“Do you need some water?” he asks. Holy hell! He even manages to make his voice sound sincere. “You said you need air. Would you like to go outside?”
I nod dumbly. Stonehart stands, looping one arm around my waist, and helps me up. I have to lean on him for support as he leads me forward.
We walk to the door. I’m breathing quickly, taking sharp, little gasps as I force my feet to move. It feels like I’m close to a panic attack.
Stonehart stops in front of the glass door and brings his wrist to the sensor. I hear the beep of the scanner—and remember the still-active collar around my neck.
I push away from Stonehart and stare, wide-eyed, as cool, sweet night air rushes in from the gaping door.
“The range,” I half-gasp. “Did you change it?”
Stonehart looks at me with pity. “My sweet Lilly,” he says. “The moment I change the range, you will be the first to know.”
My eyes dart to the door. My hands are balled into fists at my side. My heart is racing. “You were going to lead me outside,” I say, trying to make sense of it. “Past the perimeter you set?”
Stonehart spreads his arms. I catch a filthy, malicious glimmer in his eye. “You said that’s where you wanted to go.”
White hot rage erupts in me like an inferno. “You BASTARD!” I scream. “You knew what would happen if I stepped over the threshold!”
“Lilly, Lilly,” he chastises. “There’s no need to raise your voice. Of course I knew. As did you. But who am I to deny a lady’s request?”
“You knew what would happen!” I accuse. “You knew, and you still led me there!” I must be mad, to be screaming at him like this.
Stonehart takes one strong step toward me. “You keep yelling at me, Lilly, and you risk making me angry.” His smile deepens. “I don’t think you’ll like me when I’m angry.”
“Like you? I hate you!” Insanity has definitely taken its hold. The buffer between my thoughts and my speech has disappeared. “You’re sick! What kind of a man does that to a woman? To a stranger! Who am I to you, Jeremy? You’re sick, twisted, and I FUCKING HATE YOU!”
Stonehart takes in my tirade with a calm and steady grace. I’m gasping for breath by the end. Every fiber of my body is trembling, strung tight.
“Are you quite done?” he asks in a soft, cool voice.
I answer by stalking to the table, picking up the bottle of wine, and flinging it at his face.
He ducks out of the way of the projectile. It smashes against the glass panel behind him and shatters.
Stonehart growls, and advances on me. He moves fast. I jump back, but his hands dart out to catch me.
I struggle in his grip, trying to break free. “Let go!”
His fingers dig into my arms. It hurts. “Look at me,” he commands.
I shake my head with reckless abandon. What happened to calm, rational Lilly? a voice in the far-reaches of my mind asks. What happened to the girl who would bide her time?
“Fine. Your choice.” His hand jerks up and tangles in my hair. He closes his fist, ruthlessly pulling my roots.
Pain shoots from his grip, runs down my spine, and overtakes my body. It’s enough to draw tears.
Stonehart forces my head up. I whimper like a frightened child. He’s so much bigger than I am, so much stronger. He can manhandle me with absolutely no effort.
I’m terrified of what I’m going to find in his eyes. I squeeze mine shut harder, trying to escape from this nightmare.
His hand digs into my hair even more. “Open your eyes,” he commands. “Open your eyes, and face me, Lilly.”
Adrenaline is shooting through my body with every heartbeat. My breathing is ragged. The pain running from the back of my scalp is so bad it’s unbearable. Still, I refuse to open my eyes.
“I will tell you once more,” Stonehart says. “Or, are you refusing to comply?”
No. No! I will not be left in the dark again!
I crack one eye open, then the other, and face the monster I’ve enraged. The moment I see his burning glare, the darkness does not seem like such a bad alternative.
“I will answer your questions in the order you posed them,” he tells me, his chopped diction the only indication of his emotions. “What kind of man am I? The kind who can, Lilly. And the kind who does. I can do this to you, so I do.” His hand tightens in my hair, making me gasp. I blink rapidly against the swell of tears.
