I learned my lesson.

Truly, I did. I was meant to stay here and be tortured by Rogue. Stupid acts like trying to escape or finding ways to escape weren't going to be acted on if it would get my loved ones hurt. I was done with that. Rogue had successfully removed all the bravery inside. Congratulations to him, he won and lost at the same time.

I wasn't the one he was looking for.

He knew I had nothing to do with Hanna's disappearance, but he was still keeping me here. What was the point of making him believe me, then? So I could continue being held against my will?

I finally met another one of Rogue's staff, Ameena. I could tell she didn't like me and was openly hostile, even though she never said a word to me. While she tried to ignore me, every movement of mine was hers. The petite woman was proving to be a difficult person, so I tried to ignore her. I was bored sitting in my room, so I joined Miriam in the kitchen. I offered to help her cook because I didn't want to waste away in my room. I wanted to do something.

The afternoon was spent in the kitchen. We ended up baking so many things. It started as something Miriam asked to me make, then it became something I wanted to do. I always had stress-baked, but today, I ended up doing it without being stressed, and I realized I kind of liked it. Miriam had warmed her way into my friendship, despite how hard I wanted to ignore making any connection with anyone, but there were friendship and understanding between us, which I hoped would keep me sane as long as I remained here. The woman didn't know how to hold a grudge, I would give her that. She chatted about nothing and everything, giving me a sense of normalcy in this hellhole.

When Rogue strolled into the kitchen, I froze with my hand in a dough. His presence filled the kitchen, consuming everything else; space, my energy, and my air. His hazel eyes were smoldered, and he wore shorts and black singlet, his muscles all bunched and ripped. Sweat glided down his body. His hair was wet. He must have been on the run.

My entire body reacted, my mouth parting, and my heart gave a wild kick. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't ignore the spark, the connection. I swallowed the moisture in my mouth, but I failed to read anything in his expression. It made me nervous. He had an aura of pure raw strength, every inch of him was perfect. How could someone so perfect, so painfully attractive be so bad? Desire pinched me, while at the same time, I shook with fear. The emotions tore me in two.

"Mr. Slade, do you need something?" Ameena came out of nowhere and sweetly asked of him, lowering her voice, and I could see her batting her eyelashes, looking up at him with wonder and adoration.

I rolled my eyes. Rogue didn't spare her a glance or made any attempt to reveal he heard what she was saying. He stared at me with hooded eyes, causing my heart to race.

"How about food?" Ameena tried it, but he dismissed her without a second thought, his gaze sweeping me up and down. I didn't know how I must have looked, but I didn't care. I was embarrassed, though. I must have looked horrible. Wait, I didn't care how I looked to him. He can go fuck himself.

He stormed toward me and wrapped his hand on my forearm, lurching me into him. He leaned closer, brushing my cheek with a hard hand. Electricity zapped from his touch, and my legs clenched.

He didn't say anything else but began to pull me out of the kitchen. I could feel Ameena's deathly glare on my back.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded, trying to keep up with his long strides.

"You're filthy. You need to be cleaned up." His voice was rough and invited a surge of goosebumps on my arms.

"Are you going to clean me up?"

He spun around so quickly, and I ended up smacking into his chest. I stepped back and rubbed my forehead. Rogue glared down at me.

"I'm not a fucking rock," he gritted, possibly offended that a small collision with his chest might have threatened to split my head open. An amused chuckle that I didn't have time to hold in slipped out of me.

He hissed and spun around again, dragging me along with him. We passed through the living room and walked down the hallway, past through his office, wincing as I remembered what had transpired inside. Shrugging the memory away, I let myself be pulled to a last door on the right.

When we stepped inside, it was a pool house. The whole room was surrounded with glass roof and windows with a perfect view of a green landscape. The pool was gigantic and intimidating. It was much colder in here, and with my hand secured in Rogue's, I couldn't hug myself. There were chairs and tables, and a few towels.

