Chapter 3

3

PENELOPE

T his is crazy, right? Yeah, it’s definitely crazy. Giving up the only life I’ve ever known to run away with a man I practically met a few hours ago. But that isn’t true. I’ve known Harker for most of my life. The ominous shadow working in the dead of night to keep the empire afloat. But I was merely a girl when I last saw him. A child no taller than his knee, and now we’re pulling onto his mansion’s driveway.

The mansion’s surroundings are an overgrown mess. Vines crawl up tall trees and the grass lays in a shaggy mess. All but the west wing of his home looks as dilapidated as the grounds. There aren’t any lights, no servers or servants awaiting Harker’s return, and the bright lights from his BMW illuminate the grotesque scenery in an eerie way.

I’ve never been here before, but whispers of Harker’s mansion have traveled through my circle. They called it the underworld. The place where life and love come to die. And yet, as I approach, I feel more alive than I ever have before.

I’m finally taking my life into my own hands. And it feels damn good.

“Are you nervous?” he asks, his eyes turning to me while his head remains fixed in the direction of the water feature at the end of the cobblestone stretch.

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” An honest answer is hard to find amid the indecision in my mind.

“You shouldn’t be.” A smile trickles along the corner of Harker’s mouth. “It’s a big step, but I couldn’t stand to see him treat you like that. You deserve so much more.”

It’s just the way Father is. Five daughters, each one a bigger disappointment than the last. I wonder if things would’ve been different if he had a son years before and the daughters came later. If he had the ability to train and teach a boy, would my four sisters and I have received the love and affection any child should receive from their parent?

I’ve often wondered this and always came to the conclusion that Father is rotten to the core. He’s the monster he wanted me to believe Harker is.

“Like what, exactly?” I feel a sheepish grin growing on my face.

“You deserve the world,” Harker says. “Handmaidens bathing you in milk while choirs sing of your beauty. Men worshiping the earth upon which you walk. You…” He trails off and brings the car to a stop in front of his home. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me get your things and show you inside.”

My heart skips a beat. Did he really just say all that? And what more did he have to say? I knew I made the right call inviting him over tonight, but God knows I never thought the night would end like this. The man I’ve been fawning over, firm stature and all, is a big softy who melts my heart and wants me to be happy?

“Queen of the Dead,” I say, joining him at the trunk. A grin flickers across his face, but it’s gone as quickly as it comes.

“Yes.” Harker hoists my bag full of clothes over his shoulder. “Look, I don’t have much social interaction from this place. I understand if I’m getting ahead of myself. But?—”

“You wear your heart on your sleeve and you don’t care who sees it,” I finish his sentence for him. If Harker’s anything like my father, he’d have tried to deflect and change the subject. I’m not going to let him.

“You could say that.” He leads me up the steps to the front door.

It’s eerily quiet, with only our voices breaking the noise of chirping crickets in the distance. A far stretch from Father’s place. If there wasn’t music playing somewhere in the house, there was shouting. The only peace I managed to get was walking through the garden alone.

“Or maybe I’m just blinded by lust,” he adds.

I hear my own gulp. A wave of butterflies explodes in my stomach. If it were anyone else but this giant beast of a man standing in front of me, those words might have come off as terrifying. Instead, my heart’s beating in my throat, and an excited ball twists in my core.

Somehow, the crassness of his admittance is more alluring than his worshiping in the car. The thought of his tree trunk arms wrapped around my body while he hoists me up to meet his mouth. Strong hands feeling every inch of my skin while our tongues dance the samba. Christ, if he’s this big, I can’t imagine the size of the rod dangling between his legs.

“Lust?” It comes out choked.

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, every part of me screamed for more. I might as well confess. Only reason I came out tonight was because I was thinking with the wrong head.” He snickers at his own comment. “And though it wasn’t pretty, I can’t help but feel I came out on top in the end.”

His words shouldn’t make me feel as good as they do, yet, I can’t stop swooning over the monster who found his instant infatuation with me. A man like him, with money and power, could have any woman in the world, but he’s changing everything about the way he lives for me?

Hell, the realization of what happened only just hits me. I turned my back on the only life I ever knew and took this massive leap with someone I didn’t know. It’s a huge reassurance to find out that I’m not the only one dripping with lust.

Harker leads me inside. The entry, unlike outside, is pristine but sparsely furnished.

“Too much?” he asks while we ascend the staircase. “I apologize if so.”

His concerns come from my speechlessness, no doubt.

“No, not at all.” Sure, it’s a lot more than I was expecting, but I’m not silent because of what he said. My mind’s racing at a thousand miles an hour, flicking through giddiness, nervous delight, and all sorts of excitement.

It’s not too much.

It’s perfect. I just don’t know how to convey it to him without sounding insane.

He leads me to the bedrooms. The only two open doors are his office and bedroom.

“You can have any room you like,” Harker says. “Even mine, if you choose it.” A naughty grin stretches across his face. “Preferably with me in it.” My teeth sink into my lower lip. His words have a direct link to the pleasure center in my brain, and he isn’t even trying. “But for now, how will this do?”

He opens the door to the bedroom he picked out for me and flicks on the light. It’s an enormous space, with an ornate bed on one end and a living room on the other.

“It’s perfect,” I say, dumbfounded at the sheer size of the room.

“Wonderful. Then I’ll let you get settled in.” He drops my things off on the bed and leaves without another word.

I still don’t know how I should feel about any of this. Scared is probably the right reaction, but how can I be afraid when Harker has shown me nothing but kindness throughout the whole experience? He’s given so much in so little time that I can’t help but feel something bad is looming around the corner.

But what if there isn’t?

What if it’s all just perfect?