“Safer from what?” He brushed a lock of her hair off her shoulder, but she didn’t wince or move away.

  “You’re a young woman, and there are plenty of depraved men out there that would like to do filthy things to you.” He said it seriously, with a touch of warning and anger in his voice. Did he mean it in a general sense, or did he have enemies out there?

  “You mean men like you?”

  He gripped her nape hard and forced her to look at him. “Yes, Ruby, men exactly like me.”

  Her heart started thundering at his words. “Maybe you should let me go then.” Ruby should have kept her mouth shut, but how could he lay there and act like she was safer in here than out in the world? The things he had already done to her were depraved in nature, whether she enjoyed them or not. She reminded herself of the horrors that she had imagined: chained in a filthy cell, starved, beaten, and raped repeatedly. Gavin wasn’t the worst monster that could have purchased her. In fact, he had given as much as he had taken.

  Aren’t you a monster, too, Ruby? You can’t act innocent if you enjoyed the pain he gave you. He pushed her onto her belly before she was even finished with that thought. Using one of his knees to push her legs apart, he settled his nude weight on her. The air left her at his size, and his erection prodded at the crease of her ass. How could he even be hard again so quickly?

  He pinned her wrists to her lower back. “You’ll do well to watch your tongue, Princess.” His warm breath teased her ear, and she closed her eyes at the arousal that started pounding through her at his hidden warning. “I could chain you up right now, mark up your body until you writhe for more, and cry out for me to let you come.” He placed a hand on her hip. “But I won’t let you come. I’ll bring my palm down on your glorious ass until you can’t stand it and your flesh is a vibrant red.” He ground his rock-hard dick into her ass and her mouth dried at the feeling of that length pushing deeper into her ass crack.

  “My handprints will look so lovely on your body, Ruby. So very lovely.” He moved his hand up her side and rested it on the side of her breast. “It would be so very easy for me to go too far in my desire for you.” He ran his tongue along her cheek. “And I desire you so fucking much, I could suffocate you with it.” He had his mouth by her ear, and with every word, his lips brushed along the shell of it.

  “Okay,” she said that one word again, the only one she could form at the moment. He had successfully aroused and frightened her with those few sentences.

  “Good girl.” He moved off her, but gave her right butt cheek a light smack before getting off the bed. “Let’s take care of your feet.” As he left the bed, she looked over her shoulder and watched him walk into the master bathroom. It was hard to concentrate and hate the man when he looked like he did. As superficial as that sounded, he was built like one of those Greek gods she had learned about in school. The muscles of his back flexed, and his ass was so very firm. Ruby had never been one to care much about those parts of a man’s body, but seeing Gavin in the nude had her pressing her thighs together. He disappeared behind the door and she rested her head on the pillow. He hadn’t told her to turn around, and she didn’t want to anger him after the little speech he had given her. It seemed ironic that she feared pain so much, but her deepest desires revolved around that specific fear. Then she had sampled it first-hand, and it had been terrifying and liberating all in the same breath.

  It was a testament to how deeply her need went that she hadn’t even realized that her feet hurt. Lifting her head and looking over her shoulder, she lifted a leg and stared at the sole of her foot. Scrapes littered the bottom of it, and as she looked at them, they started to throb. Gavin came back with a basin and set it on the bed when he was close enough. Inside she saw some medical supplies. “Are you a doctor?”

  “No.” He started cleaning off her feet with gauze and peroxide, applied some ointment on the cuts, and started wrapping them.

  “Where did you learn how to do this?” It wasn’t as if he was operating on her or anything, but his actions were precise and his concentration solid. It looked as though he had done this before. Had he taken care of someone else where he would have had to know how to mend people? Had he been abused and tended to his own wounds? That seemed like the most likely cause. Although Ruby had never before been physically abused, she had endured the emotional and verbal kind all through her life. She knew that trauma like that could be why she enjoyed pain and pleasure. Maybe the same thing had happened to Gavin?

