“That’s it?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?” I slam my fists into the underside of the table, making the glasses clatter together, but thankfully, not fall off and shatter. “You better be damn sure.”
“I’m sure.” Her nose twitches, her lips parting slightly to bare a sliver of her white teeth. She has never liked me, and she loathes the trouble web I’ve caught Ted in even more. I wonder, does Ted know how much she loves him? If he doesn’t marry her, he’s an idiot.
I fold my lips between my teeth. He expects us to run through the forest? I can’t even leave this freaking room. The second I do Skull is going to kill Monique—or the other girl he had following him around.
“I can’t leave this room,” I tell her. “I can’t get to the courtyard.”
Smoothing her palms down the front of her slimming, black dress, she squares her slender shoulders, preparing to walk away. “Trust him. Back courtyard at midnight.”
Hannah walks off and I watch her as she makes her way to the front of the compound, disappearing into a sea of people. Raking my top row of teeth over my lower lip, I try to figure out how I get outside by midnight. Why would the foundation of his plan center around us making it off the compound and through a damn forest? There are too many variables, too many disruptions that could ruin our escape…
A loud, choked sob tears from Monique’s throat, pulling me from my thoughts. I glance around the pool area of the back courtyard. Luck was kinda on my side tonight. By some welcome twist of fate, I’m here in the back courtyard before midnight. All I have to do now is figure out how to get out of these chains and find Kitten.
Another sob slaps my skin, pushing my irritation over the edge.
“Christ. Pull yourself together,” I snap in a whisper. “Joel got his ass kicked, big deal. It’s not the first time it’s happened. Probably won’t be the last.”
“You don’t know?” she hisses back. With a sniffle, she swallows as much of her hysterics as she can. “You have no idea why we’re out here, do you?”
“You’re here because you just had to run your mouth at him.”
“That’s why he put me out here, yes, but why do you think you’re here?” she sniffles. “The moment I saw them bring out the wooden fuck posts and bolt them to their usual spots, I knew…”
Her lip quivers, making my blood chill.
I forget how young Monique is. Only nineteen. Nineteen. She shouldn’t be suffering through this at her age. She’s supposed to be hanging out with her friends, smoking cheap pot, drinking watered down booze, and making memories. She shouldn’t be here, and she certainly shouldn’t be in love with my brother—a grown ass man who is too old for her and should know better than to indulge her little crush.
How deep is her love for him anyway? Can a nineteen-year-old love someone unconditionally when she hasn’t even experienced life yet? I imagine a nineteen-year-old’s love to be as shallow as the lip gloss they wear. I hope my brother didn’t bank on her being his be all, end all.
My eyebrows pull in as dread creeps over the surface of my skin. “You knew what?”
Don’t say it.
“I know what he’s going to do.”
“He’s not going to do anything to you, all right? I won’t let him,” I tell her, and she shakes her head, batting her eyelids to dispel small tears that don’t have the weight to fall on their own.
“Where’s Emily?”
Steel jams my spine as stiff and as straight as the wooden pole I’m chained to. “What’s she got to do with anything?”
Sorrow and compassion swirls in her sad, puffy eyes. “Whatever you do, don’t look away. He’ll only make it worse.”
Dread slides over me in full force, caking my skin. What does she mean by that? An excited gasp ripples around the back courtyard and I snap my attention to a shirtless Joel as he’s led across the cobblestones and toward the leaning posts under the extravagant gazebo by the glowing, rectangular pool. My eyes rake over his tattooed form, a mess of scribbles from where I’m situated, and rest on his face. His unease, his trepidation, mimics Monique’s. What the hell am I missing? Joel steals a glance in our direction, his heart breaking so clearly in his face at the sight of Monique kneeling in front of her post, her arms chained around it, behind her back.
There’s a fierce promise in his dark, worried expression, one I can’t decipher, but Monique nods swiftly, sobs shaking up her chest. “It’s okay,” she says, trying so damn hard to rein it in. “I already forgive you.”
When Joel looks at me, I see…an apology? His eyebrows curve and fall, his lips turning down at the corners ever so slightly.
What the fuck is going on?
“I can’t hate her for it. He would have trapped her,” Monique whispers, more to herself than me. Her pretty face contorts in disgust. “He would’ve tested her, like he did to me when I arrived here years ago. She must have rejected him, like I did…” She flicks her large doe eyes to me. “Just don’t look away and it’ll be over as quick as it can be.”
I still. “What will be over quick?”
Another excited gasp from the crowd, followed by a distasteful wolf whistle, pierces the quiet night. Skull drags her—Emily—out from the sidelines, somewhere, and my stare zeros in on the long tear in the sheer fabric that drapes her legs. I follow the intricate lines of her bodice as Skull stomps angrily beside her, dragging her toward Joel. On his face, by his eye, three long, thick red lines mar his skin. What the hell happened?
Emily tries to dig her feet in, but her movements are lagging and clumsy, like she drank too much or…he’s drugged her.
I flinch, my heart splintering painfully.
No…
NINE
Joel
Sick
I’ve never felt so sick.
Never felt so helpless.
