Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

ROMAN

I took two steps toward her.

She shied away.

I thrust the chair she placed between us out of the way and snatched her by the shoulders. I pulled her close. "You'll go home when I give you permission to leave."

Despite her protests, I picked her up into my arms. Several fast-paced strides brought me to the concealed door that led to my executive bathroom. I kicked the door open and carried Aurora inside. Settling her on the leather padded bench before the closet, I commanded, "Stay."

I then ran a washcloth under hot water and returned to where she was dutifully sitting. She had curled her legs up under her. Her frame was dwarfed in my large white dress shirt. With her kiss-swollen lips and tangled hair she looked like a lost little girl. I was doing this to her. This was the result of my carefully made plans. Still, I had no intention of stopping or relenting. In the end, she would be mine and that was all that mattered.

I lifted her onto my lap.

Keeping my gaze on her face, I carefully unbuttoned my shirt.

Her small hands wrapped around my wrists. "Please. I'm sore. I can't."

I kissed her on the forehead. "Shhh, little one. I'm just going to take care of you."

I opened the shirt wide and gingerly pulled off her shoes, leggings, and panties. Her bra was somewhere discarded on my office floor. I then placed the warm washcloth between her legs.

She hissed in response.

I tightened my grip on her waist, keeping her still as I gently wiped the blood from her inner thighs. "I haven't purchased any clothes for you to keep here yet. I wasn't expecting you in my office so soon. I will have that rectified later today."

Her brow furrowed. "Why would I need clothes here?"

Realizing I had let a portion of my plan slip, I stayed silent and concentrated on the smooth, firm skin of her thighs.

She persisted. "I have no intention of ever visiting your office again so there is no reason for me to have any clothes here… beyond the fact that you shouldn't be buying me clothes in the first place."

She was so adorably stubborn. I looked forward to all the punishments she would earn because of it.

Knowing an argument would just lead to me fucking her again, which would make me a monster after taking her virginity only a few minutes ago, I refused to be baited and remained silent.

The moment I was finished she rose and pulled on her panties and leggings before buttoning my shirt.

As she did that, I reached for the phone on the wall.

The voice on the other end said, "Yes, Mr. Winterbourne."

"Have the Ferrari brought around front. Tell my driver I don't need him."

"Yes, sir."

I hung up.

Aurora's chin jutted out as she stood defiantly before me. She repeated her earlier request. "I want to go home."

I nodded. "I will escort you there."

Her eyes widened. I was certain she'd expected me to say no. If we weren't at a crucial part of my plan for her, I most certainly would have refused.

She crossed her arms over her chest, looking as frightening as a little drowned kitten. "I don't need an escort. I'm perfectly capable of seeing myself home."

I tossed the washcloth in the bin and opened one of the closet doors to fetch a coat for her. "You either go with me or not at all."

She let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Fine."

I selected one of my wool overcoats and held it up.

She gestured toward the coat. "That's way too big."

"It's only for the ride to your house. Arms in."

She slid one arm then the other into the coat. I turned her to face me and lifted up her right arm. I cuffed the sleeve as best I could before cuffing the other. The coat swallowed her body like a blanket. As she turned to walk away, it dragged on the floor. At least she would be covered.

I then selected my own black cashmere wool coat. After shrugging it on, I picked up a pair of black leather gloves. I gestured for her to walk before me as we left the bathroom. When we reached the double doors, I pressed my forefinger to the security pad. The deadbolt slipped back. Without waiting for me, Aurora grabbed the handle and swung open the door. She bolted into the small entryway and slammed her palm repeatedly against the elevator button.

Ensuring her back was to me, I pulled on my leather gloves and picked the gun up off the conference table by the barrel and slipped it into my pocket. I didn't want to risk smudging her prints with my own.

We rode the elevator in silence.

By the time we exited the building my car was waiting. I opened the passenger door to my vintage silver 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB and gestured for Aurora to get in. She stood on the wet sidewalk in indecision. The rain had stopped but there was a roll of thunder in the distance threatening more. I raised an eyebrow. "Should we see if you fit in the boot?"

After my threat of tossing her in the trunk, she hastened to get inside the car. I collected the material of my dragging coat and tucked it behind her legs before closing the door.

I looked at her profile several times as we rode in silence. My poor little kitten. I had put her through a lot in the last two days and there was even worse to come. Fortunately, when this game was over, I had every intention of spoiling and coddling her for the rest of her life. She would live in luxury and want for nothing. Her only care in the world would be pleasing me.

When we turned onto her street, I could feel her stiffen next to me.

Soon, love. Soon this will all be over, and you'll be mine.

The moment I pulled up to her house, she opened the door and jumped out before I had even brought the car to a full stop. She raced up the front steps. I followed at a slower pace. When I joined her, she was standing very still staring at the door handle.

She then turned uncertain eyes up to me. "I think I'm just going to stay at my friend's house instead."

I reached around her and opened the door. "You're staying here in your own bed. Don't worry. I will make sure you're safe."

Her mother came flying into the hallway. "You fucking bitch! You've ruined—" She stopped her tirade the moment she saw me. Her disgustingly overfilled lips formed a grotesque pout as she tried to soften her vodka-soaked expression and appear concerned. She stretched out her arms. "Oh, Rory, I was so worried."

