Punished by the Dictator's Daughter (The Initiation 3, Book 3) Read Online Free

been allowed to run riot on everyone’s feelings
for too long. As soon as we get back, I’m going to break off the
engagement.”
    The shock hits me.
    “No, no, Greg, no. This is not because of me,
is it?” I say desperately.
    He barks a short laugh. “No. OK, maybe
partially. But it’s primarily because I don’t want to be married to
someone who will make my life a living purgatory, no matter how
rich her daddy is and how many career opportunities he will give
me. I have made my own way before this, and I will continue to do
so.”
    I remain silent.
    He stares at my face.
    He says gently, “Don’t worry, Gina. I’m not
going to impose my feelings upon you. You belong to Max and nothing
will change that. I just wanted to . . . you know, tell you how I
felt before . . . anything happened to us in this place – ”
    He lets it trail. His expression is bruised,
as though he expects to be let down and hurt badly.
    So he too is afraid of Potchenko and Aimelie
and their unpredictable mood swings. I debate whether to tell him
of my little tete-a-tete with Mansk, and decide against it. Even
though the cell’s walls seem ancient, their interiors may be
cobbled with hidden cameras and recording devices. I do not
prematurely want to reveal my cards.
    Confusion swirls in my head, and that too
frightens me. For mine is not an open-and-shut case of ‘Yes, you
are right. I love Max and I will never reciprocate your love’. It
is not that my love for Max has wavered, but that my feelings for
Greg go alarmingly deeper than I thought they would. I have always
pushed them to the backburner. Refused to confront them because of
everything that is going on around us.
    But his declaration now forces me to face
them head on, and the swell of emotion that eddies within my psyche
is an unexpected storm.
    I swallow the hard lump that has bolted into
my throat. I owe him the truth in these uncertain climes, if
nothing else.
    I say, “No, Greg, you’ve got it wrong. It
isn’t that I don’t love you. I do.”
    “Like a brother,” he says with
bitterness.
    “No. It’s more than that. That’s why I’m so
confused. I love Max. But I love you too . . . to an extent.”
    It’s true. I think I must have fallen a
little in love with Greg during my Final Initiation. Back when I
wasn’t sure as yet of my feelings for Max. Back before we became a
couple. Back when Greg was the only beacon of kindness in a cruel
world where men and women sought to use my body for their pleasures
and nothing else.
    “But not as much as you love him,” he
says.
    “No. It’s different.”
    I dare not describe it. My feelings for Max
have always been associated with awe and lust and love and a little
master-slave domination that still lingers no matter what has
changed. Of course they would be. He was my initiator and dom
before he became my boyfriend.
    But my feelings for Greg . . . ahhh. Now
that’s complicated. With Greg, I feel assurance and attraction and
warmth and a gooey sense of safety, like being embraced in a pair
of arms that will protect, succor and defend me.
    “I understand.” His face flinches, and he
looks away. His brown orbs are filled with unbearable pain.
    My heart sinks. The last thing I want to do
is to hurt Greg at a time like this. Oh, that Aimelie. She’s smart.
She knows that Greg harbors feelings for me and she has made our
situation so dire that she knows we must confront those feelings
before it is too late. She is playing a cruel psychological game
with us, like a cat which must toy with its prey before she devours
it.
    Unless her threats of keeping us here forever
are also part of that game.
    Will she . . . or won’t she?
    If only we have the answers!
    “I was expecting this,” Greg says, “but it
doesn’t matter. I’ll get over it. It’s just that you . . . you make
me feel special, Gina. Like no one else. Whenever I’m with you, I
want to protect you. Keep you safe. I will never, ever let any harm
come to you,