  For several moments, all he did was watch her, and she felt like the prey of a very big predator. “I can assume what you’re thinking.” He shifted his attention back to her feet, applied a strip of tape to the gauze he’d wrapped around them, and rose to his full, over-six-foot intimidating height. He sat on the bed and gestured for her to face him.

  “I wasn’t abused as a child, wasn’t tormented by my peers, or tortured small animals.” Ruby didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to because he started talking again. “My life was spent more with the nannies and the servants my father had on staff.” He reached out and took her hand. Holding it in his much larger one, he stared at it as he traced her fingers with his own. “I suppose neglect could be blamed for how I feel, and what I desire, but that would be a lie.” He looked at her. “I have always felt these things. Pain with pleasure has always been what I have gone to when I have wanted to feel free. It is what I want, and what I need.”

  There was no emotion on his face, but since she had been with him, he had kept those locked down pretty tightly. “I could have any woman I wanted; that is not me being egotistical, just stating a fact. The women that I have had lack the honesty of their emotions.” He pulled her in close, cupped her face with his hands, and just stayed like that.

  “But how could you possibly know that I would like these kinds of things just from seeing me?”

  “I didn’t know until I saw your reaction to me.” He had said he knew she was the one for him from the moment he saw her on that stage. But how could he see that she would enjoy this? “I just wanted you and was bound to make you mine. I saw the fight in you, and that darker part of me wanted you to do the same with me. I wanted you to fight against me; tempt me as no other could, because your emotions would be real. They wouldn’t be because of the size of my bank account, or my social standing. They would be bone deep, naked in all their glory, and only for me.”

  His hold on both sides of her face reminded her of being possessed, of this man owning every part of her. It was strange to feel that way, but there was no doubt that the look in his eyes was proprietary. “Let’s get some sleep, darling.” He pulled her back onto the bed and covered them with the blanket. Gavin pulled her close so she was pressed against him, and Ruby was just too tired to fight anymore tonight. He had shown her a side of himself that startled her, made her think that maybe her life wouldn’t be so bad here, but she told herself that no matter how beautiful something was on the outside, the inside was what counted, and she was still his captive.

  Chapter Eight

  Ruby sat at the table, a plate of breakfast food in front of her, and two older servants bustling around. Gavin was at the other end of the table, a paper on one side and a cup of coffee and two slices of toast on the other. It had been a few days since she had gotten to the estate, and it hadn’t been as bad as she imagined. Gavin had taken her around the property; he’d shown her the grounds, the glorious flowers that lined one whole side of the house, and talked about the time when he was younger. She wasn’t surprised to find out he was the CEO of his company, that it had been handed down from his father, or that he ruled it with an iron fist. She had come to learn very quickly what kind of man he was: the kind of man that always got what he wanted. The two servants, who seemed to be the only ones that ran this huge place, kept to themselves.

  She looked at Gavin, but his attention was on the paper. The night before he had held her so gently, and she could have imagined that they were lovers with mutual affection for one another. But they weren’t, and she needed to realize that it didn’t matter how caring he appeared, he had a darkness inside of him that was downright frightening.

  What do you have back at that trailer with your abusive bitch of a mom? What did you think you could have in Fort Hampton?

  “Ruby, I have to fly into New York today, and might not be back until tomorrow evening.” He folded the paper and picked up his coffee cup. He watched her over the rim of the dainty cup, and she felt naked once again. It was clear this was her reaction whenever she looked at him. “I meant to stay here longer so you and I could get better acquainted with each other, but unfortunately, this matter can’t wait.” He set the cup back on the table and turned to look at the older gentleman whom she knew was named Adelbert.

  Gavin started speaking to him in a foreign language. The man nodded, glanced her way, and then looked back at Gavin in response. He then called the woman back into the dining room. She held a tray of fresh croissants, and after she set them on the table, the three of them started speaking. Drika, the woman, couldn’t have been too old, maybe in her early forties, but she had a perpetually pinched expression whenever she looked Ruby’s way.

