Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #1)

by C.J. Roberts

People often believed they were safer in the light, thinking monsters only came out at night.

Tears had always been mystifying to him. He liked looking at them, tasting them. Truth be told, they made him hard.

And still, my nightmare had found me. Again.

Still handsome enough to make my insides clench and my heart stutter. It was pure perversion.

“Suddenly I heard a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.”

I had no business dreaming of his blue-green eyes, or the way his golden hair would feel in my hands.

Perhaps he’d made a mistake in that regard, choosing someone he had found indefinably appealing.

Who the hell was that woman? Why does she get to call him Caleb?

He was my tormentor and my solace; the creator of the dark and the light within.

If the first lesson every slave had to learn was to accept that their wishes did not matter, then the first lesson every master had to learn was not to be a slave to their own desires. The logic was simple, to command a slave, you must command yourself.

He’d let her go, he’d done it through his own stupidity, but he’d let her go. And all he could think about was that she hadn’t even looked back. She'd just run away…from him.

Who the fuck cared? I sure didn’t. I just stared blankly at all of them, at none of them.

I hated her. I hated her, because I loved her so fucking much and she obviously didn’t feel the same way.

“If it’s anywhere near as bad as what those assholes did to me.... I’m tired of living through this shit just

to step into deeper fucking shit. So if all you have planned for me is more torture, I think I’d rather die. Just do me one favor and don’t…I don’t want to die slow.”

I was always seeking shelter in the people who hurt me the most. My mother. My father. Caleb. Like a battered dog begging for love from a malicious master. It was all I knew. And still his arms felt safe, warm, meant for me to seek sanctuary within. The cycle of damage would never end because I couldn’t tell the difference until it was too late.

“You’re right. I don’t know your real name. But I don’t know mine either and it’s never stopped me from knowing who I am or taking what I want.”

Caleb could and would hurt me. Not today, but maybe tomorrow or the next day. Still, for the first time I knew he could not destroy me. It would matter to him if I didn’t exist. And no matter what happened, I’d land on my feet because Caleb had shown me I had it in me. It was a strange gift, from an unexpected source.

I felt Caleb was more damaged than me. Not in some tragic sense, but in a fundamental way that bridged the vast distances between us.

This isn’t a romance. You’re not a damsel in distress, and I’m not the handsome prince come to save you. You ran. I went to collect my property. End of story.

No. He wasn’t. In real life you had to save yourself.

“Make him love you,” Ruthless Me whispered. “Make it so he can’t live without you. The devil you know.” I felt her growing inside me, bringing with her the insane idea I actually wielded power with Caleb. I had never tried to “use my feminine wiles” before, but I had certainly been accused of it. What would happen if I actually tried?

For the first time in recent memory, Caleb wanted something other than revenge. He wanted the girl. He wanted Livvie.