I don’t fight them as they take my chains and hook them around the clasps at the top of the wooden post. I rest my aching body against the lacquered wood as it supports my spine, holding me at an incline. Exhaling, desperate to pull myself together, I place my foot on the small wooden nub at the base. I close my eyes and focus on slowing the thunderous race of my heart as it threatens to upturn the nothing I ate today. I shouldn’t have lashed out at Skull. Fuck! After the speech I gave Jai? How could I let myself end up here on this…this…fuck post?
Once upon a time, I was an enthralled spectator to what happened under this dimly lit gazebo, against this very wood. Now I’m a participant and I know exactly who my counterpart will be.
The thought sends daggers into my abdomen.
I hoped it was Monique. I wished it was Monique. I would love her in front of everyone—even my brother—because I’ve gone far too long without her, but Skull would never give me the satisfaction.
A loud whistle pierces my existence and I turn my head to look at the woman Skull brought for me to publicly ravish.
Emily Sheppard. Jai’s woman. Not mine.
I grimace as she digs her heels in and he yanks her forward. Her eyes are wide, her pupils too big for her to be of sober mind. A pang of jealousy strikes me at the thought of her inebriated state. She won’t remember every single detail of what’s about to happen, but I will. I’ll carry the haunting images of her naked body against mine, the feel of her most secret parts wrapped around me, and the anger and grief from Jai as his disgusted, heartbroken glare will burn never-healing holes into the side of my face for the rest of my life.
“Damien, please,” she whispers so no one else can hear. “Not him. Don’t do this.”
He tugs her up the single step and onto the gazebo floor and she goes with him, no match for his strength. No match for any man’s strength, really. In this moment, she looks as young as Monique. Shockwaves zap my system at the thought of her.
My beauty.
I sneak a glance at her and I wish I hadn’t. Her lovely, blonde hair cascades over one shoulder and sticks to her wet face. God. Even as distra
ught and as broken as she is, she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I didn’t see her at first. She was just a girl in my eyes, her features too soft, her skin not weathered enough for me to consider her a woman. But Skull kept shoving her in my face, down my throat, until she was all I could see. When she came of age, she gave me a piece of herself she had no business giving, but I took it anyway. I wanted the gift she could only give once all for myself. The thought of Skull taking it—and roughly—kept me awake at night.
He thinks he took her virginity, but we know the truth.
After we met, I kept wishing she was older. I kept telling myself to stop looking at her, that I belonged with women closer to my age, but she persisted. She pursued me until I couldn’t run from her anymore. Until I stopped wanting to run.
I tried to scare her away. I said and did awful things to get her to stop seeking me out, to get her to stop following me around like a lost puppy, but she wouldn’t. She kept going, kept looking at me like I was the most magnificent thing she’d ever seen…and suddenly, in her presence, I was no longer angry about Skull killing my sister, which subsequently led to the deaths of my parents. I was no longer mad that I had to put my life on hold to raise Jessica and Jai…because it led me to her. I’m painfully aware she’s barely an adult and it’s wrong—so very, very wrong—but nothing has ever felt so right. I want to marry her.
I’m going to.
And I’m going to be there to raise the baby she’s carrying in her belly.
“You lied to me,” Skull snaps, shoving her against the wooden post.
“I didn’t,” she rasps, her voice fading from crying too much. “I didn’t lie.”
He snatches her tiny face in his large hand. “You lied to me, but you won’t lie to me again, not once Joel has his way with you. I’ll be the only one you have left after this.”
Her eyes swim with grief, with fear. She believes everything he says to her, like a fool. I know my brother and I know he’d die for this girl in front of me. She has him forever. The sooner she realizes that, the easier this will be.
Skull hangs Emily’s chains over the hook above her head, laying her on an incline. Her chest rises and falls rapidly, reminding me of a terrified squirrel. My fingers twitch with the urge to pet her, to hold her close and calm her down. I don’t want her to fear me or fear what’s about to happen.
Jai loves her and the least I can do is try my damn hardest to love her too…because if I can’t do this, if I can’t bring myself to perform, they’ll get someone else—someone who won’t take care like I will.
Skull turns toward me, a sneer locked on his hideous, freshly marred face. “There’s no kissing her on the mouth,” he tells me, reaching up to free me from my chains. “No licking her—”
“I get it.” I lower my free arms and rub at my wrists.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of Skull’s guards approaching Jai and Monique, a handgun clenched in his hand. If it wasn’t for him, or the three other guards in this courtyard clenching rifles, I would snap Skull’s neck right now.
He hands me a small, silver key and I take it in my palm.
“Free her when she’s warmed up enough to actively participate and, for once in your life, Stone, don’t disappoint me.”
I cut my eyes at him, slipping the key into my back pocket. “You’re going to regret this.”
Smiling wickedly, he turns and saunters away from the gazebo, booming loudly to address the handful of spectators. He talks about revenge and entertainment, about how everything comes full circle. He claims he’s won, but he’s far from winning. He’s the matador and Jai and I are the tormented bulls. It’s only a matter of time before one of us kills him with our horns.
Skull commands me to begin my assault. I shudder.
Assault.
