She’s Mine: A Captive Romance

by Masters, Ellie

  “I didn’t…”

  “You called me X, whittling my name down to a single letter as you’ve done to him. I know why you do it, but it stops now. From here on out you’ll call me Master each time you speak, until it’s ingrained in your head and becomes second nature.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

  “I have no doubt it slipped out, but all that tells me is that is how you think of me in your head. A few days of having to say Master each time you speak will take care of that. You’ll eat, breathe, sleep, and dream of me. And each time you fail to give the appropriate address, you’ll earn five strikes of my hand. And you know what happens when I punish you.”

  He gets hard, and I get wet. I swallowed against the thickness in my throat.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” I needed to be more careful.

  He gave me a long, hard stare and I wrapped my arms tight around my legs bringing my knees to my chin.

  “I didn’t mean it…Master.” I made sure to emphasize his title. A tiny jolt of pleasure sparked deep within me, and I hated that less than I should.

  “Much better.” He stood and offered me a hand. “Come, it’s nearly time for dinner. You have several punishments waiting for you tonight. We have just enough time to dispense one before dinner.”

  I’d lost track of what punishments I’d earned. It seemed the simple act of breathing brought on one of X’s punishments. I held back my anger. It didn’t matter what I called him out loud, he couldn’t take away how I referred to him inside my head. Z hadn’t and X wouldn’t either. What I couldn’t ignore was the heat in his eyes or the response that stirred in me.

  Chapter Twenty

  X led me back to the library and I followed with trepidation and a shaky anticipation. My body did strange things around him. It hummed and vibrated, heated and glowed; it betrayed me with malicious intent because it wanted everything X promised with an insatiable hunger.

  I thought my punishment would be delivered immediately and steeled myself against what would surely follow. Instead, X lifted a white sundress off the back of a chair and thrust it at me.

  “Get dressed.”

  “You’re giving me real clothes?”

  I didn’t immediately take it and regretted this when he yanked the dress away. The scowl on his face deepened and his gaze heated with lust.

  “I’ve demonstrated what needed to be seen. There’s no reason for you not to be clothed. Think what you will of me, Raven, but I have no desire for other men to see you naked. Some things needed to play out, proof given of your compliance and my control.”

  “You used me.” How easily I played into his hands.

  His eyes hardened. “As is my right. You serve me in all things.” He crooked a finger at me as he sat down on the chair. “Come.”

  I clasped my hands in front of me, not trusting the smoldering anger swirling in his expression, but I didn’t dare disobey. I stepped in front of him. He shook his head.

  “Closer.”

  I gulped and took a step closer. He might be fully dressed, but I had no protection against this man. I glanced at the dress, but he caught the direction of my gaze and set the dress down behind him.

  “Closer.” The tone of his voice lowered, turned sultry and intoxicating, but hardness lurked there as well.

  I took a step closer until our knees nearly touched. He reached out and took my wrist with firm possession, but he didn’t tug or pull. Instead, he looked up at me with fire in his eyes.

  “You have a choice. Accept your punishment with grace, or resist and add five strikes to the ten you’ve earned.”

  “What?” I took a step back, but his grip on my wrist tightened, holding me in place.

  “Are you that eager for punishment my dear Raven? That makes fifteen.”

  I reeled with his pronouncement. Fifteen? How had I racked up fifteen strikes? And then it hit me. My eyes widened.

  “I see you’ve remembered. Understand the truth of your new life and understand me. I don’t threaten. I don’t issue empty promises. Your rules are clear. The punishment for failing to meet them will always be stated clearly and swiftly delivered. These are the ties that bind us. The expectations are as clear as our roles. Now, you have fifteen strikes. You can choose to bend over my knee, or I can force you into place. The choice is entirely yours, as is the price.”

  Another five strikes!

  I berated myself for forgetting his stupid rule. It shouldn’t be that hard to say Master, but to say it was to acknowledge a truth I couldn’t face. I’d foolishly thought it wouldn’t matter, but having to call him Master each time I spoke turned something inside me. I didn’t like his choices, but the thought of another five strikes wasn’t something I could stomach. He wouldn’t be easy on me. He never had been. That had been demonstrated time and time again, and I knew exactly what delivering fifteen strikes would do to him. I squeezed my eyes shut as I closed the distance between us and stepped to the side of his legs. That was where I stopped.

  The times before, he’d surprised me, lifting and spinning me until I landed in his lap, but how did I do that now? I glanced at him and he patted his lap. A glance revealed his growing arousal. I was not getting out of this unscathed.

  Without any of the grace I might possess, I awkwardly positioned myself over his lap. X placed a hand over my shoulder blades, and I knew exactly why he did that. Once the blows started, there would be no way I could hold still.

  “Do I need to secure your hands? Or will you keep them out of the way? A word of warning, you’ll find it even more painful if I strike your hands.”

  Everything about this was going to be excessively painful. I remembered the other times he’d spanked me, the way I squirmed and fought to get free of the agonizing burn. Both times, he had kept control of my wrists, binding them at my lower back while using his elbow to form a brace against the bucking of my body. I licked my lips and swallowed nervously because I didn’t want to ask for my hands to be bound. I folded my arms beneath my breasts and gripped my elbows. Only my shoulders and head hung free. No matter how bad it got, I wouldn’t ask for his help.

