by J. E. Taylor
Frank launched at her and Ty moved like a shadow, intercepting Frank before he could touch her again. In one motion, he catapulted him across the room. Storming after him, the only thought that filled his mind was I am going to kill you!
Frank’s restricted hiss of pain satiated his volatile need for violence and Ty took a second to glance over his shoulder, just in time to see Jessica’s knee connect with his brother’s groin, knocking him off the couch. Turning his attention back to Frank, he loosened his grip on his throat and lowered him back to the ground. “I’ll kill you next time.” He squeezed for good measure and then released him, stepping away.
He crossed to Jessica, taking her arm and gently pulling her to her feet. Meeting his brother’s gaze, he smirked triumphantly. “I won. It’s my way.”
Ty walked her to her room flipping between triumph and fury. Even though he witnessed their little ménage the other night, the thought of his stepbrother taking advantage of her, hurting her, turned his stomach.
She weaved down the hall stumbling occasionally from the drugs and each time he caught her. When they entered her room, he sat her down on the mattress and met her glazed stare.
“I’m sorry about Frank,” he said and the flash of sorrow in her eyes cut deep.
Tears brimmed, sliding down her cheeks and she tilted her head into her hands, cradling her face as the sobs ripped from between her fingers.
He gently stroked her silky hair and pulled her into his arms, holding her as she cried. Long deep sobs shook her frame and he closed his eyes, kissing the top of her head between the soft “shh” repeating from his mouth.
Escape scenarios played over and over in his mind and in each case, he ended up behind bars or worse. There was no happy ending to this fairy tale and he knew it.
When she stopped crying, he put her gently back on the bed and stood to leave.
“Can you play some music?”
He paused. “What do you want to hear?”
“’Calling all Angels’ by Train.”
“Okay,” he said and walked out. In the control room, he popped in a CD he had made months ago, set the CD to loop and piped the music into her room. He typed commands into the computer, bringing up the feed for the time he was gone and scrolled through stopping when Frank walked in the room. He watched the brutal rape with something akin to murder in his heart, flipping the feed off after a few minutes of her harsh sobs.
He inhaled and exhaled, counting his breaths, dialing back the rage so he could think. Frank would never allow him to take her out of here. If he somehow managed it, Frank would use Chris as a bargaining chip. He had done it before, and Ty wouldn’t put it past the bastard to kill his little brother out of spite.
Movement on screen caught his attention. She stood and swayed to the music, the drugs doing their magic in concert with her natural grace. Twirling and singing in the red dress, her voice soft and sexy and her movement downright seductive. He watched, breathless, the hunger filling ever fiber of his being.
He had to find a way.
He turned at the noise behind him and swung the chair around to face his brothers.
“God damn,” Chris whispered, his eyes glued to the monitor.
“She’s different,” Ty said and they looked at him. “This is going to take time.”
Frank and Chris both nodded.
“Frank, I don’t want to see you anywhere near her,” he warned.
Frank looked at his feet and nodded.
“I want to hear you say you’ll stay away.”
“Sure,” Frank said. He still wouldn’t look at Ty.
“Not good enough Frank. You’ve got to look at me and swear you won’t go near her.”
Frank’s face scrunched in anger and he glared at his stepbrother. “Jesus, Ty,” he said and gestured to the monitor.
Ty stood up and advanced slowly. “Maybe I won’t kill you. Maybe I’ll just castrate you.”
Frank’s head snapped toward Ty, his eyes wide at the threat, went even wider at the vow in his eyes. He stepped back in response. “Okay, okay, I swear. I won’t touch her.”
Ty unclenched his itching fists, keeping the rage in check. Instead, he took another step toward him. “Say you won’t fuck her.”
“Jesus, okay. I won’t fuck her, I swear.” He crumbled under his intense stare.
Ty reached out and slapped Chris on the side of the head. “You too.”
“Huh?” Chris looked away from the monitor.
“Swear.”
“Swear what?” Chris asked and glanced back at Jessica.
Ty grabbed him by the throat and pulled him so they were face to face. “Swear you won’t go near her,” he said when he had Chris’s undivided attention.
“You got it,” Chris said and Ty let go. “You don’t have to get so worked up. Jeez.”
Chapter 17
After Chris and Frank left, Ty walked into Jessica’s room. She saw him but kept dancing and singing.
He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and watched her. The rage at what Frank did settled back a notch, replaced by his desire for her.
Sighing, he wished the heavens would open up and deliver the angels to her. He wished he met her in another time and place, under different circumstances. He huffed. She probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day.
She stumbled and caught herself, the soft voice cracking and going off key for the briefest instant and he smiled catching her attention. She stopped and looked at him and the song began again.
“That’s a nice smile,” she said. “It’s not mean or sadistic or sarcastic.” She pirouetted over to him. “Lean over,” she said.
He leaned over as she asked and she messed his hair up with her hand so his bangs fell onto his forehead instead of slicked back. “That’s better.” She smiled and danced away.
Ty looked at himself in the mirror, still smiling. He didn’t look so serious or threatening with his hair tousled, he actually looked more like Chris. “Hmm,” he grunted at his reflection and looked back at Jessica.
