by Alexx Andria
Maybe I’d spent my life willfully shutting out the reality that my luxuries came at a terrible cost.
And if so, that meant Cason had been right. I’d allowed my brother to pay my expenses with blood money.
Not that I had a choice.
Butcher controlled everything around him, including me.
He was my brother, yes, but we’d never had a sibling-type relationship due to the age gap between us.
Which was another reason why I didn’t think Cason’s plan was built with good information. He was basing his entire revenge scheme on Butcher’s tender feelings for me, that frankly, I didn’t even think he had.
My head still ached and my mouth was dry.
If Cason hadn’t rescued me, terrible things would’ve happened in that room.
I couldn’t help but shudder at how many other women had been tossed on that bed, forced to do things against their will.
I should be grateful to Cason for rescuing me.
But how was I supposed to be appreciative when he was the one who’d kidnapped me in the first place? If he hadn’t dragged me off campus, I wouldn’t be in this position at all.
So in fact, it was his fault that woman was dead.
“I hope you don’t think you’re a hero for what you did,” I said, making sure he knew where I stood. “You’re still one of the bad guys.”
“Oh, I know that honey,” he said with a cold smile. “But that’s okay. I never said I wanted to be the good guy.”
I believed him.
But why did bad look so good on him? I tried not to remember what’d it’d felt like to have his tongue buried between my legs.
Remembering that insanity messed with my internal compass of right and wrong.
Plainly, what he’d done was wrong on several levels.
And I was daft if I was actually lingering on the memory.
I drew a deep breath and said, “If I can’t convince you that your plan is flawed, can you at least tell me why you hate my brother so much?”
“That’s my business.”
“Well, I would say it’s also my business because you’re involving me,” I pointed out. “I don’t know, it just seems unnecessarily cruel to leave me in the dark.”
“Do you think I care about your sense of fair play?”
Seems no one did, I wanted to quip.
Instead, I sniffed and said, “No, I don’t think you care about anything but your own feelings. In that, you and Butcher are the same.”
A snarl ripped out of Cason and I shrank against the door as he yelled, “Don’t you ever compare me and that fucking prick again. We are nothing alike. Do you understand? Nothing.”
I swallowed and jerked a tiny nod, afraid of the murderous rage flaring in Cason’s eyes.
Violence rippled from his body like a dark aura. Was Cason’s hunger for revenge going to require my sacrifice for my brother’s crimes? Was that the end game in all this?
I blinked back tears. “If you’re so intent on hurting me, why didn’t you just leave me in that house?”
He cut me a short look. “I gain nothing from whoring you out in a crack house.”
Was that all? Was there no other reason he’d been frantic to find me? Maybe I was putting too much value on the way he touched me last night but everything in me said that I wasn’t wrong.
Frustration laced his voice as he added, “Just shut the hell up. I need to think.”
But I didn’t want to be told how to act or how to be. Butcher had done that to me my whole life. Even when he wasn’t around, Butcher had been there in my head, stalking me with the threat of his displeasure.
I was done with that bullshit.
“Don’t talk down to me,” I warned, hating the image Cason had of me. I wasn’t some frivolous princess, nor had I ever acted like one. I kept to myself and just wanted to be left alone. “You’re the one who barged into my life and turned it upside down. Not the other way around, try to remember that.”
“How could I forget? Less than twenty-four hours together and you’ve already nearly ruined every plan I set into motion.”
“And I’m supposed to care about that?” I shot back, unable to believe his nerve.
Cason skewed a sour look my way but seamed his mouth shut. Oh, now he wanted to watch his words? Fine timing.
Yesterday, I didn’t even know he existed. Today he’d rescued me from a fate worse than death but was probably still planning to take my virginity, at the very least, and who knows what else.
Still, at least I was alive. That was worth something, right?
“Thank you for saving me,” I said stiffly. I was many things but I wasn’t ill-mannered.
He grunted an acknowledgment but then said, “Save your gratitude. I doubt you’re going to be thanking me when you see where I’m taking you.”
His answer sent a cold sliver of dread shooting down my spine. Just where exactly was he taking me? How could anyplace be worse than Tito’s or the crackhouse?
I was in a twisted movie where everyone died at the end, which didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.
If I could just get out of the situation alive, I’d call that a win.
I twisted away from Cason and stared out the passenger side window. My stomach yowled. It seemed I was always hungry. I don’t know if that was a fear response or stemming from the fact that I hadn’t really eaten anything aside from a slice of pizza last night. Not to mention whatever they had drugged me with had made me seriously sick.
“Can we stop at a gas station or something and get something to eat?” I asked, hating that I had to rely on him for everything.
“No.”
His terse answer gave power to everything I secretly feared. Maybe he was trying to starve me. Maybe he hadn’t liked what he’d seen last night and thought I could stand to lose a few pounds.
Surprisingly, that thought cut deeper than anything else.
Which was plainly stupid because why would I care what a man like Cason thought of me?