Rogue still hadn't let go of me when we reached the edge of the pool. Before I could tell him that I wanted to shower and not use the pool, he pushed me. The bastard pushed me inside the pool, and I had no time to react before I splashed inside and dove under. When I resurfaced, he was already out of the pool house.

"Dammit, Rogue!" I yelled, making a splash with my hand as I hit the water in anger.

I was shivering by the time I reached my room. No, I needed to stop calling it my room. It wasn't my room. It wasn't my house. These clothes I was wearing weren't my clothes, but I had no choice. The choice to be in my room, to walk around my house, and to wear my own clothes were stolen from me. I needed to remember that.

While I was drying my hair with a towel, my door was slammed open. Rogue stood, freshly showered and in casual clothes, posture hard and unmovable. I discarded what I was doing and threw the towel in his face. Despite my lousy aim, the world decided to laugh at me and got the towel to hit him in the face. Shit. It dropped to his feet. Rogue's eyes darted to the ground. His jaw clenched before glaring at me with every unspoken command possible.

My lip stayed pressed. I wasn't going to apologize. He pushed me into the pool! What if I hadn't known how to swim? I would have drowned!

Clearing his throat, he cranked his neck. The force of his temper buffeted like a slap to the face, but his calmness roared more than his temper. "Taylor got a message from Hanna yesterday. She set up a meeting point," he said with barely held restraint and face tensed.

Hanna was okay? Happiness bloomed in my chest before I set him a glare. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I needed to see how things would work out, and I was right not to act on it. Taylor met with someone thirty minutes ago. She looked exactly like Hanna. Not in resemblance, but in the clothes she wore, her hair—" He shook his head. "It wasn't Hanna. She was planted there like a fucking piece in an art museum. Meant to play with us."

My heart punched in my chest. My air lungs closed off. Hanna was really taken. I needed to sit down. My body took control and lowered itself on the bed. Tears erupted from my eyes, and Rogue growled.

"No matter, I intend to find her. Whoever wants to play this game hasn't met me." He stalked forward and stopped a meter away from me. "Crying won't help you. You need to think. Remember."

I sniffed, straightening my back. My voice came out whisper-soft, "She didn't tell me anything, Rogue. How many times am I going to tell you this?" I dropped my eyes to look down at my barefoot.

Rogue inched closer, bringing the heat with himself. His entire body rippled with fire. "As many times as you can until you've unlocked a piece of memory."

"Fuck you."

His hand lashed out, grabbing the nape of my neck. Dragging me closer, I collided against solid muscle, and breath exploded from my lungs. "I told you, I take words very seriously. I could do just that—what you're offering me, Beth."

My heart bucked. Even all the things he put me through, every part of him awoke every part of me, and I ached. I burned. I wanted and didn't want. I hated the battle between my body and my head. I didn't know which would end up winning. The attraction that rolled through my stomach or the knowledge that this was wrong on so many levels.

He released me and ran his fingers through his hair. "My father once told me if you need progress, you just have to do what's meant to be done." He ducked and threw me over the shoulder, catching the feral edge of his eyes. Rogue dropped me on the bed and climbed on top. His hands captured my wrists, slamming them above my head.

"No!" I screamed, thrashing around. "Leave me alone!"

I heard footsteps in the room, and then I saw Miriam walking towards us, her eyes cast down, refusing to meet mine. She walked to the other side of the bed, and I realized what she was holding in her hands. I screamed and tried to lift myself, but Rogue pushed me down the mattress.

Miriam's knees touched the mattress as Rogue held my wrists. He issued her a command, and I screamed again when she started to tie the rope around my wrists, connecting them to the headboard. Rogue was still on top of me, so I couldn't move any muscles. Miriam went to tie my legs in with an unforgiving knot.

"Thank you, Miriam," Rogue said with a tone of dismissal.

She still couldn't look at me, and I wanted to shout if this man was whom she adored. Wanted to protect.

"Enough," he ordered. My eyes snapped back to him. Within moments, I surrounded to quietness. His eyes were so close to me. My body responded to our close proximity, latching onto the heat and the intensity of his eyes. Smoldering, unwanted lust ignited. Lust that drove me mad with confusion and anger.

