by Snow, Jenika
She had never been loved in her life, never felt wanted, not even when she had been with a boy. They had only wanted one thing from her, and when she hadn’t given it to them they had discarded her just as easily as everyone else had. But she had felt loved when Gavin touched her, even though there was no way those deep emotions could be present this early on. She had seen the way he looked at her, like a treasured possession. There was no way his seemingly infatuated fascination with her could ever grow into something meaningful, right? There was a lot of evil in the world, and unfortunately it far outweighed the good.
After she had picked flowers with Adelbert and carried them back inside, she knew that she had just made a monumental decision. Adelbert didn’t seem to make it matter that she was a captive in this mansion, because to him and his sister Gavin was their savior. But did they know that the man that had saved them, and that they looked up to, enjoyed sadistic sexual play? And do they know you like to be his masochist?
She ran her hand over the mirror one again when it started to fog up. “Well, what are you going to do?” Silence greeted her as she looked at her reflection. She turned and grabbed the plush robe that hung behind the door. After she had it on she opened the door and turned off the light, but she knew she wasn’t alone as soon as she stepped into the room. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed, and felt his eyes on her.
“Hello, Ruby.” Gavin’s voice was deep, and now that her vision was clearer she saw he wore a suit, but he wasn’t as impeccably styled as it usually was. He didn’t wear a tie, and the first few buttons of his shirt were undone. His jacket wasn’t buttoned either, and the vest underneath was visible.
“You’re back.” She didn’t know why she was surprised to see him, because he had said he might be back tonight. Was she disappointed that he was already here, and that he hadn’t stayed away longer? No, and that realization had her heart racing and her mouth going dry.
“Come here, Ruby.” His voice was low, and he sounded exhausted, but there was that ever-present assertiveness and dominance laced in his words. She moved away from the bathroom and closer to him. She stopped in front of him, and hated the fact that her breathing increased just from the way he looked at her. The moon was full and the light from it came through the window where the drapes didn’t quite close. “Did you miss me?” He reached out and tugged on the belt that held the robe closed. She didn’t stop him as he undid the knot, or when he took each side of the robe and parted the material.
She was naked underneath, and a deep noise left him when he saw what she had done. “I see you did miss me.” He ran his finger over her freshly-shaved mound. Why had she shaved all of her pubic hair off? Honestly she didn’t know. “You must have thought about me a lot to have done this.” He looked up at her, and even though his exhaustion was clear around his eyes, he looked so damn good. Like a fallen angel.
Ruby had found herself in the shower, with a razor in hand, and thoughts of how pleased Gavin would be if he saw her completely free of hair down there. He stared at her pussy for a long time, ran his finger along her now smooth, slick cleft, and groaned. Gavin pulled her closer and pressed his face to her chest. All he did was hold her, breathe against her, and not let her go. It was a very affectionate embrace, and Ruby found herself lifting her hands and spearing them in his hair. The thick strands weren’t like his normal perfectly-styled appearance. It looked like he had already been running his hands through it. He tensed momentarily, maybe just as surprised as she was at this intimate action. She couldn’t explain her reaction to him, but didn’t want to question it again. She had already done enough of that since being with him.
“You left the razor. You must not have been too worried about me hurting myself.” Ruby didn’t know why she had even brought that up, because wouldn’t bringing it to his attention that she had actually thought about hurting herself—which honestly she had for a spilt second—make him even stricter? He leaned back to look up at her.
“Did you want to hurt yourself, darling?” His voice was soft, but she wasn’t fooled. He lifted his hand and stroked his finger along her cheek. She thought about how to answer, but knew honesty was the only thing he would accept. He would know if she was lying anyway, that she knew without a doubt.
“I thought about it.” The words were almost a whisper, and a flash of darkness washed over his face. In the next second he had her on her back on the bed, with her hands pinned above her head, and her thighs spread wide to accommodate his hips. He was hard, and his erection nudged at her bared opening. There was nothing stopping him from plunging inside except for the thin layer of his pants.
