Slowly, she returned to the entryway to stare at that white envelope. Gathering her bravery around her like an impermeable cloak, she leaned over to pick it up with two fingers. That now familiar scent wafted up to her. “Okay! I’m really weirded out!” she muttered aloud to herself.
Mia turned and carried the envelope to the kitchen table where she dropped it. The impact slightly crumpled one corner. Instantly, she regretted the imperfection, and her fingers pressed the envelope as straight as possible. Once she touched it, she couldn’t resist. Opening it carefully so as not to wrinkle or tear the thick paper again, Mia pulled out a single notecard with one word written in a bold masculine script—SOON!
3
For the next three days, Mia tried to forget the card and not think about what it meant. She tried to busy herself with work and reconnecting with friends. The young woman shared her plans to go on vacation next week and that she was planning to take time away from all the electronics that ruled her life. Her home laptop remained turned off and waiting on her desk.
Blinking into the predawn darkness on the first Saturday morning of her time off, Mia groaned. She lifted a pillow and dropped it over her eyes in disgust. She was now on vacation, and she couldn’t even sleep in. A ding rang out from her office in the quiet of the morning, reaching her ears even through the muffling pillow.
Confused by sleep and the early hour, she rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the sound. Blinking at the bright computer screen that had somehow turned on, Mia walked forward to see a message flashing on the screen from Rafael Montalvo. She clicked on it without a second thought.
There was only one question in the message: Do you want your fantasies to come true? A yes and no button followed. Nothing else.
Her finger crept forward to hesitate over the safe answer—no. She almost pressed it. In a burst of daring, Mia quickly tapped yes on the touch screen. A whisper of a sound behind her warned her something was off a fraction of a second before she felt the needle prick on the side of her neck. Struggling for only a few brief moments before her eyes rolled back in her head, Mia’s body began to crumple toward the carpet. She did not reach the floor.
4
Waking in the absolute darkness, Mia stiffened in place. She’d never liked the dark. Even when she had been a little girl, she had slept with a nightlight. The ribbing she had gotten in her college dorm had been endless, but it had been better than the dark.
To keep herself from freaking out, Mia tried using all her senses to figure out where she was. She knew this wasn’t home. She was lying on a cold concrete floor, not the soft carpet of her apartment. Unable to stop her movement, she shivered as the frigid temperature of the hard surface below her seeped into her bones. The oversized sleeveless nightshirt that she slept in did not ward off the cold.
Mia’s head swiveled as she looked in all directions. When she couldn’t distinguish anything, her hands began to twist nervously in her lap. I don’t like the dark. I don’t like the dark. I don’t like the dark, repeated in her brain.
As if answering her plea for light, a bright spotlight illuminated a mattress three feet away from her. Her eyes locked upon it and the light flashed off, leaving her in darkness once again. With spots before her eyes, Mia pushed her hands against the concrete floor to sit up.
As if the lack of light had activated her other senses, Mia automatically inhaled. There was a faint whiff of that elusive cologne she had smelled at her doorway. Chasing the scent, she sniffed the shoulder of her nightshirt. Yes! It was there! She pulled the center of her shirt to her nose. The smell was strong. She had been pressed against whoever wore that scent.
Mind reeling, she jumped as the spotlight again flashed on to the bare mattress for a few scant seconds before extinguishing once again. A deep voice spoke behind her, “Go, my sweet.”
In a panic, she followed his directions and scrambled from her spot to the mattress. Her instincts processed the instruction before her mind recognized the actual words. My sweet. Pulling her legs in close to her body, Mia wrapped her arms around her shins. She pulled the bottom of her shirt over her knees to hide her body, cursing her habit of never wearing panties to bed. “Rafael, is that you? Why am I here?” Then, when there was no response, she whispered, “Are you going to hurt me?”