Something flamed his face. He smelled of sin, danger, and sandalwood that dazzled my senses. My breath was hard, and the only sound in the room. His hand hovered before cupping my cheek. He ran a trembling thumb across my lips.

"Like I was saying, my father has taught me a lot of things in life. I learned all of them. I was a really good listener as a child, you see. I had to be, or else I wouldn't have learned anything." Something raw blazed in his gaze, hinting on some deep, psychological level.

"Are you going to hurt me?" I asked with a little tremble.

"No, Beth, no," he sounded appalled that I would say such a thing, but if I didn't think he might be mind-warping me, I would have believed him. "Hurting you would be an insult to my mother."

I wanted to tell him there were a lot of things he did to me that was already insulting to his mother, but I didn't want to upset him, not while he was being crazy. "Then, what are you doing? Untie these robes."

"I just need your mind," he confessed. "And I don't want you distracted. I want your mind bared open until I get whatever is blocking it from giving me what I desire, which are answers." He bent his face closer to my face until every breath that left his mouth entered my mouth and lungs. All the fireworks that had been smoldering, sparked to life.

Rogue scrambled off, pulling himself to a standing position. My arms and legs were bounded, so all I could do was stare at him back. I wanted to scream. His gaze sent incandescent fire racing in my blood, but it didn't match the horror that crossed inside my chest when I realized what he was about to do. He grinned as if he could read my mind.

"You're not leaving me here," I breathed out in shock.

"You need to be here. Some time alone with your thoughts will help Hanna. You shouldn't be objecting, Bethany, you should be ecstatic that you will be the key to finding her." Leaning forward, he peered deep into my soul. My hands curled and bucked, trying to get free.

He turned and opened the door, fingers turning white around the doorknob. He hesitated at first, then he walked out and left me tied up in my bed.

——————-

It's been a whole day.

The sun backed away to welcome the moon. My arms and legs were stiff. The desire to stretch and bend them was overwhelming. I was thirsty, my throat dry as hell. I was hungry. But Rogue had been right. When you're left alone to your thoughts, you do nothing but think. I did quite a lot of that, but unfortunately for him, I still didn't know anything about Hanna. We were friends, but we weren't close enough for her to share anything with me. At least, I thought we were close.

Was there a part of her life I didn't know about? I knew almost everything, or maybe I didn't. Maybe some part of her life was kept from me. I wouldn't blame her. Everyone deserved to have their own secrets. I wish I hadn't let her leave my cubicle that day, I wish I had pressed until I knew what had changed her mood. But I hadn't done that. Some part of me blamed myself. What kind of friend was I? That I couldn't even offer help to my friend?

I turned my head to the window, which had been unboarded. I could see the sky from where I laid there. The clouds were dark and grey. Was it going to rain? I shook at the thought. I knew what was coming next. The impending was inevitable, and I could sense it nearing. I tried to tug at the ropes binding my wrists, but I couldn't get them out. My heart was hammering in my chest. I tried to move my legs. If I could move my legs, I could twist around, get on my knees, and unbind the ropes that tied to my wrists with my teeth.

For the next ten minutes, I tried everything but to no avail. The wind was now screaming more than howls. A jagged bolt of lightning ripped the sky in half, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I hated this. I had always been scared of thunderstorms. I had never been alone whenever it rained. Lauren always took my mind off it, whether by watching a movie and turning on the volume in a full blast or by listening to rock metal in a full volume. We would have fun but eventually succumbed to silence whenever our neighbors knocked on our doors for being too loud.

Thunder rolled across the sky, seeming to crack the world in half. It reverberated around the window. The room was dark, so that was the only thing I could see. I panicked. I couldn't breathe. My heart jumped every time the lightning flashed, and jagged flashes of pure light cast a glow on the wall. My lips trembled. I squeezed my eyes and tried to think about my happy memories, anything to take my mind off what was happening outside. That was when the door opened, and Rogue's tall frame walked in. He gently closed the door behind him.

