Not bothering to turn any lights on he went upstairs to his new room. Dropping down face first, he closed his eyes, not bothering to undress. Sleep was what his body demanded, so he’d nap, just a couple of hours and then he would be able to face whomever it was that would be stopping by to see him, or to rip his nuts off, whichever came first.
* * * *
“Tired?” Samara Knight asked Makayla.
“Some, but I’ll take a nap later on.” Makayla sighed, slumping down on the sofa in front of the unlit fireplace. “So you want to tell me why Dane had them pack me up and haul my ass here in the middle of the night? Thought we agreed I’d be home for the weekend.”
Samara went over and joined her. Makayla could tell right then that something wasn’t right. Samara had that look, the same look she use to get when their father made her do something she didn’t want to do, or when something bad was about to happen.
“Dane has this feeling that someone might have you summoned to the Compound.”
“No shit!” Makayla snickered. “Who’d be that stupid?”
“Makayla, please.”
“Oh, come on.” Makayla stood back up and jammed her hands on hips. She faced her sister, feeling her own kind of frustration hitting. “You three have been sneaking me in and out of this damn town without letting me in on the why of it. Don’t you think it’s time I was let in on it? Hell, I’m almost twenty-two. No one knows me! The ones that did have forgotten me.”
“Not everyone has forgotten you,” Samara said.
She knew who they were talking about now. “You’re talking about one of Dane’s friends. What’s his name?” Samara nodded.
“What about him?”
“He might want you,” Samara said.
Makayla snorted, “Bullshit.”
“Makayla!”
“Come on!” Makayla sat back down, facing her sister. “I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. What, I’ve met him like once and that was over a year ago.”
“Sometimes it only takes one meeting. Did for me.” Makayla opened her mouth and Samara rushed on. “And it did for Devon also. Don’t you see? Can’t you understand why we want to protect you?”
“Protect me? You three have made me feel like I’m in damned protective custody or something.”
“You just don’t understand.” Samara slumped back on the sofa.
“What is so bad about it anyway?” Makayla went on. “Why would it be so bad if I did get married?”
“It’s nothing like that.”
“Then it’s the guy. You all know who it is and I don’t, so once more you three are making the choice for me,” she snapped as she stood back up.
“Makayla, please,” Samara pleaded.
“How old do I have to be before I can make up my own damn mind?” She left the sitting room, went back out to the large hall and towards the steps. The grandfather clock chimed and she looked at it. Five in the morning already. She got halfway up the stairs when a knock came at the front door. “Great.” She stopped, turned and went back down. “Who the hell is coming over now so damn early?” She yanked the door open with a tight: “Yes.”
“Makayla Tabor?”
Makayla stared at two men in dark suits. Her gut dropped. “Um, yes.”
“Please come with us.” Together they reached for her, taking hold of her arm.
“What? Wait!” she shuddered. “Samara!”
“What’s going on?” Samara came rushing out from the kitchen, just as Makayla was hauled outside by the men. “Hey!” she yelled.
One guy shoved Makayla into the back seat of the car, while the other blocked Samara’s efforts to reach her. “I’m sorry, Miss. Your sister has been requested to the Compound.”
“What?” Samara gasped.
That was all he said. He turned, got in the back seat, boxing Makayla in. All Makayla could do was sit there, staring in disbelief. The car door shut, then it pulled away, and she watched as her sister stood on the steps watching her leave, looking just about as lost as she felt.
Well isn’t this just fucking great! I was just talking about this shit.
* * * *
“Darius!”
Darius jolted awake, looked up and groaned at the bright sun shining in his face. Rolling over he rubbed his face then sat up as he heard his name bellowed again.
“Darius!”
He sat up, looked around again to get his bearings and let his brain remind him where he was. Once that was established, he scooted off the bed, went to the double doors and flung them open. Blaine Cedric was pacing the first floor. From the second floor, Darius could tell by his face, and the manner in which he paced, that he was pissed off.
“You don’t need to yell,” he called out, stopping Blaine from searching for him. “I’m up here.”
Blaine looked up. “You little fuck,” Blaine snapped.
“I take it that she was picked up and Dane has called you to come and kick my ass,” Darius remarked, pushing away from the railing and walking back into his bedroom to the bathroom. He heard Blaine rush up the stairs and into his room, right on his ass.
“Do you know how bad Dane wants to come over here and beat the shit out of you?”
“I have a good idea,” Darius said, turning on the water in the sink. He splashed his face with cold water, clearing the fog of sleep away. “And you?” he looked over his shoulder, grabbed the towel hanging on the bar, wiping his face. “Do you want to beat the shit out of me also?”
Blaine made a growling sound in the back of this throat. “I don’t know what I want to do with you. This isn’t the way to go about getting Makayla.”
Darius brushed past him, back into the hall closet and grabbed a clean shirt from the hanger on his way back into the bedroom. “What the hell did you expect me to do? Sit around and hope like hell I’ll have a chance that she’ll be around long enough for me to have her taken to the Compound. There was no way in hell that Dane or Berdina was going to let her stay in this town long enough, not when they both knew I wanted her.” He stopped in the middle of the room, took off his shirt and tossed it to the bed, then put the clean one on.
