Black Rules

by Charlotte Byrd

  He is so close to me I can feel his breath on my lips. He looks deeply into my eyes and licks his lips.

  He is definitely attractive, but there’s also something menacing and unsettling in his eyes.

  There’s danger in them, and not the good kind.

  Blake brushes his fingers through his dark hair and lowers his chin.

  Then he lifts mine up to meet his.

  But just as he is about to press his lips onto mine, I pull away at the last moment.

  “What are you doing?” I demand.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” he says with a smile.

  “No.” I shake my head.

  “Ellie, I bid on you. You signed the contract to do anything I wanted tonight.”

  I shake my head.

  I feel tears piling up in the bottom of my eyes.

  But I take a deep breath and keep them at bay.

  “No, Aiden invited me. I was sure that he would bid on me. I didn’t want to participate otherwise.”

  “Are you two dating?” Blake asks, crossing his hands across his chest.

  “No,” I say slowly. “Not exactly.”

  “So, why does it matter?”

  “Because I don't want to.”

  Blake walks around me and looks me up and down.

  He’s just playing with me.

  Toying with me. Right?

  “Well, I don't know if that matters,” he says after a moment.

  My heart sinks.

  What did he just say?

  I run the words over in my head.

  “What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” I demand to know. “This is a voluntary situation.”

  “Well, actually it’s not. You signed a contract. You can’t back out now.”

  My hands turn to ice and my breathing becomes shallow. I don’t know what to do.

  Should I scream?

  Should I yell?

  Perhaps, but all I can manage to do is freeze. Somehow, even lifting a finger seems like too great of an effort.

  Blake probably takes my lack of emotional outburst as a sign to go ahead.

  “I can’t wait to do bad things to you,” he whispers, running his fingers down my stomach and along my panty line.

  When he brushes against my hipbones, something sparks within me. I lift up my leg and knee him in the groin.

  “I said no!” I yell, kicking him away from me.

  “You bitch!” he yells, toppling over in pain.

  A pang of fear rushes through me.

  What if I just made things worse?

  What if I made him angry?

  Well, of course, I made him angry.

  But I couldn’t very well let him do anything to me without fighting back.

  After a few moments of wriggling around in pain, Blake stands up.

  His piercing eyes are a shade darker now.

  There is so much anger in them that I wouldn’t be surprised if steam came out of his ears like from one of those Looney Tunes cartoons.

  “You better uncuff me now,” I say in the sternest voice possible. “I’m not playing. You can have all of your money back. I’m not consenting to doing anything with you.”

  I use that word consent on purpose.

  In case, there are any cameras anywhere. In this moment, I pray that there are.

  “I don’t care,” Blake whispers, grabbing me by my shoulders. “You already consented.”

  I try to kick him again, but his legs are too close to mine. He’s pressing me against the bed post so hard that my back aches in pain.

  “Help!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

  He puts his hand over my mouth and I bite down hard.

  Luckily, I’m able to bite into the fleshy part and draw blood.

  The metallic taste makes me gag, but I’m glad I was able to break the skin.

  “Fuck!” He looks at his wounded hand and then smacks me across the face.

  Hard.

  The impact would’ve sent me clear across the room, but I’m handcuffed to the bed post and instead it feels like it nearly pulls my arms out of their sockets.

  “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. Your choice,” Blake says, pacing in front of me.

  “I mean, I’m not Aiden. But who cares? You didn’t know who he was the last time you got auctioned off, so what’s the big deal this time? I’m really a nice guy,” he says. “Can’t you see that?”

  My vision is blurry and my head is pounding from the impact.

  I manage to nod slightly in his direction.

  “Now, c’mon.” He comes over closer to me. I feel his breath on my lips and I want to throw up. “Be nice. C’mon, let’s have a good time.”

  I run through all the possible scenarios in my head.

  I can kick him again and probably get hit again.

  Or I can go along with it.

  Just lie there and be quiet.

  My whole body trembles in fear. No, this isn’t a decision I can make with my head.

  Especially now that it’s pounding.

  This is a gut decision.

  Blake takes my non-answer as an answer. He puts his hands on my body again and then presses his lips on my neck.

  The nausea in the pit of my stomach comes up my esophagus and I feel like I’m about to vomit.

  But before I know it, I lift up my foot and step down hard on his foot with my heel.

  Just as he winces in pain, I knee him again in the groin and kick him away from me.

  Suddenly, the door to the room bursts open and I see Aiden at the far end.

  A moment later, he’s on top of Blake, punching him in the face.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he demands. “I made it clear that there would be no bidding on her.”

  But Blake doesn't take the beating lying down.

  He is taller than Aiden and heavier.

  He uses his weight to his advantage as he punches Aiden back. But Aiden isn’t having any of it.

  He moves with lightning speed and pins Blake under him once again.

  This time, he puts Blake’s arms under his knees and punches him in the face over and over until two large security guards run in and pull him off of him.

