Chapter 18: This is unacceptable

It had been two hours since I stood across the street and watched her through the window of some run
down diner in which she just disappeared and then after talking to some old man who flung his hands
in the air as he talked, she grabbed an apron and started working.

Not for the first time, I looked around myself and once again I was hit with disbelief and my anger
mounted.

She came here to work in the diner after working full time in my office.

I didn't know what kind of debt she was in or if it was just about her mother's health expenses, but then
didn't I tell her that I would bear the expenses for it.

I just hoped for her fucking sake that she didn't live somewhere around here.

I took in the dark streets, decades old buildings needing repairs, drunkards roaming around the
sidewalk and the stench in the air, and I couldn't imagine her living here.

Maybe she had just come here to help that old man out.

Or maybe, a low growl emerged from my throat when a man grabbed her arse as she passed by his
table.

For fuck's sake.

It took everything in me not to barge in and tear his hand off his body but then she would see me and
God knows where she would run to so I wouldn't know exactly where she lived.

After one more hour that felt like an eternity having to watch her run from one table to another and to
be touched by all these men so she would get more tips, I was at my limits when she walked around
the counter and untied her apron.



She talked to the old man, took her money and then grabbed three brown bags from under the counter
and made her way toward the door.

1 I turned around so she wouldn't see my face.

After a moment, I followed her.

Five minutes later, she entered a brown brick building that didn't even have front lights on, or gate for
that matter.

And it looked like it had been here before humankind came into existence.

Irritated and feeling sick, I entered after her.

The floor was wet and my shoes made a splashing sound.

Disgusted, I turned to the echo of her footsteps, but then she looked over her shoulder.

If she recognised me I couldn't tell but her footsteps hurried and she jogged to the stairs at the end of
the corridor.

I didn't run, I walked after her in slow steps.

2 When I reached the stairs, she was rounding the first flight.

I stepped up two stairs at a time and caught her arm.

She screamed bloody murder and I had to clasp my hand over her mouth as I slammed her back
against the wall, not that I doubted anyone would come for her rescue here even if I was a serial killer.

The bulb above us flickered like we were in a horror movie.



She blinked big blue eyes at me.

Terrified and filled with a sheen of panic.

But when she saw me, her whole body shuddered in relief only to stiffen when I stepped back.

She still clutched her bags in her hands and brought them in front of her as if putting something
between us as fragile as those paper bags would provide her safety.

She glared at me and demanded, "What the hell are you doing here?".

"Following you.

You are a liar, little girl.

And I see that hasn't changed a bit."

She licked her dry lip and mouthed off, "I thought some pervert was coming after me but then I wasn't
wrong, was I?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and grabbed her face hard.

"You lied on your application form.

And tell me one thing, what happened to all the money you conned from me and other men?"

"I don't owe you any explanation, Kristian.

And stop touching me."

She was breathing hard and even now there was fear in her eyes.

"This is not your office where you can rule me."



I smiled.

"You should've read your contract before you signed it.

You are mine to do anything to and whenever, wherever I want to, little girl."

1 Her jaw clenched and she took a deep breath when I released her face.

I could see that she was making an effort not to lash out at me and then she said in a softer voice.

"Please, Kristian,"

"Didn't I tell you to not call me that?"

"We are not in the office."

I arched a brow.

She closed her eyes and said through gritted teeth, her patience lost once again.

"Please, sir, not here.

You can snap at me and take your revenge tomorrow when I come to your office.

I don't want my mother to be disturbed."

"So, you haven't told her who you work for.

Don't you think she should know, as I remember she liked me."

She blinked up at me, those eyes turning sad.

"She liked the man you were.



I doubt she would like this version of you."

"I guess, your mother and I both have you to blame for that."

She shook her head and looked down.

"What do you want, sir? I need to go home."

"Then let's go.

I will walk you upstairs to your apartment."

She jerked back.

Her throat worked on swallow and her bottom lip trembled before she bit down on it.

She looked more scared than before for some reason.

"No."

She shook her head as if the word wasn't enough.

"Why?"

"This is not a place you frequent."

"I would say this is not a place you should frequent either."

"Careful, sir.

You sound like you care."

Even afraid, she was mouthy.



A memory from the past resurfaced when she had been jealous and hurt.

