Forever Lost: Becoming Elena - Book Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

the smell of her arousal so strong she was sure it had infused the air.
    “Go to hell, Dalton.”
    Jumping from her seat, Elena rushed from the theatre.
    She sunk against a wall around a corner and gripped her head in her hands. Maybe she didn’t want him to go to hell after all. Because she was sure that’s where she was going — and she’d be there with him forever.
    Of course it didn’t take Dalton long to find her. He still didn’t need to speak for her to know he was there. He was always there, even when he wasn’t with her physically.
    “I’m beginning to think you love the chase, Elena,” he told her.
    “Just leave me alone, Dalton.”
    “I might do exactly that if you keep telling me to go away,” he said.
    She knew this wasn’t a bluff. If she told him to go away again, he was going to leave her. Slight panic filled her at the thought. But wasn’t getting away from him exactly what she wanted?
    Elena didn’t know what she wanted. But she couldn’t think with Dalton looming over her.
    “Stand up,” he told her.
    For some reason, Elena found herself doing as he’d demanded. She rose to her feet, using the wall to hold her up as her chin tilted, and looked him in the face for the first time since the park.
    Dammit! She really was his. Even if she didn’t want to be. At the end of the day, she was doing exactly as he commanded her.
    “I wasn’t lying to you, Elena. The choice is yours. If you want the pain to go away. If you want your life to start again, then submit to me fully and I will teach you how to heal. But I won’t chase you again. The choice is up to you. I’ll be at this address tonight. If you choose to come, there’s no turning back.”
    He grasped her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes. The truth lay there loud and clear. She licked her lips, and his gaze zeroed in on them.
    “Remember how it feels to be in my arms,” he told her. “And remember how it feels to be all alone.”
    He gazed for a few more moments and then he stepped back, the wall behind her the only thing keeping her upright. She looked at the slip of paper as she heard his footsteps fade away.
    Glancing back, all she saw was his back. He never turned around again. This was it. She either walked away from there and out of his life forever. Or she followed him to the address.
    Elena didn’t know what she was going to do, as she watched him walk out the theatre doors and out of her life.

Chapter Five
    I n the end, there really wasn’t a choice.
    Dalton had known it, and so had Elena. The pain of being betrayed by her mother, of being captured, abused, and demoralized weighed far too heavy within her. And Elena knew she wasn’t going to get past the pain on her own.
    There was only one solution for her. And as she stepped into the hotel at the address Dalton had given her, there was no further hesitation in her steps. After hours of searching deep within herself, she realized there was only emptiness where she had sought answers.
    Elena was only a shell of a person now, and she either had to give up on life or give in to Dalton. For some reason, she was still hanging on to a small thread of hope. Maybe Dalton truly would be her savior.
    When she gave her name at the front desk and was handed a key card to the top floor, she didn’t even blink. Of course Dalton had known she would come to him. She knew there had never been any doubt in his mind.
    But if she had chosen to walk away, it wouldn’t have bothered him in the least. She knew that. The knowledge of her insignificance to the man actually made the situation that much easier.
    To him she was nothing more than a toy. But because of him, she might just find herself again. Only if she did it by his rules.
    She didn’t use the key card when she reached the penthouse door. For a few minutes she just stood there, concentrating on breathing in and out. Finally, she knocked — just a light tapping of her knuckles against the wood.
    She waited.
    Dalton took