Chapter 4

Nikki

The Maserati eats up the road it travels over. The seats are comfortable and soft jazz music infused with electronic beats plays on the background. I haven't said a word since my outburst against him, afraid of him following up on his threat. But there is also some weird fucked up curiosity how he possibly could be worse than he is right now. 

I glance at him through the corners of my eyes. He is focused, zigzagging through the slow-moving traffic as he ignores red lights and police cars. It's like he owns the city we are driving through. 

My gaze slips outside again, longing for freedom and being my own person. The shops, bars, occasional coffee shops and brothels are illuminated with neon lights as they slide by my view. The reality of this filthy city being my new home now seeps into me. 

I know Rotterdam has its beauty, but all I am seeing now is poverty, criminality and hopelessness. I drag my gaze back into the car. Then, I let my eyes roam over the man beside me. 

This tall dark man has a thick bush of short black hair and piercing green eyes that are accented by his strong jawline and straight nose. Detailed black and grey tattoos poke out from under his dark green button-down shirt on his arms, throat and chest.

My mind drifts, imagining what his body could look like underneath the clothes. I can still feel the rock-hard muscles I discovered when I pushed and trashed against him. His dominance radiated through me when he put me in my place. It still is.

I swallow hard and pull my mind out of the gutter. 

Just stop it with the drooling over your kidnapper! He might be the man from your wildest dreams, but he is still a piece of shit, a fucking asshole. He steers the car of the main road, into a small business park. 

Fear bites its way through me as I take in the different closed businesses, abandoned car parks, stray dogs and homeless people. I stare at him, wide-eyed. He is going to kill me, a life for a life and this right here, this is where he is going to kill me! It's freaking perfect for it. Nobody will ever know, the perfect crime.

My body begins to shake all over. I start hyperventilating and cold sweat breaks out all over my body. He sees me in my frightened state, and he blows out a breath, a soft expression on his face. 

"Relax Nikki, this is just the shortest way to my home. Just breathe, like you told your father." He says in a soft tone and drafts a slow deep breath, like he is showing me how to do it. I try to repeat him, deep breaths in and deep breaths out, but all I manage are staggered short breaths.

He reaches out and my breath catches entirely in my chest. Fear oozes out of my pores and my mind goes completely blank. His hand gently caresses my cheek, softly pulling my gaze to him until I meet his eyes. They are soft, caring and warm, not a trace of the cold man that abducted me from my home. 

"Say my name princess." He asks and I look at him, a bit astonished. I did not expect that, but he keeps my gaze locked on him and I do as he says. 

"Kian." It's a mere whisper, but as I say it it's like the whole world centers around him. His green eyes become all I see, his name the only thing on my mind and his touch guiding me through the darkness. 

I release a deep breath when my heart starts beating its normal rhythm again, relaxing into his touch. He has stopped the car now and has a contemplative expression on his face. 

"You never have to fear death when you're with me, but we need to deal with you going in full lockdown when you panic. It isn't healthy." His thumb caresses my cheek in soft strokes, leaving small sparks in its wake. 

The gentleness in his touch and words confuse the hell out of me, leaving me stranded on the blank shore of my feelings. I gaze up into his eyes, breathing in the spicy, warm mix that makes up his body odor. There's something about him, his stare, his touch, his scent. It pulls me in and makes me forget everything he's done to me and my father. 

"You're dazzling, little hellcat." His voice turning velvety, low and husky as he leans in. His hand still on my cheek and his breath fanning on my face, leaves mine somewhere stuck in my throat. I breath him in and a deep yearning awakens, clawing its way through me; setting me on fire. 

I close my eyes, relishing in his scent, his warmth and the feeling he conjures in me. His lips press gently to mine, brushing them with a gentle kiss. He kisses again, deepening them and licking my bottom lip. I open up for him. His tongue swirls inside, tasting me and dominating the kiss. His hand twirls itself into my hair and pulls, exposing my neck to him. He licks and sucks from the top to the bottom of my neck and a soft moan leaves my lips. 

God, he feels good!

He breaks away from me and sits down in his seat again, leaving me breathless and rattled with what just happened. His breathing is heavy and his eyes a lot darker than before, almost entirely black. 

How on earth is that possible?

"There is a lot more where that came from." He says softly, his eyes filled with heat and promise.

He snaps his gaze back on the road again, somehow breaking the lust-filled trance he put me in and drives off towards his home. 

The memories flood back to me. The reality was my father crying in the corner as his life was threatened. It was the fear of living with this man- this oh, so intoxicating man. 

How on earth can this be good for me? How can he be anything more than the monster I saw back home. The one who took my life away and forced me into his. And my father, my poor father, he can't fend for himself. He can barely cook himself a meal or do the laundry, the last time he tried all his white socks turned bright pink and tiny as fuck. 

"What are you thinking about?" Kian asks, one hand on the steering wheel and the other searching in the middle console for something. 

I take in my surroundings. The rundown business park is long gone and all that is around us are sleek modern buildings and towers. 

"Just my father and who is going to take care of him." I say, looking at him rummaging through the compartment. 

"What are you searching for?" I continue, curiosity rearing its head inside me like it always does. One of my better and worst qualities, I am curious as shit. 

He looks at me with a soft smile. "Your father will be fine, there is a lady in the apartment building that promised to check on him every now and then. I am searching for the bloody remote control to open the garage of my place, but I think my brother has moved it out of its usual place."

