Conquer

  Rocking back and forth, his hands swung in the air over his head. He was thoroughly enjoying the song without a thought to the grouchy old rednecks who watched on in disbelief. My jaw dropped when his hands dropped to his hips and he started gyrating his hips in large circles. The man had no shame. When his eyes opened and he noticed I wasn’t moving, he let out an exasperated sigh before reaching down to pause the music.

  “What’s wrong, Paige?” His hand reached out dramatically in my direction. “Dance with me!”

  I shook my head in refusal. “Nope. No way. There is no way I’m dancing to that song. Pick something else.”

  David opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Daemon’s booming voice. “Damsel, don’t be scared. Show me how that little body of yours can move.”

  Son. Of. A. Bitch. I could spit fire I was so pissed off that he put me in this position.

  David smiled at Daemon’s insistence that I join in on the ‘80s dance-fest.

  Fine. Daemon wants to see me move, I’ll show him how this body can move. I knew those shorts of his couldn’t hide his excitement, so I decided to embarrass him right back. Once again…game on.

  “I’ll dance, David, but you need to pick a different song.”

  David beamed when I agreed to dance. His hands clapped together as he said, “Excellent! All I have is my ‘80s CD.” He handed me the case so I could choose a song. My hands scanned the craptastic choices offered and I settled on Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics. I wasn’t the best choice given the abuse theme of the song, but it had the most seductive rhythm compared to the others.

  “I’ll take track number twenty.” I was speaking to David, but my eyes were locked on Daemon.

  As soon as the synthesized music starting playing, my hips began moving to the beat. I started with smaller sways of my hips, gradually increasing to a rotation of my lower half in perfect sync with the music. Daemon’s eyes narrowed and a grin peeked out from the corner of his mouth. Annie Lennox began to croon the lyrics and my arms went above my head, my hips moving even more fervently. I kept my eyes on Daemon intently watching his reaction. The muscle in his jaw started to tick. I looked at him as if he were lunch, mentally projecting my thoughts into his head. Seduction, lust, need…everything I could toss in his direction. When his hands began to clench, I stepped it up a notch. I turned in a circle while still swaying my hips. Daemon received a full one eighty degree view of my body in motion. Turning back to him, I noticed that every muscle in his body had gone tense.

  I brought my arms down, only to raise one hand and crook my finger at him daring him to come closer. It was a challenge and he knew it. At first he remained still, his eyes raking over every part of me. Eventually, I saw him step forward….another step…a few more….another...and we were face to face. Chortles and gasps sounded from our audience, but I ignored it, pretending Daemon and I were the only people in the room. I turned so that he was standing behind me and pushed against him. Moving slowly, our bodies ground into each other. My hands reached behind me to grab his hips and pull him even tighter to my body. He placed his large hands over mine and started moving against me as well.

  Challenge. Accepted.

  My knees buckled slightly from the heat rising between us. With my eyes closed, I leaned my head back on his chest. His hands traveled up my body and I gasped when they met the bare skin of my midriff. Crap! My game was being turned around on me. Needing to gain control, I thought about anything besides turning around and ripping his clothes off…smelly sneakers, spiders, clowns. I shuddered. The clowns did the trick.

  I continued moving, consciously driving myself against him. When I felt something hard poke against my behind I knew I’d succeeded in my plot…and just in time. The music stopped and the gym went quiet. Had we been outside, I’m sure we would have heard crickets, it was so silent. Daemon’s lips tickled my ear as he whispered, “Please tell me you plan on walking me to the bathroom. I’m having a slight issue because of you.” He lifted his head and I peeked up at him from over my shoulder.

  My lips twisted up into a wicked grin. “Nope.”

  I lurched forward, leaving Daemon exposed to the group of men in the room. Howling laughter came from the peanut gallery and I swear I heard David gasp then sigh. I turned to stare at Daemon smugly. His lips were pulled into a tight line, but I could see a smile trying to escape.

  I grinned and batted my eyelashes innocently before saying, “You said you wanted to see me move.”

