He’s already trying to reach your emotions, isn’t he? said Jared as Sebastian opened the parlour room door. I can feel the weight of his power in the air.
My head’s pounding already.#p#分页标题#e#
I’ll get you out quick, I promise.
This parlour was much the same as the one Antonio had taken me to that time he had offered me the job, except that there was no piano in here. Antonio was sitting on a beige sofa with Luther beside him and his guards on either side.
Startling me, both Nero and Achilles dashed over to me protectively. The snarls they hurled at the very unwanted visitor were silent. Victor was stood between the two sofas in a smart black trouser suit and stared at me as if we were the only people in the room. Several emotions flashed in his squinty gray eyes. Relief. Pleasure. Desire. Betrayal. Fury.
Instantly I had the feeling of being hit hard with a heavy object, but it wasn’t an object. It was pressure. A pressurizing sense of guilt.
“Sam,” he drawled, his thin lips forming a warm smile. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, luv.” He had a way of being able to always sound friendly, polite, reasonable and compassionate. His eyes scanned my appearance. He didn’t look too happy about the tight clothing. The clenching and unclenching of his fists was expected. “Looking well.”
I didn’t speak. I was afraid of what I’d say. One part of me had an instinct to yell a string of profanities at him and tell him to go jump up his own arse. But another part of me wanted to run to him and beg him to forgive me for leaving him and ask him to take me home – thanks to the weight of the guilt that he was throwing at me. The more I tried to fight it the more my head hurt.
Knowing that the closer I physically was to him the easier it would be for him to rule my emotional state, I stopped about five feet away from him. Jared halted beside me. It seemed that it was only then that Victor noticed him. I watched as Victor read Jared’s emotions. A smile appeared, which surprised me.
“Aren’t you going to come and give your old hubby a hug?” he asked me.
The strength and sharpness in my voice surprised me. “You’re not my husband.”
“There’s no need to lie.”
But I wasn’t lying. And Victor knew that. Just like he knew that I hated being called something that I wasn’t, especially a liar. “I know what you’re trying to do,” I told him. “Trying to piss me off so my composure will crack and you can control my emotions easier.” I shook my head. “It won’t work.”
Suddenly the force of the guilt was overwhelming, and there was a new emotion too: self-loathing. I had the sensation of being stuck in a pit with emotions that weren’t my own clinging to me and trying to devour me.
“You agreed not to manipulate her emotions,” warned Antonio.
“And I’m not.” Victor was utterly unaffected by Antonio’s air of authority, I realised. That was probably a lot to do with the fact that he was a fruitcake. “You must have noticed by now that my Sam can be temperamental. One minute she’s furious, the next minute she’s calm, and then all of a sudden she develops a sense of humour.”
As usual, he was coming across as reasonable and fair while making me out to be the pain in the backside. Planting the seed of suspicion was a specialty of his. Plus, he knew that falsely accusing me of doing things or being things was likely to crack me.
“She did a runner because she was angry with me, not because she doesn’t love me or want to be with me. Isn’t that right, Sam, luv?”
God I wanted to smack him. I wanted to scream out to Antonio that Victor was a lying, manipulative twat and not to listen to a word he said. Victor knew this. But I didn’t do those things, because I knew that the more energy I spent trying to defend myself the weaker I would be to his power. “What is it you want?”#p#分页标题#e#
Victor’s smile disappeared but his friendly, caring tone remained. “I just want you to come home, luv. What else would I want?”
“No.” The word was no more than a whisper. It had hurt to get out, especially since a part of me hated myself for saying something so awful. Self-loathing.
Good girl. I could almost feel Jared’s pride.
“No?” giggled Victor. He took a few steps toward me.
Simultaneously another emotion came crashing down on me. Desire. It stirred low in my stomach. My thighs instantly clenched and I had to swallow back a moan.
“Don’t be daft, luv. Come to me.” He opened his arms and I almost did go.
What’s he trying to make you feel now?