by Riley Ashby
“Cheer up, Mads.” His flat voice caused me to shiver. “Things won’t be that bad. You’ll see.” There was no hint of kindness, no weakness I could exploit to my advantage, and no emotion at all that showed him to be an actual human being.
I was in the hands of a monster, and I had no way out.
Meyer
I distracted myself by returning to work for the rest of the week with as little time at home as I could stand. There were new contracts to be drawn up and executed. A private security firm was looking for some new tech to use in the Middle East, and some wealthy locals wanted to wait out another decade of unrest rather than try to re-establish contacts and supply lines in new countries with stricter law enforcement. Schaf Industries would make billions.
Madeline was depressed. She cried herself to sleep most nights, burying her face in my carpet to muffle the sounds of her despair. She barely touched the food I provided. I resorted to threats to keep her eating and drinking. A few times, I came home late to find her holed up in the basement watching TV in a daze, not really taking in what was showing. I dragged her upstairs and put her through the motions of bathing. I didn’t try to hide my body’s reaction to her, but she didn’t shy away from me. She painted herself with grim, steadfast acceptance.
When I came back on Friday, she was still on the floor of the bedroom where I had left her that morning. Her face was nearly healed, more yellow than purple, and the painkillers allowed her to take deeper breaths. I hadn’t even bothered tying her up for the past few nights, and the red skin around her wrists had turned pink and healthy. She was healing well, despite her own attempts at sluggish suicide.
Seeing her on the floor that day, I felt a pang of unfamiliar guilt. She was so broken it made me sick, but I didn’t want to own someone so morose for the rest of my life. Where was that red-hot firebrand I’d spent the past few days sparring with? I kicked off my shoes and laid on the carpet, surprising myself. She stared at my chin.
“What do you want.” She didn’t ask any real questions, just observed, which really made for shit conversation.
“Plan B,” I said, and she made eye contact. She couldn’t help herself. “I got you some makeup and a nice dress. We’re going to a party tomorrow.”
She shook her head, burying her face in the carpet. “I’m not going anywhere in public with you.”
“You don’t have a choice,” I said, struggling to keep the irritation out of my voice. This wasn’t something I could force her into. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work. Everyone would be able to see her reticence. It had to look real. “It’s our first public appearance as a couple.” She snapped her head back up again, and I saw the unabashed hatred in her eyes. I almost recoiled from her. No one had ever looked at me with such fury before. Not even Conrad.
“No one would ever believe we’re together,” she growled. “You’ve mocked my organization too many times. And even if it were believable, I would never betray my colleagues like that. I would lose all credibility.”
“You’re not going back to work anyway, Mads. Accept that that part of your life is over.” As if I’d let her work for a company I’d been trying to put out of business for my entire career. “Why in the world would I allow you to continue working at all? Everything Amnesty Abroad does undermines my entire business. It would be senseless for me to allow you to do that.”
“You can’t take that from me!” I flinched. She was screaming, pushing up to prop herself on her elbows. “That job is my life, Meyer. It’s a miracle I haven’t killed myself this week. You can’t take my work from me.”
You can’t, you can’t, you can’t. All the fucking time. I tried to compose myself, staring at the ceiling as her words mocked me in my head. I liked a little fight, but couldn’t she give in a little? Let that sexual tension boil over a little more? She could dig those heels into my ass while I fucked her instead of into the dirt every time we spoke. Hadn’t I been nice with the pills and the massage? What did it take to break this girl down?
“You’re a thankless bitch,” I muttered, partly to myself.
She launched herself at me, awkwardly, since we were both lying on the ground. I flinched under her fists before realizing how ineffectual they were, and then I came to my senses and grabbed her. She got in a couple of good blows before I secured her wrists, rolling over on top of her to hold her down.
“You’re acting like a child. Control yourself and calm the fuck down.” My tone was harsh with barely contained violence. Who did she think she was? We both knew the score here. She was the one who couldn’t accept the fucking facts.
She ignored me, trying to kick at my kneecaps and groin to no avail. When she finally ran out of steam, she just let her head fall to the side as tears tumbled down her face. “How would you feel if someone took away your livelihood?”
“Do something else.” I dipped my head to brush my nose against her ear, nudging her hair out of the way. She was too close.
Her caustic laughter vibrated down my spine. “Of course, you don’t actually care about what you do. You have no idea what it’s like to live and breathe your mission because your only goal is wealth.”
“Is there something wrong with that?” I pulled back my head to look at her, trying to capture her lips only for her to dodge me once more. Her breath was erratic against my cheek, and I wasn’t sure if the pounding against my ribs was from her heart or mine. The delicate skin of her wrist twisted beneath my thumbs.
“Something wrong with an empire built on the blood of children? I think so.”
I forced myself to breathe deeply, reminding myself that I had the upper hand. I started to rise to my feet. “There’s a fundraiser tomorrow. You’re coming with me. As my guest. My girlfriend.”
She lashed out again, and I almost fell on top of her. I pinned her more firmly, clasping both wrists with one hand and using the other to hold her face still.
