I rushed over to them and made quick work of opening both, amazed by the treasures I found inside.

The dress in the bag was a navy blue Badgley Mischka gown. I picked it up and admired it. It was a strapless, layered dress with an empire waistline. The bottom layer was made of soft silk while the top layer was a delicate lace. The hemline in the front was higher, meant to hit above my knees, while the hemline of lace in the back was lower, almost skimming the ground.

I couldn’t believe this was for me. It was the most stunning dress I had ever seen.

In the box, I found a pair of Jimmy Choo silver heels that were strappy and stunning in their own right.

The last time I had been to his house was the night of the tattoo reveal. When it had been time to put Sophie to bed, I’d unwillingly pulled myself from Xavier’s arms to leave. That was when he’d informed me we didn’t need to leave because he had clothes for her put in the guest room down the hall from his room.

When I’d finally picked my jaw up off the floor, I’d asked how he had managed that. No one in their right minds would ever expect to find Xavier shopping in a little girls’ section at the store. Besides, it wasn’t as if he knew her sizes.

“Ghost bought them.” He’d sounded slightly aggrieved that I would question his ability to procure whatever he wanted.

I’d choked on my laughter at the thought of Ghost shopping in the little girls’ section. It was as amusing as the image I had of Xavier there. When my mind then conjured up a scene of the two of them together, clueless and fumbling around tiny pink clothes, I had laughed out loud, which had made him glare at me.

“Ghost has a little girl, Aurora. It isn’t that funny,” he’d said in a distressed tone.

“He does?” I’d sobered up enough to ask.

“Yeah. And no you can’t meet her. She doesn’t touch this world. Ever.”

“Okay,” I’d whispered at his fierce tone, correctly assuming it was a big deal that this be honored.

I would have to inquire how he’d made this all happen because standing in front of the mirror in Xavier’s walk-in closet, admiring how perfectly the dress fit me, I couldn’t quite fathom Ghost going out and buying the ensemble. Only a woman would truly appreciate the beauty of this dress.

Realizing I was wasting time getting ready for whatever Xavier had planned, I hurried into the bathroom to the dressing table between the double sinks and pulled out the extra makeup kept there.

The whole time I touched up my face, I tried to come up with an idea of where we were going or what we were doing later that night. In the end, I came up empty, save the hope I had that he just wanted me to dress up so he could take it off. My lips curled up in a secretive smile as I lifted the tube of lipstick to them. I would second and third that idea if it were on the menu.

My red stained lips pressed down on the tissue, setting the lipstick on them perfectly. The smile that played there was nothing compared to the excitement I felt inside.

It was almost eleven o’clock, which meant he would be there soon, and I could not wait. It had been a long few days since the last time we were able to be together, and I longed for him the way a man lost in the desert longed for water.

Waiting for me always drove him crazy, and I knew him well enough to know that one look at the sexy dress that clung to every curve of my body would have his restraint snapping. Add to that my red lips that he loved seeing wrapped around his cock, and it was sure to be a really, really good night.

Footsteps on the carpet had me glancing up into the mirror of my dressing table with anticipation. He was earlier than I had expected. He must have rushed through whatever he had left to do just to get to me. A smile spread across my face at that. Just as quickly as it came, though, it was gone. Happiness was wiped away, only to be replaced with alarm when my eyes met someone’s other than his in the mirror.

This was bad… so very bad.

If Xavier knew about the man standing in his bedroom right then, he would bring the house down with his rage. No one would be safe from it.

This was going to end horribly. I could feel it right down to my bones.

Thank God Sophie was staying at Ruth’s house tonight.

The intruder looked at me with a craziness in his eyes I had never seen before. Something was not right with him. It frightened me to my very core.

“What are you doing here?” I asked in a small and choked voice.

“I’m here for you,” the deceptively calm voice replied as its owner crossed the expanse of the room to stand behind me.

I had learned early on when to be afraid of someone, and right then, with his cold eyes locked on mine and his lips curled into a sneer, I knew it was that time.

Paralyzed with fear, I watched in horror as he lifted a syringe and stuck it into my neck. A burn worked its way through my veins, and I instinctively lunged to the side to get away from him, only to be met with a fist slamming into my face, making me see stars.

My earlier suspicions were confirmed right then and there… This was not going to end well at all.

The last thought to cross my mind right before everything went black was that I hoped Xavier was my knight in shining armor after all.

I came to some time later with a throbbing in my head and soreness in my limbs. When I tried to sit up, I realized they were sore because they couldn’t move. Slowly, I was able to lift my eyelids. That was when I saw the metal around my wrist. My head moved quickly the other way and saw the same thing there. I lifted my head, chin to chest, and saw down the length of my naked body that my ankles were tied with rope to the bedposts.

What the hell?

My stomach dropped as my mind fought through the fog still clogging it in order to remember what had happened. When the memory of my abduction came back to me, bile rose up my throat.

Spencer.

The crazy look in his eyes when he’d shown up at Xavier’s reminded me of the times when Kevin would come home high as a kite from one drug or another. His mood was always volatile and he often got aggressive with me both physically and sexually whenever that happened.

I pulled on my restraints frantically, freaked the fuck out that I was being held at the whim of a possibly drugged out crazy man.

My wrists were bleeding and my ankles had rope burn by the time I finally stopped trying to get free. My body sagged with despair as I took in the room surrounding me. The only furniture was the bed I was on and a table in the corner. The walls were made of concrete blocks. There were no windows on any of them. The only way in or out of the room was through the metal door on the wall to my right.

I stared at that door for what felt like forever, willing it to open and for Xavier to come through and save me. My body started when it finally did open, my heart racing as I waited to see who was there.

When Spencer entered the room with a glass of water and a straw, I started struggling again.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled as loud as I could, hoping someone could hear me now that the door was open.

“Shut the fuck up,” he thundered at the same time his fist connected with my cheekbone in the exact same spot he had hit earlier. Instead of screaming again, I started crying both out of pain and frustration.

“Stop fucking crying,” he muttered. “If you don’t, I’ll gag you.”

I shut my mouth and sniffled, still letting the tears fall, only now they were silent.

He set the glass of water on the table next to a ring of keys and began pacing the room agitatedly. I eyed the keys, wishing there was some way for me to get to them. Surely they would open the handcuffs holding me down.