  Ruby felt even more out of place as she was the only one that didn’t know what the hell was going on. Clearly, no one was going to fill her in on the discussion since the man and woman turned and went back into the kitchen. Gavin grabbed his linen napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth. “You should eat more, darling.”

  She hated that he called her those little endearments. “Darling” and “Princess” didn’t make her feel like he cared for her, but more like the object she truly was. But angering him was not her intention. If she had to be here, for however long that was, she didn’t want to have to constantly fear that he would be upset and resort to the levels of punishment he had threatened her with.

  Nevertheless, he was leaving the country, and that gave her the perfect opportunity to leave. “And if you’re thinking that you could escape while I’m gone, Adelbert and Drika will keep an eye on you. They may not know exactly why you are here, but they know you are very special to me, that you need to stay here for your own good.”

  Wait, his servants didn’t know she was a prisoner? If they didn’t speak English, telling them that she was wouldn’t do any good, but she still had to try.

  The two servants came back in and gathered the dishes. She had eaten half of the food but her appetite was almost non-existent, and she’d had forced herself to finish that much. When they went back into the kitchen, Gavin leaned back in his chair and stared at her.

  “What?” She shifted in her seat. It had been a few days since he had taken her virginity. Ruby was still sore between her thighs from his insatiable appetite. The warm baths he ran for her and forced her to take after they had sex went a long way in easing her muscles and the soreness in her body. However, he had taken her slowly this morning and touched her as if she really was a fragile and breakable piece of porcelain. Ruby didn’t know how to feel about that exactly, because it had been nice, and he’d made her feel so good. The build-up had been easy, rising slowly until it broke free from her and she was gasping from it. And then he had helped her bathe, checked her feet once more to make sure they were still healing well—which they were—and kissed her lightly on the lips. He was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and her head spun from the shifts in his personality. Now here she was, aroused once more with her pussy tingling even after he had gotten her off already. Why could he look at her, not even say anything, and make her feel so liquid?

  “I’m just imagining you naked.” His grin slowly changed the hard contours of his face. He had picked out what she was wearing. The white satin blouse had tiny pearl buttons, and at her neck, she wore a strand of pearls as well, as if he wanted to coordinate her attire and accessories. The pewter-colored skirt was loose and very feminine with tiny white flowers on it. Almost modest, it hung below her knees. Ruby had felt like a doll as he laid out her clothes and told her to dress for him, and she had felt even more so when he came up behind her and started running his fingers through her hair while he whispered very filthy things to her. She was his little sexual doll, one he could groom, dress, and do with as he pleased. Why didn’t that bother her as much as it should?

  “Drika will help you with any personal needs. Adelbert will be here mainly for the house upkeep, but since he is the only one that speaks any English—albeit not very fluently—he will help you as well.” Well, that answered her question about the English. She’d have to search the house, maybe find a phone or laptop that she could use to access the internet. She could send an email to the FBI, or someone that could actually help her. She felt him watching her, and she looked up, not realizing that she had been focusing on her glass of juice for so long.

  “Okay.” She seemed to use the word a lot, but what else was she supposed to say?

  “Oh, and just so you aren’t rummaging through the house on a wild goose chase, there is no landline on the estate, and I take my cell and other electronic devices with me when I leave.”

  Shit. “What if there’s an emergency?” She didn’t care if she could get in contact with him, but maybe she could gather some information on where she could go if she needed help.

  “Adelbert will contact me, and I can be back here quite quickly.” Great, he was leaving her with people she couldn’t even communicate with, and had no means to reach out for help. He stood, smoothed his hands down his three-piece suit, and looked at her. “Come here, Ruby.” She slowly stood and moved around the table. Glancing down at his pants, she saw that they were tented. How could he be this insatiable? He had just had sex with her hours before, and by the gleam in his eyes and the erection he was sporting, it was clear that wasn’t really an issue.