“Who are you to me? You’re my employee, and, as an extension of that, my property. You remain so for the duration of our contract.” He lowers his face to mine. I can feel his breath on my skin. “You haven’t forgotten that, have you?” He twists my hair, making my cry out. “Well? Answer me!”
“N-no!” I cry.
“No. You say ‘no,’ Lilly. But, I think that you have forgotten. In fact, I think I’ve been too lenient with you.” He pulls so hard that I’m sure my hair will rip free at any moment.
“Please,” I beg. “Please, you’re hurting me.”
A sinister smirk forms on his lips. “You don’t enjoy this?” he asks, his eyes moving from my face to his hand and back again. “You don’t like being handled this way?”
Tears blur my vision. All I can think of is, somehow, relieving the horrible pain emanating from his grip. “No,” I whimper. “Please. Please, let go.”
Instead of letting go, he jerks my head to the side so he can hiss in my ear, “I don’t like having things thrown at me.”
“I won’t do it again. I swear! I’m sorry. I—”
My plea is cut off as Stonehart releases me. My knees give out. I crumple to the floor and start to weep in a horrible mix of relief and humiliation.
“Lilly, Lilly, Lilly,” Stonehart intones. I can feel him walking circles around me, like a lion around its wounded prey. “What are we going to do with you?”
I curl into a tiny ball on my side. My hands cover my head. All I can do is sob and shake.
“Now. You’re scared of me. I can see that.” Stonehart’s voice is cold as ice, and deathly calm. “You’re frightened. You’re thinking: What is he going to do next?”
I give an incoherent whimper.
Stonehart squats down in front of me. I open my eyes enough to see him rolling up his sleeves. “I’m not going to beat you, Lilly,” he says. “That isn’t my style. Besides—” he chuckles, “—what use are you to me bloody and bruised? I want you fresh, my dear.”
Without warning his hands shoot out and pin my shoulders to the floor. He swings one leg over me and shifts his entire weight onto my body.
His breathing becomes heavier. It’s deep and raspy, coming from somewhere above me.
“Now.” He sweeps my hair to one side to expose my face. “This little adventure of ours has got my blood boiling. I know of only one outlet for that.”
I struggle against him, but it’s no use. It’s like trying to move a rock.
“Sweet Lilly.” He caresses my cheek with the back of his hand. I can feel the hairs of his knuckles against my smooth skin. “Sweet, sweet Lilly. I must admit, I enjoy evoking such passion in you. But you must let me make an equal to it.”
He lowers his head to my ear and adds in a heated whisper, “Fight back. The struggle… it turns me on.”
Chapter Eight
I gasp as he grabs my dress with both hands and rips it down the middle. My breasts heave out.
“Yes,” he growls. I thrash on the floor against him. “Yes. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
I try to scream, but the sound is muffled as Stonehart crashes his mouth over mine. The kiss is hard and brutal. I clamp my lips shut, but his tongue finds a way in anyway. I shake my head back and forth, screaming, ‘No, no, no!’ in my mind. But I can’t do anything against the assault.
One of his hands finds my breast. He grabs it and presses down hard, squeezing at the same time. Still I continue to fight, struggling beneath him like a pinned gazelle.
Stonehart pulls up from my mouth. His heavy breath
ing is almost feral, and it matches my own. I see pure, animal aggression in his eyes.
“Squirm,” he rasps in my ear. “Kick. Scream. Bite. I like it rough.”
I acquiesce his request by bashing my forehead into his jaw.
For a moment, he is too stunned to move. His grip lets go. I squander my opportunity to escape by hesitating for too long.
Half a heartbeat later, Stonehart’s hand whips forward and catches my neck. I gasp, feeling the blood being cut off from my brain immediately.
“So you manage to follow directions, for once,” he enunciates, cracking his neck to one side. “That’s good, Lilly. But you have to remember: I am always in control.”
He releases my throat and blood swells into my head like water from an opened flood gate. The euphoria of oxygen reaching my brain again overwhelms me, and I drift into a momentary stupor.
