A day ago, Yasmin would’ve laughed if someone had told her she’d get kidnapped with plenty of witnesses around and that not a single person would lift a finger to help her.

“I don’t need to tell them anything,” Volkan said arrogantly. “The right amount of money seals lips.”

“That’s very cynical, Volkan,” she argued. “One day you’ll meet someone you can’t buy. Someone who won’t keep silent when you do the wrong thing.”

He looked at her and his expression was so fierce it stole her breath. “I already have.”

It hit her then, like a hammer to the side of the head. She knew why he wanted her. It wasn’t her looks, or her intelligence. It was her heart. Not love necessarily, though he wanted that too. He wanted the woman who lived life on her own terms, choosing her job, her studies, her dates. He wanted the one woman his money couldn’t buy. The woman who had rejected him on moral grounds.

But he’d acquired her in such an immoral way.

So, he didn’t want her to change him or he would have found a better way to unite them. He wanted her because he was amused by her resistance.

Any enjoyment she might have found in the evening dissipated as her thoughts became darker. What would he do with her if he grew bored? Send her away? Lock her in a basement somewhere? Or something worse? She didn’t know him well enough to know what he might do, which was why she had to try harder to get away from him while simultaneously making him think she was doing his bidding and dutifully falling in love.

The elevator stopped and Volkan took her arm, escorting her out. She gasped as they were greeted by a lovely rooftop patio. It was clearly set up as part of the restaurant, but there were no diners. All the tables except one had been moved to the side, along with the chairs.

Trellises and pagodas filled the patio with lush plant life. Ivy wound its way across the space with bright purple, pink, and orange flowers dotting the greenery. It was breathtaking.

Fairy lights peeked out strategically through the trellises like lightning bugs.

The table was close to the rooftop’s edge and, anticipating her desire to see the view, Volkan walked her around the table to the edge of the roof. They were only twelve stories up, not a huge height compared to the surrounding buildings, but enough that they could see across the London cityscape.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, disappointed that she was sharing such a moment with a deranged man. She turned to him, looking up at his dark visage.

He wasn’t facing the city as she had been, he was looking down at her.

“Can I ask you something?” she said.

He nodded, but his eyes took on a more serious look.