  The smile finally escaped his lips. “Touché, Damsel.” Pulling back his shoulders, he held his head high as he moved past Joe and the Gang on his way to the restroom. The men were laughing so hard, several had gone into coughing fits while the others beat on their backs.

  Feeling satisfied in my triumph, I turned back to David and held out my hand to him with dramatic flourish.

  “David…let’s dance.”

  Chapter Nine

  The ceiling tiles were stained and falling down in areas. Large brown circles hinted to a roof leak and the possibility that this ceiling could eventually fall down on top of our heads if left unfixed. My chest heaved up and down as my body vacillated between tingles and pain. The rhythm of my heart was concerning, but it calmed as I continued to lay there contemplating the maintenance issues of the building.

  Four hours. Who knew that a flaming gay man dressed as Richard Simmons could actually keep moving for four long hours. I’d been transported back almost thirty years in history to a time of synthesized music, bright neon colors, clothing and accessories made of plastic, and the most comical and strange hairstyles I have ever seen.

  Dancing to the ‘80s. I’d been floored from dancing to the ‘80s.

  Every song drove me faster and dangerously close to a deep coma.

  Six letters…S.A.F.E.T.Y….There was nothing safe about those letters, about that dance. Men Without Hats lied.

  Tony Basil lied as well. Mickey was not fine…Mickey was a bastard who needed to be punched in the face.

  Ninety-nine red balloons? Yeah…if I had a pin, I would have popped each and every red balloon Nena was singing about, laughing maniacally while doing so.

  “Damsel, you okay?” My eyes searched for the source of that mocking voice. Sure, it’s easy to laugh at the woman laid flat on the ground, but he didn’t just dance for FOUR hours. I’d been excited when the CD ended the first time. My heart dropped when David gleefully started it again from the beginning. The torture continued through four cycles of that CD. I was the one to finally end that CD. After its last hideous conclusion, I jumped in front of David as he tried to hit play again. Ripping the CD from the boombox, I threw it across the room like a Frisbee. It hit the far wall, light bouncing off it as it clattered to the floor. I cackled like a woman crazed and promptly fell to the ground utterly exhausted.

  Daemon’s face came into view. His expression was amused, yet concerned. My eyes narrowed. HE did this to me. I thought I was going to die right here on the grubby ground of a decades old gym with David and the peanut gallery looking on with humor. They thought this was funny. I thought I needed an ambulance.

  Daemon kneeled down beside me. “Paige, baby, we need to go see Annie. You can’t lay on the floor forever.”

  Ha! Who was he kidding? I could happily lie here forever, never moving, never again hearing music. The floor was my friend. The only thing that wasn’t trying to execute me by forcing me to move even an inch from where I landed. Me and the floor, we were fast becoming close.

  Daemon reached his hand down to help me up. Annie. I needed to see her. I decided to attempt movement. I willed my arm to raise up to accept Daemon’s assistance. It didn’t move, not even a twitch as my brain helplessly sent signals down the paths of nerves attempting to elicit movement from my muscles. My body was in full revolt. I’d become a helpless puddle of goo. Every now and again, a muscle spasmed and twitched.

  “I can’t move Daemon. You’ll need to go on without me. Tell Annie I love her and mi
ss her.” My voice was weak, my breathing still erratic and strained.

  Daemon chuckled. “Quit being dramatic, Paige. It wasn’t that bad.”

  Wasn’t that bad? Sure, we could go with that. Although I was now convinced that if Chris was watching and somehow saw this little incident, he would know exactly how to kill me. All he had to do was show up wearing short striped shorts and badly bedazzaled shirt, carrying a boombox blasting music from a decade that I barely escaped being born into and I would be a goner for sure. The torture had already been exacted by my friends. All Chris had to do was finish me off.

  “I can’t move, Daemon,” I repeated.

