Book 3: Loving You
Aaron has tried hard save Chantelle from her kidnapper, but he’s not much closer to rescuing her. How is he possibly going to tell her that he loves her and that she’s the one for him, if he can’t save her from her kidnapper?
He’s never met anyone like her, and after their one steamy exciting night of passion, he isn’t ready to give her up, but can he do?
***
Chantelle
I still couldn’t believe that Shelley had kidnapped me and locked me up in a basement like a crazy person. What was her problem? It was absolutely insane for her to lock me up like this!
She was dating my ex now, and she wanted me out of the way, which was crazy because I didn’t want him anyway. Jon Richards had made my life a living hell for years – slowly transforming from emotional abuse to physical, until I escaped. I hadn’t heard anything from him for months, but just as I had started to move on, this happened.
At first I thought that he was behind all of this because he’d always made it clear that he didn’t want me ever to be with someone else, and I’d finally allowed the gorgeous billionaire Aaron – who wouldn’t quit me however difficult I made I for him – to take me out on a date, and even to bed.
But it seemed that I was wrong. It seemed that the crazy woman who had always been sleeping with Jon behind my back wanted to hurt me in the worst way possible. But somehow she’d managed to get hold of Aaron, and she was going to get whatever it was that she wanted from him – money, it seemed – and then I would be freed.
I knew that Aaron could afford it, but I was determined to pay him back whatever he had to shell out for my freedom, somehow. If he still wanted me after this, that is. There was a chance that he wouldn’t after all that I’d put him through.
Even thinking that he might not want me anymore cut deep into my chest, so I forced it to one side and I focused on what was happening right now. I was going through so much that I could only pick one thing at a time to focus on before I went insane.
I paced as I waited anxiously for Shelley to come back to me, hopefully with Aaron by her side to free me, but it felt like it was taking forever. She had left me without any restrictions, but as there was no window in this place and the door was locked with some heavy furniture pushed up against it on the other side, I couldn’t get out however much I wanted to.
I was okay though. I didn’t feel as desperate and needy this time because I knew that help was on its way. Everything would be okay in the end, I just had to be patient about it.
But the wait was killing me. It felt like I’d been here forever just waiting for the moment to arrive, and I could barely stand waiting another second longer.
Eventually, a light started to stream into the room, and I threw my hand across my face, trying to disguise myself. After not sleeping or washing or even eating for days, I was terrified of the mess I was in and I really didn’t want Aaron to see me like that.
It was a silly thought considering my situation, but I couldn’t stop it from crossing my mind.
“He fucking doesn’t want you,” Shelley hissed at me, practically spitting in my direction as she tumbled frantically down the stairs. “I gave him the terms and Aaron said no.”
He did?
“What?” I gasped in total shock. Sure we’d only had one night together, but I felt like there had been so much more to us than that. And even if not, how could he just leave me in grave danger?
Maybe he wasn’t the man that I thought he was after all…
My heart shattered into a million pieces as I pictured Aaron cruelly telling Shelley to leave me in this mess.
“He’s always been such a dickhead,” she snapped, bringing me from my thoughts.
Always?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Do… do you know Aaron?” I asked, feeling really weird about even asking. How was it possible that this woman knew both of the men in my life?
“Of course I know him,” she waved her dismissively at me. “I took his virginity for crying out loud.”
What? This just kept getting weirder and weirder. I shook my head, trying to knock some sense into myself, but it wasn’t helping at all.
“You… you slept with him?” I didn’t want to ask, I wanted to be cool and calm about the whole thing, but this was just a mess.
“I slept with him, took his money and broke his heart,” she laughed manically, as if that was something to be proud of. I remembered him telling me that he had been hurt before, and it seemed like I was staring her in the face.
“So… where do we go from here?” I asked nervously. If Aaron wasn’t playing ball, and she wasn’t going to get the money that she so desperately needed to get Jon away from me, then what next?
“What the fuck do you mean?” she replied, the rage pouring out from her voice.
“Well, I mean… can I go?” There was no harm in asking, surely.
“Fuck you,” she screamed. Then I felt a hard slap around my face, one that stung so badly I couldn’t even think. It made my head shake and my ears buzz, and by the time I started to return to normal, she was nowhere to be found.
