you wanted with me!” He took a step toward me. I could tell he was
getting angry now.
“No! That isn’t the truth and you know it!”
“I do? How do I know it?” He stepped close to me.
“Because I could have raped you as many times as I wanted,
and I never did! I didn’t want you that bad!” he yelled. I stepped
away from him.
“So what was this, Liam? Was this whole thing just a big joke
to you? Did you just keep me to see if you could break me down,
make me fall in love with you? Because it worked, I do! You win!” I
turned away from him and started to cry. He walked to me and
grabbed my arms turning me to face him.
“This wasn’t a game to me, Norah, Dammit! You know it
wasn’t! I fell for you too! I didn’t know how to make this
arrangement work, I was just as lost as you were. This was all new to
me. I’ve only been with experienced Submissive’s. I didn’t know how
to train a slave, certainly not a virgin who had no idea what this
lifestyle was about.”
“But we figured it out. We did. We’re happy, and we trust
each other. And now you know you are free. I have been trying to
show you that you had your freedom for a long time. I let you out of
your room, let you go out alone, and gave you a driver, a phone, I
even lined up a job for you, Norah! How can you say I kept this from
you? I tried to show you.”
“Yes, you did everything except tell me!” I snatched my arms
away from him. “Don’t you think after being kidnapped, told I was a
slave, being sold at an auction, being held in solitude for so long and
constantly being reminded of how I belong to you that I would need
more than a cell phone to know I could leave if I wanted to?” I
walked a little closer to him. “I haven’t been able to make a decision
for myself or even think for myself, Liam. How would I just know?”
“That isn’t true! I never forced you to do anything you didn’t
want, except be alone! I think I have made it very clear that as far as
our relationship goes, if you don’t want to do it, we won’t do it!”
“I want respect, but I’m not going to force you into a lifestyle
you don’t want. You have made those decisions for yourself. The
decision for us to even have sex was yours, not mine!” He ran his
hands over his face.
“So you’re saying you didn’t want it?” I asked.
“No of course not. Yes, I wanted it. I wanted it the night I
bought you. But if you didn’t agree to it, or bring it up yourself, we
would still just be roommates.” He let out a deep breath like he was
getting tired of talking.
“I don’t know what to think, Liam. I don’t know how I feel, or
what…..to think…or….” I started to breath heavily. He came to me
and wrapped his arms around me.
“Shhhhh. It’s okay. We will figure this out. Let’s go to bed, it
will be clear in the morning,” he leaned in a kissed my neck. I pulled
away.
“No. I need to think now. I need to be alone.” I walked to my
purse on the desk and picked it up.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Well if I’m free to do what I want, I’m going for a drive, or a
ride or something. But if I’m not, then I’ll go lock myself in my room.”
I looked at him with cold eyes. “Which is it? I’m either free or not?”
He swallowed hard and looked at the floor. “When will you
be back?”
“I don’t know. Like an hour maybe,” I huffed. He pulled his
cell out of his pocket. He called John and told him I needed a ride.
The front door opened and John stood there waiting for me. I looked
back at Liam. He handed me some money folded up. “Go get some
coffee or something,” he lowered his eyes from me. It was weird to
see him submitting to me.
“Thank you,” I started walking fast, and kept going even
though I felt him walking behind me. If I didn’t get away from him
now I knew I would end up in his bed, making love to him. I needed
to think, to clear my head, and I couldn’t do that with him near me. I
got in the car and told him to drive, I didn’t care where, just to drive.
He drove for 30 minutes and I never said a word. I didn’t like
to use the private screen to separate me from John, so I could see
him looking at me in the rearview mirror. He never said anything he
just kept driving. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t clear my head. I just kept
replaying the night’s events over and over in my head. I heard the
sound of a phone vibrating and looked up at him. He pulled in a
parking lot and stopped the car.
“Yes, sir?” he answered. I knew it was Liam on the other end.
I couldn’t hear his side of the conversation, but I was sure he was
trying to find out where we were, and what I was doing.
“No sir she hasn’t said anything,” he looked at me. I rolled my
eyes. I didn’t want to John to be in the middle of this.
I took off my heels and opened the door. John’s eyes locked
of mine and he turned in the car to face me.
“Ah no sir, she hasn’t said when she would like to return.” He
covered the phone with his hand. “Miss Chandler, don’t do this!” I
felt bad for him, I did. I knew he would get in trouble for letting me
get away from him, but I didn’t care. I got out slammed the door and
took off running. I looked around and realized we were in a park. I
darted in the trees and ran through the playground and over a small
hill. I looked behind me and saw a flash light moving in the darkness.
I could hear him yelling my name, but I didn’t go back. Instead I saw
a road up ahead and ran to it. I hopped the small fence and started
walking. I reached in my purse and called information for a cab
company. I saw a small strip of stores up on the left and walked to
them. I gave the cab company the address of one of the stores and
sat down to wait. My phone started ringing, or “screaming”
whichever. It was Liam, so I didn’t answer. He left a message and
then called right back.
I didn’t answer again, and he left another message. When
the phone rang the fourth time, I turned it off. The cab arrived and I
got in, telling him to take me to the closest diner or coffee shop.
