Sweet Deception

by Angel Nicholas

  She snagged the towel off the floor, but the cover it provided was laughable. As quickly as she could, Ally crossed the room and scooted onto the narrow bed. Dread congealed in her belly.

  Thirty seconds later, the lock turned and the door creaked open.

  Heart sinking, Ally crossed her legs and clutched the tattered towel to her breasts. Victor appeared in the door, grinning and congenial.

  “Good morning, doll-face.” He made a tutting sound, more like he was spitting than anything. “Your face is not so pretty this morning. We’ll have to work on that.”

  As if her condition wasn’t his fault.

  “Not so mouthy now, I see.” He nodded in obvious satisfaction.

  Much as she hated pleasing him, she kept her mouth shut.

  “Good, good.”

  He gestured through the open door and Jia Li appeared. In one hand, she carried several scraps of material. In the other, a different bag from the one she’d had earlier.

  “Jade is going to help make you presentable,” Victor said.

  Ally’s gaze darted to Jia Li. Jade? The woman gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. Jia Li must be her real name.

  Victor closed and locked the door behind Jia Li. Strolling across the room, he settled into the sole metal chair. Oh, man, he was going to watch. Her stomach rolled, threatening to divulge her unappetizing breakfast.

  Jia Li laid out the material on a small folding table she had brought along. Lingerie, Ally realized. A bra, tiny excuse for panties and a garter belt, all in brilliant garnet-red. Beside these, Jia Li set black stockings.

  Ally’s gaze flew to Jia Li’s. Sympathy shimmered there. Her mutinous stare moved on to Victor. “I don’t even get clothes to wear?” she sneered. “What kind of second-rate outfit are you running here?”

  His nostrils flared. “The kind that cares more about the client’s pleasure than your comfort.”

  She longed to launch herself across the room at him, but his beady eyes watched her closely. Her fear fed his ego. She lifted her chin and held his gaze.

  His eyes narrowed.

  Jia Li made a soft sound of distress and Ally’s attention shifted to her. She shot her a pleading look as she laid out an assortment of cosmetics on the table. A hairbrush was among them and a large jar.

  Knuckles rapped against the door. Jia Li moved to answer it, but Victor waved her back and rose. Two men, massive muscles bulging, came in. They stood on either side of Victor, lust in their eyes as they stared at her.

  So not good.

  “If you please,” Victor gestured toward her.

  They started toward her and Ally scrambled back on the bed. She didn’t get far. The dark one grabbed her wrists and the blonde guy snagged her ankles out of midair as she kicked out. The towel went flying. She screamed, kicking and wriggling and squirming. They held firm.

  The blonde guy tucked both her ankles into one hand and reached under the bed. An old-fashioned shackle appeared, which he deftly attached to her ankle. Moving to the other side of the bed, he repeated the action. The heavy chains weighed down her legs and held her thighs wide open.

  The dark one licked his thick lips. The guy with sandy-colored hair stood at the end of the bed, crossed his arms over his massive chest and stared at her crotch.

  Ally’s whole body flushed hot with shame.

  The dark guy placed her wrists in narrow shackles on either side of her head and stepped back to survey his work. Hot rage flooded her, banishing humiliation, and she glared at the men. “Gee, I’ll bet your mothers are real proud.”

  The blonde guy flushed and his gaze shifted away. The darker one grinned.

  “Jade,” Victor said.

  Jia Li moved forward, mouthing a silent sorry as she set the large jar between Ally’s spread thighs. Heat emanated from the jar.

  Jia Li carefully applied the hot wax and methodically ripped every speck of hair from her pelvis. Staring at the ceiling, Ally pictured brilliant blue skies and fluffy white clouds drifting overhead. While Jia Li tore out hair from the most sensitive place on her body, Ally bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and refused to cry. She wouldn’t give Victor the satisfaction. Without a doubt, he would derive a great deal of enjoyment from her pain.

  Finally, thank you, God, Jia Li finished. Gently, she rubbed oil into the abused area before stepping back.

  Victor rose. Ally’s whole body tensed. He leaned down, his despicable face inches from her freshly bared pelvis, inspecting Jia Li’s work with entirely too much interest.