All I could glean from that was that Aaron had left me in an even more dangerous situation than before. Now Shelley had nothing to lose, which left me with the possibility of being killed all over again.
My hope crashed into the ground, and I sank into despair.
***
Aaron
As I walked away from what seemed like the only way to free Chantelle I felt really guilty, but I didn’t want to sleep with Shelley for anything. I just couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t. The ten million dollars that she’d asked for was bad enough, but when she started trying to seduce me it just made me feel sick.
And when my private investigator, Rick Heath – a man who really knew what he was talking about – indicated to me that I shouldn’t, then I knew it was time to walk away. He was right when he said that the ten million would never be enough for Shelley and that she would always want more from me, but it still didn’t sit quite right with me.
I was trying not to focus too hard on that part, instead I was concentrating all of my energies on coming up with a new plan, a better one to free Chantelle, and the more I thought about it, the easier it became.
Shelley had made a huge mistake in revealing her identity to me. She forgot how obsessed I was with her back then, how I made it my business to know everything about her so that I could be the best boyfriend in the whole damn world. Unluckily – or luckily in this case – I still had most of that information, which meant I had the upper hand, and it was unlikely that she was even aware of it. I doubted that she had remembered all of our whispered conversations in bed when she revealed some of her biggest secrets to me, but I had.
For a start, I knew exactly where she had Chantelle. She had her at her grandmother’s home, the place she’d always told me was her sanctuary. I remembered her discussing the amazing attic where she’d spent most of her summers while her parents were too busy with their career’s for her, and I also recalled her telling me about the spooky basement which she was convinced was haunted.
Her grandmother passed away a few years before we got together, leaving Shelley the house, but she couldn’t bear to live in it and she couldn’t bear to sell it either.
It was empty and abandoned, and it was where she was holding Chantelle. I was certain of it. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made.
“Rick?” I asked into the phone, chewing anxiously on my nails. “I know where she is.”
“And what do you want to do about that?” he enquired without even missing a beat. This man might have been expensive, but he was totally worth it. He was up for anything that I needed him to do, which was perfect in this horrible and bizarre situation.
“I want to go and get her.” He knew that of course, he just wanted me to confirm it.
“Okay, but we need to be smart about this. You need to know that your ex might be expecting you now.” There he was with that level head all over again. It was likely that he’d done more to save Chantelle’s life than me! “She might even be planning for this exact situation now.”
“So what do you suggest?” I said. I tugged painfully on the ends of my hair, feeling that annoying frustration build up inside of me again. Every second was torturous.
“I say we go there to wherever you think she is… I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle of nowhere?”
“Yes,” I nodded enthusiastically, glad that he was understanding this so well – I knew it had to be a little out of the ordinary, even for him in his line of work. “Of course.”
“Okay, so we watch her. Track her movements, see what it is that she’s up to, see what times she leaves your girl alone, then we call the police and we go in and get her.”
“The police?” I said. I didn’t want to involve them if possible – I knew that they weren’t taking too kindly to me taking things into my own hands.
“Yes, we need this crazy chick locked up before she can do anything else like this. Do you really want to be watching over your shoulder forever?”
“No,” I admitted dejectedly. “Okay, so are you ready to go today?”
“I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
As I grabbed my belongings and I got packed up, my heart was racing with anticipation. I felt like this truly was my one and only shot to outsmart Shelley and to get Chantelle back. If this failed then she would know that I was well and truly after her, and this little game that she was playing could end up with Chantelle dead.
***
Chantelle
I didn’t see Shelley for a few days after she told me that Aaron refused to pay my ransom, and I started to believe that her intention was to just leave me here to die. I’d served my purpose – or not, since it hadn’t gotten her what she wanted – so to keep me away from Jon, she was just going to leave me to starve. To die.
I was going to die down here with no one even wanting to help me. How did that make me feel? What did that say about my life?
I became desperate to escape, trying everything that I could to get out of that damn room, but as I grew weaker and more hopeless, it became increasingly clear to me that I was stuck forever.
I cried, I wept. I lost all hope and I felt myself shrink in on myself, becoming a shell of the person that I once was. I wasn’t brave when facing death at all. I was a pathetic and sniveling mess.
In the end, I started to talk to Aaron out loud, imagining that he was in front of me, slowly going insane.