“Is your time here so horrible that you would resort to harming yourself?” He thrust against her and pleasure rocked her when he rubbed her clit. “Have I treated you so badly that you want the coward’s way out?” He leaned down so they were nose to nose. “Have I not given you pleasure, and seen to all of your needs?” He thrust his hips forward once more, nudging her clit and causing a moan to leave her.
“And pain. You’ve caused me pain, too.” He bared his teeth, but it was a frightening display of his anger.
“Yes, and you cried out for more and came undone. Right, Ruby?” He tightened his hold on her wrists until she opened her mouth and cried out silently. He kept pumping against her, right on her clit and causing her to become wetter from the act. “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. You and I are the same.” He let go of her wrists with one of his hands and moved it down to between her legs. He kept her in a secure hold with his other one, making her know without words that he was the one in control. But Ruby knew he was in control. He made sure to not let her forget that. Spreading her wetness around with a finger, there was a very satisfied look in his eyes. “You can call it whatever you want, and deny it until you can’t breathe, but the life you had back there doesn’t give you the satisfaction that I do.” He removed his hand from her pussy and pressed his finger into her mouth. “Suck it off, Ruby. Lick off the arousal that you got thinking of all the dirty things you want me to do to you.”
“I hate you.” There was no heat in her words, and he pressed his finger deeper into her mouth.
“Fucking lick it clean, Princess.” She ran her tongue along his finger, tasted the flavor of herself coat him, and shouldn’t have liked it as much as she did. He took his finger from between her lips and claimed her mouth with his own. Swirling his tongue along hers, his flavor mixed with hers until she was panting against him. “If you want pain, I will be the one to give it to you,” he murmured against her mouth. He leaned back, and his hard expression spoke louder than anything he could have said. “Do you understand me, Ruby?” When she didn’t respond quickly enough, he slammed his mouth on hers so forcefully that their teeth clashed together. “Fucking tell me you understand.”
She nodded. “Yes. Yes, I understand.” She might have thought about it, wondered what that kind of escape would bring, but she could never do that to herself. But she didn’t say that, didn’t tell him that she wouldn’t ever take her own life, no matter what. She wasn’t strong enough to do that, or maybe it was that she wasn’t that much of a coward. He looked down at her once more, but showed no emotion. She expected him to fuck her right then, to make his point in a physical way, but he didn’t, and instead moved away. She laid there, her legs still spread, her pussy and breasts on full display, and his hard-on still tenting the front of his pants.
“Get some sleep.” He turned and headed toward the door, and before he left he stopped and turned to look at her again. “And every room in this estate is monitored. There wasn’t one moment that I didn’t know what you were doing, and if I thought you would have really hurt yourself someone would have been at your side in seconds flat.” He opened the door. “And don’t touch yourself. If you do you’ll regret it.” He left her lying on the bed, her heart thundering, and her body so aroused but with no relief in sight.
&nbs
p; * * *
Gavin didn’t go back to his room after he left Ruby on the bed looking deliciously submissive. He knew she would have given herself to him very easily, but his emotions were running high right now at the ideathat she had actually thought—even for just a second—about harming herself to get away from him. He headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. He needed a drink, needed something to help him unwind and ease the ache in his balls.
Staying in New York until tomorrow had been the plan, but he had gotten through all of his obligations with work and had taken the jet back to his estate. He was jet-lagged, exhausted, and horny as fuck. All he wanted to do was bury his dick inside of Ruby, and then when they were both sated he would pull her close and fall asleep with his body still connected with hers. But he had left her, and he knew that punishment would be far stronger than tying her up and bringing his hand across the luscious mounds of her perfect ass.
He pushed open the kitchen door and saw Adelbert. “It is late. You should be sleeping.” He spoke to him in their native language, and Adelbert stopped and looked over at him.
