Seduced in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #2)

by C.J. Roberts

“He….” I am overcome by grief. I don’t have to manufacture my pain…I am my pain. “He died in my fucking arms.” My mind immediately recalls seeing Caleb, expression blank, his body covered in dirt, and blood. It was the moment I lost him. Only hours before, he’d held me in his arms and I had thought everything was finally going to be okay. One knock on the door…and everything changed.

He had told her he wasn’t her Prince Charming, but what he hadn’t said was he wished he could be. Once upon a time, he may have been…normal.

“At least they knew they were monsters. You’re pathetic! You’re a monster who imagines he’s something else.”

answer. “I admit…at first I thought…” She shrugged. “I thought you really were my ‘knight in shining armor’. Stupid, I know.”

life. Be smart! Fight the battles you can win and accept the ones you can’t. That’s how you survive.” That’s how you avoid being tied to a fucking mattress and soaked in your own blood.

I rock back and forth, cradling Caleb’s photo in my hands as I sit on my bed. He is so beautiful. I love him so very much.

“In my experience…the only time a woman wants to tell you ‘the whole story’ is when she wants you to make a decision based on emotion instead of logic.”

Above all else, I had learned the one thing every person has to learn to make it through life: the only person you can truly count on is yourself.

“Min fadlik!”

“Kitten…” His forehead pressed hard against the nape of my neck. “You ask for impossible things.” I wanted to ask which parts were impossible, but I knew the answer. He couldn’t let go of his revenge, but he could let go of me.

“No!” I sobbed. “I can’t, Caleb. I won’t. Please, please don’t do this. Not for me.” “Caleb?” said Rafiq softly, his face twisting, and another torrent of clipped Arabic followed. Horrified, I realized what I’d done. “Master—I didn’t mean to!” I pleaded. “I know you’re my master. Please forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.” I repeated the words as I rocked back and forth.

He’s gone, Livvie. There it is. There’s the pain. It’s an ember forever burning in my heart. It’s a reminder Caleb will live forever.

I panicked, and at once Caleb’s voice was in my ear telling me to obey. “Steady, Kitten. I won’t let him inside you. I won’t let anyone inside you.” Through my panic, I almost missed the possessive nature of his words, but the part of me that thought of him as mine wanted to recognize it as an admission. I relaxed by the barest of degrees.

“But now,” Caleb said, “I never want to see you cry again. I wish I could go back to the day on the street, the day you thought I’d saved you from the guy in the car, and just…let you believe I was your hero. You smiled at me so sweetly. You thanked me. I wish I’d just let it be.” Caleb could feel Livvie taking deep breaths.

Caleb didn’t care. “There. Now you’re part of me, forever. You’re mine, Livvie. I hope you understand.” Livvie swallowed audibly, her eyes flicking from Caleb’s to his fingers and back. “I’m yours,” she said, but then added, “only yours. And you’re mine, only mine.”

“Live for me, Kitten. Be all those things you’d never be with me. Go to school. Meet a normal boy and fall in love. Forget me.” “I can’t!” I yell into the void.

“I’ve been doing this a long time – manipulating people to get my way. That’s why you think you love me! Because I’ve broken you down and built you back up to believe it. It wasn’t an accident! Once you leave this behind…you’ll see that.”

His arms gently guided me back, and when our eyes met, I finally saw the emotions he tried so hard to keep hidden and the resolve with which he said, “Live for me, Kitten. Be all those things you’d never be with me. Go to school. Meet a normal boy and fall in love. Forget me. It’s time for you to go, Kitten. Time for us both to go.”