“This is not how to go about doing this,” Blaine said through his teeth. “They went to the damn house for her at five in the morning. Took her from the house in front of Samara, for Christ sake. Dane is ready to kill you.”
“So there’s only an acceptation to the rules if it suits you guys, not me,” Darius said. “What Dane did to Samara shouldn’t happen to anyone else, is that what you’re saying? Or I know, how about I go in and hope like hell I get lucky and she might be there.”
“Don’t pull that bullshit on me,” Blaine snapped.
“Better yet, how about I just wait and go in during a fucking party and pick one. No wait, Devon didn’t just pick her there, he discovered Kera when she tried to run away. Sometimes all of your stories get so confusing, yet their memorable at the same time. Guess I’m supposed to sit back and just listen to them, not take notes and do the same thing.” He left the bedroom, walking as fast as his long legs would carry him away from Blaine. “Guess it would be different if she was a different girl. If it wasn’t Makayla then you three would be patting me on the back, congratulating me and giving me all kind of hints how to break her in easy.”
“God damn it, Darius!” Blaine yelled, following him out. “This isn’t a fucking game here. How the hell did you pull this shit anyway? Next party isn’t for a few months and what the hell are you going to do if you two aren’t a match? You ever thought about that?”
“Did you guys think about that when you went in?” he tossed back, going down the stairs and heading for the kitchen.
“This cluster fuck is going to backfire on you if you two don’t match. It’s already screwed you and Dane’s friendship.”
“That was fucked up a long time ago.” He went to the fridge, opened it and brought out the juice.
Blaine leaned on the island hand on his forehead, looking down
. “Darius—”
“Blaine, it’s done!” Darius snapped. “In less than twenty-four hours we’ll know if we’re a match.”
“And if you are?”
He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he brought his glass up to his lips. He took a drink, meeting Blaine in the eye. “Then we are. And I’ll be a damned lucky, happy man.”
Chapter Two
Makayla Tabor couldn’t believe her damn luck. Coming home to see her sister one last time before she took off for her big trip and she gets grabbed for the damn Compound. Who the hell knew she was coming back? No, scratch that. Who the fuck wanted her? She didn’t know that many people in town, mostly because she stayed the hell away from it. After Dane married her sister, got her out of that shitty school where her father sent her, it was decided by the four of them, Berdina included, that it would be better if Makayla stayed away from Treece until she was too old to be sent to the Compound. Neither Dane nor Berdina wanted to take the chance that Makayla might be taken and married. The only one that seemed like it didn’t bother much was Samara. No, scratch that again, Samara did act like it bothered her now with the idea of her going to the Compound, which meant that she likely kne who wanted her.
They’d kept her away while she worked on her schooling and they made the plans for her future. A small part of her did want to experience the Compound, and see if anyone around here might be the perfect match for her because she was lonely and her sister and Dane didn’t see that. On the flip side, she was scared shitless of going up there. Once a woman entered those doors, sometimes she didn’t come out.
Fathers sold their daughters to the Compound. The rich used it for their personal sexual needs, on the unfortunate girls that didn’t get matched up. Damn Compound became the heart of the town and everyone around had a use for it.
However, the rules to the place were changing. It had been rumored a while ago that girls were showing up to be matched only they weren’t as innocent as they appeared to be. Some of the men around felt like they were getting screwed on the idea of having a pure wife. Makayla snorted at this crazy idea. Who gave a shit if a girl was a virgin or not when she went there? Everyone had the right to go there and try to get matched up to the right person.
Then why are you wanting to run from it?
Taking a deep breath, Makayla tried to stay calm as she paced the small confines of the locked room—a small bedroom with a tiny bathroom. Narrow bed, no color on the walls, no color to the blanket on the bed—nada— a very depressing room. She couldn’t sleep, hadn’t expected to. How the hell could anyone sleep after being dragged from one place and locked in another?
She stopped pacing when the lock turned and the door opened. Swinging around she watched as the same woman who’d met her upon her arrival came in with a tray. She placed it on the nightstand next to the bed then straightened up.
“I’m the mistress of the Compound,” she said. “I run things here.”
“Well, good for you.” Makayla crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the woman. “When the hell do I get out of here?”
“You’ve been requested,” she went on. “And when the gentleman comes is when you will be let out.”
“That’s bullshit. Berdina Knight needs to be called right now.”
“You have ten minutes to eat your breakfast.” She turned and walked out the door.
Makayla picked up the bowl of oatmeal and threw it as hard as she could at the door as it locked. “Stick your breakfast up your ass!” she screamed. The bowl shattered, oatmeal going all over the wall.
Then minutes later the mistress came back, but not alone. The door opened, she walked in and with her two men. They came inside, grabbed Makayla by the arms and pulled her from the room. They dragged her down a hall and into another room that reminded her of the medical center back in her old boarding school.
“Please strip and put on this robe,” a woman standing at a counter said as she wrote something down on some paper.
“Why?” Makayla asked.
“Because I need to examine you.”