"Rogue," I gasped his name out.

He strode to the window and closed the curtains, but it didn't help at all. I closed my eyes at another crack of thunder. When I opened it, he was untying the ropes in my legs before he approached me and loosened my wrists, freeing me. They were so sore. As soon as I was free, I practically flew off the bed to leave the room to go somewhere where I wouldn't hear the thunderstorms. But before I could take more than one step, Rogue shot out and grabbed me, pulling me back.

"No, no, I don't like thunderstorms." I shook my head. I found myself flushed against him. My eyes were tightly closed, and I could hear his heart pounding in his chest, where I placed my head at. Another strike had me wrapping my arms around his neck and pushing myself deeper and deeper into his chest, whimpering.

Each time there was another crack of thunder, I pressed myself into him, dragging my nails across his back, fisting my hands around his shirt. Rogue lifted me off the ground, and my legs immediately wrapped around his waist. I knew I could never face him tomorrow. The embarrassment was too much. I clung to him as if I didn't want to part with him. As if I belonged in his arms only.

I thought he was going to leave the room with me, but he set me on the bed and unwrapped his arm to pull back from me, but I went with him. Holding on to his neck tightly. Yeah, this was going to be so embarrassing tomorrow.

He whispered, "Shh." and ran his fingers through my hair soothingly. He laid me back on the mattress and stretched out beside me, and very gently, he slid his left arm under my head until his biceps was supporting my neck and my cheek rested on the pillow.

We were so pressed against each other that there was no space between us. We were molded into one. Even as I listened to the crack of the thunder outside, I was aware of every inch of him, from head to toe. There was so much heat coming from him that I didn't remember when I began to blow out long breaths through my mouth. Rogue stayed perfectly still the entire time, all heat and tension, and there was a distinct throbbing in my legs. When his nose was against the bare nape of my neck, I groaned out loud.

My hands moved, and my nails scraped down his back, emitting a tiny groan from his mouth. I wasn't listening to the thunderstorms anymore. I wanted to hear that sound from him again. So, I did it again. Softly, running my nails down his back, not caring that it would leave marks on him. Rogue was rigid, breathing raggedly, and I felt how wildly his heart pounded. He pressed his cheek to my neck and exhaled. His warm breath fanned over my skin, slipping under my shirt and lighting all my nerves on fire. I didn't dare breathe or move or made a sound. When my finger slipped under his shirt, he sucked in a breath and went rigid.

Rogue wrapped his hand around my hair and pulled me back to look him. I couldn't see his face clearly, but the gold sparks in his eyes were burning bright. The breath I had been holding hitched out of me. He was so big and deliciously hot, his strength and maleness wrapped all around me. I could stay like this forever. Caught in his gaze.

"You're playing with fire." Sharp teeth nipped my throat, stealing my breath. "You don't know how far I can go."

My heartbeat thrummed. I couldn't move my lips to utter words. I cursed my body for responding to him. I cursed my brain for retreating back and letting my body take control. I cursed Rogue Slade for being the object of my want. I shouldn't want a man who cast me to hell.

He ran his nose along my cheek, dipping to my neck and collarbone, licking my skin and sending wet trails scorching. Rogue intoxicated me.

"You shouldn't want me. There's not an inch of me that isn't sinful." His voice confused me. It dripped with old pain and sorrow. His face twisted; he captured my face between hot hands. "I'm not a good man, and I won't try to be. Do you think someone hasn't tried?" he clipped, face hard and unreadable.

The question anchored me, and I looked into his ferocious eyes. I was confused. I didn't know what he was talking about. My lips parted, and I tried looking into his soul—it churned with agony and demons.

"My soul can't be saved, and I certainly don't need to be saved." And then he was gone in a flash.

He escaped out of the room without a sound, like a shadow whisked into the wind, and I laid there on the bed, panting and disturbed, wanting him so much that I ached all over.