Rosalind
Nikolai helps me get dressed, pulling up my sleeves, covering me, and then, as we pull into the drive, the gates closing behind us, he turns me on his lap to do up the buttons on the dress.
I’m in freefall, breathless, humiliated and embarrassed and flying high on the buzz of the sex and the thrill of being seen. The back of the car is a mix of leather and sex, and my cheeks burn as he helps me out. I’m sure I look like I had a wild ride. Nikolai looks…like Nikolai. Dangerous and seductive. Cool. In command. Only the flame in those dark eyes and the slight swell to his bottom lip where I might have bitten him gives anything away.
Then his mouth turns up into a low-key smile of pure satisfaction. “He didn’t see a thing, and I’m betting there’s a part of you that would get off on it if he had.”
“How do you know?”
Damn him, anyway, for seeming to see inside my head. Nikolai guides me up the path and to the door, where a guard I haven’t seen is waiting. They glance at each other and there’s the slightest nod before the man moves off. We step into the soft glow of the foyer.
“I know because it’s all over your fucking face.” His hand is at my waist, warm and strong, and I want to sigh into him. I also want to turn and run, like a child. Instead, I climb the stairs with hm, feet starting to ache in the heels.
“Nikolai, he could have seen-”
“No.” He pushes me up against the wall outside my room. “He couldn’t. No one sees unless I want them to, and I don’t fucking want them to. I don’t share my toys, and you’re my favorite. Still, I also know you’d have done that if he could see. Wouldn’t you?”
His fingers trail a path from my mouth to my throat, down to the tops of my breasts. It’s a touch full of sweet sparks. Toy. Share. Favorite. Those words are about me being nothing to him but something to own and use, and they both burn and feel good. I hate it. I love it. I want it.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I would have.”
“But he couldn’t because I had him put up the glass so he couldn’t see. You got the thrill, and you got to come. I think,” he says, stepping back and pushing open my door, “I’m not done.”
“You’re not?” My voice is thready and breathless.
He smiles slow once more. “No. I’m going to spank you, and when you’re writhing and begging and so, so wet, I’m going to fuck you all night long.”
He leads me into my room and proceeds to do just that.
The next day, nerves nibble at my edges. I’m in a simple sundress, the red one, and I’m pacing. I want to get out. I want him to ask me to stay with him. I want to get therapy. I want a normal life and to see my friend. I want this to be over with.
“You’ll wear a hole in the floor,” Mia says from the door.
I glance at her. Now that I know her severe expression doesn’t hold animosity, I smile. We haven’t had a chance to talk much, but I think she’s been busy.
She sets the tray down. “Eat and then Nikolai will see you in his office.” Mia’s gaze touches mine and her face softens. “Anything else?”
“No. Thank you.” Then I frown. “Mia. What happened to Sylvie?”
Her face changes and she goes stiff. “Derek Finnegan.” My father. My hand clenches tight.
“It’s not your fault,” she says gently. “She’s alive. Nikolai is taking care of her needs. She’ll come through.”
With that, she goes. I walk to the bed and sink down next to the tray. The sandwich is fresh, thick crusted bread with salad and ham and cheese, and it looks wonderful. I want it as much as I want a bowl of razor blades, but I take a few bites and drink some water, just to feed my body and placate the beautiful monster waiting downstairs.
Something’s going to happen. It’s there, in the lurch of my stomach, in the slight tingle of nerves in the tips of my fingers as I get up and go to the bathroom, twisting my heavy dark hair back into a simple ponytail. Closing my eyes, I turn from the mirror and take a breath. Something’s going to happen, and it could be my chance to get out.
I’m going to have to try.
Nikolai’s frowning as he types on his computer. His tie’s askew, and he needs a shave. He’s still wearing the rings from last night, but his jacket is tossed on the chair in front of his desk and his sleeves rolled up.
I’m betting he’s been working since he got up, which must have been before dawn, since the side of my bed where he slept after he spanked me and fucked me and made me come over and over was cold. I’m ashamed to say I got up around five when I woke and checked, stumbling half asleep down the hall naked.
Part of me had wanted to crawl into his empty bed that hadn’t been slept in, but I didn’t. I just went back to my own.
“I’m not that fascinating, Rose,” he says, not looking at me.
I glare and grip the doorframe. “No. You’re not.”
This time he looks up. Dark humor glimmers in the depths of his eyes. “What do you want?”
“Mia told me I had to report in to you. Prisoner inspection?”
He sighs and leans back in his chair, that dirty little smile starting to play as he lets his gaze drift over me. “Did she now?” Then he sits up and sighs, all cold and hard once more. “Derek’s on the move, Rose, and a little…apoplectic. Seems you did your job so well, I got a sweet call from him.” He pauses. “By sweet, I mean fucking bat shit furious, demanding you back.”
“Oh.” I swallow. It was always coming to this, and I agreed to it, but… so soon? And… A shudder races through my bones. I don’t want to go. No.
I do. Just not to that man.
“Oh.” Nikolai gestures to the chair. “Sit.” I make my way over to him.
“Rose, you need to listen, okay?”
I nod, my heart clenching tight.
“I played it very cocky, very nasty. He’ll probably fucking tell you all kinds of shit, but you’re going to call him and tell him you want to get away, tell him you’ve been pretending with me. Make sure you fucking keep that bracelet. As soon as you get to the compound, I’ll get you.”
“And if you don’t?”
He looks me in the eye. “I’ll fucking get you. I’m a lot of things, but I am a man of my word.”
“Won’t…won’t that make you look weak? Maybe we can take him out now.”
“I want it all. There’s-it doesn’t matter, but it’s not enough to kill him.
I want him destroyed. I want him to know what it’s like to lose everything.”
