Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 35349 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35349 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
And then there was my one romantic relationship—the one that had mirrored everything wrong about my childhood and with my parents.
God, he’d been so cruel, too. Mentally and physically beaten down until all I saw in the mirror was a shell of a human being.
I’d spent my entire life just… surviving, and I’d done that just barely. And then I’d finally broken free. I left. I traveled. And I loved every minute of it.
But I knew the pain of my past would always remain. You could never truly heal from abuse. You just learned to live with the scars.
I had never found a place where I felt like I belonged.
Until now. With Lars.
As twisted and dark as it was, he was the only person who’d ever made me feel whole and seen. And I was not fucking losing that.
Even though I knew how dangerous he was, how toxic it all started, and that this wasn’t conventional in any sense, I couldn’t deny I’d never felt more at peace than I did here with him.
“I don’t want to leave,” I finally answered, still staring at the creek. “Not this cabin. Not Romania. And not you.” The wind chose that moment to rustle through the trees again, and for a moment, I simply sat there, listening to the forest and feeling Lars next to me.
The world outside of these woods and our cabin—away from the life I now lived with Lars—felt so distant now. It all felt like a dream.
Lars moved closer behind me, and I basked in the warmth of his presence there before he placed his big hands on my shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze.
After a moment, he sat down on the boulder beside me. I glanced at him to see how intently his dark gaze was focused on me. There was something raw in his eyes, something that made my heart ache.
“That’s the right answer,” he finally spoke and pulled me so that I was now sitting on his lap with his arms tightly bound around me.
And then there was nothing but the steady beat of my heart as I thought about what it meant when the captive fell in love with her captor.
EPILOGUE
LARS
A couple of months later
Snow blanketed the forest floor, wintertime a heavy cloak covering everything. It was cold as fuck with frost covering the windows, and the wind-chill was frigid enough to freeze any exposed skin.
The cabin was old as hell, and the icy air seeped into every corner of the structure. I kept the hearth stocked with wood, and a constant fire burned, heating the small interior.
I stood by the window and stared out into the quiet stillness of winter, watching the sky change into oranges and pinks as night descended. Snow fell heavily, adding even more inches to everything.
The Romanian woods had become our sanctuary, our private haven that kept us away from not only the chaos of the world but civilization.
Behind me, Dolly hummed softly to herself, and I smiled at how beautiful it sounded. I looked over my shoulder to see her decorating the small tree I’d cut down for us. We’d gotten ornaments and decorations in the city center days before, as well as stocked up on more supplies.
As it was, we didn’t seem to have any plans to leave this cabin. It was a good thing I had a long-term rental agreement for it and was in the process of buying it and the land surrounding it.
She’d had free rein when we went shopping and had found a few simple things to mark the holidays, such as red candles and glittery ornaments. It was strange finding actual pleasure in the way she decorated, adding little touches of festivity that brought a lightness to the cabin.
I’m in so deep.
God, she was graceful, and I was transfixed and mesmerized as I watched her fingers trail over the decorations. But her expression showed she was lost in thought.
“What are you thinking about, little darling?” I turned and leaned against the wall, watching her obsessively, giving her as much time as she needed to answer.
“Just thinking about all the things I didn't do when I was a child and how now I want to experience everything.”
I pushed away from the wall and went up to her, pushing her hair from her shoulder and kissing her nape. “You can do and have anything you want now.” I could see the slight upward tilt of her lips.
“Growing up, I never did these things.” She started putting tinsel on the tree, and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her back against my chest.
“A holiday was just another day. Nothing special,” she whispered, as if she were speaking more to herself than to me.
I reached over her shoulder and took some tinsel, adding it to a higher branch. And after we decorated the tree, I pulled her to the couch we now had in front of the fire and tugged her onto my lap, just holding her as we stared at the twinkling lights and the star at the top of the tree.