“I believe the word you’re looking for is successful. I may be all of those things, my beautiful love, but I’m also very successful. My wealth opens doors that are otherwise closed to the average citizen. I won’t apologize for that and I won’t take it back.”

She grew serious as she stared up at him. “Money also corrupts. The average citizen would never consider kidnapping a woman who rejected him.”

He stilled, and for a moment, she thought he would become angry.

Instead, he framed her face with his hands and said, “Money had nothing to do with my decision to take you for myself. Had I been a poor man, I would’ve done the same thing. Money enabled me to bring you into my keeping in the quickest and easiest way I could think of.”

Her heart raced and her body reacted with desire, her nipples tightening and her pussy growing slick with need. She hated him for making her feel this way, but she also hated herself for not really hating him. Her memory of the past several weeks was fading. The kidnapping, the drugging, the rape. It was becoming fuzzy as her feelings grew for the man pinning her to the bed.

“I’m scared,” she admitted, without explaining what she meant.

Volkan either understood what she was saying — that she feared the future, feared living in a new country with a man she barely knew, feared disappointing her family. Or he didn’t care because he knew exactly what their future would be and had determined that there was nothing to fear.

“I’ve got you, küçük olan,” he murmured, bending to kiss her lips softly. “You will have nothing to fear as long as I’m around.”

But she didn’t believe him because she couldn’t trust him. She’d seen his temper, seen the way he resolved things. She knew that eventually, he would do something that would ignite her fear again, and the anxiety of not knowing kept her awake long after Volkan had fallen asleep next to her.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Two days later, Yasmin found herself walking toward the man she was about to promise to love, cherish, and obey for the rest of her life. Their families surrounded them, everyone in their finery. Flowers exploded throughout the yard in every shade of Yasmin’s favourite colours of yellow and blue, Narin apparently compromising after Volkan spoke to her.

The day of her wedding would have been spectacular, except for one small thing. A tiny thing, really. A secret she hadn’t told anyone yet. Well, almost no one.

As she reached the steps leading up to the gazebo where they would speak their vows, Volkan reached for her, taking her hand in a firm grip and helping her. His grip was a comfort and she accepted the hand he slid across her back.