  He chuckled again. “Sure you can. Look, you are moving your jaw to talk, and your chest is moving up and down from breathing. The ability is there, Damsel, all you have to do is will your arms and legs to lift themselves up from the floor.” Daemon sighed, finally realizing that the floor and I would not part unless assistance was given. His arms came under my legs and back and he lifted my deadweight, attempting to put me into a standing position. My legs collapsed, but he caught me as I started to fall backwards. I hoped he would pull a muscle in his back from catching my weight. It would serve him right. He attempted to kill me today by siccing David on me, armed with a boombox and ‘80s music.

  Daemon gave up finally, picked me up and carried me as we said our goodbyes to the peanut gallery. He promised to return soon. I apologized that I would never see them again. Their laughter followed us out the door as we left.

  When we reached the truck, Daemon attempted to place me in a sitting position in the front passenger seat. My body kept sliding down to the floor board. I couldn’t hold myself upright no matter how hard I tried. I was tired. Daemon shrugged finally and decided to lay me down in the back seat as David climbed into the front. Within seconds, we were on our way back to Daemon’s apartment to get cleaned up before heading to The Center. David played around with the radio and joyfully shrieked when he discovered an ‘80s station.

  Fuck…My life.

  As Madonna sang out “Like a Virgin,” I cringed. Although, after a moment, I resigned myself to agree with her. I felt like a virgin; one who had just had sex thirty times on her first night. My legs hurt and I was in pain. I could see Daemon’s shoulders bounce from the laughter he was trying to contain. David’s energetic hands snapped and swayed in front of him as he continued dancing in his seat. Having no fight left in me, I groaned and endured it the entire length of the trip back home.

  I was carried upstairs, stripped down and placed in a warm bath. Daemon’s hands massaged my body, starting with my shoulders, moving down, until ending with my feet. I was beginning to regain the ability to move, especially excited after first relearning to wiggle my toes. I was in the warm, healing water for thirty minutes. My pride swelled as I pulled myself from the water to allow Daemon to wrap a towel around me to help dry me off.

  His laughter bubbled out of him. “Feeling okay now, beautiful? I was worried about you for a little while there.”

  Taking control of the towel from Daemon, I said, “It was touch and go for a little while. I was worried myself.” I turned to him to glare into his eyes. “Never again, Daemon. Never again release David on me without warning. That man can be deadly if given the proper weapons.”

  Daemon laughed. “Actually, Paige, David gave you one hell of a workout. I don’t think that guy ever tires out. I would have fallen over after the first three hours. I was shocked you kept going. A couple more days of that and you’ll be able to run a marathon without any problem.”

  “A couple more days?!” My eyebrows climbed high on my head. My eyes widened so much, they hurt. “You can’t do that to me, Daemon. He’ll kill me. I won’t last through that again.”

  Daemon’s hand came down to my lower back as he ushered me into the bedroom. “Well, I have something else planned for tomorrow, but there will be a few more days of dancing planned after that. You’ll be fine, Damsel. The more you dance, the longer you’ll last. It gets easier, I promise.”

  Daemon sat me on the bed before walking over to his closet. He’d secretly moved some of my things into his room and I now understood the wisdom in that idea. He walked back out carrying a pair of jeans, some underwear, a green shirt and my boots. I eyed the boots warily wondering if I would still be able to lift my legs to walk with the added weight. “You’re going to need to wear these today. Your bike is still at your parents’ place and you need to ride it back. David and I will follow behind you in the truck.”

  I nodded my head. If I would have to ride home, I needed to conserve my energy to be able to hold up the weight of the bike. Daemon approached me and placed the clothes next to me on the bed. His eyes twinkled with some private thought. “Now, I’d like to remind you of the little game you played with me in the gym today…” His gaze caressed the exposed skin of my body. “…I believe paybacks are in order.” His hands easily removed mine from the grip I held on the top portion of the towel. Slowly, he unwrapped me, allowing to towel to fall to the bed. Goosebumps prickled over my skin and his gaze heated with devious thoughts. I shook my head.

  “Sorry, Daemon, but no can do on that idea. I’m exhausted and you deserve to be punished for your actions today. No sex for you.”