“Girl, you got moves,” he said over the music and she laughed and twirled by. No wonder why Mike loves you.
Jessica stopped dead in her tracks. She turned and stared at him, her eyes dark and wide. “He’s here?” she asked incredulously.
“Who?”
“Mike.”
Ty’s jaw dropped. How the hell? He snapped his jaw shut.
Jessica walked toward him—her eyes no longer brown, but a strange deep, dark violet and still glossy from the drugs. “You just said, and I quote, ‘No wonder why Mike loves you.’ Oh, and another thing, I’m not different. I’m special,” she said and stumbled into him, passing out cold.
He caught her and stared at her limp body. Did she just read my mind?
“No fucking way,” he whispered and picked her up, crossing to the mattress and laying her on it. He covered her and left the room.
Ty went back to the control room and replayed the video. He kept looking from the playback screen to the live screen while he yawned. For someone who calculated everything he did, this was something new, something he couldn’t control and as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to be near her. In a rare impulsive move, he returned to her room and stretched out on the bed, wrapping his arms around her and allowed himself to drift off.
Chapter 18
Ty woke a few hours later. Jessica was still in his arms. He closed his eyes and smelled her hair; the mango shampoo scent still clung to it and begrudgingly, he slipped his arm from under her and left the room.
He stood in the hall with his back to the closed door and ran his hand through his thick hair. “What the hell am I doing?”
He shook his head and headed to the bathroom beyond the control room, showering quickly. Instead of slicking his hair back like usual, he shook his head and just let it fall where it wanted, achieving the same look she had achieved last night.
How the hell am I going to make up for what Frank did?<
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With a clean pair of jeans and a crisp blue button down oxford shirt that matched his eyes, he stepped into the kitchen. Scanning the contents in the refrigerator, a slow smile spread on his lips.
He set up a plate of grapes and strawberries, scooping a healthy dollop of Cool Whip into a bowl on the side. On his way through the control room, he reached into the drawer and pulled a couple pair of handcuffs, sliding them into his back pocket.
She woke as he entered with the tray. “May I?” She pointed to the bathroom.
He nodded and waited for her to come back. When she did, he motioned for her to sit on the bed.
She crossed the room, her head cocked to the side, studying him as she sat on the mattress. “You changed your hair.”
He put the tray down and looked at her through his bangs. “Lie down.”
Her eyebrows rose but she made no move to obey.
He gently took her by the shoulders and laid her back on the bed. Jessica didn’t fight until he pulled out the handcuffs, but he was faster, had the cuffs around her left wrist, and attached to the anchor on the floor in a flash. He pushed her back down and quickly flipped the handcuff around her right wrist as she swung at him. He looked around for a place to hook it and realized there was nowhere close by to put the other end of the handcuff.
“Shit,” Ty said and closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly at his lack of forethought.
Jessica started to giggle. “Quite the predicament.”
“Not really.” He attached the other handcuff to the anchor and left the room. When he came back, he had three long pieces of rope.
Jessica’s smile disappeared and Ty’s got wider.
“Please don’t do this.”
He sighed and unhooked the handcuff holding her right hand, tying the end of the rope to it and walked to the other side of the bed anchoring it to the floor there. He put the remaining rope next to the tray and sat down.
Trembling, she planted her feet firmly on the mattress, her knees bent and her arms straining against the binds.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said and reached over to the tray, plucking a grape off the vine and popped it in her mouth. Her eyebrows arched and she ate the grape, warily watching him. He repeated this until they were all gone. Then he dipped a strawberry in the whipped cream and held the strawberry to her lips. She hesitated; her eyebrows still scrunched together and then took the strawberry in her mouth, careful not to bite his fingers.
An act as simple as eating a strawberry moved him and Ty took a deep breath, tossing the top of the strawberry back on the tray. He repeated with another strawberry. When he picked up the third strawberry, his hand shook and he changed tactics, dipping the strawberry in the whipped cream and dragging it from her neckline to between her breasts leaving a trail of cream. He popped the sweet strawberry in his mouth, dropping the top on the tray. Without a word, he leaned down and licked the whipped cream off her.
Jessica closed her eyes, arching into his touch.
He sat up slowly and took another strawberry, dipped it and slid it down the side of her neck and put it to her lips, leaving a hint of whipped cream on them. He ate the strawberry and leaned over to kiss the cream off her lips, hesitating when she turned her head away. Instead of licking the cream off her lips, he ran his tongue along the line on her neck, her skin quivering with his touch.
He smiled as he sat up, meeting her pained gaze. “Tell me you want me.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I don’t.”
Ty tilted his head a little, running his fingers back and forth along the neckline of her dress, pushing it farther open with each pass. “That so?” He slid his hand under the edge of the dress and cupped her breast, gently running his thumb over her nipple.
“I don’t want you.” Her husky voice and hardening nipples belied her words.
Ty took a deep breath and closed his eyes, gaining control again. He dipped his finger in the whipped cream and pulled her breast free. He rubbed the cream on her nipple, leaned over and gently sucked it off. He sat up and reached for the whipped cream again.