Silence echoed through the darkness. The young brunette’s blue eyes searched desperately to see anything. Tense and scared, she replayed the fantasies she had shared with Rafael. Those that had her submit to him—to lose all control. Finally dropping her head to her knees in exhaustion, she dozed.
Her dreams were filled with that sandalwood cologne. A shadowy figure was always just out of sight. Even in her dreams, she whispered his name, “Rafael” as the fantasies she’d shared with that charismatic man seemed to come to life.
“It is time to wake up, my sweet,” that deep voice whispered to her.
Waking to find herself still in the pitch-black room, Mia pinched herself to make sure she was really awake. That this wasn’t a dream she needed to wake up from.
“Rafael? Could you let me go? I’m sorry I wasted your time,” Mia asked quickly. “I made all that stuff up. I shouldn’t have talked to you online.”
“That is your first lie to me, Mia. Each time you lie, there will be a consequence. For this first lie, I will take your clothing. Pull off your shirt and throw it to me,” Rafael answered evenly.
“I’m not wearing anything else. I can’t take off my clothes. I don’t know you,” she refused with panic sounding in her voice. Her eyes searched the darkness in front of her.
“Your nightshirt, Mia.” His voice was flat and adamant. “As this is the first time we have talked about the rules, I will offer you something in return. When your shirt is off, I will give you a light in exchange.”
Mia shook her head frantically. “I’m not giving you my nightshirt.”
“As you wish.” The last sounds faded into the darkness.
Sitting there, her ears strained to hear anything in the obscurity. Nothing. “Rafael?” she asked hesitantly. No one answered.
She’d had enough. This man was playing a game with her she didn’t like. He’d coaxed out of her all her fantasies of being owned or kept despite her attempts to conceal them. Now, he was using her own words against her. Wrapping her indignation around her slender frame, Mia pushed herself to the edge of the bare mattress and stood.
Waving her arms around in front of her, Mia tried to feel her way forward. After several steps, she looked behind her, and the mattress was no longer visible. Would she be able to find her way back? Mia began counting steps. One, two, three. When she reached twenty, she waved her hands around in a panic. How could there be nothing ahead of her? How big was this room that he had trapped her in?
One fingertip on a flailing hand struck something hard with a dull ringing sound as she leaned forward. Stepping closer, her fingers wrapped around a cold metal bar. She slid her hand upward and even lifted onto her tiptoes. There was no end. Squatting quickly, she ran her hand down the metal to the cold concrete floor.
Shivering, she paused as her mind calculated. She reached to the left and found another bar and a column of bars followed out of her reach. Running her fingertips along the metal rods to the right, Mia’s mind finally put the pieces together.
A cage. Rafael had locked her in a cage. Unable to stop herself, Mia pressed her knees together. Heat began to build in her lower abdomen. Pressing her thighs together, she tried to convince herself that she wasn’t aroused. The wetness between her thighs betrayed her. This was the fantasy that she had dreamed of for more years than she could recall.
She was trapped here at his mercy. The darkness wrapped around her as her hands clung to the iron bars. Would he remember all the wicked things that she had shared with him? Mia thought with a gasp. She turned around in the darkness, putting her back against the bars as her heart beat furiously in her chest and holding on to the bars for stability.
That scen
t of sandalwood whispered across her senses. Too late to whirl to face him, Mia felt the wide leather band wrap around her throat. It firmly pulled her head back against the bars and held her pinned there. Lunging forward, Mia choked herself, and as she struggled to breathe, she pressed back once again to feel the cold bars at her back. Any attempt to strike behind her only panicked her as she cut off her oxygen. Panting, she subsided against the bars of the cage that trapped her.
“That’s much better, Mia. You will need to learn that I only ask once. If you do not comply, there will be a consequence,” the deep voice came from behind her.
She felt the wide band at her throat jostle slightly. Maybe it’s loose! Seizing her chance, she flung herself forward only to hit the unyielding restraint of the band. The force of her momentum brought tears and shimmering spots to her eyes. Choking, she fell back against the bars clawing at the leather strip secured tightly around her throat and two bars behind her.
