Page 74 of Dark Encounter
I moved closer, laying my head on his chest and pressing my lips to his neck, kissing him softly over and over as I started to cry, my heart in anguish to the point of death.
"Please don't say that again." I reached up and cupped his face, moving in to kiss him on the good side of his mouth. "I had no choice but to try and protect you, Erik. You know that."
"And I returned the favor. We're even, angel. Nothing owed from me or you." He pressed his hand against my back, forcing me to fall against his chest. The soft groan from him sounded like a mixture of pleasure and pain.
"I love you. I'll always love you, Erik." I wrapped my arms around his neck and rolled my hips, massaging the budding erection rising beneath me.
He cupped my ass and slipped his hands into my shorts, petting the most sacred parts of me, places only he'd touched. "I'm sorry to hear that." He kissed the side of my neck and rimmed my opening before taking a deep breath and releasing me. "Get off me, please."
"No." I clung to him, my heart threatening to explode in my chest. "Don't do this. Let's get out of here and run. You know that's our only hope."
He chuckled and moved up, putting me on the couch beside him as he stood. "There's no hope left, Grace. Go back to your life and find a man to make you happy." He walked to the door and paused. "I'll be watching from the corner of the library. If anyone ever touches you or our son without your permission, I'll kill them."
"How do you know it's a boy?" I stood and ran my hands down my abdomen, watching him.
The light in his eyes was completely gone, but something sparked a little as he reached out and pressed his palm to my stomach. "We Bertinellis always have boys first. It's a family curse." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Take care."
"Erik." I walked behind him and reached out, grabbing his shirt. "Please don't do this. We can leave together and raise this baby like he should be."
He turned to face me and nodded. "And always watch behind us, never truly knowing freedom until one day they find us." He smirked. "And they force me to watch while you're raped and torn in two and then they-" his voice broke as tears swam in his beautiful eyes, "and then they turn to my son. They don't ever give up, Grace. Vengeance and hate force them to keep killing, to keep taking, to always destroy. It's the world I've been born into." He lifted his hands. "The one that will always belong to me."
"No." I reached out and touched his chest. "It doesn't have to. I can heal it for you. I can protect myself. I'll do anything."
He reached out and touched the side of my face. "Then do what I asked you to do. Get rid of the baby or get out of the city and change your name. You're a dumb bitch if you don't."
I stepped back, appalled as he turned and walked down the hallway, leaving me there with nothing more than a broken heart and a destroyed spirit.
He wasn't the man I thought he was. He was his father's son.
* * *
"You know this is crazy, right?" Cole glanced over at me as we drove toward the Bertinelli mansion.
"I don't know what else to do." I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. "I sat on the couch forever and realized something, Cole. He's turning away from me to protect me. I did that to him two weeks ago, and it blew up in my face. If he would have called me on it, we might be together, but he didn't. This morning when he came by, he was so fucked up." I pressed my hands to my face. "I should have called him on it, forced myself on him, made love to him. Something."
He snorted. "Made love to him?"
"Yes," I bit out and gave him a stern look. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. Just get me into the mansion and show me where Erik's father is. I'll take care of the rest from there."
"I don't like it, Grace. I've been working to keep you safe this whole damn time too."
"Why?" I glanced over at him.
"Because I care about Erik's safety. I never had a father, but in working for Lucien for this short amount of time, I'll tell you this... I'd rather have nothing than what Erik's had. The man is sick. Incredibly sick. I knew this wouldn't end well." He pulled up to a thick line of trees. "We're going to have to sneak you in. Stay here, and I'll be back in a few minutes, okay? It's going to be dark soon, which will help a little."
"Okay." I tried to be brave, but I couldn't seem to slow my racing heart. What if I couldn't pull the trigger? What if I killed Erik's father and he hated me for it? What if there were more to the situation than I could see? I was so fucking naive and young.
Cole came back a few minutes later with the big ugly asshole that tried to kill my brother. "Grace. This is Kane. He's Erik's right hand."
Kane nodded. "Sorry about the shit with your brother. We don't really get to make the call on who has to die."
"Fuck you." I got out of the car and walked around to stand between the two of them. "Why is he here?"
"He's gonna help us." Cole lifted his hand and turned as four big guys stepped out of the darkness. "Run, Grace. Run."
I took off toward the house but didn't get far. The sound of fighting filled up the night around me, but the guy on top of me wrapped something around my face that smelled like embalming fluid. I tried to hold my breath and fight against him, but it was no use.
I'd failed like I had so many other times in my life. Why didn't I just ignore the desire to get to know Erik Bertinelli, the draw to love a dangerous man like him? The untapped desire to belong.
Death was all that faced me, and I would be lucky if it wasn't accompanied by something horrific to accompany it.
Just don't hurt the baby,was my last thought before I blacked out.