  He grinned revealing those lickable dimples on his cheeks. “Punished? You intend to punish me? Oh, Damsel…” His eyes darkened and hooded, his voice dropped impossibly low. The sound of his words vibrated through me, threatening to destroy the resolve I’d just built. “…I’d love nothing more than to be punished by you. In fact, let’s make a little wager on who can punish who more. You do remember our days of being roommates, correct?”

  Oh, shit.

  “I told you I was going to help you learn to control those emotions of yours, so this actually works out perfectly. I accept your challenge yet again, Paige.”

  “Uh…what?” My brain couldn’t come up with a better question than that. I know…it’s pathetic.

  “I’ve noticed that you are weak when it comes to resisting me. Although I take it as a compliment, it will be fun to watch you attempt to deny my advances. So that’s the game, Paige. I attempt to seduce you, and you resist me.”

  My eyebrow arched. “I’ve resisted you before.”

  His eyebrow arched.

  “Okay, maybe not.”

  He chuckled. “In part, the test will be resisting me, but also, I want you to keep from letting me know how difficult it is. Control your emotions and physical reactions as well, Paige. Don’t let me know my effect on you. Your three biggest problems are your fear, your anger and your lust. Okay, well, that last one isn’t so much of a problem, at least when I’m around. Regardless, if you can gain control over those three, there should be no problem controlling everything else. Part of defending yourself, Paige, is keeping your opponent guessing when it comes to your thoughts and feelings.” He winked as his arms crossed over his chest, pushing out his biceps. I think I may have drooled at the sight. “So far, you’re not doing so well. I don’t think you’ll be able to do it, Damsel.”

  I pulled myself from my admiration of his body. Fuck him. I could control my reactions. No problem. He is an arrogant bastard and I was going to prove him wrong.

  “Okay, Daemon. I’ll play along.”

  He nodded. “Good. Now get dressed so we can get going. I need to take a quick shower and I’ll meet you in the living room momentarily.” He sauntered in the bathroom as I began pulling on some clothes.

  ~

  The ride to The Center was uneventful. Daemon and David were mostly quiet during the trip. My mind raced the entire way as I bounced between excitement for Annie and trepidation at having to face my parents. As soon as the large building came into view, my heart sped up as panic ensued. It was strange to feel this way. Never before had I ever felt anything but peace and tranquility upon arriving here.

  The truck lurched to a stop and my parents stepped out through the front doors waiting for us to ap
proach. Daemon threw the truck into park but sat back with his head turned in my direction. “You ready for this?”

  “No.”

  “Paige…” Just as Daemon started to speak, David’s hand came slapping down on my shoulder. My head whipped around to look at him.

  “Paige, you’re going to forgive your parents. They love you, you love them. That’s all that matters. All the other bullshit is in the past and, quite frankly, I won’t allow you to continue in your stubbornness.” Having said that, David scooted himself to the side of the truck, opened his door, came to my side and pulled me from the vehicle. I tumbled out, barely keeping myself from falling to the ground. David closed my door behind me and I turned to see that Daemon had also exited the vehicle. They walked on either side of me as we approached my parents. I wasn’t sure if they were trying to provide me strength, or if they were escorting me to make sure I didn’t cut and run.

  Momma’s face looked tired when we reached her. I know that she’d been upset for the past couple of days and I felt slightly guilty for not having dealt with this earlier. Daddy also looked exhausted, but threw on a brave smile as I neared them.

  “Baby Girl!” His arms opened up, welcoming me into his embrace. David and Daemon’s hands came up to my back, pushing me in the direction of my father. I took hesitant steps at first, but the huffed out a breath and walked over to allow my dad to wrap himself around me. “We’ve missed you, Baby Girl.”

  My anger at my parents began to dissolve as I recognized the pain and defeat in my father’s voice. “It’s only been a couple of days, Daddy.”

  He sighed. “I know, Paige; but it’s been a long couple of days. Too long.”