“You are behaving very badly, Mia. I think you will have punishment as well as your consequence,” the low voice didn’t alter. It was not angry, only matter of fact.
As she tried to breathe, Mia’s brain registered that he could be remarking on the weather or the price of bananas at the store. Somehow, this lack of emotion scared her more. Who was this man?
A snip sounded very loudly behind her before the sound of shears or scissors opening and closing just once echoed in her ears. “You were told to take off your shirt. You did not choose to follow directions,” the voice whispered, intimately close.
Trembling, Mia felt him pull the hem of the oversized shirt away from the back of her thighs. Lurching forward automatically, she subsided, gasping for air against the bars as that unyielding leather band held her firmly in place. Over her panting breath, she could hear the scissors slicing through the enveloping fabric of her nightshirt. Cold air wafted against the bare skin of her back and hips as he sliced up through the soft material. With a louder snip, he cut through the reinforced neckline.
Her mind raced to come up with a plan as he paused for a few seconds. The shirt’s still on my body. If he tries to cut anything else, he will be in reach this time. Prepared to fight, a small sound of protest escaped from her mouth as he carefully snipped fabric across her shoulder blades in each direction. Her neck was held tight against the iron bars, twisting or turning would cut off her breath. If her arms couldn’t reach him, he could do whatever he wanted.
She listened to each slow snip as he took his time cutting off the material that covered her upper back in each direction, destroying each slender strap that looped over her shoulders. Her hands held the soft cloth to her chest as it loosened around her body in a desperate attempt to stay covered. Mia shivered as she realized that she was helpless, and he was in total control.
“Please, please don’t do this,” she finally begged as he reached the edge of the second strap.
At the clatter of the scissors falling behind her to the left, her head turned slightly to that side. In a flash, he jerked the destroyed shirt from behind to the right and through the bars.
“Aaah!” Mia screamed and crossed her arms quickly over her breasts as the cold air wrapped around her body. “Why are you doing this?” she demanded with hot tears of fright and frustration spilling from her eyes.
Silence was the only answer. Shrouded in darkness, she trembled against the bars, waiting to see what his next move would be. She heard a whisper of movement over to the left. Mia turned her head as much as possible, but she couldn’t see anything. Had he gone away?
That deep voice finally answered from behind her, “You are here because you sought to fulfill your fantasies. Your heart is beating fast for two reasons. There is the fright, but most of all, you yearn. Do you recognize this from our conversations online? Do you remember what comes next?”
“Y… es,” she forced from her mouth. Slowly, her hands slid from shielding her breasts down her torso. Their slow movement never faltered as the internal battle between her desire and her fear fought for control of her slender frame. Finally, her hands reached behind her body to latch on to the cold, metal bars.
A warm hand covered each of hers before she could panic and snatch them away. “Excellent, Mia. I knew you would remember,” he praised her. “There’s no one here but you and me. No one can hear us or watch us, just like in our conversations online. Didn’t you wish we were together then?” His tone invited her to be a conspirator.
She tried to nod, forgetting about the restraint around her neck. “Yes. I wanted to meet you,” she confessed. Somehow it was easier in the dark to be truthful.
“Did you want me to touch you?” he asked.
He was so close. She could feel his warm breath on the top of her head. Mia squeezed her inner thighs together tightly, feeling the hot arousal fluid that coated them. She craved his touch. This man who was known to her, but yet a stranger. Mia bit her lip as she fought her innate shyness that had always gotten in the way of any intimate relationship she could have enjoyed. She wanted to answer but she couldn’t.
“Would you like me to answer for you, Mia?” he asked in a patient tone that conveyed his understanding of her inability to say the word.
“Please?” she whispered.