Jessica lifted her legs and kicked, her feet connecting with his ribcage, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sailing off the mattress.
He stood up, flexed his hands into fists and she looked at him smugly, raising one eyebrow in a silent challenge.
He turned his back to her and took a few deep breaths, needing the admission, needing to feel her skin against his, her breath in his ear, her heart pounding against his. He needed her to say the words. He ran his hands through his hair and turned around again more determined than before.
He walked over to the tray and picked up the rope, tying a slipknot in each strand before grabbing her kicking ankles and anchoring her legs. He knelt between the spread he created and grabbed her dress, tearing it open. Silently, he picked up the Cool Whip and traced her breasts with the sweet confection. Her eyes held both ecstasy and apprehension and he leaned down, sucking the cream off, rolling his tongue around each nipple. They hardened under his mouth. He smiled and sat up again.
“Tell me you want me,” he said again, his voice smooth and low. He dipped his finger in the whipped cream again, trailing a line along her stomach.
“No.” Her voice wavered with passion.
Ty continued his slow seduction with the whipped cream. He lined the inside of her thigh from her knee to just shy of her pubic hair and licked it slowly off, he repeated with the other.
Her breath came in thready bursts and sweat shined on her skin.
“Tell me you want me,” he said looking straight down in her eyes, his arms holding him above her without touching her. He fought for control, fought the urge to peel his clothing off and make love to her.
She still had cream on her lip and without waiting for an answer, he leaned down and sucked it off and then pulled away with his eyes closed. Slowly he opened them.
“I can’t,” Jessica said with a voice barely audible. She closed her eyes for a second and then looked up into his eyes. “I can’t,” she repeated.
He closed his eyes and hung his head, consumed with so many different emotions at that moment that he didn’t dare move. Lust, anger, and futility combined to dangerous levels within him. He opened his eyes, took a deep breath and kneeled back.
Again, he dipped his finger in the cream, traced a line from her belly button to her hairline, and licked it slowly and deliberately downward. He looked up at her again as he gently slid his finger in her. She was wet and for a brief instant, he forgot to breathe.
“Say you want me,” he insisted and lapped her belly button, rolling his tongue slowly around and ending with a wet kiss. Ty moved his hand out from between her legs and kissed the inside of her thighs, her stomach, her breasts, her neck and her lips as Jessica trembled beneath him. His whole body ached and he pulled inches away from her, staring into her eyes, still fully dressed and breathing hard. He leaned down and kissed her again tenderly.
Jessica sobbed and kissed back parting her lips, allowing his tongue to explore her mouth.
The sweetness of her mouth, of her tongue dancing with his sucked the air out of his lungs and he pulled away slowly, still leaning on his hands and knees without touching her with his body. He looked at her for a long time before leaning back on his knees and running a shaky hand through his hair.
He untied her and unlocked the cuffs, watching as she wrapped her arms over her belly, pulling the remnants of the dress around her and rolled on her side, her face buried in the pillow to silence her sobs.
He spun away, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. Anger welled up from the bowels of his soul and he spiked the handcuffs on the hallway floor, pacing back and forth, as the fury grew. His eyes landed on another door halfway down the hall and he darted to it, yanking the door open and glared at the bastard that brought all this on.
Mike scrambled to his feet, his eyes narrowing in hatred and he charged.
&n
bsp; Ty sidestepped and swung an upper cut, catching Mike under the jaw and sending him sideways. He grabbed Mike, slamming him into the concrete wall with his hand locked around the bastard’s throat. “You son of a bitch, you knew!”
He threw Mike across the room and stalked out, leaving Mike baffled on the floor.
His frame shook with barely contained emotion and he went back to the source, entering her room and listening to the shower. He paced, frustration brewing to unprecedented levels within him.
Chapter 19
Jessica lay on the mattress and sobbed. She turned her head, her eyes landing on the tray still holding a half-eaten bowl of strawberries. She stood and kicked it across the room heading toward the bathroom and relief from her burning skin. Stepping under the cold water, she yelped, arching her back from the frigid spray, but forced herself to stay under until all hint of the heat he created disappeared. Sobbing because he almost won today, because she wanted him almost as much as she wanted her freedom and that could not happen, not if she wanted to see her family again.
God help me, she thought, and shivered as the cold water bit at her skin, cooling her down and letting her gain control.
Her teeth chattered and she flipped the water off, grabbing a towel and drying the cold droplets from her goose-pimpled skin. The room tilted, and she blinked, the visions slamming into her consciousness hard enough for her to collapse from the weight of them.
She knew where she’d seen his face before, those Bedroom Eyes appeared in a dream she had long before her children were born.
“Oh my God,” she whispered as the dream of their first encounter in the electric chair rolled through her mind followed by a second memory that made her shiver and sweat at the same time.
“Oh my God,” she repeated. She had seen those eyes looking up at her as he knelt on a snow covered lawn, the words he uttered impossible. She looked at her reflection with dread, drying the rest of her body and slipping on the exercise outfit left for her, welcoming the thought of running until she dropped.