“Why did you leave me here?” I asked him again, but the opaque image of him remained as frustratingly silent as always. I knew what I was doing, I knew what this meant for my mental state, but I didn’t even care. I needed my closure, and this felt like the only way I was going to get that now. “Why didn’t you save me, even if you don’t like me in that way? I thought that you were nice – how could you leave me to die? It makes no sense.” I sighed loudly, wondering how long it would take for this misery to finally be over. “I guess my judgment has always been off. I didn’t know that Jon was going to turn out to be the man that he is, and I thought that you were so much better.”
It was obvious that I’d fully given up on life, which was of course the moment that the door finally swung open once more. It was bright, too bright for me to see, and even though I knew that it was only going to be one person, my madness couldn’t stop hope from flooding through my heart.
“Aaron?” I asked pathetically. “Aaron is that you?”
I heard footsteps approach me.
***
Aaron
“Come on,” I insisted to Rick for what felt like the hundredth time. “No one has gone in or out for two days. It has to be safe for us to go in.” Being so tantalizingly close was killing me, and I didn’t know how much longer I could take it for. She was there, within reaching distance, and we were doing nothing about it.
“What if Shelley is in there, just waiting for you?” he asked, but I couldn’t take that. Shelley was rash and impatient. I just couldn’t picture her planning and waiting for anything. If she was in there, knowing that we were out here, surely she would have stormed out now for some sort of epic showdown.
“She isn’t. I know it.” I tugged on his arm, forcing him to look at me. “Chantelle is in there, scared and alone. If no one has been in she’s probably starving to death too. We need to go in there now before it’s too late.”
After a few moments pondering, he conceded. “Okay, just… let’s just do this carefully, alright?”
“I’ll go in, and you keep watch,” I said. I was excited now, glad to finally be taking some positive action. “I’ll be fine inside.”
“Okay,” said Rick. He didn’t like this, I could tell, and I was also aware that this was out of his area of expertise, but I would pay him handsomely for it. He would be rewarded for his loyalty for sure.
We crept toward the house carefully, both shooting anxious looks everywhere as we approached it. It was a rundown building in the middle of a shabby woodlands area, but I imagined that when Shelley’s grandmother lived there and took care of the place, it looked amazing. But right now, it was the scene from a horror movie, and I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible.
“Stay here,” I whispered as we got to the door. “I won’t be long.”
I gulped down the ball of fear that sat firmly in my throat, realizing that this would have been a good time to have some sort of weapon with me. I’d never carried anything to protect myself before, but then again I’d never found myself in a situation like this either.
A gun would have just made me feel a little more confident about this.
I held onto the door handle, watching my trembling hand. I sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to calm down my racing heart and my crazy emotions.
Then I turned the handle, slowly and carefully, and I pushed the door open.
I waited for a while, just listening intently to see if anything was about to happen, and when I was sure that it was nothing, I took my first step inside.
The entire building was filled with grime and dust, and there was a dank smell to the place that made me feel a bit nauseated. But I wasn’t here to focus on the housekeeping, I needed to get to Chantelle, to save her, and to get the hell out of here before things took a turn for the worst.
But where to go?
I knew that the choices were the attic and the basement, and it quickly became obvious to me that she would be downstairs rather than up. She wouldn’t want her happy memories tainted, especially if she was trying to cause some torment.
“Hello?” I called up the stairs, just in case. “Are you there? Chantelle?”
When I got no reply from Chantelle or Shelley, I knew that there was nothing left for it, so I raced down the stairs, and I shoved the furniture out of the way of the door. She was here – it as growing increasingly obvious with every passing second.
So I pushed the door open with excitement, and I raced in…
Just to find the room completely and utterly empty.
“What?” I gasped to myself as I stared at everything in sight. How had I got it so wrong? Maybe I didn’t know Shelley as well as I thought I did after all – a long time had passed since she was in my life.
But then I spotted the blindfold and the rope and I knew that Chantelle had been here at some point, she just wasn’t anymore.
So where the hell was she now? And how was I going to find her? Shelley had to know that I was on my way, surely that was why she’d left.
So again, I did not know where on earth Charlotte was.
That helpless feeling I’d had when she’d first been kidnapped descended on me again.