I step toward her with only the intent to talk to her, to calm her down, but she doesn’t let me. Instead, she plants her foot on my stomach, forbidding me from coming any closer. Sharp intakes of air and excited whispers are all I hear from those watching us. I have to tune them out and pretend they don’t exist. I have to pretend Jai and Monique don’t exist. It’s just me and Emily. A man and a woman. I’ll have to soothe her like I would anyone else, warm her up to the idea of my touch. With that horrific drug in her system, it won’t take long.
“If you touch me,” she sobs, her foot planted on my stomach. “I will never forgive you. Jai will never forgive you.”
I smooth my hand over her ankle and her forehead wrinkles. Who does she think I am? Can’t she see that this is hard for me too? That the woman I love is standing on the sidelines watching us as well? I lower her leg and quickly crush my body to hers before she can fight me off.
She wriggles against me, grimacing in pain. Or maybe it’s arousal, given the chemicals racing through her blood, currently making a mess of her hormones.
“If I don’t touch you, someone else will,” I murmur. Reaching out, I pull a clip from her hair, letting a large curl tumble down. “You don’t have to forgive me. Just trust me.”
Her large eyes flicker between mine, searching for any hint that I’m lying to her. I lower my head, closing the distance between us, and I whisper against the skin of her neck, making her shiver. “Can you trust me?”
I hear her swallow. “I…I don’t know.”
I touch my lips to her neck and she freezes, her body as still as the post she rests against. I don’t mind it. We can take baby steps, one at a time. I lower my mouth to her collarbone, listening to her breath as it becomes labored, her chest moving quickly. I’m unable to deny the arousal it stirs in me, thickening me in my pants. It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted the flesh of a woman.
I close my eyes, imagining Monique under my lips, and the thought makes my blood sing. I lose track of my kisses for a while, lost in thoughts of kissing Monique, and before I realize my mouth is close to claiming hers a gunshot rings out.
Startling, we both whip our heads toward our loved ones. The guard standing beside them lowers his arm and Skull shouts, “The next one goes in Monique’s head if you don’t skip the kissing and take off her dress.”
Emily’s body tightens even more underneath me and I look at her. She glances at my chest. It’s rising and falling quickly, my skin slick with fear.
“Please?” I utter only for her to hear.
TEN
Emily
Reluctance
His eyes say it all.
He’ll kill her. You know he will.
I hated that he was right. I hated that it came down to having him inside my body in order to spare her, but how can I deny him given my actions earlier today when I was in the bathroom with Skull? I did everything I could to save her from getting punished by Laura. It’s only right to do it again to spare her life, right?
God. Joel looks a lot like his brother in this dim light. He’d look even more like Jai if he didn’t have that swollen lip and bruised cheek from Skull’s beating earlier.
My heart aches, painfully thumping blood to my useless extremities. His kisses started off so comforting, begging my body to trust his touch. I didn’t want to. I wanted to kick and scream and beg for Jai to get his brother off me, but…so quickly this drug in my system took his cool, comforting kisses and made them feel like lava on my skin. I closed my eyes and pretended it was Jai kissing me. If it weren’t for the gun going off, I would have begged for more.
But the gun did go off, snapping me back into sobriety like I’d been doused with a bucket of ice water.
“Please?” Joel whispers again, dragging his thumb over the back of my hand.
Why is he being so gentle with me? So comforting? I expected…I don’t know what I expected.
I nod, angling my body to expose the zip buried inside the intricate weaving of the bodice. Joel finds it with ease and drags it down. The bodice’s grip lessens as it splits open and the cool air licks the hot skin on my waist, hardening my braless nipples.
There’s a lag in my vision that threatens my balance, a side effect of the drug. It doesn’t take long for my bones to begin to vibrate like an off balanced washing machine. Oh, no. I tried to fight off the affects as much as I could. I don’t want Jai to see what it does to me, how wound up it gets me. A ripple of inebriation rolls down my spine and I shiver as Joel pulls the bodice from my body and lets it fall to the floor.
Swiftly, he covers my body with his, protecting most of me from spectating eyes. His head is craned, his fast breath on my ear. From the outside, I’m sure it looks like he’s kissing my neck.
Like always, I close my eyes as the world around me becomes too crisp to focus on. Behind my lids, colors dance. They vibrate and swirl with every pant that leaves Joel’s mouth.
“Why aren’t you taking from me?” I ask as ease rolls over my tense muscles.
Pink mist swirls from my mouth, like snow blown off a mountain top…the only thing I enjoy about being under the influence of Skull’s drug. Lifting my leg a little, Joel glides the warm palm of his hand down my waist and thigh to slip under my knee. He gently lifts it to hook around his hip.
“I’m treating you how I’d like Jai to treat Monique, if the roles were reversed.” He plants a gentle kiss on my cheekbone. “Can I touch you?”
“I…”
I don’t want to say yes. I don’t want to say no.
“If you say no, I won’t touch you and we can deal with the consequences together.”
“And if I say yes?”
He lets out a gentle exhale. “Then I will make love to you, like Jai does.”
If only he knew just how wild Jai and I were together. There’s no replicating our experience, the way my skin sparks beneath his touch.