  God, she was sore between her thighs, and her unused muscles protested even the simple act of walking, but it seemed her body didn’t care, because she was wet, and suddenly felt so hot. When she was in front of him, he wrapped his hand around her hip, curled his fingers into her body, and pulled her close. There was discomfort from the bruises he had already left on her flesh. The purple and blue fingerprint-sized marks shouldn’t have made this flush spread throughout her body as she looked at them, but they did. A deep sickness filled her that her first thought when seeing them was they were his marks of ownership. He moved his hand up to her neck again; she had already decided that he enjoyed holding onto that particular part of her body. Maybe it made him feel powerful, as if he could restrain her so very easily.

  Of course, that was the reason.

  “What are you doing?” She blinked back the need to close her eyes when he leaned in close and she felt his breath brush her lips. He smelled faintly of the hazelnut from his coffee. But he didn’t kiss her, just kept his mouth perilously close.

  “I’m enjoying you while I can. It’s going to be hard—I’m going to be hard—being away from you.” He pulled her even closer so their chests were pressed together, and she felt his erection prodding at her belly.

  “But you said you wouldn’t be gone long, right?” She was trying to get a better idea of how much time she had to try to escape again.

  “It might not take me very long at all, Ruby. In fact,” he brushed his lips lightly across hers. “I might be back as soon as tonight.” He moved both of his hands to her shoulders and pushed her back. She blinked rapidly to get rid of the haze that settled over her. Maybe she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Maybe she was demented, even more so than she initially thought. What other logical explanation could there be for her need to be by him after only being in his presence for such a short time?

  He didn’t kiss her and instead exerted pressure on her shoulders until she was on her knees and looking up at him. Her mouth instantly went dry when he let go of her and pulled the zipper of his pants down. It was erotically sick the way he pulled his erection out through only the flap, not even bothering to undo the button. This felt cheap in every way, but that didn’t stop her from getting turned on even more.

  You are sick, girl, so very sick, and you’re playing right into his hands and loving every minute of it.

  “Go on, Ruby; suck my dick with that very pretty mouth of yours.” He stroked his finger along her jawline, moved it over her chin, and brushed his thumb along her bottom lip. “You’ll be just fine at it, perfect even.” Leaning forward, she felt her throat constrict at his large size. She wasn’t a prude intellectually, but physically she had next to no experience in this kind of thing. She had been fingered once, made out a few times, and had given a hand job, but those had been such quick episodes that they were hardly memorable.

  “I’ve never done anything like this before.” She licked her lips and watched as a drop of clear fluid dotted the tip of his erection.

  “You have no idea how much it pleases me to know that you are untouched in every way.” She certainly wasn’t going to educate him on the reality of what she had done sexually. Let him think what he wanted.

  “I don’t want to disappoint you.” God, did she just say that? Yes, she did, but she tried to reason that she was playing a part, pleasing him so he was happy and sated, just until she could leave this place.

  “Only disobeying my orders could disappoint me, darling.” He continued to stroke her lip, and then slipped his hand in her hair, grabbed a chunk of the heavy mass, and yanked her head back hard enough that she gasped in pain. But she also felt a gush of wetness slip from her. Pressing her thighs together did nothing but pinch her clit, causing a shock wave of pleasure to race through her. With no underwear on, her nipples poked through the thin-as-hell blouse and her arousal made her inner thighs uncomfortably wet. “I guide your actions. Now, suck my cock, Ruby.” He pulled her head forward until the slick tip of his shaft moved along her lips. She opened and sucked the head inside. “Yes, that’s so very good, Princess. Now move your tongue around.” She did as he said, and the salty flavor of his pre-cum bathed her tongue. “Lick the underside of my cock, Ruby. Stroke it as if you were using your hand.”

 

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