***
Chantelle
As the shadow moved closer to me, it quickly became obvious that it wasn’t Aaron, but then again it wasn’t Shelley either.
“It’s me.” It was Jon. He grinned that shit-eating smile at me. “I have come to rescue you.”
“No,” I said, mustering up all of the energy that I had left to shake my head at him. “No, you aren’t. You’re a part of this, she told me.” Had she told me? I wasn’t totally sure, but I said it anyway, wanting him to know that I knew he wasn’t totally innocent. He had to be involved in this, I was convinced of it.
He handed me a bottle of water, and I really tried to resist it, but my body was screaming out for it, so in the end I had to give in. If it was poison, it would only kill me quicker anyway, which would be a blessing in disguise.
As the cool liquid slid down my throat, making me no better than before, Jon continued to talk.
“I had nothing to do with this, I didn’t even know that Shelley was crazy,” he said in a voice that sounded kind of truthful, which was hard to accept. “As soon as I got it out of her what she was up to, I sent her on her way.”
“You didn’t call the police?” I asked sarcastically.
“Of course not,” he said, sounding genuinely shocked. “If I had, they would have taken you away from me too.”
I glanced up at him, trying to work out what that meant, but my mind was too addled to really make sense of it all. I could tell that it wasn’t good for me, but I’d been locked away from the world for far too long to really understand.
“How do you know that she won’t come back?” I croaked, feeling the pit of fear flood through my body at the prospect of even seeing her again.
“Trust me, I have enough information on that crazy bitch to keep her away forever. Now come on, get up so that I can get you the hell out of here.”
I really wanted to refuse, to make him go and leave me on my own, but he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He tucked his hands under my armpits and he dragged me into a sitting position. Then he carried me outside, acting all caring like he was really just trying to help me, but the warning bells were ringing inside of me. This wasn’t going to be the end of it – I could sense it. For all I knew he was just rising my hopes to take me to another location to where she would be waiting for me.
If I had any strength in my body, I would fight him off and make a run for it, but I had nothing so I simply allowed him to carry me along. I was being pathetic all over again, but I was too ill and hurt to resist.
He lay me on the back seat of his car, sending me that horrible smirk all over again.
“Don’t you worry,” he announced to me. “I’ll get you to safety soon enough.”
As his car rumbled along the ground, my body kept trying to settle down and to switch off, but I couldn’t let it. I was desperately trying to look out of the window, to work out where we were going, but my eyes kept flickering shut.
Occasionally, I would hear another car go past in the opposite direction, and I wanted to sit up and cry out for help, but I just couldn’t make that happen. I was too weak.
Eventually, despite all of my protests, my body shut down anyway and the blackness engulfed me.
***
For the next few days, my eyes only opened occasionally as my body finally regained some of the strength that it had lost down in that basement. As soon as I was ready to sit up, Jon was by my side with a bowl of soup, encouraging me to eat. I didn’t want to take anything from him, but now that I’d been given this second chance at life, I didn’t want to die either, so I complied.
It took a while, but eventually I managed to stand up, which was when I first braved a mention of leaving. Since there really didn’t seem to be any sign of Shelley, it seemed like for the first time ever Jon was telling me the truth, and although I didn’t really want to trust him, he hadn’t done anything to make me doubt him so far.
“So… I feel much better now. I think I might like to go home.” I said it in a quiet voice, and I flinched afterwards, expecting his red hot temper to flare, but instead he turned to face me with a cold, stoic expression.
“You can’t go,” he insisted calmly. “I’ve finally gotten you back after losing you, and I can’t let you leave again.”
“What?” I gasped, stunned at his admission. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Well, I mean… I did save you, so you do owe me.” He shrugged his shoulders casually. “And since we are obviously meant to be, and I had to send Shelley away because of you, it makes sense… right?”
Of course it didn’t make any sense, but that was Jon’s twisted logic all over. Maybe Shelley had been right about one thing, maybe Jon was obsessed with me. Maybe the whole thing had been a lie, and it was all some kind of twisted plot to get me back to him all along.
Whatever it was, I felt incredibly sick.
“What are you saying?” I gulped down and started to shake. This was all becoming a little too much for me.
He grabbed my face a little too hard and he stared deeply into my eyes. “I’m saying that you’re mine, and that you always will be, do you understand?”
