Bartered (The Encounter #1)(22)

When I was sure I was turning blue and would die that very moment because my vision became blurry, something happened.

“Let her go!” Yanni, my younger brother, interrupted, punching Father in the face, making him drop me to the floor, heaving and gasping for air in my lungs. “Iso, you okay?” he asked worriedly before he focused his attention on his target. My father almost fell to the floor, but what he did next was quite the unexpected.

His laugh—the mind-bending evil kind of laugh that only demonic people possessed—bellowed out of him, appearing as if he was finding this situation easy to laugh off.

“Saving your sister was a mistake.” My father’s dead eyes burned into me before they landed on my brother. “Throwing your fist at me guaranteed that your life will be hell.” He glanced at me before flicking his gaze back to Yanni. “Consider this a lesson to you both,” he warned before leaving us to recover.

Five minutes later, when I thought my day couldn’t get any worse, I heard the most chilling of screams from my mother.



Later, I found out that he punched her in the stomach because he deemed it useless that it couldn’t even hold a baby. He believed that a woman’s womb was made to carry all babies. Women that couldn’t were, therefore, a disgrace. This was one of the reasons he tried to justify his lifestyle—full of gambling, deceit, and countless women who were idiotic enough to buy his bullshit.

Every time I thought about that time, I felt responsible for bringing more hurt to my mother. It was selfish of me, yet I knew I had to follow my gut, and the need to be free of my father’s shackles was just too profound to ignore.

“Here you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Hugo. Crap. Was he here to reprimand me of my abhorrent behavior towards his aunt? “Is this about your Aunt Julee? Listen, she—”

“She said that you were a cheeky, ill-mannered gold digger.”

Cheeky? Probably. Ill-mannered? Definitely. But a gold digger? I certainly wasn’t. Ever since I had arrived here, I had tried to ignore the deep, nagging feeling of loneliness, or how I wished to be with my friends and spend this precious time with Damen instead of playing charades with the megalomaniac named Hugo Xavier. Putting a brave face on everyday was a challenge as it was, and then, in comes Julee Favre with her brow raising, elegant self, questioning my position in Hugo’s faux love life.

Wearing an insufferable expression, I had to lay how I felt about his aunt out for him. “Your aunt had it coming,” I said unapologetically. “If you’re here to ask me to apologize to her, then you’re wasting your breath.”

“I’m not here for that.” He eyed me thoughtfully, angling his face so the last rays of the sun basked over him, making him glow. Chocolate brown turned into golden, fiery lava before me, taking my breath away. “Although, it’s quite an accomplishment to get her so viciously mad.”

“Was that… a compliment?” I hid a shy smile.

He matched my grin, eyes dancing at me, amused. “I know she’s difficult. At one point, I was worried how you’d fair with her, but I guess that answers my curiosity.”

“Well, I aim to please, Your Highness,” I teased further; glad I hadn’t ticked him off about his aunt.

“Is that so?” he murmured with a look about him, staring at me with wonderment.

The look he was giving me made me thirsty. Touching the base of my throat, I timidly gazed at him. “What?”

“You just surprise me.” A frown creased his handsome profile before he reached out and cupped my cheek. His touch simply shocked me. “I never thought a smile could mesmerize me…” he rasped out. “But you have proven me wrong.”

Dear me. What was he doing? He had never acted this way, like he was starting to like me. Not the Isobel he saw, but the woman inside me.

“I can’t stop thinking about you, Isobel.” He sounded strangled, just as confused as I was. “I don’t want to, and yet you remain in my mind…”

“Hugo…” What should I say to him? Damn. He needed to know. “Please, don’t go there. We both know that this is purely business. Don’t make it more than that.”

“That’s the thing, I do know this.” He seemed tormented. “And I do know that you’re in love with a man named Damen Zabat.”

Had I heard him right? “How did you—”

“A thorough background check is part of being a mistress. It was in the contract you signed.”

“Oh.” Had I failed to see it? Maybe I had, but my mind had been preoccupied with more pressing decisions from what the contract entailed.

He sighed loudly before he gazed out onto the sea, pondering. “Is it wrong that the more you deny me, the more I want you? Your heart might belong to another man, but your body wants me, Isobel.”

It was sad; however, what he was saying was the truth. My traitorous body couldn’t help eagerly responding to his touches. I was attracted to him, and this carnal feeling I felt each time I saw him was pure torment, because I didn’t want to feel this way. It was wrong, and yet, when he touched me, all I could think about was him and this spellbinding power he had over my body.

He took a moment before he spun around and faced me, looking determined. “Tell me I’m lying.”