  The rest is somewhat of a blur. Someone uncuffs me and hands me a robe. Someone else puts ice on my split lip and takes a look at the redness around my wrists.

  My wrists definitely hurt a lot when Blake slapped me and I got pushed away from the bed post, but I didn’t realize just how bad they looked.

  Red and bruised, nearly bleeding.

  The medic asks me to move my fingers and rotate my wrists. I do as I’m told even though it’s quite painful.

  The medic also applies some ice to Blake’s injuries as he sits across the room with his hands handcuffed behind him.

  This time, the handcuffs aren’t the playing kind. They are metal. The kind that cops carry around.

  When the medic is finished looking Blake over, security guards escort him out of the room. “You’re going to pay for this, Aiden!” he yells.

  “No, you’re the one who’s going to pay for this,” Aiden yells back. “I told you to fucking stay away from her. You knew the rules. And then I come here and find you…”

  His voice cracks and drops off as if the thought of what Blake was about to do to me is too much to bear.

  “You care about your company?” Blake yells from outside the room, in the hallway. “About Owl? Well, you better forget about it now!”

  “Fuck you!”

  Chapter 6 - Ellie

  Afterwards…

  After everyone leaves, I find myself alone with Aiden. He puts his arms around me and kisses my forehead.

  He apologizes over and over, but I still feel numb about what just happened.

  “He was about to rape me, Aiden,” I say after a moment, looking into space somewhere in front of me. “What the hell happened?”

  “I had some work to take care of. And no one was supposed to bid on you, I s
wear.”

  “So you did want me to participate in the auction?” I ask.

  He nods, looking away. I don't understand. “But why would you want to bid again? I mean, I thought that we were beyond that?”

  I don’t really know what I’m saying except that I want to say that I thought we were further along than this.

  I don't want money to be involved in our relationship anymore.

  I want this to be more than it is. But I have no idea if that’s what he wants.

  “The thing is that Blake is one of Owl’s biggest investors. Mainly because he got involved in it so long ago. Back when I didn’t have any money.”

  “Is he your friend?”

  “He was. And he wanted you the second that he saw you at the last auction. But I outbid him. I think he was just getting back at me.”

  I shake my head and walk away. There are words coming out of his mouth, but they still don’t completely make sense.

  “Ellie, you have to believe me. I’m telling you the truth. I wanted you to participate in the auction because I thought it would be hot.”

  “But why did you want me in the auction at all? I mean, I could’ve just come here and been with you?” I whisper.

  Aiden looks away. I see a faint flash of red fill his cheeks. Is this a sign of his embarrassment?

  “I wanted to outbid Blake again,” he says after a moment. “It’s a stupid guy thing. We just got into a disagreement about the direction that Owl will be taking in the future and I wanted to show him up. I wanted to show him that I have the girl. But then I got a very important business call and I couldn’t hang up. Owl is free to use as you know, for users. So growing our revenue has become somewhat of an issue. I don't want to bore you with the details.”

  “No, I want to know,” I insist.

  “Well, I’m trying to get a bunch of investors on board to try to take it into another direction. I want to monetize the company by selling advertising. And not just to big companies, but to everyday users. Small businesses. People who want to advertise their Etsy shops, sell their Amazon books, things like that.”

  I nod.

  “We were having a conference call right before the auction. And things got a bit heated. That’s why I couldn’t call in. I didn’t want to put a strain on what is already a very tenuous and precarious situation,” Aiden says.

  He takes a step forward and lifts my chin up to his.

  “But the last thing I thought would happen was that Lizbeth would go ahead with auctioning you off, and I never thought that Blake would go that far. I mean, I knew he was a sexist pig, but forcing you to do something against your will? I would never knowingly be friends with someone like that.”

  There’s a desperation in his voice that is quite convincing. When I look into his eyes, the all-powerful, alpha guy I knew has all but vanished.

  Before me stands a hurt little boy who wants to desperately convince me of the truth. My head keeps trying to push him away, but my heart knows that he’s telling the truth.

  I break away from his grasp and pace around the room.

  I don't know what to do.

  I don't want to forgive him, but I feel like I have to.

  “Ellie, I know that what just happened is unforgivable. I mean, you must’ve been so scared and I put you in that situation. But I have to ask you to forgive me.”

  He doesn’t approach me this time.

  Instead, he gives me space. I nod, hearing what he has to say but not really internalizing it.

  The anger that I felt toward Blake is now spilling over onto Aiden.

  I know he’s telling the truth, but I don't care.

  “Ellie?” he asks after a moment.

  “I don’t know what you want from me,” I finally say. “I mean, I understand what you’re saying, but I’m still angry. I was tied up here, completely powerless, in front of that asshole. I mean, I know that this was an accident, but I’m still fucking pissed.”

  “I know,” Aiden whispers, hanging his head.

  “I can’t stay here,” I say after a moment. “I want to go home.”

  “Okay,” Aiden agrees. “The helicopter pilot went home, but I can call him in. It’s no problem.”

  Fuck, I mutter to myself.