This time I had no choice, all I could do was nod and agree, even if it damn near killed me.
***
The days that followed were the worst of my life. This was even more torturous than being in the basement. Jon was behaving like we hadn’t even broken up, like I hadn’t ever run away, and he was making me act like the doting little housewife, looking after his every need.
I hated it, every damn second of it, and I was constantly planning my escape, but so far I hadn’t been left alone.
The only thing that I’d managed to avoid so far was him coming anywhere near me in the bedroom. I had to lie next to him, to kiss him and act like I loved him, but so far my excuses had kept him off of me. I didn’t know how much longer I could do that for, so I knew that I needed to take action and I needed to do so soon.
As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing myself under the cuts and bruises that inflicted my face, I eventually developed a plan – one that I really hoped would work.
Luckily, I remembered that he kept a stash of sleeping pills in the bathroom that he’d been prescribed years before. He still took them occasionally, so even if they were bad, they hadn’t killed him yet, which meant that I didn’t feel guilty for slipping a few into his night time whiskey.
Once he was out, and I was really sure of that, I rushed out of the door and flew down the street, just needing to get away. As far away from this house as possible. It was like history repeating itself all over again, only this time I was far more desperate to get away.
It was only when I got far enough away to take a break and take stock of my situation that I realized I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t go home because he would find me there, and I couldn’t go anywhere else either.
Maybe it was time to take the plunge and to try and make things up with my parents.
I pondered upon that idea as I walked into the nearest café to ask to use their phone, but as soon as the waitress saw me, she dropped the mug that she was holding in shock.
“Oh my God,” she cried in a southern accent. “It’s you… you’re the girl that got kidnapped.”
“What?” I gasped, how the hell did she know that? I flicked my eyes everywhere expecting Jon and Shelley to pop out of the woodwork at any moment, but somehow they didn’t.
“You’ve been all over the news. Come on, sit down,” she ushered me into a seat. “Have you just escaped?” I nodded numbly. “I’ll get you something to eat and drink and I’ll call the police…”
Everything started to buzz past me in a haze. I knew that events were transpiring, but I couldn’t focus on any of them. I gave a statement to the police, told them everything I could recall, and while one officer went off to arrest Jon and to find out what had happened to Shelley, the other took me home. He tried to take me to the hospital, but I refused. Most of my injuries had healed anyway, and I didn’t want any invasive treatment when I felt so bad. I just wanted to rest.
I stared out of the window, willing myself to ask the police officer to arrange to have me taken to my parents’ home rather than my own, but I couldn’t quite muster up the enthusiasm to do so. I wasn’t quite ready to face them just yet after all. I needed to feel more like ‘me’ again.
As the officer left my home, seeming to judge me as okay to be by myself, that cold fear crept all over me again and it quickly became clear that I couldn’t stay, so I quickly got changed, threw on some clothes and wandered through the streets to end up at the one place that I really wanted to be.
***
Aaron
A strange sound woke me up, and I didn’t quite know what to think about it. Had I been dreaming? I’d certainly been having a lot of nightmares since breaking into that basement, so it was possible that it was all just a construct of my imagination.
Knock, knock.
Nope, there it was again. I glanced over to my clock which revealed that the time was 3.13 am. That had to be a bad sign, no one ever went to someone else’s home at that time of the morning without bringing bad news with them.
Knock, knock.
As the knocking became louder and more insistent, I jumped up, tossing on some clothes at random. My mind was reeling, coming up with millions of possibilities of what I was about to be told – each worse than the last – until I was really worked up into a panic.
Knock, knock.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I raced down the stairs. I felt like it was going to be the police at the door about to give me the worst news possible, and I had no idea how I was going to go on with life after that.
As I pulled the door open roughly, almost throwing up there and then, I found myself faced with the last person in the world that I expected to see.
“Chantelle?”
Was it really her? Was I actually looking at her or was this still a dream? I wanted to reach out and touch her, to prove it to myself, but I couldn’t. It felt weirdly inappropriate to do so.
“I’m sorry to come here,” she started, physically shaking in front of me. “I know you don’t want me, but I just escaped their clutches and I’m too scared to be at home on my own. I just… I don’t know where else to go.”