  “No…Master.” I ground out the title he forced me to use. There was no way I would earn more strikes, and I made a mental note to remember to use the title from here on out. No matter how hard that might be.

  He gave no warning. It was like he purposefully caught me off guard. The first strike fell hard and fast, cracking against my skin and stealing my breath. I remembered to count.

  “One!”

  He ran his hand over my aching skin, soothing the burn.

  “Are you forgetting something?”

  Amusement tinged his words and I realized my mistake too late. It shouldn’t be this hard.

  “One, Master!”

  “Oh no, my sweet Raven. We begin again, and will continue to return to the beginning if you fail to address me properly. This is the price of disrespect. You’ll call me Master until you dream it in your sleep, until you feel it in the deepest parts of your soul, until it’s inseparable from your thoughts. Do you understand?”

  Tears leaked from my eyes and I sniffed. Such a simple yet effective punishment, he had me exactly where he wanted me.

  “Yes, Master.”

  “Good. Now, let’s begin again.”

  Twenty strikes later, I sobbed at X’s feet. My entire backside burned. X spared no mercy and added five strikes for my failure to call him Master. The word came easily to me now. Twenty times, I said Master, counting through and past fifteen. He didn’t give me a pass for forgetting to use the word on that first count. X would never give leniency. I stared up at him, trembling before him as I sat on my knees. He handed me the white dress.

  “Put this on.”

  I glanced at the tenting of his trousers and he looked to his lap.

  “Tell me what’s going through your mind,” he commanded.

  I yanked my attention from his lap and met the tenacity of his gaze. What
to say to him? I began with the truth.

  “You’re not an easy man, Master.” The word spilled easily from my lips.

  “No, but that is what you need.”

  “Me? I don’t want this. You keep saying I do, but…” I squirmed at his feet, trying and failing to find a comfortable position. “I don’t want to be forced and punished and devalued and…”

  “Devalued? Is that what you think?”

  “I’m your slave, Master. There is nothing more degrading than this.”

  “Degrading and devalued are two completely different things. You’re priceless, and my most treasured possession.”

  “But, I’m not a thing, Master. I’m a person.”

  “You’re right.”

  “But you can set me free, Master. You don’t have to do this.”

  “I’ll never set you free.”

  “Why?” I couldn’t help the sob from escaping me.

  “Because I don’t want to. There’s a war being fought within you, Raven, and it’s a battle only you can wage. You must fight before you can surrender to the inevitable.”

  “I don’t understand.” I swiped at my cheeks, and then quickly remembered to add the name I must. “Master.”

  He leaned down and scooped me up. I found myself cradled in his arms. I couldn’t help but curl against him, tucking my head beneath his chin. My backside throbbed with the spanking, ferocious and intense, but it barely hid another, more needy, pulsation.

  X wiped away my tears and then tilted my chin up. Lust burned in his eyes, barely held back in check by his restraint. He ran the pad of his finger across my lips. I parted for him. That small action unleashed the wildness trapped within him. X bent down, capturing my lips with his. He forced my lips wider and invaded my mouth with his tongue. Sweeping inside, the dark, overwhelming taste of him sent my body flying. I clutched at his neck and twined my fingers in his hair.

  Everything shifted and I found myself carried across the library. With one sweep of his arm, he cleared the desk and gently laid me down. With his pupils blown out by his lust, a ferocious energy bunched in his body. He was like a beast on the prowl, waiting for the moment to pounce. He released me and I scooted back, oblivious to my pain. My entire focus centered on X as he undid his belt and unzipped his fly. He freed his cock and held it in his fist.

  My entire body ached for him, and I no longer cared to fight the inevitable. Not with the very air crackling between us. He said nothing, but his gaze drilled into me. The skin over his knuckles turned white where he gripped his shaft, a stark contrast to the red and engorged velvety skin of his cock.

  I leaned back on my elbows, knees drawn up as a serenity overcame me. Then ever so slowly, with our gazes locked in the fiercest of battles, I gave him everything he craved. His eyes widened as I let my knees fall to the side, giving him an unrestricted access to my most private parts.

  “Raven…” His voice came out a harsh whisper. “I won’t be able to stop. Don’t do this…”

  I lifted off my elbows and lay back with my hands by my side, a sacrificial offering of flesh and surrendering of my will. He stepped forward and yanked my hips to the edge of the table, lifted my legs and wrapped them around his hips.

  “If you don’t say no, now… Fuck, Raven, tell me this is what you want.”

  I shook my head, letting tears fall. He’d been right about everything, a battle raged in my head. Heart, mind, body and soul, I was at war, but I couldn’t ask. I wouldn’t. I forced myself to look at X, truly look at this man who enraptured and enraged me at the same time.

  “Don’t make me ask for it. Just take what you need.” That was all I could give him.

  Whatever was happening between us was an inevitability I couldn’t escape, and I no longer possessed the strength to fight. X released my legs and stepped back, surprising me. He shook his head and tossed the white dress over my belly.

