[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.She wound up submitting to his blackmail, satisfying his arousal, unpacking her suitcase and staying with him.However, through it all, her focus was on her new goal in life.Charlotte had made an important decision.She was going to devote her life to uncovering any information Logan had about her father.She wanted to destroy any proof and be able to leave him without fearing anything bad might happen to her family because of her bad choice of a husband.They should never suffer because of her.Charlotte had tried that first time because of how miserable she'd been living as Logan's prisoner.However, as bad as her situation had been up until then, that was only a glimpse into what her future with him would become.From that point forward, things changed.His rules became even more strict and controlling.He became even more suffocating as he dominated her with his every whim.She became more and more miserable.The only time Charlotte was alone was when Logan went out to work, which happened unpredictably and irregularly.Sometimes he'd go out for only an hour or two.Sometimes he'd be away an entire day.Sometimes he'd leave at around six pm and not return until the early hours of the morning.Those nights, Charlotte would often find herself lying alone in their bed, bitterly hoping he'd never return.She'd even hoped perhaps he'd run into the same person who had shot him before.She hated to think like that.She hated being filled with rage and hatred.However, being controlled, abused and held prisoner as she was, she couldn't help it.Charlotte would try to stop her thoughts from becoming even darker, revolving around Logan's death.Whenever she'd think about the night he was shot, her thoughts would invariably drift to her time in the hospital, fixating on the handsome doctor she'd met there.She still remembered the spark they had between them.She'd often fantasized about what might've happened if Logan had died that night.She'd fall asleep imagining the doctor taking her in his strong arms, comforting her.The length of time Logan would be gone varied considerably, as well.He could be away as long as twelve hours, or as little as one hour.The days of the week didn’t seem to make a difference, either, when it came to him working.He could work all day or night on a Sunday, but not at all on a Wednesday.Once he'd even gone five days in a row without going into work at all.There was truly no way to predict his work schedule.The times Charlotte and Logan spent together were almost as unpredictable as his being away at work.They'd have days that were oddly enjoyable, with his sensitive, caring side creeping out, making it difficult for her to ignore.He could be so loving, attentive, complimentary and nice to her.He'd treat her like a queen.If only he'd be like that all the time—then maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be kept against her will.His inconsistent treatment of her was so confusing.It caused her to experience so many different feelings.She knew some of her confusion and emotional turmoil was simply because she was stir crazy.Logan was literally the only person she saw.She was often so lonely and hungry just to have somebody to talk to or spend time with.She'd be desperate for company.On the one hand, even though she suspected Logan was deeply mentally ill, she still had some feelings of love for him.She'd find herself occasionally holding on to a strange hope he'd stay loving and tender towards her, that he'd change and start to act differently…but sadly, the bad Logan always returned.No matter what she felt for him, she never forgot the threat he'd made against her father.She looked forward to the times when Logan left the house.Not only was it her alone time, it also gave her something interesting to do.Something worthwhile.It was her only opportunities to investigate and try to find out what Logan was hiding from her.She didn't know where to begin, at first.The fact she could never be sure when Logan would return home, made her exploration even more difficult and exceptionally tense.She began to believe she'd become addicted to the thrill of it.Charlotte had never been a big risk taker.She'd never had any desire to go sky diving, white water rafting or other risky activities.However, the constant adrenalin rush of fear that he could walk in the door at any moment and catch her became huge for her.A couple of times, she'd very narrowly missed being caught in the act of snooping.It was strange, but instead of putting her off to her investigations, she found herself growing bolder each time.She'd decided to start investigating in his office.It seemed like the most obvious place for her to begin.Sometimes he'd spend hours in there alone, just tapping away on his computer.Of course, she was never allowed to enter that room or even to ask him what he was doing.He'd simply say it he was 'working' and that was the end of the conversation.Charlotte was certainly used to that.The first time she attempted to enter his office while he was away, she discovered the door was locked.She figured his keeping it locked up was a good sign something secretive was hidden inside.However, she had no clue as to how she'd ever get in.Unlike Logan, who probably knew all kinds of covert, illegal activities like picking locks, Charlotte didn’t.She was stumped.She decided the best course of action for her was to watch Logan closely when he locked up the office.She could try to figure out where he kept the key.Then she'd need to steal it from him later and use it to open the door.Of course, if she ever did manage to get into the room, she'd have to be careful to cover her tracks afterward.Charlotte would always need to lock the office up again after going in there.She'd also need to return the key to its hiding place before he noticed it was missing.Those goals were a very tall order to fill and were highly dangerous.She couldn’t even imagine how angry he'd be if he ever found out what she’d been up to.That thought terrified her.Once she knew what she'd have to do, it didn't take long to get the ball rolling.The very next day, Logan spent a couple hours in the office, doing God only knows what.Charlotte had been trying to keep tabs on Logan.She was attempting to remain aware of where he was and what he was doing, as best as she could when he was in the house.While he'd been in his office, Charlotte was in the living room.She had her sketchpad on her knee, working on some drawings of the new dress she'd been designing.Not surprisingly, her career as a freelance designer hadn’t advanced any further since Logan had encouraged her to quit her job.His promises to act as her agent had never been fulfilled.When Charlotte really thought about him trying to help her by acting as an agent, in all likelihood, he'd meet with failure.Logan would probably be much more likely to scare off prospective business partners and clients than to sell them anything.He was a rather intense and imposing man.In fact, before her attempt to leave Logan, they had actually attended one meeting together, with a gentleman who had shown interest in one of Charlotte’s winter coat designs.It had taken her over a full week of nagging and begging him to get Logan to agree to go, and of course, to allow her to go to the meeting.He'd finally agreed, reluctantly.Once they were at the meeting, Logan spent most of the time glaring daggers at the poor man from across the table.Then he'd begun quizzing him.He grilled him about his personal life.Then he started questioning what his ‘real’ interest in Charlotte was.The poor man was perplexed.He appeared to be pretty freaked out by the ordeal.Not surprisingly, he'd never returned any of Charlotte’s emails after that.Hell, she wouldn't have blamed him or have been surprised if the poor, scared guy had filed a formal protection order against both Logan and herself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]