He parks the car along the side of the road and switches the lights on. "You check the glove compartment, it's a small black triangle with a white round button." 

"You have a brother?" I smile, having siblings is something I longed for my entire life. The bickering, having each other's back through thin and thick, just someone to hang out and get in to trouble with.

Don't get me wrong, life was wonderful as an only child when my mother was still around, I had everything a girl could desire. A happy home with food always on the table, never having to think about whether or not we could afford something. I grew up in a nice neighborhood that had a good school and good friends. 

But when my mother left us, my father and I moved to a new town and my father plummeted into drinking and depression. I tried my best at keeping us together, while I cared for my father and kept our home warm and inviting. It's a lot for a teenager, who just turned seventeen, and it left its mark on me for sure. 

"Yeah, Eamon. You'll probably like him, he's the jokester of the family, always up to something but he'll go through fire for someone he loves." He says, searching in another compartment in the car and I stop my search through the glove compartment. 

"Eamon? And your name is Kian. What is your heritage? Do you have other siblings?" I quiz and look at him expectantly.

He stops his search, an easy smile on his face that highlights the sparks in his eyes. God! He is gorgeous when he smiles like that. 

"My mother is Irish, and my father is Dutch. Her name is Siobhan, you pronounce it as Shivawn and I got no other siblings." 

I try out her name, hoping I pronounce it right. "Shivawn?" 

"Yeah, just like that. My father's name is Henrik, by the way. Have you already found the remote?" He says and leans back in his seat. 

"Not yet, got distracted by you." I say with a small smirk and dive back into the glove compartment. 

The mess in there is astounding. There are old notebooks, receipts, toothpicks, pens, maintenance logs from the car, tissues, a pair of black leather gloves. I take everything out, one by one, and dump it on his lap. "Here hold it, I can't search when it's full like this." 

He smiles, clearly amused. "I see you have finally relaxed around me." 

"Yeah, you can't be that bad if your brother still wants to share this car with you and the way you spoke about your parents is with nothing but love. So, no monster or demon anymore. Just a stuck-up asshole who took me away." I say carelessly, rummaging through the last bits. 

"I gave your father a fair choice. He was in massive debt with me, and it was either pay up, which he couldn't, or die, or give you to me. He chose the latter, just as he chose to get addicted to alcohol and gambling. That isn't my fault, neither is it yours." He says in a neutral voice.

I still my search and find his gaze. "What?" The words come out soft, unsure and filled with disbelief. 

"Your father used to gamble in my clubs, his debt reached the magical fifty-thousand euro border and he knew it was either pay up or die. It was his luck really, that I took an interest in you." Kian's face is a steady canvas, seriousness and honesty playing the main characters. I know in my bones he really is telling the truth. 

"I... I never knew, never suspected a thing. I mean I know about the alcohol, but never about the gambling." I cast my eyes down, suddenly feeling like a failure, feeling like I let my father down with not sensing he was in such trouble. 

Kian reaches out and gently squeezes my forearm. "Now you know, just don't beat yourself up about it." I brush a silent tear away and focus on the glove compartment again, eager to escape the caring gaze and touch of Kian. 

My eyes glide over the remaining mess and easily spot the small black triangle with a white button. "Found it!" I call out with a forced smile, and I hold up the remote. 

"Great! Now let's show you your new home!" Kian smiles and drives away. 

We stop in front of a large tower, it's at least eight stories high and made entirely of glass windows imbedded in heavy, black metal casings. It's intimidating. 

Kian pushes a button and right in front of us the glass windows slide into each other, revealing a large garage filled with expensive cars. Range Rovers, Ferraris, Audis, a Lamborghini and a large completely blacked out truck. 

I gaze through the window, in awe of the wealth, in awe of the entire place. 

The garage itself has a pitch-black floor that muffles the sound of the tires and engine. The windows are see-through from the inside, but I know you can't see shit from the outside. Bright ceiling lights illuminate  the entire place, blinking to life the further we drive into the garage. 

"Wow..." I mutter softly and Kian chuckles. 

"Wait till you see the rest princess. This is your home now remember." 

My gaze lands on the handsome man beside me. My mind is still trying to put two and two together. This is really his and he is mine now somehow. 

"How?" I ask breathlessly and he rakes a hand through his hair, a lopsided grin on his face. 

"You'll find out along the way."

He parks the car close to an elevator. The entire thing is made of gold and glass. I stare at it, wide-eyed. 

"Do we really need to use that thing?" I ask, unsure. My fear of heights getting the best of me.

"We have stairs, but I live on the seventh floor. So, unless you want to climb seven sets of stairs several times every day, we are taking the elevator." He says and unclicks my seatbelt, along with his own. 

I stay seated in the car. "I opt for the stairs. The exercise will be good for me." I say, nervously laughing. Kian laughs and steps out of his car, a second later he is at my side and opens the door.

How on earth does he do that so fast? 

"Are you afraid of heights; Nikki?" He asks chuckling and holds his hand out for me, helping me get out of the car. 

I avoid his amused gaze, shuffling on my feet. "Yeah, well that thing looks like a death contraption and yes I don't like heights. Can we please use the stairs?" I look up in his eyes, hopeful he will let me use the stairs. 

He wraps his arm around my shoulder, encasing me with his body heat and comfort. "You'll be just fine, you're exhausted Nikki. I just want you to take a bath and go to sleep as soon as possible. Today has been an intense enough day already."