"I do care for the woman I want to fuck.

Even a whore deserves better than this.

And considering you are mine, this is unacceptable."

"Can you stop calling me that!"

She snapped.

For the first time her blue eyes were hard and furious as she glared at me.

"I know you hate me and I know what you think about me.

You don't have to throw it in my face in every sentence you speak!".

"Why not?"

I pushed her back against the wall.

My voice shook with how furious I was and the pain of the past that I could not forget.

"You behaved like one.

And then I didn't get to have my pound of flesh when I gave you a chance to run away but now that
here you are and I have to see your beautiful face, these blue eyes that had deceived me how could I
not remind myself what you did and who you are."

2 She stepped closer.

Her sweet scent circled me in the dirty and desolate place.



She asked, "Why, are you afraid you'd fall again?"

My chest ached with the intensity like someone ripped it open.

I wanted to fucking wring her neck.

I said through clenched teeth, barely controlling myself, "No.

I won't.

I am just afraid that in your greed to have more money, you had agreed to something you wouldn't be
able to fulfil."

1 "Don't you worry, sir.

If you need a whore I will be one for you.

I can understand with your attitude you must've difficulty getting women to agree to fuck you who aren't
indebted to you."

2 My nostrils flared and the blood in my veins heated.

I wanted to grab her by the throat and fuck her right here and now.

Soon.

I stepped back from her.

"Go.

Before I push you to your knees and make you earn more of the money you love so much, go away."

3 I didn't find her anywhere in the forest and she wasn't at her cottage.



When Kristoff told me what had happened in the school it had felt like someone had taken a knife to my
chest.

My little girl.

I had run from my bedroom in the main house to find her, to see if she was okay.

I would teach those bastards a lesson later but for now I had this need to see her.

To make sure she was alright.

1 I pushed the wooden door open to the small shed and there she was.

Sitting with her back to the wall, her arms wrapped around herself.

She looked up at me when I entered and my feet faltered for a second.

My stomach tightened as her red rimmed eyes met mine.

She whispered, "Kristian…"

I dropped down on the mattress and she flung herself into my arms.

I wrapped my arms around her and breathed in her sweet scent.

Since that day in the forest we'd had many nights like that.

Walking, talking and sharing secrets.

On my part my secrets were bigger.

Hers were endearing, making me want to know more and more about her.



The only secret I hated was her fascination with a guy she had a crush on and whenever she talked
about him there was this pink flush that covered her face and made her more beautiful.

2 "Tell me everything."

I said, as I rubbed my palm down her back.

She shuddered in my hold, her small arms tightening around me.

"They wouldn't let me go…"

She cried.

Her tears soaking through my shirt I pulled her back and cupped her face.

"They tried to…"

She hiccupped and more tears escaped.

"They tried to do what?"

I asked, my voice like gravel as black rage started to cloud me.

She looked down, her bottom lip trembling as silent tears escaped her eyes and she admitted, "They
pushed me to my knees and they were saying t-things…"

She buried her face in my chest.

"I was so scared, Kristian.

No one was there.

But then Kri-Kristoff came and he threatened them with your name and they ran away."



"Hush…"

I wiped her face off tears with my thumbs.

She looked into my eyes and I promised, "I will make them pay.

No one will ever hurt you."

She leaned closer, her forehead resting on mine.

She said in a soft voice, "One of them tried to kiss me."

My fingers flexed on her waist where I held her with one hand as my other rested on the side of her
neck.

"But I fought them.

I didn't want them to have my first kiss."

She licked her rosebud lips and my breath caught in my chest.

"I wanted my crush to have it."

Disappointment, bitter and painful settled deep in my gut.

I pushed away from her and slid her down from my lap.

It was better, I told myself.

She wasn't for me.

She was just a little girl.



But another voice, darker and possessive, whispered that she was my little girl.

"Kristian?"

"You should give that boy your first kiss, before someone really steals it."

Someone like me.

I rubbed a hand down my face and stood up but a small hand gripped mine and stopped me.

A moment later I felt the mattress shift as she stood up and then she came around me.

I looked into her blue eyes, flushed cheeks and wondered why it was immoral when I wanted her with
everything in me, when I wanted to give her everything, make her mine? But before I could decide or
answer that question, she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to mine.


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