I suck in a breath. “And then you’ll let me go?”
He smiles. Cold and dark. “Yes.”
I don’t know if I believe him, but right now, it’s all I have. If I do this, if I survive, then I have a chance at freedom, and that’s worth it, almost as much as watching my father burn, almost as much as me pouring on the fuel and lighting the match. All the spoils Nikolai talks about mean nothing to me, but my father’s death? That does.
I hate this world of theirs, the violence, and I hate that I want to kill a man, hate that I’ve been sucked into it. Once it’s done and if I survive, then I’ll be free, even if I have to run, hide and start again. It’ll be worth it, no matter the pain, to do that away from Nikolai and his world, far from my father’s, or whatever is left of it after Nikolai burns it all to the ground.
“Give me the phone.” I hold out my hand.
He shakes his head. “Not quite yet, Rose. In a bit. Tonight. I have plans that Finnegan will know about because he’s fucking keeping tabs. I just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page. Are we?”
“If I get my freedom, if I get to live my life away from all of this, then yes. We are.”
He just smiles.
“You ready?”
I sit on the edge of the bed, hands clasped, looking at the sneakers on my feet with the little white edges of sock peeking out.
“Rose?”
Taking a breath, I glance up at Nikolai standing in the doorway. The soft light of the hall hits his back and he’s almost a shadow shape, even as my lamp shines. I can see him perfectly. Maybe it’s the way my heart thuds and squeezes that makes everything take on some kind of distorted hue.
“I called. He didn’t pick up.”
Nikolai sighs. “Yeah, I know.”
Of course, he does. He handed me the phone and stood outside the door when I did it. Even now, the word daddy sits like bitter poison on my lips, as does the rushed whispered tone I used. Now…now I’m all trussed up and ready to go, to my doom or to the rest of my life. If, of course, this man lets me go.
I’ll have to run, first opportunity. The thought whispers and flutters in my veins. No money, nothing. I can do it. I know I can.
He slides his hands in his pockets, gaze on me. “I wish there was another way.”
“No.” I laugh and shake my head. “You don’t.”
“Maybe once, I wouldn’t have…cared, but you’re not to blame for the sins of that fucking man. I see that now.”
Hope lurches into life inside me. He crosses the room and stands in front of me, and he crushes that hope dead.
“I’m not about to fucking let you go. Life doesn’t work that way. You got the short end of the stick, so make it work.”
“I understand.”
He takes my face in one hand and something savage moves in him. “I fucking know you understand, but that’s not what I’m asking. Are you going to make it work?”
“I want him gone, too,” I say. I mean it.
“Good.” His other hand curls around my arm as he hauls me up to my feet.
Nikolai releases me and rakes his gaze down over the white sundress I have on. I hate it, hate the pale-yellow sneakers and the innocent simplicity of the strappy dress. It’s not pink, and it’s not that weird Victoriana style little girl, but it’s young and sweet and along the lines of what my father just might pick.
I raise my chin.
“Hate it, don’t you?”
“What would you like me to say, Nikolai? I love this dress?”
He shrugs like he doesn’t give a damn and he probably doesn’t. “The truth.”
“I hate it. Despise it.”
“Because it’s too pretty? Too innocent?” He comes in close, the savagery a live thing in him calling to something in me. “Or because it’s something Daddy would want you to wear?” “How-” I stop.
He knows. They probably all swap tips on whatever fucked up fantasies they have, or what fantasies the man my hated father wants to sell me to. I’m not stupid. That’s got to still be on the table. Nikolai would have said he’d taken Vitale out, not to reassure me, but to prove he could do whatever the fuck he wants.
Like force me to step into danger. Not force, but manipulate, and I went with it because it’s the only chance I’ve got.
“No, of course you know they like this stuff.”
“Thing is, Rose, I think you look too fucking untouched. We need to do something about that.”
My breath catches. “A goodbye fuck?”
His fingers come up again and move gently across my lips, in direct opposition to the violence in his face. “A fuck, Rose.”
He drops his hand, sliding it down my body and my breath flutters, blood heats, as he grabs the hem and rips.
I gasp at the sound, at the rough tough of his hands at my waist. He pulls it up, bunching it. “Let’s get rid of those panties.”
He rips at those two, and the simple cotton hisses and cuts into my thigh a moment before they hang loose from where he’s almost torn them off me.
My hands bunch as he pushes his fingers into me. He smiles.
I’m wet. Why does he affect me like this? I’m wet and I moan.
“I’m not done.” His words slide against my ear as he pulls out of me, ripping at the top of the dress, enough to break a strap, enough to jerk my body, enough to rip the bodice.
Every harsh thing makes my blood start to boil and my juices flow.
“I’m going to fuck you so hard, you won’t see straight. I’m going to fuck you so hard you’ll be dripping my cum when you see him. You’ll smell of me. Sweet Rose, I’m going to destroy your pretty little cunt so the only man you ache for, the only man you’re made for, is me.”
He starts to bite my throat, his fingers back at my pussy. Nikolai slams his fingers into me, and I shake with each entry. Pleasure is quick and throbbing and wanting to spill. I know he can feel the swift rise of my orgasm because he pulls out and pushes me back. I stumble, backs of my legs hitting the bed.
His eyes glitter. I growl. He grins low.
Then I come at him. Nikolai’s arm hooks about my waist as his mouth comes down on mine so hard, it hurts. I pull at his hair and he turns, slamming me into the wall. He doesn’t stop kissing me, doesn’t stop mauling me, and I’m burning. Needing. I attack him back. It’s the only word I have for it. Attack. We go at each other, kissing, biting, and then he lifts me. I wrap my legs around his waist, the thick head of his cock at my entrance.
He pushes in. All the way home.
Yes.
This.
Right here.
This is what I want.