I was fast becoming irritated with my own thoughts. I longed for a good book, one where the heroes were two-dimensionally awesome, kind, loving and perfect. I knew men like that didn’t exist, but that was okay because I much preferred living my life within the pages of a story rather than the grim reality.
Reality sucked.
I must’ve fallen asleep. One minute I was awake and the next it was hours later, the sun had dropped into the horizon and Cason was pulling into a narrow alley, swinging around to the back of an older building to park.
There was no sign on the door and it looked deserted but the faint pulse of music filtered through the old brick.
Cason pulled me out of the car roughly.
I glared. “Do you have to jerk me around like that? I’m not a side of beef.”
“Keep your mouth shut and stick with me,” he warned with a growl as he banged on a rusted metal door.
A thick man with ferocious eyebrows and tattoos crawling up his entire arm stared then droned, “Password.”
Cason didn’t miss a beat. “Pineapple.”
Pineapple? Why not Bloody Skulls or Shattered Souls? Seemed more appropriate than a sunny, tasty fruit that went well with barbecue pizza.
The guard nodded and allowed us into the smoky darkness. I held Cason’s hand in a death grip.
Music throbbed as shadows gyrated on the dance floor, glitter sparkled on the floor and people wore masks.
Where the hell were we?
Cason wound his way past the throng of people, most oblivious to anything around them, and we traveled down a creep corridor, lit only by the dimmest flickering lights embedded in the wall.
It smelled sour, like sweat and other bodily fluids that I couldn’t even imagine.
Wherever we were made Tito’s place look like the Taj Mahal.
Cason opened a door and pushed me inside, locking it as he closed us in.
I gasped as I stared at the grotesque room. A large bed with skulls
and crossbones bedding was off to the left and to the right…I turned to Cason, my mouth parted with incredulous horror. “You brought me to a sex dungeon! Are you out of your mind?”
Cason mocked, “Now what does a virgin know about sex dungeons?” but before I could sputter an answer, he pushed me up against the wall, his big body towering over mine.
I shivered as I tried to quell the knot of fear and excitement pooling. “What are you doing?” I asked, jumping when he pulled my arm up to clamp a manacle around my wrist.
“You played on my weakness,” he said, securing my other wrist even as I struggled to get away. “But that’s not going to happen this time. This room is used for other purposes but I think it’ll serve my needs just fine.”
“You’re going to leave me shackled to this wall!” I cried, unable to believe his cruelty. “I can’t sleep like this.”
“Who said I will allow you to sleep?” he returned coolly.
My breath caught. I didn’t know what he meant but I instantly thought of the other night and I had to squeeze my thighs together to keep from squirming.
Cason was so close I could see his eyes flare with something powerful. I didn’t know if it was arousal or anger but being helpless to prevent whatever was coming did something strange to my insides.
“Please Cason,” I pleaded, trying to appeal to some sense of decency in the man. “You know this isn’t right. I’m innocent in all this. I’ve done nothing to hurt you. Please…”
Cason dragged a knuckle softly down my cheek. “You are sweet when you beg,” he murmured, losing himself for a moment in the hungry perusal of my body. I was still wearing his shirt. His scent was on my skin. Cason returned to my gaze. “If you’d just done as you were told…this could’ve been over within a week or two. But you had to go and try to run, fucking everything up. Now, I have to change plans — plans I’ve had set up for months. Do you have any idea how that pisses me off?”
“You can’t blame me for trying to run,” I said, my voice shaking. “What would you have done if you were in my place?”
He gripped my cheeks hard, saying, “I would never be in your place” before releasing me abruptly and striding away as if he needed space between us.
I worked my jaw, holding back tears. There was no reasoning with him right now. He was like an animal.
My gaze scanned the room. I couldn’t imagine what happened in these places.
There were paddles of varying sizes hanging on the wall as well as other contraptions that I couldn’t even begin to guess what they were for.
My breath caught. Would he use those on me?
Would Cason spank me?
As if reading my mind, Cason’s slow smile frightened me. He walked to the wall and made a big production out of perusing each one as if he were going to make his selection but he didn’t.
Instead, he walked slowly to me, his gaze holding me hostage, until he was in my personal bubble, crowding me, stealing the very air from the room.
“You deserve to have your ass beat,” he assured me, his voice sending shivers down my arms. “But I’d rather bend you over my knee so I can beat that ass with my bare hand. I’d love to see my hand print blazoned across that fine ass of yours but I don’t trust myself to stop.”
“Do you get off on beating women?” I replied with a bravery I didn’t feel.
“No, but for you, I think I could make an exception.”
This would’ve been a prime moment to spit in his face, like they do in the movies — it would be no less than he deserved — but I couldn’t. My lips parted. I wanted him to close the short distance between us, kiss me whether I wanted it or not.
Damn Cason, he seemed to know what was going through my head, too.