Stonehart wastes no time. He takes advantage of my condition by flipping me over so that my face is pressed against the floor. His grip on my shoulders forces me down. I can feel the unforgiving marble pressing into my cheekbone. No matter how much I writhe, I can’t budge so much as an inch.
I hear the sound of his belt being unbuckled, and then I hear it slide out of its loops. Stonehart grabs one of my hands and twists it back in a horrible, unnatural position. Pain shoots through my shoulder, and I scream.
I feel a leather loop tighten around my wrist. Before I know what’s happening, my other arm is twisted back in the same fashion. Both shoulders burn as if pierced by a molten spike. I thrash side to side, but the more I move, the worse the pain gets.
I give up and stop fighting. As soon as I do, and let my body go limp on the floor, the pain lessens. It’s not gone, of course, but it feels markedly better.
Stonehart’s breaths are coming heavy above me. I feel his weight lift off for a bare second. I don’t try to take advantage. There is nowhere to run.
All of a sudden, I feel my dress being lifted. Stonehart makes a primal sound of satisfaction as air rushes over my ass cheeks. He slaps me once, not hard, but the sound of skin-on-skin contact echoes through the room. He chuckles, and then does it again, to my other cheek.
He stands up. “I like you like this, Lilly. You become very… compliant.”
Out of nowhere, he hits me with a full-arm slap that contains enough force to make me slide forward on the floor. I cry out in pain. I don’t even have time to brace myself before he does it again. And again. And again.
Each violent spank rocks my whole body. I don’t know how long it lasts. By the time he’s done, I don’t even feel the individual slaps anymore. All my nerves are numb.
“Get up,” he commands. When I’m too slow to respond, the command becomes an enraged yell. “I said, get up!”
I scramble to my feet, losing my balance twice in the process. My face is wet with tears and saliva. Stonehart grabs the belt holding my arms back and pushes me toward the table.
My whole body is shaking. I can’t stop my tears. My former resolve? Gone. I just want out of this horrible nightmare.
“Get on,” he says. I start to turn my head back, just to get a look at him, but he prevents that from happening by shoving me forward. I stumble and fall. “Goddammit, Lilly,” Stonehart roars, “GET ON THE FUCKING TABLE!”
The rage in his voice makes me comply in sheer terror.
I struggle up again. Stonehart grabs the belt and guides me to our dinner table. With a broad, impatient sweep of his arm, he clears the dishware. Everything crashes to the floor.
I catch a quick glimpse of his face. It fills me with absolute, soul-wrenching fear.
It’s insane the things your mind picks up in desperate situations. I feel suddenly glad that he hasn’t made me face him.
“Lean over,” Stonehart commands. “Face down. Breasts on the table top. Don’t make me ask twice, Lilly.”
I do as he says without a second’s hesitation.
“Now,” he continues, “Spread your legs. Stick your ass out. Yes.” The word is a deep rasp. “God, yes. Just like that.”
He steps up to me. I can feel the fabric of his pants brushing against my bare legs. His hands stroke my hair, then move slowly down my back. Down my back, over my ass, and—I gasp—right inside me.
“You’re wet,” he says. He can’t hide his surprise. “Holy shit.” His fingers start probing me. He chuckles. “Holy shit, Lilly, look at you. You might just be enjoying this as much as I am.”
Somehow, I severely doubt that.
I gasp again as three of his fingers plunge all the way into me. He leans down and whispers in my ear. “I’m going to fuck you now. I want you to scream.” His teeth scrape my earlobe. “Scream for me, little flower. Scream loud.”
Chapter Nine
I lie on the table and cry out as Stonehart pounds into me. He’s relentless, ruthless. I have no idea how long this has been going on anymore.
My shoulders scream in pain as he holds my arms back and drives into me, again and again and again, with all the fury and rage that I incited.
He grabs my hair and pulls me back, pressing down on my spine at the same time so that my body forms a half-moon arc. Tears stain my face as he starts moving faster, each determined thrust tearing into me. I can’t believe his stamina. I curse myself for ever complaining about my ex-boyfriend’s. There’s karma for you.