“What are you talking about?” I gasped, stepping aside so that she could come inside. “What do you mean? Tell me everything!”
She wasn’t the woman that I’d known for sure. Even when I first laid eyes upon her, it was as if she was hiding herself from the rest of the world, but this was different. It was like she was scared to even be standing. I wanted to hug her, to protect her, but I didn’t feel like I had the right. Sure, I had my reasons for leaving her in that nightmare situation, but I still felt horrible for it.
Once she was awkwardly perched on my sofa, she started to tell me everything.
“So I guess you know about Shelley?” she started in a flat tone.
“I did, and I’m sorry,” I instantly jumped in. “I know you probably don’t understand why I didn’t give into her demands and just sleep with her but…”
“Sleep with her?” she interrupted. “She never told me about that. She just said that she asked you for money.” She sighed deeply and thought for a moment. “I guess that makes sense now. You didn’t want to go through with that.”
“It wasn’t just that, I knew it wouldn’t be the end. I didn’t want to give her anything because it would make her only ask for more. I came to save you, I did, but she’d already moved you.”
“No,” she didn’t, Chantelle spoke up again. “Jon came for me.”
“Jon?” I stood up and cried out in shock. “I thought that he had no part of it?”
“I honestly don’t know,” she replied. “But he took me from there, rescued me and told me that I had to be with him.”
I was speechless. I didn’t even know what I could say at that moment. This whole story just kept getting weirder and weirder. It was utter madness.
“I eventually escaped and ran to the nearest café – the girl recognized me and called the police. They have gone to arrest Jon and look for Shelley, but I don’t feel safe knowing that she’s out there. I’m too scared to go home alone, and I don’t know where else I can go. You are the only person who I really know here.”
She looked up at me with such pleading eyes that it broke my heart. There were so many things that I wanted to say in that moment, so many ways that I wanted to reassure her that I’d only had her best interests at heart, but it didn’t feel like the time or place, so I simply nodded. “You can stay here, of course you can. I’ve tightened security in this place since what happened to you, and… I have plenty of spare rooms for you to sleep in. You can wash, eat, and rest safely. I won’t let anything happen to you I promise.”
She nodded wearily, accepting my promise for the time being. I offered her a drink or something to eat which she quickly refused, then I led her to the room down the hall from mine where I could keep an eye on her.
As she lay down and quickly went to sleep, my mind reeled. This whole situation was crazy and I didn’t even know what to think about it.
But at least Chantelle was back with me. That was the main thing.
Sure her feelings towards me weren’t great at the moment, but that hardly mattered. She was here, she was alive. I finally had what I wanted.
***
Chantelle
It took me a while to start feeling like myself again, but with the help of Aaron I finally got there. He was so loving, so attentive, and so respectful of my need for him to keep his distance while I recovered from my ordeal, too. I couldn’t fault him at all.
Sure, I got why he didn’t pay Shelley’s price to save me more than I had before, but that didn’t make it any easier to digest. I knew now that he’d come to rescue me from that awful basement but that Jon had gotten there first, which made it a little easier, but my emotions about the whole thing weren’t always rational.
In the end, I went to see a therapist about it. She talked me through all of my problems – kidnapping related or not – and eventually, after a few months, I started to return to the person that I’d once been. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was a very painful process, but I couldn’t have come out the other side if I hadn’t of gone through it, so for that I was grateful.
And as I recovered, I started to remember the good points about Aaron, everything that had attracted me to him in the first place. I knew that he was far too much of a gentleman to make the first move after everything that had happened to me, so I knew that I had to do it. It took me a long time before I finally felt ready, but I got there in the end.
One evening, as we were sitting eating dinner in front of the TV, I took the plunge.
“Do you think…?” I began. I felt myself going red, and I couldn’t even bring myself to look at him. “Do you think you might want to take me out on a date one night?” I could hear the tremor in my voice, which made it even more embarrassing, but I was glad that I’d finally put it out there.
“Are you serious?” he asked, with a real shock in his voice. “I mean, of course I want to. But, are you ready?”
I finally met his eyes, spotting that warmth that I’d fallen for in the first place. “I’m ready,” I confirmed. I knew it. I’d waited for long enough. I was ready for sure.