  “Very nice. Very nice, indeed. You have a very pretty pussy, doll-face.”

  Ally withdrew deep into the safe little space she’d created. She counted cracks in the ceiling. His breath feathered across her skin, and she pulled even tighter into herself. Without touching her, he stepped back and she wanted to weep for such small favors.

  Jia Li came forward with another pot. Ally couldn’t imagine anything worse than the hot wax. Jia Li unscrewed the cap and placed it on the bed. The pleasant woodsy scent of jasmine filled the room.

  Victor settled in the chair as Jia Li rubbed the cool scented lotion into her skin.

  “I’ve decided your name will be Jasmine. I like my girls to smell like their names, so this will be your new scen’. You’ll wear it every day, rubbing it into your skin to keep it sof’ and swee’ smelling.”

  “All my girls are pampered and well cared for,” he added, “as long as they behave.”

  Ally met Jia Li’s eyes. Yeah, his girls were as happy as clams. Clams dumped in a steaming pot of boiling water.

  Finished with her second task, Jia Li stood back. Curly and Moe, aka Victor’s henchmen, came forward and unchained her. Moe, the blonde, ran his hand up her thigh.

  “No touching,” Victor barked and Moe jerked his hand away.

  Curly and Moe went back to holding up the wall and Victor chuckled. “Don’t worry, gentlemen. You’ll get your turn. Eventually.”

  Ally shivered and sat up, crossing her arms over her chest. Jia Li handed her the lingerie. Something was better than nothing, right? She did her best to wriggle into the barely-there shelf of a bra without flashing more flesh than absolutely necessary. Silly after being spread out like a Thanksgiving turkey, but she didn’t care.

  Holding up the panties, she stared at the slit in the crotch before turning narrowed eyes toward Victor. “Real classy.”

  He just smiled his slimy smile.

  Through a feat of sheer determination, she shimmied into the panties and garter belt without spreading her legs. The stockings came next. She rolled them up her legs and hooked them onto the garters. The smooth, silk panties felt strange against the bare skin of her pelvis.

  Jia Li moved behind her and gently untangled the knots in her hair before drying and styling it. A fine mist of hairspray set the style. With gentle fingers on Ally’s swollen and bruised skin, Jia Li applied makeup. Ally had never had someone else do her makeup. If she closed her eyes and pretended really, really, really hard, she could almost believe she was in a salon getting the full treatment.

  Jia Li stepped back and folded her hands in front of her. Obviously she had done all she could. Ally didn’t feel the tiniest bit curious about how she looked. Belatedly, she realized Jia Li had not uttered a single word in Victor’s presence.

  Victor rose again. “Stand up.”

  Stubbornly, she glared and remained seated.

  “I’m sure these two fine men would be more than happy to help you.”

  She hesitated until Curly stepped forward. Trembling, she stood. Victor surveyed her from head to foot, making her feel like a side of beef on market day. She studiously avoided looking at Curly or Moe.

  “The shoes.”

  Jia Li hurried to the collapsible table and pulled a pair of strappy heels out of the bag, handing them to Victor.

  “Sit.”

  Ally sat.

  Victor knelt in front of her. She badly wanted to kick him in the face. The fantasy play
ed out in her head, the thin heel of one shoe buried deep in Victor’s temple. Too bad his faithful dogs hovered nearby. Freed from their leashes, she had no doubt they would be all over her in a heartbeat.

  Victor gently picked up her foot from the floor, rubbing his thumb along her arch. “Such pretty, delicate feet.”

  He lifted her foot to his mouth. Her eyes widened. He sucked her big toe into his mouth, his tongue darting between her toes. Oh, gag. Her skin crawled; her stomach churned.

  Tenderly, almost reverently, Victor removed her foot from his mouth and slipped the shoe on. Damn, he was one sick puppy. He put the other shoe on, forgoing the sucking and licking routine. Then he tugged Ally to her feet and surveyed the result with obvious satisfaction. His gaze drifted back to her face and he made a comical moue of distress.

