Epilogue: The Dark Duet (3 page)

“Okay,” she said resolutely. “You drive
and I’ll ask my questions.”

I raised a disbelieving brow.

“Wouldn’t it be
easier to ask me now, when I don’t have to navigate in traffic? And where
exactly do you want me to take you?”

Livvie smiled coyly and it made my
chest ache. She could be such a tease sometimes.

“I want you
distracted, Caleb. I don’t want to give you the chance to shape your version of
the truth. You’re far too good at half-truths. Just drive around and I’ll tell
you when to stop. Stay in the city—no rural roads.” She reached for her harness
and strapped herself in.

I didn’t know if I was offended or
impressed, but I decided to go with the more agreeable of the two.

“Don’t trust
me?” I asked and smiled. She’d always been a fan of my smile.

“To a point,” she replied smoothly. “I
trust you enough to get in your car, but you can’t blame me for being cautious.”

I could feel my face and neck getting
hot. I wasn’t immune to my guilt. I felt guilty for a lot of things where
Livvie was concerned and she was right. She was entitled to much more than
caution. I cleared my throat to break through the tension. I adjusted myself as
surreptitiously as possible, put on my harness, and started the car.

“Whoa!” Livvie gripped the door handle
as the car roared to life and the engine caused our seats to vibrate.

I smiled at the knowledge her pussy had
received a little tickle. My balls appreciated the RPM too. I pulled away from
my parking spot and tried to concentrate on navigating our way out of the
tourist-filled traffic. In the pit of my stomach, my anxiety churned and
threatened to ruin my dinner.

“Okay, I’m all
yours. Ask me anything you’re prepared to have answered.” From the corner of my
eye I could see a smile tugging at the corners of Livvie’s mouth.

“You’re all mine?” she asked.

I looked in her direction.

“Are you
serious? That’s your first question? This might be easier than I thought. Yes,
Livvie, I’m all yours.” I winked at her for good measure. My stomach felt a
little better when I saw her smile.

“And
you’re mine, only mine.”
The void fed on the memory.

“Good to know. But it won’t be that
easy. When you offered to take me home, did you mean my house?” Her tone hinted
at her unease.

I suddenly knew where this conversation
was going to go. However, I’d promised to answer her honestly. I always kept my
promises. All, except one. I pushed the thought away.

“You didn’t
want to go to mine, so I thought yours might be better.”

“Do you know where I live?” she
accused.

I rolled my eyes.

“Yes.”

She was quiet for a while, but I
couldn’t really gauge her thoughts because I had to focus on the narrow,
disjointed streets.

“Okay,” she
said resolutely. “It makes sense you’d know where I live. I’m sure it took you a
while to find me.”

“It did.” I smiled again, but I can’t
be sure it was genuine. I don’t like answering questions, especially ones that
sound like a trap.

“How long have you known where I am?”
The tone of her voice was less than friendly.

“Livvie, I—”

“Caleb. You promised.”

I gritted my teeth.

“I’ve known for
a few weeks.” I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting a group of drunken idiots
crossing the street. Fucking teenagers, they thought they owned the world. I
rolled down my window without thinking and yelled at them. “Get the fuck out of
the road!” One of them gave me the finger and called me a fag in Spanish. “I’ll
show you a fag, you little bitch. I’ll fuck-start your head!”

“Caleb!” Livvie cried out and gripped
my arm. I snapped my head toward her and I could see she was more than a little
frightened. It irritated me more than I understood at the time. I watched as
the group of soccer idiots kept walking down the street. They were still
laughing and shouting at me. I wanted to shoot each of them in the kneecaps.

A horn blared behind me. I stepped on
the gas and propelled us into a roundabout a bit too quickly.

“This isn’t
going the way I hoped, Livvie. You’re obviously scared of me and I’m just
getting irritated. Maybe I should take you home.” I felt a pang in my chest as
I spoke. I didn’t want to take her home, at least not to drop her off. But I
couldn’t take much more cat and mouse. It’s just not who I am.

“If that’s what you want, then I think
you better.” She was definitely angry.

“No. It’s not what I want. I wouldn’t
have gone through all the damn trouble to find you if that’s what I wanted.
Please be rational.”

“You be rational, Caleb. You show up
out of the fucking blue and just expect me to fall on my back and throw my legs
open for you? No! Not until I know what the hell you’ve been up to for the last
year. Not until I know why you’re back in my life and what you expect from me.”

Okay, that made sense. I knew it did. I
didn’t have to like it. My entire life had changed. I’d given up everything I
knew and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it. Why do women have to
do so much talking? If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re thirsty, drink. If you
want somebody to fuck the guts out of you, just say so!

Of course, I knew I couldn’t say any of
those things without proverbially shooting myself in the foot. I’d come to
grovel. I’d fucking grovel. I took a deep breath and slowed down. The car could
practically idle and do 40kph.

“I don’t expect
you to fall on your back and throw your legs open.” I spoke calmly. “But it
would be nice.” I glanced in her direction and gave her my most suggestive
smile. She glared at me.

“I don’t know what I expected, Pet.
I’ve been thinking about you for a long time. I guess I just want to say I’m
sorry. I know I can’t erase our past. I can’t promise you I’m a completely
different person. I’m messed up in ways most people can’t possibly understand,
but I care about you. I had to find you and tell you you’re the only thing I
care about anymore.” I kept my eyes on the road and swallowed hard. My pride is
thick and I may have had to swallow more than once to force it down.

She sighed.

“I… care about
you too, Caleb. The past year hasn’t been easy for me. It’s not just moving, or
letting go of my family and friends….” She was silent for a minute. When she
spoke, there were tears in her voice. “You betrayed me.”