“Master Gavin, I didn’t even realize you had returned.” Adelbert dried his hands on a rag. “I was in the cellar fixing a pipe that had busted. There was water everywhere.”
“It’s fixed now?”
Adelbert nodded. They stared at each other for a moment, and the other man turned and opened the liquor cabinet. He grabbed a bottle of thirty-year-old Scotch. The alcohol was nearly as old as Gavin. It had been his father’s, one that he had bought while away on one of his many business trips. Gavin didn’t know why he had saved it. After his father had died years ago he had gotten rid of the majority of his belongings. The memories of the isolation and loneliness had come back every time he had looked at Warren Darris’s possessions.
Adelbert didn’t say anything as he grabbed two glasses and poured two fingers of the amber liquid into each of them. He handed Gavin a glass and they both sipped on the smooth alcohol.
“Everything went well in New York?”
Gavin nodded. “It was quick, and I’m exhausted, but sleep isn’t something that I think I can do right now.” They sipped their Scotch in silence for several seconds. “Yeah. Darris Industries is now merged with Crowe & Barrett.”
“Excellent. That is a reason to celebrate.”
Gavin’s business dealt with investments on a consumer and corporate level. Once those papers were signed he had come right back, but she hadn’t been far from his thoughts or sight. Was he ashamed that he had watched her from his laptop on the plane when he had traveled for his meeting? No, he needed to know where she was and what she was doing at all times. She was his, and not just because he’d bought her. Their time together had been short thus far, but he had no intention of letting her go. Did he think she would try and escape as soon as he left? Yes, he did, but she wouldn’t have gotten far.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Gavin tossed back the rest of the alcohol and gestured for more. Once his glass was filled he took another sip. No, he didn’t want to talk about it, but Adelbert was very good at reading others.
“Not particularly.” The look Adelbert gave Gavin told him that it wasn’t an acceptable answer.
“The girl is very frightened.” He knew she was. He saw it every time she looked at him, but beneath that she was aroused and curious about what was happening between them. In fact, he saw that she leaned into him when he touched her. Did they love each other? No, it was far too early for emotions like that, and those kinds of feelings aren’t what they were made up of. People like them were a special breed. He had learned that a long time ago, accepted it, and now embraced it.
“Yes, I know.” He tossed back the rest of his Scotch. Maybe he should have enjoyed it slowly, but right now he needed to feel something other than the need to go back up there and take her the way he wanted to. “She’ll come to enjoy it here.” Although Gavin didn’t know much about her at first, it wasn’t hard to get the information he needed. He had money, and that meant he had connections everywhere. It had taken a little bit of time, but as soon as he had purchased her he had some of his associates gather what he had needed. He had found out exactly who she was, where she had lived, and what she had been doing in Fort Hampton. She had led a life vastly different, but strangely similar, to his. Although he had not been abused, they had both led solitary lives, and both had wanted to escape at some time.
“I don’t interfere in your personal affairs, but I think you need to speak to her and let her know that whatever reason you brought her here was to make sure she was safe.” Gavin hadn’t told the other man why he had brought Ruby here, but there was no doubt Adelbert was curious about what the truth was. “I spoke with her outside, and I can tell you and she are cut from the same mold.” He glanced at Adelbert. He knew about their conversation, and although there were cameras on the outer perimeter of the estate, and he had seen her looking so lovely amongst the flowers, he hadn’t been able to hear what they had said at that time. But Adelbert had called him and told him everything, and he wasn’t surprised that she had tried to reach out to his servants for help. “She says you harmed her, that she is a captive here.”
Although Adelbert and Drika were the closest people he had in his life, that didn’t mean he shared his darker desires with them. He hadn’t told them he purchased her at a sex-ring auction. Asking them to watch over her, to not let her run off and hurt herself, didn’t have them questioning him. They were loyal to him, and did as he asked without complaint or suspicions because to them he had saved their lives. Gavin didn’t think he was a savior in any sense. He had needed help at the estate as much as they needed him. It had been a give and take companionship, and it had worked out well for years now.
