Chapter 5 Running Away

❤️ Running Away ❤️

The morning light slipped through the heavy drapes, painting gold across the pale walls of the room. It was quiet. Not the sterile kind of quiet she had known on street corners and hidden alleys, but a warm, still sort of silence that made her chest ache with something she couldn't name.

Her limbs ached. Her thighs were sore. Her entire body felt like it had been claimed, rearranged, even possessed and perhaps it had. She blinked slowly, lying on the soft sheets, remembering everything.

He had touched her like she belonged to him.

And she had let him.

A part of her whispered that she should feel shame, regret, something. But all she could feel was heat lingering beneath her skin, and a growing panic.

She had told herself it would be just for the night. Just to survive.

And now morning has come.

She turned her head. The bed was empty. No sight of him. Her heart thudded with relief.

She sat up slowly, wincing as the movement stirred muscles still tender from last night. She wore the pajama, the oversized pajama shirt he had given her clung to her curves in a way that made her feel far too seen. She slid off the bed and walked carefully to the window.

No guards and there was no one in the yard below.

She could leave and that's what she was going to do.

She moved quickly but quietly and saw her dirty clothes, the same dirty ones she had arrived in, but now they were neat and arranged on the table in the bedroom, grabbing her clothes and slipping it over the pajamas. Her heart pounded so loud it was a wonder it didn't alert someone. She padded barefoot down the hallway, tiptoeing past sleek walls and marble tiles.

The house was too quiet, and now that she was seeing it clearly with the aid of the sun, it screamed richness and unreal.

A fantasy wrapped in polished wood.

She crept past the stairwell and toward the door she'd seen last night. A polished glass door that led to the main courtyard, and from there, freedom.

She touched the handle.

It opened without resistance.

Cool morning air kissed her cheeks as she stepped outside. Still no one. No security. No patrol.

Why was there no one guarding the place? Could he fight off thieves if they come?

She didn't wait to question it. She just ran as fast as her legs could take.

*****

She walked for hours.

The city she was in was beautiful, almost too clean, too perfect. Towering buildings with marble accents and floating lamplights. Streets paved with blue-stone. Rivers gliding between cafes and flower-laced bridges.

Everything here looked like a fairy tale, like a world that had never known dirt or hunger. She walked through it like a ghost, invisible, barefoot and trembling to everyone.

People didn't stop. They glanced at her and then turned away going back to whatever they were doing. In this world, you only mattered if you had diamonds in your hair or a name to command.

Her stomach twisted with hunger. The scent of freshly baked bread from a nearby café hit her like a slap. She paused, leaning against a lamppost, unsure of what to do next, whether to take the bread and run away before they catch her, what if they catch her? She didn't even know the name of the city she was in.

All she knew was that she couldn't go back to the place she had run away from.

Last night had meant something to her.

She didn't want it to. But it had. His hands and his voice and even the way he had looked at her like she was made of gold and was precious. But it must be in her head.

She crossed another street.

And that was when she heard it, the low, deep growl of an engine.

She turned around to see whose car it was.

A black car slid into view from a side street. It was beautiful and looked powerful. Its windows tinted like darkness. Her breath caught in her throat.

The car swerved in front of her, blocking her path. Before she could run, two large men stepped out from the rear doors. They were wearing black suits and their eyes were cold.

"Don't run," one of them said.

She turned to bolt in the opposite direction.

Another car stopped and blocked her. Another two guards came out of the car.

She was trapped between the cars.

Her heart pounded wildly in her chest and she wondered what they wanted from her. She hasn't stolen anything yet.

And then the passenger door to one of the cars opened.

Dominic stepped out of the car.

Though she didn't know his name but it was the same man who had marked her body with his hands, his mouth and his heat.

He looked... different now with his clothes.

Darker and more sharper. Like daylight had peeled away the shadows and revealed something far more terrifying than the night before.

He wore black from head to toe. A long coat swept around his legs like wings. His jaw clenched with something cold and unforgiving.

She stood frozen.

"Are you running away, sunshine?" he asked.

His voice wasn't raised.

But the city quieted, it was as if even the wind dared not move.

He took a step toward her. The guards didn't interfere.

"I asked you a question, little one."

She didn't answer, she couldn't.

"I let you sleep in my bed," he said, voice low, deadly calm. "I gave you food, safety and even warmth, I gave you my body and you thought you could run away from me?"

She backed away slowly.

"I don't even know your name," she whispered.

He gave a dark, humorless laugh.

"You don't need to know my name to understand what you are to me."

She trembled.

"You don't belong to the streets anymore," he continued. "You belong to me. I marked you last night. Did you think I'd just let you go?"

She opened her mouth to speak but he raised a hand.

"No more words and no more running. You have no idea who I am, do you?"

His eyes burned like storm clouds. "This city, every street and every camera even the alley, I own it. You breathe here because I allow it."

Her knees wobbled as he stepped closer to her now, towering.

"I have found you and I won't let you go."

He looked at the guards. "Bring her."

"No!" she screamed.

But it was too late.

One of the guards seized her arm. Another grabbed her legs. She thrashed, kicked and bit them but they didn't flinch. They carried her like a doll, as if her fight meant nothing to them.

She locked eyes with him as she was dragged back to the car.

"Please," she whispered.

He said nothing.

But just before the door slammed shut, he leaned in.

"You're mine now Talia. And I don't share."

His lips were inches from hers.

"You'll learn obedience, my sunshine. In my world, there is no running, it only surrender and tjat is to me."

The door shut.

He entered the car and it drove off.