His hands left hers. She continued to grip the bars as his warm hands traced along the outside of her arms over the stressed muscles to her hunched shoulders. One masculine palm lifted from her torso to wrap around her throat over the leather band that secured her. His fingers tightened, scaring her for a few seconds before they released.
Rising to cradle her jaw, his thumb rubbed softly across her lips. “I am delighted that you are here, my sweet.”
She tried to nod and winced as the leather bit into her neck.
“Soon, the band will not be necessary. You will learn that there are advantages to following my directions immediately.”
As those ominous words echoed into the darkness, his fingertips lowered to trace down the midline of her body. Pausing between her uplifted breasts, his thumb brushed the sensitive swell underneath each small mound before continuing downward. That fleeting touch burned with intensity, making her gasp before her breath paused, waiting for his hand to reach its next target.
“Mia, did you follow my directions immediately?” he whispered into her ear.
So totally focused on the path of that hand, his words didn’t process through her mind. His palm pressed against her slightly rounded lower belly before his fingers slid through the silky hair guarding her most private area. She bit her lip, wanting his touch so badly.
Her slender form jumped as his voice repeated the question louder, “Mia, did you follow my directions immediately?”
“What?” she asked distractedly, willing his fingers to move just a bit lower. When his hand followed her wishes, she gasped as he cupped the heat between her thighs and flexed his fingers to squeeze the soaked folds that betrayed her arousal.
That deep voice posed the question for the third time, “Did you follow my directions immediately, Mia?”
“N-no!” she stuttered, not understanding why his fingers didn’t move. She needed him to touch her. “Please?” she begged.
To her dismay, that hand lifted from her body. “Wait!” The word burst from her lips before she could stop it. Unable to process what was happening, she felt something loop around each wrist and then pull them off the bars they clung to as a wide leather band was fastened around her waist.
Automatically, she pulled against the bonds that held her arms close to her torso. And then again because she couldn’t process what was happening. Why wasn’t he touching her? The band around her throat loosened and fell almost silently to the concrete below her bare feet. Mia heard his footsteps back away.
“This is your punishment, my sweet. Next time do as I ask instantly and you shall get your reward. Go to sleep.” The spotlight flashed on almost blinding her with its brightness. When she turned around to search the darkness beyond the bars
, she knew that he was gone even though her blue eyes couldn’t see anything beyond the bars.
Turning around to the light, she stumbled toward the lighted mattress. Mia pulled at the restraints around her waist that barred her hands from moving up or down her body. Just as she reached the padded surface, the light extinguished. Mia dropped to her knees and turned to sit with her back against the wall.
Clenching her knees together, she moaned in frustration, unable to touch herself or ease the heat that he had provoked. No matter how she turned or twisted, he had ensured that she would not be able to satisfy the burning need. Finally, her head dropped to her knees, and she escaped into sleep, promising herself that she would do as he asked immediately next time.
5
Eyes blinking into the darkness, Mia wondered whether it was day or night. Unbelievably, she felt as if she had slept well. The coolness of the area that she was held in had eased, and even her bare skin was comfortable. Rolling her shoulders and using her elbow for leverage, Mia pushed herself back up to sit. At some point during her exhausted slumber, she had curled onto her side.
Her muscles were tight. Mia stood and rotated her hands to the front and the back of the waistband, locating the small lock that held it together. She rose onto her toes to stretch her legs. Then, dropping her heels to the ground, Mia leaned over to ease her back. Rising again to stand up, she leaned to the right and to the left before straightening.
Mia’s body felt better. In her mind, she knew intrinsically that she was not in mortal danger. Rafael Montalvo would not kill her. She also knew from their conversations that he would make her suffer if she did not follow his wishes.
A whisper of sound alerted her he was near before a delicious smell reached her nose. Her stomach growled in reaction, making her wonder how long it had been since she had last eaten. A light bloomed to her right, making her blink as she tried to focus. Finally, a table set for breakfast and the seated handsome man who beckoned her forward with one hand solidified in front of her.
Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection Page 80