“Can I take you out tomorrow for dinner?” he asked, but that already felt like far too long away. Now that I’d made my decision, I was ready to begin my new life immediately. I already felt like I’d missed out on too much and I didn’t want Jon or Shelley to take even one more day away from me.
“Why not go out for drinks tonight?” I said, feeling bolder now, not even caring that I was being far too forward really.
“Do you want me to go to your apartment to pick up some more clothes for you?” He’d been doing this ever since I got back from my ordeal because, although I’d been here when I was taken, I just couldn’t face going back there. There was just something about my home that made me not want to go back there these day. A memory of the vulnerability and loneliness I felt there, that first night after escaping from Jon.
I bit my lip and shook my head, not too concerned with what I looked like. Sure I was only in a t-shirt and skinny jeans, with my long blonde hair hanging loose and no makeup on, but I felt fine with that. If Aaron liked me and still wanted me when I didn’t look perfect, then surely that was the sign that I needed that we were meant to be.
“Okay then,” he looked a little nervous now. “Shall we go?”
***
An hour and a few drinks later, we were both feeling much more relaxed around one another. It was almost as if we’d gone back to the way he and I were before all of this happened.
And the tipsier we became, the flirtier we became too.
I finally felt ready to let him back in, and I couldn’t wait for that to happen. Everything that I’d done since returning home had led me to feel much more confident in myself, and I was finally ready to express that.
He gave me a look, one that suggested that he was hoping that I might want him again, so I leant in and I brushed my lips very lightly against his, letting him know just what I wanted deep inside.
“Come on,” I whispered into his mouth. “Let’s go home.”
Soon after, we crashed through his front door, both elated and excited to be back in one another’s arms. I had been afraid that Jon and Shelley might have messed me up too badly, and that this intimacy might have been too much for me, but luckily those two were the furthest thing from my mind.
All I could concentrate on was this gorgeous man standing right in front of me. The one who made me feel things that I never expected.
We had barely stepped inside when I pushed him back against the wall, kissing him with the fierce passion that was coursing right through me. I wanted him to know how much I wanted him, and I was also enjoying being in control. I’d spent so much of my life having people run my life for me, that it was nice how Aaron let me take charge.
“Are you sure?” he asked, to which I nodded fiercely. Then I pressed my body up against his, molding into him. I could feel his abs, his muscular thighs, his thick erection, and I couldn’t wait to explore everything that he had for me.
Aaron started to moan passionately, tangling his hands up in my hair as both of us started to pant in a heavy, labored fashion.
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life,” I gasped loudly, meaning every single damn word.
The passion radiated from me, making me feel hotter than I ever had before as I ran my hands up and down his body. I could already feel a hot pool of pleasure building in my stomach, and the more we kissed, the more it zipped through my veins, sending me wild. Everything about me was on fire, I was literally dizzy with desire. This was exactly where I needed to be. I wouldn’t have changed this moment for the world.
I tugged at his shirt, wanting him free of it, and he did the same to me. We were in a frenzy for one another, desperate to have each other naked, but by the time that we both were, all we could do was stop and stare at one another, really drinking each other in.
A thought unexpectedly popped into my mind as I gazed upon his sculpted body. I really do love him. I want him to be mine forever.
But I didn’t feel ready to express that aloud, not just yet, so I gripped tightly onto him and kissed him once more. My feelings were real, and they were strong too, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to them, which sealed my lips tightly shut.
His hands explored my body, running over my breasts, playing with my nipples, until he eventually started to work his way down my body eventually finding my core.
“Oh God,” I groaned, throwing my head back in ecstasy, as I closed my eyes and lolled my head to once side. As he kissed me all down my neck, I fully lost myself in the moment, feeling only the incredible sensations that he caused to course all over my body. His fingers discovered me in a way that felt perfect – it was almost as if he already knew my body much better than I did myself.
And then, before I really lost control, I decided to take him in my hand too.
“Oh my God…” he moaned, almost falling against me. “You feel so… I can’t believe…”
But before he could finish that sentence, he spun me around and drove into me against the wall, giving me the most pleasant shock of my life.
As my body began to tremble with pleasure, I gripped tightly onto Aaron, digging my fingernails into his back as he rode me harder and faster, driving me insane.
