My stomach growls and I wonder if the door to the bedroom is open or closed, but the stubborn part of me refuses to go and look. Last night I fully intended to act like a prisoner and confine myself to the orgy room and attached bathroom, but I ruined that plan when I allowed Dimitri to lure me to his bedroom just because it had a door.
“Alabama?” Lev calls, his soft tone newly familiar even without seeing his face.
“Out here,” I call back. If it had been Viktor, I might have ignored him, but Lev really hasn’t been anything but nice so far. It might all be an act, but if it isn’t, then he’s the most likely to help me and it’s best to keep him on my side.
“Hey,” he greets me, a bright smile on his face as he opens the doors from the orgy room and steps outside. He’s dressed in a pair of cream shorts and a black and cream patterned shirt. He looks like he’s on vacation. When he was in his suit yesterday, he was every inch the dangerous business man. Today he looks like a rich guy living in a tropical paradise. Which I guess he is.
“Hi.”
“Did you sleep okay?”
Heat fills my cheeks, but I refuse to allow myself to feel embarrassed for sharing Dimitri’s bed last night. If Lev had offered me the illusion of safety that door provided, I’d have taken him up on it too.
“I slept okay. Thanks.”
“Good. You look beautiful. Not that you didn’t look good in our clothes last night, because you did, but you look… Well, you look perfect today,” he says, clumsily falling over his words.
“This was the outfit picked out for your prisoner today,” I say with a hint of a smile.
Lev’s smile falls away. “You can wear anything you want. You’re not a?—”
“I’m fine with wearing what I’m told to wear,” I interrupt.
Some of his golden retriever happiness fades and his shoulders slump. “We’re having breakfast on the patio this morning. We’d love it if you’d join us.”
A part of me wants to refuse, but his sad expression tugs on my heart strings, even though I know it shouldn’t. This man kidnapped me, he’s just as guilty as the other two, but I can’t help but feel slightly less angry toward Lev.
“Please,” he urges, so earnestly that I find myself nodding.
“If that’s what you need me to do,” I say, assuaging some of my guilt for going with him, when I should be refusing to leave the room and insisting they treat me like the prisoner I am.
His excited, puppy dog ramblings continue as he hovers at my side on the way down the stairs and through the house to the patio Viktor took me to yesterday. Instead of sitting on the couch, he turns to the right and leads me to a large dining table hidden beneath a shaded canopy. The table is huge, easily big enough to seat twelve, but only four place settings are made up at one end and Lev guides me to sit down to the right of Dimitri. There’s a glass of the same type of juice I drank yesterday in front of my setting and I reach for it and take a sip, pointedly ignoring Viktor who is seated opposite me.
“What would you like to eat?” Dimitri asks.
I shrug.
“Roza makes excellent pancakes with a mango sauce,” he suggests.
“Sounds great.”
“I’ll have her add some bacon for protein too.”
“Coffee?” Lev asks.
I open my mouth to say yes, when Dimitri interrupts. “No, the caffeine isn’t good for her. She’s too thin as it is, coffee will suppress her appetite.”
Before I have a chance to argue, he pushes up from the table and leaves. The moment he’s gone, the rest of us fall silent and I sigh, suddenly exhausted again.
“You slept with Dimi last night? Is it only rape if it’s me?” Viktor snaps.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I look out at the pool, ignoring him.
“Are you going to be in Lev’s bed tonight? Are we taking it in turns, will it be rape on my night, or is it okay when it’s my turn to have you?” he huffs angrily.
“Vik,” Lev says, his voice reproachful.
“Nothing to say, Ali? Where’s all that righteous indignation from yesterday? Did Dimi fuck it all out of you?”