The CEO's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 36

　　Eve looked down at her phone as it rang again for the millionth time. It was Brendan again.

　　He has been messaging and calling since the early hours of the morning. Besides replying with a quick 'I'm okay, I'll call you later,' just so he wouldn't think she was in a ditch somewhere, she'd ignored everything.

　　Even Miranda and Josie had texted to ask where the two of them had disappeared to last night but she hasn't bothered to reply to them.

　　What could she say?

　　She'd just found out she was fucking the devil? She had given her mind and body to an evil bastard who liked to own people like property?

　　He'd used her body's responses to him against her to make her sign that wretched contract. And now she was stuck here because she couldn't tell her parents that she wasn't buying the house anymore and that they would be homeless.

　　She looked outside her bedroom window and sighed. It was raining today. It was still and chilly. The weather has changed so suddenly, typical of the English weather, but it matched her mood perfectly.

　　She had gone beyond fear now. In her mind, she'd seen all the things that Roman could do to her with his money until all she felt was this numbness. This emptiness.

　　She had showered again when she'd woken up after a couple of hours of restless sleep and had dressed in another pair of pyjamas.

　　If it wasn't for the fact that she knew Roman was in the house, she wouldn't have bothered. She would have stayed in bed all day. But she didn't want to be in a vulnerable position in case he came in again.

　　It was clear that whatever this arrangement was, it wasn't working anymore so why couldn't he just leave her alone? Why couldn't he go to the other girls?

　　She felt her eyes start to water at that thought and blinked it away. She'd been such a fool. Such a naive fool. Roman had shown his true colours from the beginning but she had been too blind to see it.

　　She heard a knock on her door and tensed.

　　It was almost lunchtime. After the way they had parted last night, why hadn't he just gone home? Why did he want to keep her wound up like this, wondering what he was going to drop on her next?

　　The knock came again and she remained silent.

　　She didn't want to see him. She didn't want to remember that she had been in love with someone like him, and a stupid part of her still believed that it was true.

　　The door opened without her consent, as she had known it would, but she kept her gaze outside.

　　"I'm making some lunch. You should come down and eat something."

　　She didn't respond. What was she supposed to say, anyway? He was only there to show her that he could do whatever he wanted just because he could. Why else has he sent Phillip away when he had to have known what her reaction would be?

　　"Evelyn, we can talk about this. You don't have to starve yourself."

　　Would her words make any difference? She'd left him before and he'd dragged her back and said she was his whore until he was done with her. And last night was the same thing. He'd booked a private room in a club just to show her that she was indeed a whore, because even after seeing him with another woman, she'd still let him fuck her.

　　And now it seemed he actually owned her. She was stuck here.

　　"The silent treatment? Come on, Evelyn, that's not going to get us anywhere," Roman said. "The food is almost ready, I'll have it on the table in fifteen minutes. Come down so we can discuss this."

　　She didn't know how long he stood there but she could feel his gaze burning the back of her head.

　　Her phone started vibrating again but she didn't even glance at it.

　　She was supposed to go to her parents' house tonight. She only had a few hours before her mother started calling to ask where she was. She would have to answer her phone and lie.

　　At least for now. The truth was going to have to come out when she figured things out.

　　"Evelyn," Roman sighed.

　　Why was he even bothering? Did he really think they could get past this? There was nothing to discuss. He'd put things in the contract that he had known she would never agree to, and then spent the night pretending to be the perfect man just to make her sign it. He'd been intentionally devious. How could she ever trust him again? How could she give her body to someone like that?