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The only disappointment of the night was Otis, who didn’t come. We haven’t spoken much since I told him the truth about my relationship with Ares. He’s been avoiding me.
The door opens, and the man I’m obsessed with enters the dressing room; he closes the door and leans back against it.
He looks at me, his face serious.
I know he waited for the whole family to leave, after congratulating me on my performance, so he could talk to me alone.
Little by little, I’m getting to know him. He wasn’t joking when he said he’d learned not to show feelings, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about my Greek over the last few weeks, it’s that words don’t carry the same weight as actions.
He’s never talked about what we have, but I feel adored every night I spend in his bed.
“I have a surprise,” he says.
I’m sitting, taking off my ballet shoes, and after flexing one foot, I lift my head to look at him. “A surprise?”
“I’m going to kidnap you for twenty-four hours.”
“I . . .”
“I know. You have to rehearse. But the next performance is in five days. I want to kidnap you.”
“Even your choice of words is that of an ogre.” I smile, getting up, going to where he is, and putting my arms around his neck.
“What else would I call isolating you in the Hamptons, naked, just feeding on your body?” He lifts me into his arms, and I wrap my legs around his waist.
“That sounds like a good kidnapping.”
“Let’s go by helicopter. Twenty-four hours. No cell phones. Just the two of us.”
“It sounds like paradise.” I lift myself up a little to kiss him, but as soon as I lock our lips, the door opens.
“Oh!” Debra says, looking embarrassed. “Forgive me.”
Ares sets me down slowly. After kissing me on the mouth, he says, “You have half an hour to get ready.”
After he leaves, Debra smiles. “You are happy.”
“Yes, so much so that I feel scared.” I finish undressing, without any shame about being naked in front of her. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“So, the celebratory dinner was aborted, apparently?”
“You can bet on that. He wants to kidnap me.”
“And you’re dying to be kidnapped.”
“I can’t deny it. Have fun without me.”
Instead of the formal dress I was going to wear, since we had a reservation at a famous restaurant here in Manhattan, I go back to wearing the jeans and silk blouse that I arrived in. I pick up the pumps I left on the floor and, standing up, put one on. When I slide into the other one and put my weight on the first one, however, I let out a scream.
It takes me a few seconds to understand what happened, but when I take off my shoe and see the blood, I sit on the floor
Serenity
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
“Serenity?”Debra shrieks, looking at my foot, horrified.
“Someone filled my shoe with blades. Call Ares, please.”