“Hell no.” Makayla shook her head and turned to run, but two very large women dressed in white blocked her escape. They were strong, placed her face forward against the table and stripped her. Once naked, they put her ass up on that table and strapped her down. Never before in her whole life had she felt so damned helpless.
It didn’t take long. She was inspected inside and out, then they shaved and waxed her. Once they finished they released Makayla and she slipped into the robe since they took her clothing from her.
Once more, she was hauled down a hall and back into a bedroom, the door locked. It didn’t look like the same room she was in earlier but it had the same look and cold feeling.
Lunch was brought in and Makayla looked at it in disgust. A plain thin meat sandwich, apple and a glass of milk. That was it. She shook her head, turned her back on the food and went over to the small window.
She thought about her sister. Was Samara going nuts wondering what was happening to her? Was Dane hunting down the guy who had her summoned here and was beating the shit out of him? Was Nana okay?
When the sun lowered, a visitor arrived. The mistress came in, followed by the two large women once more and they ripped her clothes off. They escorted Makayla out of the room and into a large pool like bath. The women washed her from head to toe, dried, then rubbed her down with some scented lotion. Instead of the robe being given to her, a sheer nightie, something that she would never wear in her wildest dreams, was slipped over her body.
“Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?” Makayla demanded again.
“I’ve already told you,” the mistress answered.
“No you haven’t said shit. Who is this guy?”
“One who wishes to remain anonymous for the moment.”
“For the moment? Why?”
“In case you are not a match of course. Let’s go.”
“What!” A thick blanket like cloak was placed over her shoulders and a blindfold slipped over her eyes, encasing her in darkness. Rough, large hands grabbed hers, preventing her from removing the blindfold.
Someone with power or money made a request.
“Open your mouth and drink this,” she was told.
She drank down a cool, soothing, but somewhat bitter liquid, feeling warmth spread throughout her body, pooling between her legs. Her clit began throbbing slightly and she could feel a slight dampness between her thighs. Totally in the dark, Makayla was taken from the room. She had no clue where she was going but a good idea where she might be heading. They were taking her to him!
She could hear things. Moans, gasps, some crying. It was all so foreign to her, frightening, constantly reminding her as she walked of where she was and what goes on behind these closed doors. Then she was reminded of the stories she heard from the few people she had spoken to and had asked questions of concerning the Compound. Not too many would answer her questions, and the few that did know refused to tell her too much. They had said it was better she didn’t know since she would never be going there. Boy, were they wrong there.
She heard a door open. The smell of fresh bread greeted her as she was led into another room, then her escorts stopped her. Makayla could hear everything around her. Breathing of others close by, whispering. She even picked up this faint scene of a man’s cologne.
She jumped when someone touched the side of her face. She turned her head away and another hand touched her other side, turning her face forward.
“Don’t be frightened,” a male voice whispered, his breath touching her ear, tickling her slightly.
Makayla tried to pull back away from him but couldn’t. Her escorts still held onto her hands and this man had a hold of her face. She could feel his breath moving from her ear, touching her cheek, resting near her lips. Her heart pounded in her chest. Fear of the unknown had her in its grip. She was powerless to prevent anything from happening—from him touching her, looki
ng at her. Maybe even kissing her. Shit! If he kisses me and we match I’m screwed!
Her mouth went dry with the thought. She’d only been kissed once and that was at school. She had asked one of her friends to kiss her so she could know what to expect. He had obliged her with a small peck on the lips. Feeling this man’s breath on her lips had her tingling in anticipation.
He first brushed his lips across hers. When a slight sigh slipped through her lips, he went in, his tongue going past her open lips into her mouth. He touched hers, then pulled back and thrust back in. He turned her head, cocked it to the side and kissed her even deeper. A moan left him, and still he kissed her. He stole her breath and left her with a sweet, lingering taste in her mouth.
She couldn’t breathe, felt like she was going to fall to the ground. And then he stopped, pulled back, rubbing her lips with his fingers. Makayla couldn’t help herself and leaned forward for more. When she realized what she was doing, she straightened up and shook her head until his hands left her face, and she licked her lips.
Hands released hers and with a jerk, the cloak that gave her protection was yanked from her body. She gasped, crossing her arms over her breasts. She could hear them leaving and the turn of a lock.
When she reached up to take the blindfold off, hands grabbed her wrists from behind.
“No!”
The order was sharp and in her ear. Her captor forced her to walk forward. “Who are you?” she asked.
He stopped. She felt him close to her face again, his body heat coming from her back, hard contours of his flesh against her. He released her arms, reached around and pushed her hair aside, resting his chin on her shoulder.
He rubbed up and down on her arms. “You are so very beautiful, Makayla Tabor. Very much worth the wait. You’ve grown so much in the past years, and Dane has made this moment very hard to happen.”
She jumped when his hand touched her belly. Makayla could barely control her breathing and he made it even harder to do when he slid it upward, at the underside of her breast. She twisted out of his arms, yanked the blindfold off and looked at the man who obviously had enough power in this town to get whatever it was he wanted.
Forbidden Lust (Tales of the Forbidden) Page 2
