Her mother admonished her to be careful and not do anything rash. To stick with her archaeology team and take things slow with the ’Turkish gentleman’ who had taken a sudden interest in her. Yasmin agreed, a gnawing guilt sensation eating away at her as she lied.

She would call again in a few days and tell them she’d left the dig to spend more time with Volkan. She would disappoint and worry them, but not as much as if they knew the truth. Then, in a week, she would call to tell them she was engaged and beg them to fly to Turkey on Volkan’s private jet. Then, when they arrived, Volkan would set about wooing them so they wouldn’t worry about their daughter making such a rash decision.

It was perfectly planned out and she barely had to do anything except bear the bitter weight of her parent’s disappointment, which seemed a small price to pay if it meant they were safe. They didn’t need to know that their daughter had been kidnapped and raped and now faced a lifetime of imprisonment at the hands of the man she hated.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Yasmin wasn’t sure what exactly Volkan’s job was as CEO of a transportation company, but she was getting the impression that it was a lot of work. He left before she got up in the morning and he came home late, often after the family had eaten dinner.

The days passed in a blur of wedding planning and late evenings when Volkan joined her for an evening drink before announcing bedtime. Each time he said the words, she would tense, expecting the worst. He hadn’t touched her though, beyond kissing her goodnight, rolling over and going to sleep.

The tension was stressing her out. He still touched and kissed her every chance he had, but he hadn’t tried to have sex with her again. Was he waiting until after the wedding? But if that was the case and he was simply following tradition, why were they sharing a room? Or maybe it was psychological warfare. He was teasing her with the possibility of sex, but she would never know when he planned on following through.

She didn’t want to provoke him, so she kept her questions to herself and did her best to follow his rules while cataloguing everything she saw and heard in the house.

Finally, as they were getting ready for bed on their third day in Turkey, Volkan offered to take her to work with him the next day and she accepted. She didn’t want to spend extra time with him if she could help it, but she liked the idea of finally leaving the house and seeing more of Istanbul. Plus, she might find a way to escape.