I sat in the booth, stirring a spoon in my coffee, occasionally
looking out the window. I couldn’t believe how much my life had
changed in the last few hours. I looked at a clock on the wall and saw
it was 2:17am. I knew Liam was going out of his mind; I had been
gone over two hours, but I didn’t care. Everything was so clear just a
few hours ago. I was in love with a beautiful man who wanted to give
me the world, he was patient, kind, understanding, he did have a
bad temper, but no one was perfect. I thought finding out just how
much he liked to beat women before he fucked them was bad. Now
finding out that he kept this from me, this life changing event, he
kept it from me, so he wouldn’t go to jail or was it because he really
did fall for me too? I wasn’t sure anymore. I wasn’t even sure of my
feelings for him. I knew with absolute certainty in the beginning that
his treatment of me was just a ruse to manipulate me.
I could see through his tactics of being mean or inflicting
pain, just so he could comfort me. I thought I kept a wall up so I
wouldn’t fall for it, but somewhere along the line, my wall started
crumbling. How did this happen? Was he that good with his words
and actions that I truly believed him? I even believed myself. When
he was so scared of me running from him, the slightest thought of
being without him made me sad. Even now sitting here trying to
think, all I wanted was his arms around me. I wanted him to tell me I
was okay, and everything was going to be fine. We were supposed to
leave for Nevada in three days. What would happen now? I couldn’t
introduce him to my family not knowing how I felt about him
anymore. Did I really not know how I felt anymore? Maybe none of
my feelings since I had been with him have been real? Maybe they
were just reflections of what he wanted me to feel? There was one
thing for sure, I couldn’t stay with him. I had to figure this out, and
the only way to know if I really loved him was to let him go.
Well it wouldn’t be me letting him go, it would be more like
me desperately trying to get him to release me from his grasp.
I watched the sun come up on a bench outside of the coffee
shop. The thought crossed my mind to go to a hotel room, but I
didn’t have enough money to pay for it. I remembered Liam telling
me he owned two hotels in London and thought about going to one
of those. I knew if I gave them my name, they would call him and he
would agree to let me stay. But I was sure he would also show up,
and I would be back at square one. I was absolutely sure that his
powers of persuasion would not only convince me to stay with him,
but we would be in bed in a matter of minutes. I was simply too tired
to think clearly anymore. I started walking again and just kept
walking. Then I saw it, my car, well John’s car…Liam’s car that John
drove me around in. I turned and walked away, I couldn’t let him find
me.
“Norah!” I heard his voice yell for me. I started running and
was quickly grabbed from behind. It was John, not Liam. “Stop,
please!” he panted. I stopped fighting him and pushed him away.
“I can’t go back right now, please don’t make me!” I yelled.
He lowered his head and tried to catch his breath.
“I’m going to get fired for this,” he said.
“No you won’t, I won’t let him fire you.” He nodded toward
the car.
“Come on, I won’t take you home, just hang out in the car. I
won’t even call him to let him know I found you.”
“Really? You promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Your safety is my job, Miss Chandler. But I
can’t do that job unless I know where you are…..please you have to
trust me.” We walked to the car and I got in the back. I laid down
and curled up on the seat. I closed my eyes. I felt his hand nudge my
foot and I leaned up to look at him.
He handed me his jacket and I gladly accepted it. He got in
the front of the car and turned on the radio. I never heard him
talking on his phone, and hoped he was keeping his promise, but I
fell asleep so fast it didn’t matter.
Chapter seventeen
Norah
John woke me just around 1pm. He said he knew I was tired,
but Mr. Hastings was going to lose it if I didn’t come home soon. He
dropped me off just before the house so I could walk home without
him getting caught for aiding and abiding. I turned the key and
pushed the door open. As I shut the door behind me, I heard Liam’s
voice talking with someone about me. I slowly walked in the study
and stood there. He turned and looked at me.
“Never mind, she’s here,” he gasped. He dropped his phone
on the desk and ran his hands through his hair. His eyes were tired
but angry. I figured now was not a good time to exude any of my
smart comments, so I waited for him to speak. He didn’t say
anything, but picked up his phone again and pushed some buttons.
My phone started ringing in my purse, so I looked down.
“Oh, I see it does work. Since I called you over twenty times
last night, and you never answered I assumed it was broken.” He put
his phone down on the desk again, then walked around to the front.
“Do you have any idea what you have put me through?” He crossed
his arms over his chest.
“I needed some time to think. I’m sorry I made you worry.”
My voice was quiet and shaky.
“Worried? You think I have been worried?” He stood up and
stepped closer to me. “I have been going out of my mind, Norah. I’ve
had my entire security team out all night and all today looking for
you. I didn’t sleep….I just paced the floor feeling helpless, not
knowing if you were coming back, if you left me, if one of my psycho
friends kidnapped you. You could have been laying in a ditch, hurt or
dead, and I wouldn’t know because you wouldn’t return my calls.”
His voice stayed quiet and even toned. I looked down and fidgeted
with my hands.
“Well I would have called, but the ditch I was laying in didn’t
have a phone,” I smiled trying to lighten the mood.
“No, but the Prada purse I bought you does a have a phone in