  “Ah, well. You will heal and be as beautiful as ever. Come. Is time for your firs’ lesson.”

  Achingly self-conscious of all her bare skin, she avoided looking at Jia Li and obediently followed Victor out the door. Curly and Moe fell in behind. Victor didn’t look back as he walked, evidently expecting his goons to keep her in line. About halfway down the hall, he stopped in front of an unassuming door.

  “You two wai’ here.”

  Ally followed him into a narrow space, more hallway than room. Victor flipped a switch on the wall and a section moved, revealing a glass partition. And so much more.

  A man stood in the center of the room, completely naked. A young woman knelt in front of him, brown hair sweeping down her back, bare breasts swaying. The man’s head dropped forward as he thrust in and out of the woman’s mouth.

  Something seemed…off. Ally narrowed her eyes, struggling to focus through her good eye. And then wished she wasn’t able to see.

  A thin red rope was wrapped around and fisted in the man’s hand and encircled the woman’s slender neck. He pulled up and thrust hard into her mouth, burying himself to the hilt. Ally winced and closed her eyes.

  “He’s enjoying himself, don’t you think?”

  Ally tightened her lips.

  “Come.” He pushed her out the door.

  Swaying on the stilettos, Ally trotted after him down the hall and into another narrow room. Again, Victor flipped a switch and a section of wall slid away. Ally stared at the floor, refusing to look. The reverberations of a scream trembled the glass in the wall. She flinched, shaking so hard she fought to remain standing.

  “Watch,” Victor hissed. He fisted her hair and yanked her head up, holding her still. Before she could even think to close her eyes, she focused through the glass.

  A woman braced herself on hands and knees in the middle of a big bed, while a man knelt behind her. Thin rivulets of blood trailed from her back, down her sides, to drip onto the pristine white sheet beneath her. Ally flinched when the man brought a thick-handled, multiple- strapped, short whip down across the woman’s back. He repeated the action, whipping her in time with his thrusts.

  The man thrust hard and slapped his hand on her torn flesh. The woman’s scream vibrated the glass again. The man threw his head back, mouth open and gasping, clearly coming through the woman’s pain. Desperately, Ally tried to turn away, but Victor tightened his hold until pieces of her hair snapped free in his grasp. Bile rose, burning her throat alongside the tears scorching her eyes.

  “Not all our guests have such violen’ tendencies, of course,” Victor whispered in her ear, his tepid breath raising gooseflesh. He released her, roughly jerking his fingers free of her hair. “Come along.”

  Ally followed on trembling legs. Again, they entered a narrow room and a portion of the wall slid aside. With her tender scalp still burning, she didn’t dare not look.

  This woman’s head was drawn back, a mix of pleasure and pain written across her beautiful face. She didn’t look more than sixteen. The middle-aged man beneath her gripped her hips hard, his fingers digging in, guiding her up and down. Another man knelt behind her, undoubtedly adding the pain to her expression. He held her long fall of auburn hair in his fist, driving into her bottom with no care for her tender young body. Both panting men were old enough to be her father.

  Although far less violent than the last, the scene sickened her.

  Sex between a man and woman was a beautiful, natural expression of love and desire. The perversion of that precious moment coupled with the gutter rat beside her was more than she could bear.

  “See, the girls who are difficul’ get the difficul’ clients. Those who behave, like Lotus there, get to enjoy the clients with more…natural inclinations.”

  Alongside the pounding of her head, understanding dawned. The continuation of her mutinous behavior would result in her sharing the fate of the first two girls. Beyond bloodshed, there wasn’t a whole lot of difference between the scenes. If he thought she was going to be obedient and let a bunch of sicko perverts screw her, he had another think coming.

  “Do you understand, Jasmine?” The vile man glided his slimy fingers along her bare skin. “Which will you be?”

  Clenching her jaw until pain shot through her head, Ally kept quiet. Sharing her thoughts didn’t seem like a wise idea. Refusal to be cowed did not equate stupidity.

  He sighed, ushering her out of the room. “I see obedience is still beyond you. I’m in a generous mood after the earlier show you provided, so I’ll give you one more day.”

