Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

ROMAN

A urora was silent the entire ride home.

Brushing aside her weak objections, I insisted on carrying her into the house and up to our bedroom.

I pulled on my tuxedo bow tie as she stood still in the center of the room.

Suddenly, she reached up and clawed at the diamond necklace I gave her earlier.

I frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Get it off me! Get it off!" she screeched as she tore at the delicate platinum wiring holding the diamonds suspended around her neck. The wire broke, sending a shimmering cascade of diamonds scattering across the Persian carpet.

I held out my hand as I approached her. "Baby…"

She looked down at my extended arm as if it were a snake. She shook her head as she backed away. "No. I'm not your baby. I'm not anything to you. I'm just a pawn. A plaything. I'm no better than Richard's Elizabeth. We just exist to amuse you both in your twisted games."

My eyes narrowed. She had hit dangerously close to the truth. That didn't mean I was going to relent. She was mine. Fucking mine. And no one, not even she, was going to prevent me from keeping her by my side. "You are tired and overwrought. I shouldn't have taken you out so soon after your illness. Rest and we will talk about this again in the morning."

"I'm not getting in that bed with you."

"And I'm not letting you sleep anywhere but next to me. Relent, Aurora. You won't win against me."

Her shoulders sagged as her head dropped.

I placed my hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. I pulled her in close and wrapped my arms securely around her as I whispered against the top of her head, "That's my good girl. Get out of your dress and get into bed. Everything will seem all better in the morning."

She stepped away from my arms.

I watched her closely. "Do you need help with your dress?"

She shook her head no.

Thinking she needed space, I turned and headed into my dressing room. While I was in there, I heard the French balcony doors open. Annoyed that she would expose herself to the unseasonably cold elements when she was obviously already exhausted and vulnerable, I crossed back into the bedroom just in time to see her climbing up onto the balcony's edge. "Aurora!"

I raced across the room onto the balcony. "Kitten, give me your hand."

She refused to look at me. Keeping her eyes downcast, she cried out, "I can't do this anymore. I can't do us . It's too much."

Alarmed, I reached out for her. "Goddammit, Aurora. Give me your hand! "

She clutched at the stone gargoyle. "Don't come any closer!"

Every ounce of my being froze in fear. I couldn't lose her. I couldn't bear a world without her. I loved her too much. "I shouldn't have done that to you. I should have never taken you there. Is that what you want to hear? I admit it. I was wrong. Now, baby, please, step back off the ledge."

She tilted her head back and laughed. It was a wretched sound bordering on madness. "What's the matter, Roman? Was this not part of your master plan? Am I breaking one of your precious rules?"

Anger that she would endanger herself this way had me clenching my jaw. "You're damn right you are, and I'll show you just how displeased I am the moment I lay my hands on you." I shifted closer to her. Hoping my enraged words would distract her from my true intentions, I vowed, "I won't let you go. Not ever. Jump and I'll follow you down."

"Why me? Why did it have to be me?"

"It was always going to be you, my love. No matter what, even if I had to become the devil himself, you were always fated to be mine."

"This isn't love."

I was finally close enough to reach out and grasp the hemline of her dress. "No. It's something far greater, far more powerful."

My close proximity startled her. In one horrifying second, Aurora's body swayed as she lost her footing. She screamed as she fell over the edge.

Without thinking, I lunged, snatching at her wrist at the last possible moment. "I've got you."

Her body swung like a pendulum as the wind whipped her dress around her body. "Please don't let me go!"

I smiled, trying to reassure her. "Never."

I pulled her over the ledge and into my arms. "Don't worry, kitten. I've got you… and I'll never let you go."

The games were over. It was time to make her mine in every sense of the word. I would make it so she could never leave me.

Not even death would separate us now.