There was a pressure building inside of me, one that felt powerful and all-consuming and as it overcame me entirely. I yelled out against him, feeling wild and free. It was the best that I’d ever felt in a very long time, and I never wanted that moment to end.
“I love you,” I heard myself calling out, despite knowing that it might not be the right time or place to say that. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” he answered me, sounding as consumed by passion as I felt. “And I want you to be my wife.”
Once we were both collapsed against one another, panting heavily in a satisfied passion, he spoke out once more.
“I meant it, you know,” he asked, which caused my eyes to snap up at him. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? And how did I feel about that? “I do want you to be my wife,” he repeated. I didn’t know what to say, so I simply said nothing. “So will you… marry me?”
***
Aaron
I waited with baited breath for her answer, willing her to say yes. All of this had made me realize that there was no point in holding back when we were so clearly meant to be. She was mine, and I was hers, and if we could survive all that the world had thrown at us then surely we could survive anything. We could make it to the end of time – together forever – I was certain of it.
“Are you serious?” she asked, pacing the room, completely forgetting to be shy about her naked body. I loved seeing her like that, so carefree. It felt nice that she could be that way around me after all that she’d been through. It made me feel glad that I was the one that she could be that way with.
“Of course I’m serious,” I answered, laughing lightly, trying to disguise the hurt that was starting to course through me. I knew that she had to be cautious, and I knew that things were crazy, but it was meant to be, I was sure of it. “I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t really want it to happen.”
“I mean… of course I will!” she exclaimed excitedly. “It’s just a little bit of a shock.”
“I know, but it’ll be amazing, right?”
“Of course,” she finally panted, putting me out of my misery. In that moment I felt my entire life come together in the way that it was always meant to be. It felt like everything had been building up to this moment, and now it was all right. “I’m actually going to be your wife!” she squealed, throwing her hands over her mouth.
I picked her up and spun her around in the air as we celebrated happily. I couldn’t believe how ecstatic I felt. I was on top of the world.
“Come on,” I told her. “Let’s go to bed. We have a lot of wedding planning to get done.”
“Already?” she asked. “Are you mad?”
“Of course!” I chuckled. “I want you to be mine officially forever. I don’t want to delay anymore. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she replied simply, with the cutest smile on her face, which filled my heart with happiness. “I’m so glad that you’re in my life. Now and forever.”
As she lay down in the bed next to me, sleeping like an angel, I couldn’t help but smile at myself. Sure, our road together hadn’t been easy – in fact it had been the hardest thing that either of us had ever had to go through – but we were getting there now. We were slowly carving out the right life for each other, and once we were married and finally settled, everything else would finally fall into place.
I felt like things were going to work out for us now, and that we were finally going to get our happy ever after.
Epilogue
Chantelle
Our wedding day was the best thing of my entire life. It wasn’t too much, too flashy or too showy, but it was perfect for us. We kept it small and personal so that we could make it truly ours.
One of the greatest parts about it was that just before the wedding day, I managed to visit my parents and make things up with them. As soon as I saw them, and they embraced me wholly, I realized that it was mostly my fault we’d lost touch. I was so ashamed of what my life had become that I just couldn’t face them until all was okay. I’d stormed out in a teenage huff, and refused to go back because of my silly damn pride. With all that had happened to me, I could now see just how truly stupid that was.
My perspective had changed on absolutely everything.
They didn’t know anything about my kidnapping before because they lived too far away for it to reach their news channel, and because the police had a contact in Aaron, they didn’t feel the need to get to get to anyone else, and they were horrified to finally learn all about it. They felt a guilt that they really didn’t need to, but aside from that we were all really trying to reconnect in a positive and healthy way.
Things weren’t perfect between us yet, not by a long shot, but we were making strides in the right direction, and for that I felt extremely grateful.
As for my captors – Jon got arrested and charged the same day, and it didn’t take long for them to track down Shelley either. She wasn’t too far away. Neither of them was up for talking about the incident too much, which meant that I was probably never going to find out the full truth about why it all happened to me, but that no longer mattered.
Having a reason wouldn’t make any of it easier to deal with. I simply had to put it behind me and forget about it. I needed to move on and focus on the future.
Especially now, because I was pregnant. Aaron and I were going to have a baby, a little bundle of joy that would solidify our love forever.
Finally, after all that we’d been through, everything was good.
THE END