  “I don’t take what isn’t freely offered. I won’t become the monster you think I am, but I will be the Master you need, even if that means stepping away from this. This is not over, Raven. It’s barely even begun.”

  He tucked his erection back into his pants, turned, and left me trembling. The fall of his steps was all I heard as he left the library. This time, he shut the door behind him, an unspoken command that I wasn’t allowed to leave. I curled in on myself, sobbed, and examined the ruin of my thoughts. I’d lost the battle, only it wasn’t the one I thought I’d been fighting, and I couldn’t deny an inescapable truth.

  I wanted Xavier.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  X left me in the library for hours. My stomach rumbled, telling me the dinner hour had come and gone. A glance at the closed door kept me in place. Not once did I venture out of the library. I didn’t want the temptation it would bring. If I did leave, there would be no stopping me from attempting escape. That long driveway teased me with the promise of freedom, but I understood one thing about X. He didn’t leave anything to chance. I might have a GPS strapped around my ankle, but I was certain it wasn’t my greatest barrier to fleeing this place. That didn’t stop me from examining the anklet, though. I was obsessed with it.

  I’d had plenty of time to look at it. I hadn’t been idle during the time spent in my room. I never examined it in front of Bay, Chad, Ben, or Mel, but every shower brought another opportunity to figure out how to defeat it. Unlike the keypad at the door, this was one puzzle I wouldn’t be solving anytime soon. If I cut the strap, an alarm would sound. No doubt, a signal would be sent to whomever monitored the device. X and my guards would be on me in an instant. I also couldn’t run with it still attached. I had no illusions of a perimeter which monitored my whereabouts. Break the perimeter and the anklet would not only alarm but send my location, not to mention the punishment from X which would follow.

  I couldn’t cut it.

  I couldn’t run.

  I had been neutralized.

  Which left me looking for alternate escape. After combing the library, and the plentiful offering of books, I turned my attention to his laptop. I curled up in one of the chairs and cradled it in my lap.

  The first thing I did was check the program to track my father’s activities. His computer wouldn’t ping until he connected to the internet, so I expected nothing. To my surprise, the code had been activated.

  The backdoor I installed gave me access to everything on Z’s computer and more. I was a virtual ghost in his machine. I hadn’t mentioned that to X, keeping that gem to myself. One question burned at the forefront of my mind and I used my time to find answers. Over an hour later, all I had left were more questions.

  Beneath the layers of shell companies and holdings, I uncovered a shadow organization which turned my stomach. The business of trading human flesh brought millions into my father’s accounts. He had his fingers involved in every aspect of illicit human trafficking. My stomach roiled with the depths of his depravation. From stealing orphans from foster homes in the United States, to sweeps of the homeless in Central America, my father filled the orders of those wealthy enough to purchase humans for any number of different reasons. One name kept reappearing and I wondered who John Snowden might be. He and my father seemed to have extensive business dealings.

  Not all of the hapless victims became sex slaves and it was this which sent chills down my spine. An entire segment of his operation dealt in the trafficking of young boys meant specifically to live or die in illegal death matches organized across the globe. Thoughts of what those poor boys endured nearly had me emptying the contents of my stomach.

  Each slave came with a bio stating where they’d been taken from, a list of their characteristics, and the potential roles they might fill. Prettier boys were slated for the sex trade. Those who were scrawny, and those who were filling out, went to the fight rings. They pitted the weak against the strong in an ugly contest of survival.

  Never in my life would I have believed such brutality existed, although I didn’t know why I shouldn’t be surpri
sed. Like cock fights and dog fighting, there were too many people who took sport in the misery of others. Why not boys fighting for their lives?

  I slammed the lid down on the laptop and swiped at my cheeks. It seemed all I ever did since coming here was cry. The door to the library opened and I looked up. X entered, his discerning gaze looked to the laptop and then to my tear-streaked cheeks.

  “Raven? Are you okay?”

  I shoved the laptop away from me as X closed the door behind him. He approached me cautiously as anger surged inside of me. I’d almost given myself to this man. Hell, there was no almost about it. I’d willingly spread my legs for a monster.

  X’s rules put me in an untenable position. His questions had to be answered, and if I spoke to him, I now had to call him Master or accept punishment. If I didn’t answer, my fate would be the same. With no good choice, I chose the direct approach.

  “How long have you been trading slaves, Master?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying for defiance, but coming far short of my goal. My entire body shivered and goosebumps prickled on my skin.

  He glanced at the laptop and pulled a chair to the opposite side of the desk. I appreciated having something between us, but understood there was nothing which could keep X away from me if he decided he would have me.

  “I’ll answer your questions, but first I have some of my own. Do you mind?”

  “Do I have a choice?” I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, then added the formal address. “Master.”

  “You always have a choice, but in this, I need a few questions answered first.”

  “Of course, Master. We always do things your way. Why should this be any different?”

  “You’re angry.” Astute in all things, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to read my mood.

  “I’m disgusted…Master, and angry.” I was angry at myself, not him.

  He reached across the desk and pulled the laptop to him. “Why are you disgusted?”