“There’s more to the little virgin than meets the eye…”
My cheeks blazed. I lifted my chin. “I won’t apologize for trying to save myself. If that means I screwed up your plans…I’m not sorry for that either. Do your worst. I’ll find a way to survive.”
But I wasn’t so sure about that.
Especially when Cason never seemed to follow the kidnapper playbook.
He leaned in, breathing in the space where my neck met my shoulders. The heat between us crackled, his soft breath tickled my skin. I gasped as his lips pressed against the delicate flesh.
Oh no, don’t do that.
My knees immediately wobbled as his tongue flicked my neck, his teeth nipping lightly as he traveled up the sensitive column of trembling muscle.
And then he sucked.
Softly at first, then hard.
I cried out as the warmth in my belly spread and my nipples pearled into hard beaded points of aching need.
He was marking me with a dark bruise on the tender flesh.
A hickey, in the most vulgar terms.
But I knew it was far more than that.
I knew as sure as I knew my name, Cason did it deliberately for one purpose — to remind me that I was his to do with as he pleased.
That even as Cason had saved me, no one was coming to save me from him.
I groaned as I fought the urge to thrust my hips toward him.
I wouldn’t beg. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
But the memory of what he could make my body do came crashing back and I was mindless with the desire to feel that soul-shattering pleasure again.
Good God, what was wrong with me?
The easy answer?
I was weak.
And I wanted Cason.
Chapter 15
Cason
I knew I should’ve put her on the wall and left the room.
I was in a dangerous mental space.
A predator prowled inside my mind, the events of the day still running through my head.
I would’ve ripped anyone to shreds who had touched Holly.
She was mine.
All that sweet flesh, her fire, the way she moaned when she came…
MINE.
Holly managed to turn me into a caveman with one primordial thought — FUCK.
My hands were shaking with the need to strip her bare and shove myself deep inside her.
But I hadn’t lied — I didn’t trust myself right now.
I wouldn’t stop.
I was driven by an insatiable need to conquer that I’d never experienced in my life.
Holly’s whimpers pierced the fog swirling my brain and I stumbled back, putting some much-needed distance between us.
She was breathing hard, her nipples poking out like beacons for my mouth.
I liked her wearing my shirt. It seemed perfect on her.
But fuck, I wanted to tear it away from her body so I could see her in the light.
I wanted to see those gorgeous tits. I wanted to tangle my tongue among her sweet curls.
I wanted to know if they were indeed, the same color as her head or if they were darker.
I swallowed, trying to regain control but my heart rate thundered, drowning out reason.
“I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?” she called out, fear in her voice.
I didn’t answer. I had to get out of that room with her.
I shut the door and locked it, pocketing the key.
I needed to blow off some steam before I popped my top.
I had to be in control with Holly.
Detouring to the bar, I ordered a couple shots of whiskey to settle the fuck down.
I surveyed the crowd.
The masks obscured faces, which was the point.
The most alluring aspect of this place was the knowledge that you could be fucking with a billionaire or a postal worker. The anonymous nature was the appeal.
The place was supposedly a knock-off of another club in San Francisco, where only the elite were allowed in.
But this club wasn’t as exclusive.
It was seedier, a place where people who got off on danger could play with fire.
Yeah, I’d been here before.
Before Butcher had gotten a hold of her.
I suppressed the instant beast that growled inside my chest, ordering another whiskey.
Butcher didn’t come here any longer so I wasn’t worried about running into him prematurely.
But in the frame of mind I was in, I might’ve beat him with his own arms.
And that was simply too easy of a death for a perverted dick like Butcher.
My thoughts returned to Holly, secured to a wall in the private dungeon and I grit my teeth against the surge in my jeans.
As if my cock could get any harder.
I could have a medical situation if I didn’t find a way to chill.
I wanted Holly’s lips around my cock.
I wanted to watch as my length disappeared into her hot mouth, the shaft slick with her saliva as I pumped my load down her throat.
Fuck.
That wasn’t the way to calm down.
I felt someone staring.
I turned and found a woman, bare-chested, wearing a tiny glittery bikini came toward me. Dark hair flowed around her mask, her nipples, a nice dusky brown.
A little on the skinny side.
Nothing like my voluptuous prisoner who had curves for days.
Maybe that was better.
The opposite of Holly would work for me.
She came to me and immediately went for my cock. I strained against her hand.
“Seems you’re working with respectable equipment,” she purred, rubbing the hard length with covetous eyes. “Let me guess…about eight inches?”
“And thick as a soda can,” I drawled, letting my gaze travel down her body. “Let me see that ass, sweetheart.”
She turned slowly, glancing back over her shoulder with a coy grin. “Like what you see?”
“I do,” I answered. “What’s your name?”
“Candy.”
Stripper name. Obviously fake.
But I didn’t mind.
“Nice to meet you, Candy.” I didn’t offer up my name.
“And you are?” she fished.
“Not necessary,” I told her with a firm smile. Butcher may not frequent this place any more but that’s not to say that none of his posse didn’t. “Want to play?”