The assault is endless. Try as I will to ease the discomfort by making my body relax, it’s impossible. Every fiber of my being is clenched tight against the onslaught. It makes the pain worse.
Stonehart’s hand darts around and grabs one of my breasts. In a quick, rough motion, he pulls out and spins me around. The back of my head bangs off the table. Stonehart emits a wordless, guttural growl and shoots all over my body. Some of his cum gets on my face. I cringe and wince away.
There is almost no down-time as he pushes into me again, hard as a rock. I open my eyes and gasp at him. How is this even possible? He starts pumping his hips once more, both his hands grabbing and tearing into my body. He’s panting. I’m panting, too. I force my eyes to the high ceiling overhead so I don’t see his face. I close my eyes, and pray for this to be over soon.
***
Stonehart leaves me shaking and whimpering on the table. He does not say anything, or even acknowledge me after he climaxes for the second time. He simply unties my wrists and walks away.
I curl up into a small ball on the table top, cradling myself. My conscious mind flees into a dark, distant corner where nothing can touch it. It’s a place where the pain does not feel so bad.
Exhausted, abused, and breaking, I succumb to a restless sleep.
Chapter Ten
I come to the next morning and feel warm sunshine on my face. I open my eyes. My head is groggy from nightmares. I discover that a thick wool blanket has been placed over my body.
I sit up on the table, clutching the fabric to my neck. I hold one hand to my head. Every heartbeat sends a shooting pain across my temples. I desperately need some Advil.
As if my last thought was a spoken wish, Rose bustles into my line of sight, carrying a tall glass of water and a little tray of pills.
“Here, dear. Have these,” she says in her gentle, motherly voice. I take the glass from her with trembling hands and swallow the pills. As I do, she puts her arm around my shoulders and tenderly rubs my back.
Only after I’ve swallowed the pills do I realize that I don’t even know what they were. Rose catches the aghast expression on my face and whispers, “Extra-strength Tylenols, Miss Ryder. And one morning-after pill.”
The mention of that makes me suddenly sick.
She knows, I think in horror.
Of course she knows! My inner-dialogue counters. She works for him, remember?
“Come on, dear,” Rose says. “I’ve set the bathwater hot, just how you like it. I’m going to help you get cleaned up.”
I tug at the blanket. “You did this?” I ask, my voice small and weak. I hate how pathetic I s
ound.
“No, that was Mr. Stonehart. He came in this morning before leaving for work. He also left you this.”
Rose reveals a small, velvet box. It’s just like the one Stonehart gave me before.
“I don’t want it,” I say, bile building in my throat. “Please, put it away. I don’t want to see it now.”
“I’ll leave it in your powder room,” she says gently, before making it disappear in her pocket. “Come now, Miss Ryder, it’s time to get you in your bath. I’ll help you.”
I lean on the graying woman’s shoulders and let her lead me down the hall to the bathroom. I peek under the blanket as we walk and see that my dress is gone. Did Stonehart do that this morning, too?
Rose helps me step into the water. She makes no comment on the state of my body. The bath is blessedly hot, and scented with flowers.
“Let me wash your hair,” she says after I’ve settled in. I nod, still numb from the events of last night. “Lie back,” she suggests. “Dip your head in.”
I do. Submerging myself in the tub, I can almost forget where I am. Almost. The collar around my neck is a constant reminder.
Rose builds up a lather in my hair. Her fingers are soft and gentle. I try my best to relax, just a little bit.
A long time passes where neither of us speaks. After some of the warmth has seeped into my body, I break the silence in a small voice. “Why are you taking care of me this way?”
She clicks her tongue in a reprimanding but gentle way. “Mr. Stonehart asked me to look after you,” she says. “But, that’s not why I’m doing this. I’m doing it because I want to, Miss Ryder.”
I look over my shoulder at her. She smiles at me, the lines of her face making her even more compassionate.
I wonder how a woman as kind and wonderful as Rose ever found herself working for a man as cruel as Stonehart.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“It’s my pleasure,” she says. “Now, I want you to close your eyes and relax. I promise, while I’m around, nothing bad will happen.”
Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) Page 12