  Like that will make any difference. On second thought, the more time she had to plan, the better.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Barefoot, Ally paced the small confines of her room. The shoes were the only thing she dared remove. Lunch and dinner had come and gone, brought by a different, silent woman, who kept her gaze fastened to the floor while Ally ate.

  Reaching the far wall, she turned. There had to be some way to get out of this place.

  The lights clicked off. She’d learned early she had no control via the wall switch. Victor controlled everything. At least in the dark, no one could watch her.

  She hurried to the bed and ran her fingers over the mattress until she found the hole. Inside the tear, the metal of the tiny scissors was cold.

  Feeling her way along the wall, she found the door and knelt. Using her fingertips to guide her, she stuck the tip of the scissors into the lock. The scissors clicked and rattled inside the lock in time with her shaking. She didn’t have the first clue how to pick a lock.

  What if Victor splurged on night-vision video cameras? Or had someone standing guard on the other side of her door?

  She fumbled, searching for the locking mechanism inside. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. Leaning close, Ally shut her eyes and concentrated, listening for a click, feeling with all of her senses.

  She had no way of knowing how much time had passed. Hours, minutes…She collapsed against the door, tears of frustration and fear slipping down her cheeks.

  How was she going to escape?

  Was she truly going to end her days servicing countless men in untenable ways?

  Sobbing, she crawled back to the pathetic excuse for a bed and curled up. There wasn’t even a blanket. She cried and shivered, longing for Greg’s heat. Eventually, she fell into a troubled sleep.

  The lights blinked on. Rubbing her eyes, Ally sat up and adjusted her clothes, such as they were.

  She stiffened when the door creaked open. Jia Li appeared and Ally relaxed. Jia Li shoved the door closed, quickly walked over and set the tray down on the bed. Returning to the door, she bent down.

  Ally yawned, scooting up to sit against the headboard. She bent her leg to sit Indian style, but painful awareness of the slit in the crotch of her tasteless red panties stopped her. Instead, she stretched out her legs and crossed them at the ankle.

  Jia Li returned to the side of her bed and roughly deposited the breakfast tray on her lap.

  Ally stared at her in surprise.

  Jia Li opened her palm and an object clattered onto the battered metal tray. The small scissors. She looked at them, then
the floor in front of the door, before lifting her wide eyes to the other woman’s expressionless face.

  “Be careful,” Jia Li hissed, her expression blank and her lips barely moving.

  Ally took in how close she stood, her body angled toward the tray. Blocking their movements. Jia Li knew where the camera was located.

  Jia Li shifted again and Ally palmed the scissors from the tray and tucked them into the mattress.

  Picking up the spoon, she started eating the lumpy, bland gruel. Jia Li moved away and sat at the end of the bed. This time when she spoke, Ally didn’t see her lips move at all.

  “You try to escape last night, yes?”

  Ally shoved a spoonful of mush into her mouth. “Um-hmm.”

  “Lock very sturdy.”

  Ally grimaced.

  “He come soon.” Jia Li shot her a glance through the thick fall of her black hair. “Alone.”

  Ally swallowed, the tasteless gruel turning to ash in her mouth and sliding down her throat with the ease of porcupine quills.

  Could she do it? Did she have enough inner fortitude to physically harm someone?

  Her gaze drifted around the cold room before stopping on the foot of her bed. One of the iron shackles they’d used on her yesterday lay on the mattress. Her belly burned with the memory. The torment of the other girls flared hot inside her and determination hardened her heart.

  “Thank you, Jia Li.”

  The woman rose and took the tray from Ally’s lap, her beautiful blue eyes holding hers for a brief second. Ally almost quailed beneath the desperate faith she saw there. Instead, she dug a little deeper and stiffened her spine.

  She could do this. She would do this.

  Jia Li sidled out of the door, shooting her one last look before disappearing. Ally waited for the lock to latch into place before rising. Hurrying into the bathroom, she took care of pressing needs and splashed cold water on her face.

  The swelling had gone down around her eye and her face felt pretty much normal again. Since she couldn’t actually see herself, she could be grossly mistaken. She smoothed her hair as best she could and checked over her microscopic clothes.