Page 35 of Cruel Master

I nod as I look at him, for once glad that he’s unwilling to let me go—and I believe him. In his own fucked-up way, he does love me, and I fought it for so long, but I'll never escape my cruel master.

Our lives are irrevocably intertwined.

ChapterTwenty-Two

I can't believethis is my life now.

If you'd have asked me a year ago if I thought I would be here, there's no way in hell I would have said yes.

I thought I would be Gabriel's prisoner forever—and I am in a way.

He allows me to see my sister, but the times I see her are very few and far between and it's always with Gabriel obsessively watching from the shadows.

I hate that I can't ever be upfront with Gia, but she'd never forgive my husband if she knew that he kidnapped me.

Gabriel and I's relationship is fucked up, but it is what it is, and I'd be lying if I said that I don't love the way he's completely obsessed with me. It's unconventional, and maybe I’m fucked in the head for feeling the way I do about him, but I’m okay with it.

I told my sister that my husband is a super busy businessman. Something tells me Gia knows better, though, by the way her eyes always flick to my tattooed ring finger.

When she first questioned me about it, I tried to play it off like it was something Gabriel and I both did together, but my sister knows me too well. She knows I've never been one who wanted to get tattoos. I think she knows there's more to Gabriel and me than meets the eye, but she doesn't ask questions.

I hate that my sister and I can't be close anymore, but that's the price I have to pay for loving Gabriel. Hell, even if I didn't love him, he made it clear he'd never let me go. I had my one and only chance, and even then, I don't think I could have gotten away from him. I’m one hundred percent convinced that when Gabriel got his strength back, he would have gone to the ends of the earth to find me.

And Gabriel demands everything of me. There's no room in my life for anyone else—not even my sister.

It’s selfish, but that’s Gabriel. I know he’s not a hero. I know he’s a self-centered asshole, but at the end of the day, he is completely obsessed with me.

And I can’t help loving him.

But I'm glad Gia seems so happy with her own life. She's going to school, and I know she'll be happy and successful. It’s what I've always wanted for her. She doesn’t need me the same way anymore, and I’m glad because Gabriel does.

He needs me perhaps more than anyone has ever needed anyone before. He’s too proud to admit it, or maybe he just doesn’t know how to say it, but I see the burning passion in his eyes every time they light on me.

I'd like to say that our story ends happily ever after, that we have children and the white picket fence, but no. We have a cold mansion and no children. I can't have children because Gabriel needs my total devotion.

Is it fucked up that I like that?

Yeah, it probably is, but Gabriel needs all of my love and devotion. He couldn't share it—even with our children.

I've never asked him about birth control. I don't know what he's done, but I'm one hundred percent positive that when I was knocked out and he had the ring tattooed onto my finger, he also did something to make it so that I can't have children. The man will never allow a condom or anything between us, and as often as he comes inside me, I’d definitely be pregnant were I able to be.

I know that in many ways nothing has changed. Though Gabriel doesn't lock me up anymore, I'm never out of his sight. I always feel his eyes on me. And every morning I wake up to a fresh vase of those blue roses on the mantel.

He's moved me into his master suite with him now. He still forces orgasms from me whether I want them or not—though I'd be a fool to not want them. But sometimes he rings my body dry with so much pleasure it's all I can do to keep from collapsing from it.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way now.

And every night before I go to sleep, the last thing I see is blue.

The blue of Gabriel’s eyes.

That same blue of those motherfucking roses.