Forty Shades of Pearl (Part One of The Pearl Trilogy) by Arianne Richmonde

Author:Arianne Richmonde
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Erotic
Publisher: Mighty Publications
Published: 2012-08-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

I don’t know how long I’ve been sleeping, but when I awake he’s sitting on the bed next to me, watching – his eyes resting on me, transfixed.

“I wasn’t snoring, was I?”

He laughs. “No.”

“Not dribbling or anything horrible, or talking in my sleep?”

“No not at all. You look beautiful and serene. You had a sort of Mona Lisa smile set on your lips so you must have been dreaming about something very pleasant.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“All night. It’s time to rise and shine.”

I sit up and see faint light coming through gaps in the heavy drapes. “You’re kidding? It felt like I was asleep for ten minutes.”

I can’t believe I wasted that precious time with him merely sleeping. What a fool!

“Sorry, I must have really taken it out of you,” he apologizes.

“You took cherries out of me,” I joke. “And there I was, terrified, thinking you were going to thrash me with a whip or something.” Even kill me.

“I’m sorry, Pearl. Did I really frighten you that much?”

“I was nervous when you tied my ankles.”

“But you could have escaped any time – the knots were very loose, the necklace you could have snapped open at the clasp.”

“At the peril of destroying an original Art Deco piece of jewelry? Never.”

“I’m sorry, seriously, if I scared you. I would never, ever, hurt a woman. Not even kidding around.” After he says this his lips are tight, pressed together, all humor wiped from his usually open face.

“Whenever you mention women and beating you look as if you’re talking from past experience. Did something happen once?” I ask. “Are you trying to chase away personal demons?”

“Unfortunately, you can’t chase away something that lives inside you.”

“You have a violent past?”

“Yes.”

Uh oh. I look at his face and wonder what he did that was so violent – he’s fighting against his dark side. “Can I ask what happened?”

“I’m not so keen to discuss it.”

“Surely you need to talk about it with someone?”

“I hardly know you, Pearl.”

“You know me well enough to have tied me up, to have bought me an outrageously expensive gift, to have delved, literally, into my private places. You think I’ve ever let anyone that close to me before?” I bark. “You think I go round opening my legs up with abandon like that, opening my heart up like that to any man?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound dismissive.”

I start to get out of bed, hurt that he is choosing to close himself off from me, and fearful I am falling for a man who has a violent side. I’ve heard that men like him do that; ply you with gifts, win your confidence, make you fall in love, and then, when it’s too late, they show their true colors.

“My father used to beat the shit out of my mother,” he suddenly says, his eyes on the floor as if he were ashamed.

I observe the grim expression on his usually happy face. “How awful. Are you violent, too?” I ask nervously.

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