  “Do you want me to leave?” I ask.

  “No, of course not!” Aiden says quickly. “I want you to stay. But I totally understand why you feel like you have to. Do you want me to call him?”

  I think about it for a moment.

  A part of me wants to leave. But a slightly bigger part wants to stay.

  And not just because the helicopter pilot went home already.

  But because of something else.

  Something that I feel for Aiden.

  “Ellie, what can I do?” Aiden asks, probably sensing my trepidation. “What can I do to make this up to you?”

  I think about this for a moment.

  “Show me the library.”

  He smiles out of the corner of his mouth and leads me to the library. It’s even more magnificent than I thought it would be.

  The ceiling is very tall, just like the rest of the rooms, but this room has elaborate wooden built-in shelves going all the way from the ceiling to the floor.

  As soon as I walk in, I’m hit by the strong aroma of brand new books. By the spines, I can tell that many editions aren’t new at all, but they are impeccably taken care of.

  “Wow, this place is beautiful,” I whisper, spinning on my heels.

  There are older editions of the classics like The Iliad, and Shakespeare, and there are newer books as well. I walk over to one of the five wooden ladders with wheels at the bottom.

  I’ve seen these in movies, but have never had the pleasure to actually climb one.

  “May I?” I ask. Aiden smiles and nods.

  I grab a hold of the ladder. Pushing it slightly ahead of me, I step on the lower step and enjoy the momentum that it gathers even though it is a bit brief.

  For a second, I’m transported to one of my favorite movies from childhood, Beauty and the Beast. That was my favorite movie because Belle was a reader, like I was.

  She was a bit of a tomboy and didn’t care about guys or getting married. Instead, she always had her nose stuck in a book.

  I climb up the steps of the ladder, about halfway up the wall and run my fingers across the hardbacks to the right of me.

  My hand lands on the thick large spine of Atlas Obscura. I slide it out and bring it back down with me. When I open the book, I press the book to my nose and inhale the sweet aroma of newly printed pages.

  “This book is fascinating,” Aiden says. “There are so many strange places in the world.”

  “I’ve only been on the website,” I say, looking at the photo about the island of dolls in Mexico City.

  Apparently, the island is something of a memorial to a little girl who died who loved to play with dolls.

  “Well, these are quite creepy,” Aiden says, reading over my shoulder.

  “I’ve always been somewhat terrified of old dolls,” I admit.

  We stand here for a few moments, reading about the swimming pigs of the Bahamas and the island of snakes off the coast of Brazil, which people aren’t allowed to visit without special permission from the government because it’s entirely populated by snakes and no other mammals, including the most venomous snake in the world.

  “This book is fascinating,” Aiden whispers. “I’ve read most of it, but I could read it again and again.”

  “Have you ever seen any of these places?” I ask.

  “I’ve seen a few. But not many.”

  “I’d love to visit some of these,” I announce. “Actually, I’d love to visit them all.”

  “Why don’t you?” he asks after a moment.

  That’s a very good question. A couple of weeks ago, I would’ve had a good excuse. I didn’t have the money. But now, things are a bit different now.

  “Maybe I will.” I nod.

  I
walk over to a fainting couch at the far end of the room, the kind I’ve only seen in movies, and lie down, running my fingers across the books above my head.

  “So what’s going to happen with Blake now?” I ask. Aiden shrugs.

  “I don’t really know. He’s probably going to pull out of the company. He isn’t the type to be humiliated and then stick around.”

  I like the sound of that. “You think I humiliated him?”

  “Of course. I mean, you did basically beat him up,” he says with a smile on his face.

  I won’t lie, I like the sound of that.

  And this is coming from a girl who has never been in a fight her whole life.

  I’ve always been somewhat of a pacifist.

  Or maybe just a wimp.

  “And if he doesn’t pull out as an investor, I’m going to try to push him out. Even though that’s going to cause quite a mess.”

  “Really?”

  He shrugs. “I don't want his money, but Owl sort of depends on it, if you know what I mean. He is the biggest investor and it’s already bleeding money. I’m putting all our money into this new advertising strategy and so far it’s not really producing a return. At least, not as fast as I want it to.”

  I nod as if I understand.

  “You see, that’s what worked so well for Facebook. At first, it was just a social media space where everything was free. And then they had to monetize it somehow. So they started this great advertising platform, which is relatively easy to use for both small and big businesses. And that’s where most of their revenue comes from now. And Google, of course, has been doing that as well. That’s my plan with Owl.”

  “So why isn’t it working?”

  “The platform has some issues. Our reporting isn’t as great as Google’s and nowhere near as good as Facebook’s. And most of the time, we don’t spend enough of the advertiser’s money per day.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, let’s say that the client puts in that they want to spend ten dollars a day on advertising. They create their ad and the audience targeting and ideally the platform is supposed to spend ten dollars or at least about ten dollars. But ours only spends about two dollars or maybe five dollars. It doesn’t deliver the ad to enough people in their parameters per day and that’s why the spend is so low.”