting him rule your thoughts!

Gritting my teeth around the inside of my cheek, I study the nearest thing I see in the sky—the moon.

I've always felt at home with the moon over the sun. The light it supplies in the dead of night has always guided me better than the shining sun. I lose myself in the craters that, despite being so far away, I can see perfectly.

It's weird, isn't it? The detail you can make out despite our vision being less than a telescope.

My thoughts turn from the craters on the moon's surface to Niko and his cheeky grin. The five o'clock shadow that's adorning his jaw at this very moment.

I watch him work quietly in the kitchen, making food for the pair of us.

He's everything I want in a man; it's just that he was forced to be my husband that turned me the other way. Despite that thought, I can't help but allow a skip of my heartbeat.

And almost as if he can feel my gaze burning holes into his skin, he turns his attention right back to me.

I'm lost for a moment. The deep earthy pools that are his eyes bury me below the earth's surface. They promise warmth, a home and protection. His need for me is as clear as day, but what will I do with that knowledge?

Do I push aside every lousy part of this arrangement to accept him as my equal?

Fuck him, that's the only power you have here, Bianca...

God, it is. It's the only thing I have to give him. That may be why I've held out this long. Once I give him that side of me, I have nothing left to give, and maybe, just maybe, he'll go once I pour my soul for him to see.