She may as well have slapped me again.
Maybe punched me in the stomach for good measure. She knew how much the word “betrayed”
would get to me.

“How?” I asked
the question as smoothly as I could.

“I was ready to go with you. After
everything you’d done. And you just… left me. You have no idea what I had to go
through. How hard I had to work to become…
human
.”
She whispered the words. She looked out the window and watched the same streets
pass her.

I’m not sure where I went mentally. I
kept circling the same large block. I remembered that day. I had replayed it in
my mind a million times in the past year. What could I say to her? The truth
was awful. I’d killed Rafiq the day before. I’d buried the only family I had
ever known, and I was reeling with the discovery he had been the cause of every
horrible thing that had happened to me. I loved him. I killed him. I couldn’t
look at Livvie without comparing myself to Rafiq. I had kidnapped her, tortured
her, raped her, and taken her away from everything she knew. And she said she
loved me. That had been the worst part.

“I wanted you to be sure.” My words
sounded alien, wooden. I felt Livvie’s hand on my arm. It startled me and
brought me back from the place I’d been. I took a few seconds to just look at
her. She was so damn beautiful—not only on the outside, but on the inside as
well. She was stronger than me. She was braver. She didn’t want vengeance.

“I know why you made me get out. It
took me a long time to accept it, but I understand. I know it was your way of
being selfless, your way of sacrificing. But you made me sacrifice too. I
almost went bat-shit crazy.” She smiled genuinely and I couldn’t help but
follow suit.

“You are crazy, Livvie. But I wouldn’t
have you any other way.” I turned my hand over and she moved her hand into mine.
It’s stupid how happy it made me. “In case you haven’t noticed, I am not the
poster child for mental health.”

“Oh, I noticed.”

“Bitch.” I feigned insult.

“Asshole.”

“I missed you,” I said.

She squeezed my hand.

“Take me to a
hotel, Caleb.”

I visibly straightened. There was a
fleeting moment of internal struggle while I contemplated giving her answers to
questions she didn’t ask, but in the end I just had to be me. I am the master
of half-truths. 

"I know just the place."

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I put
the keycard into the door. I knew what the room would look like. I knew Livvie
would think it was beautiful. I knew there was an enormous bed waiting to be
soiled. What I didn’t know was if I’d get the chance to use it the way I
wished.

“Wow, Caleb.” Livvie stepped inside and
put her purse on the coffee table. “You certainly know how to make an
impression. First the car, now the room.”

I shrugged from the foyer.

“The car’s
rented. Technically, so is the room. I have good taste though; no one can deny
me that.”

“No, I guess they can’t.” She wandered
to the curtains and pulled them back. It seemed to be a clear indication she
didn’t trust me.

I took the insult as best I could. How
insulted did I really have a right to be? I knew she believed the hotel to be a
secure place to meet. All she’d have to do was scream and someone would
probably hear us. Of course, the key word there was
probably
. I was tempted to remind her that if I were so inclined,
she wouldn’t even get to scream. However, I figured it wasn’t in my best
interest to point such things out to her.

I walked into the living area and made
myself comfortable on the sofa. I wanted to get the preliminaries out of the
way as soon as possible and get back to more pleasurable pursuits. In the
meantime, I watched Livvie. Always inquisitive, my Livvie, a curious little
kitten. I eyed her from my seat as she ran her long fingers along the
furniture, the drapes, and the Tiffany lamp on the desk.

“Livvie.” She focused on me. Her nerves
were obvious. “Come sit with me.”

She shook her head slightly.

“I’m not sure
that’s such a good idea.”

I rested my head on my fist. I stared.
On this point there would be no discussion. I’d made my request clear and I
expected her to acquiesce. I wasn’t going to argue moot points. I took great
pleasure in exerting my dominance. It was fun watching her squirm.

Taking my bait, Livvie filled the
silence.

“Caleb… come
on. You know the second I go over there you’re just going to pounce on me.” She
was biting her lip again, her fingers nervously tugging on it. “Caleb? Are you
even going to say anything? Oh, okay, so you’re just going to sit over there,
looking all ‘you know you want me’? I’m not scared of you, Caleb.” She crossed
her arms over her chest and tried her best to look intimidating. “I have pepper
spray in my purse!”

I couldn’t help it. I burst into
laughter.

“Oh my god, you’re such a jerk,” she
said. She walked toward me and unceremoniously plopped onto the sofa. “Fine!
I’m here.”

I was still holding my stomach when my
laughter finally subsided and I could make eye contact without starting up
again.

“I’m sorry,
Livvie, I really am. You kill me. Pepper spray? I’ve tracked you all over the
world and that’s what’s going to stop me—pepper spray.”

Livvie’s wide grin was my reward for
all the slaps and insults she’d thrown my way during the course of the evening.

“Well, maybe it
wouldn’t stop you. It would still be fun to watch you roll around on the ground
crying for a while.” She shrugged. “It might still be fun.”

We laughed for little while, diffusing
all the tension. I felt completely at ease by the time we were done laughing
and I knew Livvie did too. Her shoulders had dropped. Her fingers had stopped fidgeting.

“I missed you, Caleb.”

“I missed
you
, Livvie.”

Livvie took off her heels and set them
beside the sofa. As she pressed her toes into the carpet and grabbed at the
thick fibers, she smiled at me. She sat up straight, bending her knees so she
could sit on her feet. It was a relaxed and casual pose. It was a good sign for
things to come.

“All over the
world, eh? Tell me about that.”

I stared at her for a second, but I
relented. It was best to get it out of the way. I took off my shoes and adopted
a more comfortable pose as well. There is nothing more unattractive than having
to stop getting naked to remove one’s shoes. I like to think ahead.