Chapter 253: Two conditions

The world flipped upside down in a single second.

Burying my face straight into the hard seat and groaning plaintively from a dull pain in my ribs, I tried to get up right away.

But nothing worked. My hands sank deep down on either side of the armrest and front seats, and my hips got stuck in the narrow gap. To my indescribable horror, I realized I couldn’t move from the spot at all. My body seemed paralyzed in this ridiculous trap. I was stuck.

"What are you doing?" a low voice suddenly sounded from behind, sending an icy shiver down my spine, and, panicking, I thrashed even harder in a desperate attempt to free myself.

Useless.

The moment I realized just what a humiliating position I was in, and from what angle Damian was staring right at me, my cheeks instantly flushed with the heat of wild, corrosive shame. My confusion rendered me completely helpless, turning me into a vulnerable target for his teasing alpha dominance.

"Help me out," I whispered, overcoming suffocating pride, while my palm frantically felt for some metal fixture beneath the seat, trying to brace against it to pull out at least one arm. "I’m stuck..."

"I see. But I’m not a man whore so I don’t go about helping everyone, Hart," he spoke with absolute, mocking coldness, brushing something hard against my backside just before the car door slammed shut with a dull thud.

Straining my neck and twisting my head around, I saw that he had climbed into the back seat. It looked like he had deliberately brushed against me when he sat down, and at the sheer realization of how goddamn awful this looked from the outside, I howled mentally. God! No! He sat right in front of me!

"Please... my legs hurt. You don’t want to take me to the hospital again, do you? Because then I won’t be able to clean your apartment properly, and my stay at your place will be longer," my voice broke mid-word from desperation.

For several agonizing seconds after my words, a dead silence hung in the cabin, and then I suddenly felt Damian’s large hands grip tightly beneath my knees. The very next second, sharply and without warning, he pulled them toward me so that I was bracing them right against the back seat.

The position became even worse and more humiliating, as he brazenly hauled my hips upward, and I completely lost any chance of crawling out, since my body’s balance shifted entirely onto my chest, pressing my face flat into the seat.

"Even better like that," the alpha said with a wicked smirk and slowly stroked my side, slightly brushing against my bottom as if by accident. "Great view."

"Damian! You... help me! I can’t stand like this!" I said hoarsely, thrashing. Embarrassment burned my cheeks, and shame ate away at everything inside like caustic drops of acid, leaving no healthy spot untouched.

"Too bad, but I can," he replied indifferently.

From the sounds, I realized he had cracked open the window, followed by the characteristic click of a lighter. The cabin instantly filled with the pungent scent of cigarette smoke.

"Damian, please. Help me," closing my eyelids so tight that colored circles floated before my eyes, I let out a ragged breath, trying with all my might to calm down. My other arm was stuck even worse. There, the bracelet was wedged hard against some metal part, and I couldn’t move my arm at all.

"Not yet, I’m very busy."

"Doing what?" fidgeting nervously with my knees against the upholstery, I realized with horror that they had started slowly sliding apart.

"Contemplating beauty, Hart. Ever see monks stare at water for hours?" cupping one of my legs just above the knee with his hot palm, he roughly pulled it toward himself so that it stood straight, and the intimate gesture made me shudder so violently that I wanted to howl with frustration. This absurd situation struck my already stretched, raw nerves.

"You don’t look anywhere near a monk. And your brother is waiting out there—it’s rude to make people wait," I managed to leverage myself up slightly by some miracle, but my palms were already slick with sweat and slipping, making me perilously unstable in such a position.

"He already drove off, so we have plenty of time alone—time I intend to make good use of," the guy grunted darkly, the soft crackle of his cigarette filling the air as he took a deep drag.

Freezing completely, every muscle in my body turned to stone. Despair squeezed my heart in a vice grip, making it nearly impossible to draw a breath. Wild, desperate thoughts flooded my mind—one of which was to kick him full force in the face. Yet I knew all too well that I would only bruise my own leg against his stone-hard body, and the chances that he’d drive the car to the city junkyard afterward and leave me there to rot were damn near guaranteed.

"Can we work something out?" losing all hope of salvation, I pressed my clammy forehead helplessly against the cool leather of the seat.

"We can, of course. What can you even offer me?"

"What do you want?" I asked softly, instantly regretting it. That was a question I absolutely should not have asked a monster like Damian. Besides, what could I possibly offer the heir alpha of the pack, a man who already had everything?

"My desires haven’t changed at all, Hart. I want you," he hummed, his movements unnervingly fluid as he wrapped his hands around my ankles, slowly creeping his long fingers up inside the hem of my jeans. He squeezed my sensitive skin with palpable, commanding pressure, radiating a heat that immediately sent a heavy shiver racing through my entire body.

"I won’t sleep with you!" I snapped back sharply, clenching my jaw tight. "I’d rather stay right here. Sooner or later, you’ll pull me out yourself when you need this car. I don’t need freedom at that price."

"Stubborn little bird," he trailed off thoughtfully.

For those couple of endless moments, my heart stopped completely before breaking back into a frantic, erratic rhythm, pumping molten magma through my veins instead of blood while the rest of the world ceased to exist.

"I have two conditions."

"What conditions?" I licked my dry lips impatiently, grimly estimating in my head what humiliating outfit he would shove onto me this time to make me scrub the ceilings in his manor until they shone. Fucking bastard.

"You have to sit on my lap every evening for at least an hour, and... you become my official girlfriend."

That single sentence stole the breath right out of my lungs. At those insane words, I twisted around sharply, straining with all my strength to push myself up so I could look at him over my shoulder. And I saw his dark eyes burning brightly with an expectant, devilish flame—threatening to burn me to ash.