Eternally in Love

The next time Ryla woke up, the sun shone through the sheer drapes, lighting up the room. She was alone, and she was still wrapped in the sheet from the night before.

Her hand reflexively went to the side of her neck, and there was a slight soreness on touching the spot. She rushed to the mirror in the bathroom and saw two pinkish dots where she had felt the pain the night before.

What the hell?

Was that the man who she thought he was?

Or was her mind playing tricks on her after Nick Price injected some new-age psychedelic drug into her body?

Lycans, werewolves and sorcerers existed, so it was possible that other beings did as well.

She was still dressed in the barely there negligee, and it made her feel naked. She opened a few cupboard doors and found that they were full of clothes. There were rich gowns, sleek dresses, towering heels, bags, jewels; every luxury a woman could desire had been stockpiled in the suite. Even the bathroom cupboards were full of expensive-smelling products.

However, none of it was the kind of stuff that she liked. Nothing cozy, nothing cuddly and nothing that didn’t have a thigh-high slit or a plunging neckline.

Feeling hopeful, she opened a drawer and was left aghast. She had never seen so much lace and sheer fabric in her life. Lingerie over lingerie and thongs and see-through slips that were so impractical that she couldn’t imagine a scenario where she would wear any of it.

Frustrated with her options, she grabbed the bathrobe and tightened the tie around her waist to keep it secure.

She was famished. She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had eaten. She made the familiar trek from the room down the steps to the living area below. The deck balcony door was thrown open, and a gentle sea breeze was billowing the curtains. On the dining table to one side, there was finger food laid out. Fruits, petit fours and a bottle of juice. The food looked delicious. She wanted to attack the plate when she remembered; she was a prisoner. Shouldn’t she be worried about the food being poisoned or spiked? How else would she explain last night if not to being drugged?

“It isn’t drugged.”

She felt the chill wash over her body. He was behind her. He was real.

Biting her lip, she decided to face him.

He was sitting on a plush chair, his knees crossed and a cigar in one hand. It was just out of reach of the sun pouring in through the balcony door. He looked even more handsome than in her eerie dream, and was dressed more casually in a linen half-sleeve button-down and a pair of linen pants. Was he wearing loafers on his feet? She’d never met anyone who wore those, even though she knew that the shoe existed. Devon was a formal lace-ups kind of guy, and Carl wore boots like everyone else in Malcomville.

Ryla shook herself. She needed to focus on the man and not his shoes. His shoes were irrelevant.

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. The tight tie around her waist didn’t help, and she reflexively touched her stomach.

The man sighed, almost like he was losing patience with her and stood up from the chair. For some reason, Ryla took a step back, even though she knew that running away from him wasn’t possible where they were.

She somehow felt that she was safer in the sun, so as he walked closer and closer, she expected him to stop where the sun hit the floor.

But to her surprise, he stepped completely into sunlight, with no change, and stood an arm’s length away from her.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected. Searing skin, welts or diamonds sparkling in the light. But she hadn’t expected him to walk into the sunlight with no change whatsoever. Just like any other man she had met. The sharp gaze of the deeply set, heavily lidded and mesmerisingly black eyes ran down her front, taking in the bathrobe and her bare feet.

When he looked up and met her eyes again, he looked a bit remorseful.

“What happened last night need not happen again.” His smooth, silky and hypnotising voice echoed a little

Ryla felt her stomach drop.

It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a hallucination. It had happened.

“I’ll make you a deal, and if you keep your end of the bargain, you can leave in thirty days.”

Ryla didn’t know if she should be relieved or suspicious. But the thought of going back, of being able to see Carl and Devon, of making sure that her family was safe, was too much of a temptation.

Dreading the answer, she asked, “And what’s my end of the bargain?”

The way his jaw clenched and the way his eyes lingered over her face, she wasn’t sure if he was going to answer. He slowly raised his hand, like he was trying his hardest not to startle her. His eyes fell to her chest as he grabbed the tie of the bathrobe and tugged.

She stood frozen with fear as he parted the robe and pushed it off her shoulder. She felt naked in the negligee, exposed to his hungry eyes that took in every inch of her flesh and the peaks of her nipples straining against the fabric.

As the bathrobe fell to the ground, he let his hands linger on her bare shoulder, making her skin burn. His touch was full of longing and lust, but it was unwelcome. It was unwanted. And it made her move away from him.

“This is your end of the bargain. To endure what I inflict upon you. To despise my every touch. To despise the degradation I subject you to and look at me only with contempt.”

Moving way faster than she had anticipated, he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close, taking her by surprise.

He ran his pale, thin and long index finger along her cheek, down to her neck to pause briefly at the mark, then moved it under her chin and jerked her head up to meet his onyx-black eyes.

Ryla realised that he had no pupils. No iris. It was just a deep black disc, devoid of any marking. Devoid of any emotion. He was cold and emotionless.

Her breath was becoming heavy, and her heart started to beat wildly as her mind went back to the night before and what had transpired in this position.

“That’s the only thing I want from you this time. I want you to hate me with all your heart, because you have never been able to love me….…..with all your heart.”