Aurora cringed and shifted closer to me. I wrapped a comforting arm around her waist as I spoke sternly to her mother. "Get away from her."

"She's my daughter!"

"In name only. I'll say this only once, if you don't step back and leave Aurora alone, I'll make sure that every influential door in this city is slammed shut in your face." I knew her kind. She thrived on attention and her social standing. She knew she may be able to play the unaware victim when word of her husband's embezzlement came out, but she wouldn't survive a damning response from me.

Her eyes narrowed and her entire demeanor changed. Gone was the false sense of worry, replaced by a cold, calculating glare. "My, my, quite the protector you have here in Mr. Winterbourne, Rory. I wonder what you had to do to inspire such… devotion ."

Aurora stiffened as if her mother had physically struck her.

I looked down at Aurora. "It was simple really. She just had to survive being raised by a drunken hyena of a mother."

Her response was cut off by the appearance of Alfred, staggering into the hallway carrying a half empty glass of straight whiskey in one hand, a bloody kitchen towel in the other. "You cunt, I'm pressing charges and having you thrown—Mr. Winterbourne! What are you—" He gestured toward Aurora. "Whatever lies that lying bitch is telling you are all lies."

I placed my hands on Aurora's shoulders and turned her to face me. I gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "I want you to go upstairs and go to bed, you have school in the morning."

She nodded numbly, continuing to cast worried glances in her parents' direction.

I cradled her chin and directed her gaze back to mine. "Don't worry about them. Do as you are told." I then leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Don't bathe. I want to know you are sleeping with my scent still on your skin. If you defy me, I will know."

She stared at me.

"Say ‘yes, Roman,'" I prodded.

"Yes, Roman," she whispered. I liked the sound of my name on her lips.

"Go."

Without sparing another look at her parents, Aurora walked past them and up the stairs. I would check the video monitors I had secretly placed around her house later to make sure she had obeyed. I wasn't angry with my decision to not have them monitored by a member of my staff. I didn't want anyone else looking at Aurora. Still, if they had been monitored, I could have caught Alfred in the act of assaulting her. It would have ruined my plans but been worth it to have strangled the man with my bare hands in that moment.

I looked between Alfred and Meredith. Nodding toward Meredith, I said to Alfred, "Get rid of her. We need to talk."

Meredith squawked and objected but in the end, she was persuaded to return to the living room by one of their maids who offered to bring her another martini.

I followed Alfred into his study. He moved directly to the bar and poured us both a drink. I took the glass he offered and set it aside. I didn't drink sub-par whiskey.

The gash on his head had long stopped bleeding. Yet he hadn't changed out of his clothes; both his shirt collar and light gray suit jacket had drops of blood on them. Alfred took a long swallow of whiskey. "So have you decided what you're going to do?"

I folded my gloved hands before me. "You mean if I'm going to expose you to the media, and by extension everyone you know, for your embezzlement, by having you arrested?"

He huffed as he paced from one end of the study to the other. "See here, Winterbourne. I'm turning a blind eye to whatever sick things you're doing to my beloved daughter, the least you could do is work with me over this… misunderstanding … You got your money back… most of it."

Beloved daughter?

I picked a piece of lint off my sleeve. "Do you know Malcom Wright?"

Alfred stilled. "Yes. I heard what happened to him today."

I raised an eyebrow as I stared at him, saying nothing.

Alfred wiped his sweating brow with the bloody towel. "That was you?"

"And I'm not finished with him yet. It's over, Alfred. You're done."

He sank into a chair. "What am I going to do?"

"You will become a bankrupt laughingstock unable to work." I glanced around the study. "I'll take the house of course, and all your cars and the boat. Your wife's jewelry and anything and everything of value you own."

"I'll have nothing. My wife will leave me."

"Don't forget, she'll have nothing as well. I cannot imagine it would be easy snagging another man at her age, especially when I'm done eviscerating her to all of high society. She won't be invited to a spilled cup of tea let alone Buckingham's annual garden tea party."

Alfred drained his glass and poured another. "Please, Winterbourne. You have to help me."

I reached into my pocket. My fingers wrapped around the barrel of the gun. I pulled it free and set it on the edge of the desk. "I think you know what you have to do."

Alfred stared at the gun, then swallowed his entire drink in one gulp.

I continued pushing him. "You don't want to see your wife miserable and poor, do you? You don't want to face the humiliation of being turned away from your clubs, of being led away in handcuffs on the news? Think of the embarrassment."

Alfred continued to stare at the gun, not saying a word.

I tapped the desk near the gun. "This would solve both you and your wife's problems. Do this and your secret dies with you. Your image will be preserved."

Alfred turned glassy eyes to me. He swayed slightly on his feet as he approached the desk. He leaned heavily on the edge as he stared down at the weapon.

I picked up the whiskey glass and crossed to the bar. I poured the contents into the small brass bar sink and wiped the glass dry with a cocktail napkin. There was no point in alerting anyone to the fact that Alfred had additional company in his study this evening.

"As I see it, it's the only way out," I said as I opened the study door. "Or tomorrow, I send out a press release and alert the authorities. Your choice."

After crossing over the threshold, I turned and glanced back into the dim interior of the study.

Alfred was standing there with the gun in his hand.