But Adelbert was an old soul, could read people as if he had walked in their shoes his whole life, and Gavin wasn’t foolish enough to think that he hadn’t picked up on something right away. In the past years when Gavin would bring women to the estate to try and sate his depraved needs, it hadn’t taken the other man long to question him, especially when the women that left had marks on their bodies. But he was never judged, never condemned by Drika and her brother. And then Adelbert had wanted to know the reasoning, and Gavin trusted him enough to divulge the sick, twisted needs that only certain acts could ease. The women had always been willing, well, until Ruby. But Gavin felt no remorse over buying her. If he hadn’t… he didn’t even want to think about what her fate would have been, or who she would be with right now.
That might have been the first time he had ever been to one of those auctions, but he knew the men that went there. They were like him, but also weren’t. They were cruel, had harems of females, slaves to do with as they pleased. Having her with him was much better for both of them.
“If she is not here of her own free will, no matter the likeness you two share, you must rectify that.”
Gavin set his now-empty glass down and stared at the man. “And would you have helped her escape if you had known this truth in the beginning?”
The other man was silent for a few seconds, and lifted his glass to finish off his drink. “It is not my place to interfere in the lives of others, especially the Master of the estate, but I knew that something wasn’t right with the relationship you had with the girl. This wasn’t like the other times you had female company over.” That hadn’t answered Gavin’s question, and so he waited for Adelbert to continue. “But to answer your question, yes, I would have helped her if I had known she truly wanted a way out.”
Gavin swallowed at the thought of Ruby out there alone. “I want her safe. I don’t harm her, not in the sense you are thinking.”
Adelbert nodded but didn’t respond. Gavin may have only had her for a couple of days, but the thought of her gone from his life was not something he wanted to dwell on.
“You must decide if you want a life where she has no choice, or if you want her to come to you willingly. Those two are vastly d
ifferent, no matter how you try and twist them to fit together.” Gavin didn’t know how to respond to that. “I saw the way she looked at the flowers, and watched how she reacted to my words. I might not have known she was not here of her own free will, but I knew she was a prisoner to herself. She is a lost girl in here.” Adelbert placed his hand over his heart. Adelbert took both glasses to the sink and bid him goodnight, but Gavin stayed there for several minutes, thinking over what they had just spoken of.
He left the kitchen and headed back up the stairs. He pushed open the door to the room where Ruby slept and leaned against the frame, just watching her. She was curled in a ball in the center of the bed, still wearing the bathrobe, and her hair a dark mess around the white pillow. Yes, he might like pain, might thrive on it and yearn for it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy her softness, or be gentle and easy with her. Those moments might be far and few between, but they were still present. Pulling the door shut and walking to his room, he contemplated showering and slipping in bed with her, but instead he stayed in his own room and let his exhaustion take him under.
Chapter Ten
It had been two weeks that Ruby had been at Gavin’s home. With each passing day she was finding it harder to separate her need for freedom with her desire to be with him. He showed her two sides of himself that she couldn’t help but gravitate toward. The angry, determined, and so-dominant side called out to the part of her that she had always tried to hide. She wanted what he had to give her, even if it caused her to cry out in pain. And then there were the rare times she saw this gentler side, the part of him that she sympathized with. It was like she was looking at herself, this lost and lonely soul that didn’t want to be alone any longer. Had what he’d done been right? At first she had screamed and kicked out her response, wanted nothing but to escape and go back to her old life, but with each passing second she knew that she didn’t have an “old life.” She had just been moving through each day, hoping that things would look up. Well, things had looked up. Gavin gave her the desire she craved, touched her the way she only dreamed about, and provided for her in a safe environment. There was no one looking for her, no missing person report. She was all alone, with only herself to look after, and no one that cared. Well, no one until Gavin came along.