“Everyone’s going to see you with me, madly in love or at least heading that way. We’re going to be happy together in public. So everyone can see.”
Her eyes brimmed with fresh tears, produced from anger instead of pain. “You mean so my mother can see.”
I patted her cheek. “Now, you’ve got it.”
She spit on me. I reacted instantly, clamping my hand around her throat almost without thinking. “None of that,” I growled, applying pressure. Her eyes widened in a rush of panic, but I stopped short of cutting off her breath. “You know how much I can hurt you. Don’t tempt me.”
She wrenched her wrists free, and I stood while wiping my face. She clambered to her feet after me, wiping tears from her cheeks. “I won’t do it.”
I yanked her back against me. “You don’t have a choice. I thought we’d established that.”
She squirmed, trying to pull her hips away from me, but I held her down tightly. My body responded to hers, the soft curves against my hard muscles, and when I rocked forward to make sure she felt my arousal, it wasn’t completely voluntary.
She looked afraid now, skin too pale around her dark eyes and hair, but her eyes betrayed something deeper. After the other day, I knew underneath that fear was lust. A desire for me. I’d felt it all around me while I finger fucked her in the woods behind the house, no matter how hard she worked to keep from kissing me. And I hadn’t even gotten off, not until much later and by my own hand.
She wanted me to give her something?
Fine.
I’d give her my cock.
I’d fuck her until she might as well have never known anyone else. She needed the memory of my hard length filling her to erase any other that might have previously encroached on my territory. She didn’t believe what was happening yet, even after what I’d shown her and what I’d told her so far. She had to know she was mine.
I dragged her to her feet and pushed her toward the bathroom. “Undress,” I commanded. She didn’t have a chance to react because I moved so quickly, but she yanked away from me as I reached into the shower and tu
rned on the water. When I faced her again, she hadn’t moved. I grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her against me again, this time backing into the spray. “If you can’t follow orders, I’ll have to do it myself.” I pulled at the hem of her shirt, but she crossed her arms around her body.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, squinting as the water hit her eyes. Every drop of false bravado brought on by her anger was gone. She shook beneath me so hard I thought she would crack, but I didn’t care as long as I was the one to shatter her.
“There she is,” I growled. “There’s the scared little girl I’ve wanted to meet for six years.” I switched tactics and dropped my hands to her shorts, sending them falling to the floor. I reached between her legs, expecting her to open up for me just as she had before, but she slapped my hand away. I wanted to scream with frustration. Every fiber of my being ached to put this woman in her place, but she was so intent on fighting me. Even afraid, she was resolute.
“Did you miss the part where you belong to me?” My voice came out as a snarl, and I swallowed to clear my throat. I felt like a teenager, zeroed in on the woman in front of me and unable to consider anything besides the feel of my body against hers. “Remember how you came for me in the woods? You couldn’t keep yourself from climaxing no matter how much you wanted to hate me.”
I had been promised this woman for years, from the moment I was old enough to know the secrets of my own mother and hers. The day of her sixteenth birthday, when Conrad had finally found her, I saw the beginnings of the woman who looked so much like her mother I remembered from my childhood. I had followed her progress through her schooling and career with almost as much interest as I had dedicated to my own. I was devoted to learning everything about her so that I felt like she was mine even before she came to me.
“You. Can’t. Own. Me.” Did she think if she said it enough times, it would become true? She pushed against my chest, hard. Caught off guard, I stumbled back, but she made no move to run. I studied her, the way her chest heaved and her nipples stood out through the soaked T-shirt. I saw the rush of blood to her face that had nothing to do with her bruises. I saw the trembling in her legs, unrelated to her beating. I saw the way her eyes trailed down my body and rested on my cock straining through my wet pants before flying back to my face and focusing on my lips.
My fingers worked the buttons of my shirt quicker than ever before, letting it fall from my shoulders. “I think I already do.” I stepped back to her quickly, and this time, my hand was allowed to settle between her legs, finding her wet not from the water but from desire. Desire for me.
“I don’t want this,” she started to say, but her words were lost in a sigh when I pushed a finger inside her without warning. My hand went to her neck, supporting her as she fell backward against the wall.
“You’re lying,” I muttered, grinding my hardness against her belly. My finger wiggled inside, stroking her soft walls that shuddered at my touch. I pressed my thumb against her clit, and she moaned helplessly. “Have you been watching me as closely as I’ve been watching you?” I leaned down and bit her lip, taking care to avoid the bruised side of her face. I felt her lips part and moved to kiss her before she turned her head. Her hand was on my wrist, trying to force me out, but I pushed in another finger. She cried out again, jerking away before sinking down onto my fingers. “You were born to belong to me, Madeline. There’s no use in fighting.”
And for one moment, I thought she would give in. Her hand drifted not to my wrist but to my cock, pressed hard and hot against her soft flesh. Her fingers danced over the head, and my stomach clenched in anticipation. Before I could give her time to think, I withdrew my fingers and flipped her around, pressing her against the shower wall. I yanked at my belt and dropped my pants, kicking them away. Pulling out my dick, I finally lined myself up at her entrance. I was seconds away from entering her. The heat coming from between her legs was burning me, hot against my normally cool skin, and I thought about what it would feel like to have that warmth wrapped all around me, enveloping me completely, to sink into her like comfortable clothes or a warm bath. But she slipped away suddenly, taking advantage of my slackened grip to press herself into the corner of the shower and hug her arms across her chest.
