AMARA'S POV
The Manor felt different when you were chained to the man who owned it. Every door that opened for him opened for me. Every guard who bowed to him saw me as a literal extension of his arm.
He led me straight to the master suite. He didn't call Elena. He didn't call the doctors. He wanted me alone.
He walked into the massive walk-in shower, pulling me in with him. The gold chain rattled against the marble tiles. He turned on the water—scalding hot.
"Clean the street off you," he commanded, handing me a sponge.
"I can't... I can't do this with you watching," I said, the steam rising around us, blurring the edges of the room.
"Rule Number Five, Amara," Kai said, leaning against the glass wall of the shower, his suit trousers soaking wet, his eyes never leaving mine. "Privacy is a luxury for those who don't run. Wash. Now."
I began to scrub my skin, the hot water stinging the scratches from the service hatch. The gold chain was a heavy, constant reminder. Every time I moved my arm to wash my back, I felt the tug of his wrist. It was a dance of forced intimacy.
As the soap lathered over my skin, Kai's expression shifted. The anger was still there, but it was being drowned out by that terrifying, holy awe he had for my body. He reached out, his tethered hand catching mine.
He took the sponge from me.
"I'll do it," he whispered.
His touch was surprisingly gentle, a jarring contrast to the man who had pinned me to a car an hour ago. He washed the dirt from my knees, the grit from my heels. He moved the sponge over the violet veins on my chest, his touch lingering over my heart.
"You are so beautiful," he murmured, almost to himself. "A masterpiece of destruction."
He dropped the sponge and pulled me into him under the falling water. The gold chain wrapped around our waists, binding us together in a metallic embrace. He kissed me then—not with rage, but with a desperate, soul-crushing hunger.
I found myself kissing him back. That was the real horror. My body was reacting to him, my soul was reaching for him, even as my mind screamed that he was my enemy. The bio-link was winning. The "Anchor" was working.
He lifted me, pressing me against the wet marble. The gold chain clattered violently between us.
"Say it," he gasped against my neck, his hands bruising my hips. "Say you're never going to run again."
"I... I can't," I sobbed, the steam and the water and the pleasure making it hard to think.
"Say it, or I'll keep you in this shower until the countdown hits zero!"
"I won't run!" I cried out, the words feeling like a betrayal of every woman in my bloodline. "I won't run, Kai! Just... please..."
He entered me then, the water acting as a slick catalyst for a passion that felt like an exorcism. We were chained together, physically and genetically, two monsters drowning in the same gold cage.
As I reached the peak, my vision exploding into violet sparks, I realized the roadmap had changed. I wasn't looking for the exit anymore. I was looking for the secret to making him love me—because if I couldn't be free, I would at least be the thing that destroyed him from the inside out.