The fear in her face now was different. She wasn’t just afraid of me anymore. She was angry.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she demanded. She pressed her legs together, trying to hide the signals her body was broadcasting at full volume. “You don’t know me. I’m not something you can tie up and keep around to play with when you get bored.” She dared a step forward and grabbed her shorts off the floor, tugging them back on to hide her nakedness.
I reached out and seized her arm, but she didn’t allow me to pull her against me again. Her heels slipped against the tile, and I found myself half supporting her as she struggled to fall against the floor rather than come close to me. She grimaced, then cried out as my fingers wrapped tight around her injured flesh.
“Am I not being clear to you, Madeline?” I was more angry than aroused, but that was quickly changing. Her fight made me want her even more. I wanted to show her she was nothing, not without me. I had to prove to her she had no mind and no free will, not anymore. “There is no negotiating. No more of what you want or what you feel. I own you. Completely.” I reached out to grab her clothes again, but her teeth sank into my hand, purposely biting on the bone. I yelled and dropped her. She groaned as she hit the ground but then backpedaled quickly out of my reach. I looked at the indentations her teeth left on my hand, already a fluorescent purple. I turned off the water, suddenly unable to see clearly through the rain.
She climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself.
“Stay away from me. You can’t own a person. My mother proved that, and I will be no different.”
Anger had completely taken over now, and I could hear my pulse whooshing in my ears as I bore down on her. She didn’t cower this time but faced me on even footing. She knew the pendulum had swung. She knew she was close to winning this battle, after escaping me once. I grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back, but despite the extreme angle, she only grimaced.
“Your mother is nothing but a lying whore, and so are you.” I clamped my mouth against hers, but she drove her fist against my cheek. It was so weak, not even enough to bruise, but I threw her away from me. She stumbled but kept from falling.
“You can’t even defend yourself properly,” I sneered, but she was already through the door and back into the bedroom. The towel fell away as she ran to the door leading out to the hallway, but I was there to hold it closed. I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back into the room, kicking and screaming.
“Let me go!”
I threw her on the bed without answering and pressed my body on top of hers.
“I’ll let you sleep in my bed. No more rope, no more carpet.” I grabbed her breast through her shirt and was moving my other hand to her shorts, tugging them down again. “You just have to let me fuck you, Mads, and I’ll make you a queen. You can be my partner instead of my whore.”
“Never.” Her spittle flew in my face.
“Now.” I bit her neck.
“Get off!”
Her knee connected with my groin.
I howled in pain and fell to the side, clutching myself. I was vaguely aware of the door opening but knew she wouldn’t get far. Joshua re-entered a moment later, holding her by the nape of her neck.
“Tie her up. There.” I pointed at a wall sconce next to the bed made of sturdy iron that could withstand her thrashing. I snatched up the towel she had dropped and tied it around my waist before going into the bathroom.
I leaned over the sink, trying not to retch as the pain subsided. Madeline continued to yell long after I heard the door close again, various vows and epithets I didn’t really internalize in my anger and pain. After I calmed down, I took a proper shower, spending more time than was necessary bene
ath the spray. Jesus, that hurt. I took a few more deep breaths and patted myself tentatively.
When I finally returned to the bedroom, Madeline was quiet. Facing the wall, she didn’t turn her head to look at me. Her wet clothes clung tight to her skin, her shirt riding up high over her stomach and back.
“Are you properly afraid now, Mads?” I came up behind her and ran a finger down her spine. She shivered.
I wanted to run my tongue up her back and taste every inch of her nervous system. I wanted to press myself into her and understand what made her happy, what made her sad, and what made her afraid. I wanted to exploit every weakness and fear until I had a map of her brain. I needed to know what made her tick, what made her angry, and how to soothe her anxiety after I had driven her to terror. I felt this primal need to be the source of every fear, every happiness, every emotion she would feel from here on out.
She was mine.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I pressed against her, her damp clothing sticking to my dry chest. Her rib cage didn’t move. She was holding her breath.
“You should be.”
I reached for her again. I might be in too much pain to do what I had originally intended, but I still needed to teach her a lesson. I pulled at her shorts as she began squirming and fighting again.
“Meyer, stop! Please!”
I growled. “What did I tell you about that word?”
She swallowed. I wanted to feel that throat work while my lips pressed against it. Feel her jerk as I drove into her, the contraction of her pussy around me as I came deep inside.
“I’m begging you, Meyer. Please. Don’t do this. Don’t hurt me anymore.”
“Dad, please, don’t hurt me anymore. I promise I’ll be good.”
My father’s hand swung for me again, and I heard the sound of a hand slapping against a face, but it wasn’t my face. I was pulled out of the way at the last moment, safe in the arms of the only woman I’d ever known as my mother.
