Captive: A Dark Romance (Slave for Love Book 1)

by Violet Noir

  It only took a few minutes for us to get home, but by then I was completely out of it. Exhaustion weighed me down like a rock, and the only thing keeping me semi-conscious was the anguish.

  The doctor was waiting for us when we arrived at the house. Will let us all in, and laid me down on the sofa in the parlor. I felt the doctor inject me with something that made all of the pain melt away.

  I drifted off as he examined me and treated my wounds. Will stood close by and watched everything. His eyes were hooded with concern and he looked like a sentry keeping watch over me.

  The doctor and Will walked across the room, but I could still hear them. “I’ll give her a steroid injection to speed healing. The ointment will help too. I’ll give her an antibiotic injection as well just to ensure there’s no infection. If she shows sign of infection, call me.”

  A minute later, I felt two pricks in my arm. I must have drifted off, but when I opened my eyes, I was in a bed. Will was next to me stroking my hair, so I finally let myself fall into a deep, healing sleep.

  14

  Will

  I sat up all night watching her. When dawn began to peek over the horizon, I finally drifted off on the bed next to Tessa. She was under silken sheets, but I stayed on top of the covers. I didn’t want to touch her skin and cause her pain, but I needed to be near her.

  She was in my bed. I’d decided it was time to bring her to my room. I never brought slaves to my room, but Tessa was more. She was different. I could have just let Alex do my dirty work after Tessa ran. If I’d wanted to be done with the mess she caused, I could have made her a gift to him. I would have been free to buy another virgin at auction.

  But, I didn’t want another woman. I hadn’t known Tessa long, but I already felt like she was mine. Not because I’d purchased the use of her body, but it felt as though she was meant for me. I hadn’t realized how intense the feeling was until she was gone. I could never let her be gone again. I didn’t know if I could live without her in my life, and I knew that I couldn’t allow another man to have what was mine.

  I fell asleep listening to the sound of her breathing. It was a comforting sound, and for a brief period, I thought that everything would be alright.

  When I woke up a few hours later, the sheets were soaked with sweat and Tessa felt like she was on fire. I called the doctor and got the housekeepers to help me change the sheets while we waited for him.

  He gave her an injection of stronger antibiotics and hung bags of IV fluids. “I’ll come back in a few hours to check on her. If her fever gets any higher, you’re going to need to take her to the hospital.”

  “What can they do for her at the hospital that you can’t?”

  “Nothing as longs as she doesn’t crash, but, Will, my services don’t come cheap. She’ll need multiple visits and expensive medications. My fees alone…”

  I cut him off. “Doc, look around you. I’m not concerned about the fees. What I am concerned about is her privacy. At the hospital, someone is going to call the police. They’ll say that they’re going to bring the man who did this to her to justice, but we both know that isn’t true. All they will do is interrogate her and retraumatize her. I can handle bringing her attacker to justice if you can handle her medical care. I don’t care about the cost.”

  When the doctor was gone, I stayed by Tessa’s side. I only left to call the doctor or make arrangements for when Tessa woke up.

  The first day, she was in and out of consciousness. The doctor sent a nurse on my boss’s payroll to change the IV bags and check her wounds. He came back himself in the evening to evaluate Tessa again.

  By the second day, her fever had broken and the doc said that as long as it didn’t come back, he’d come back in a couple of days to check on her. Tessa became more lucid, and she was able to drink water and eat some soup. So she no longer needed the IVs. One of my housekeepers would come when I called to help her to the bathroom.

  On the afternoon of the third day, she looked much better. Her wounds were healing fast, and she asked for food.

  “I was wondering if I could get something to eat other than soup?” she asked after pulling herself up to sit against the headboard of my bed.

  “You’re hungry?”

  “Starving,” she said and smiled.

  “What would you like? I’ll have them make anything you want.”

  She thought about it for a moment. “Can I have biscuits and gravy?”

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting that, but sure. I’m going to go down to the kitchen and let them know. I’ll be right back.”

  “Sure,” she said. “Can I ask one thing first?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Is this your room?”

  “Yes, it is. Tessa, baby, you’ll be staying in here with me from now on.”

  When I got back from the kitchen, Tessa had dozed off again. I figured she would be resting for at least a few more days, so I procured a television from another room and brought it into my bedroom. Normally, I wouldn’t allow television in the bedroom, but I figured it was fine to make an exception while she healed.

  I wanted her to be happy, which was a strange sensation for me. I usually kept women around to make myself happy.

  While we waited, I scrolled through movie options looking for something Tessa and I could watch together. Watching a movie in bed with a woman would be a first for me, but I found myself looking forward to it.

  A knock on the door pulled my attention away from the movie selection and roused Tessa from her nap. I helped her sit up, and the housekeeper brought her food in on a tray. Mine was on a tray too, and even though it was dinnertime, Tessa and I were going to have breakfast in bed.

  “What movie do you want to watch?” I asked when the housekeeper was gone.

  “I don’t know. Something funny or with action. Nothing scary,” she said and quietly took a bite of her food. “This is really good.” Tessa smiled, but it was strained.

  “I guess you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “I wouldn’t think you would want to talk about it either,” she said. “It’s not like that with us. I’m not your girlfriend, and I doubt you could call us friends.”

  I took a deep breath and thought before I responded. She was right, and it stung a little more than I wanted to admit. I’d heard stories before of monsters like me meeting the right woman and turning their lives around, but that’s all they were. It was just fairytales for women who thought they could change bad men with their love. Only in that moment, it seemed realistic to me. I could actually see myself becoming a better man for Tessa.

  “How about something with explosions based on a comic book?” I asked.

  Yeah, I acted like a chickenshit. It would have been the perfect moment for me to reveal that there was something more between us, but it scared me too much. I couldn’t let myself fall for Tessa because if she knew who I really was, she’d never let herself fall for me.

  “That one about the panther?”

  “Yeah, that sounds good to me.”

  We ate quietly and watched the movie. It was such a normal moment for me in a life filled with nothing but violence and debauchery. If it weren’t for the reason Tessa was laid up in my bed in the first place, it would have been like any typical relaxing evening for an old couple.

  I was comfortable with Tessa doing things I would never normally do like eating in bed and watching movies in my bedroom. You’d have thought that it would make me happy, but instead it caused a kind of itch at the back of my brain. I thought that it disturbed me because I knew I could never be happy long-term with a life like that, but I’d later figure out that it was because I didn’t think I deserved it.

  We ate a lot of meals in bed that week. I stayed by her side until the doctor gave her a clean bill of health. You could still see some of the marks on her skin, but I brought in the family’s plastic surgeon to look at them. He assured me that there would be minimal to no scarring and that the doctor had done the right thing
with the steroid shots and skin cream.

  But while we ate and watched movies, one thing didn’t happen. Tessa didn’t talk about what she’d been through. It was a constant reminder that while we were sharing a bed and our bodies, we weren’t even friends.

  One day, I came back upstairs from the kitchen after telling the staff the menu for the day, and I heard the shower running. Part of me wanted to go into the bathroom and check on her. I had this weird feeling that something had shifted, and it made me uncomfortable. The rest of me wanted to give her some space.

  I didn’t know if I could stomach training Tessa again after what had happened. So that meant that once she was healed, I’d just have to turn her loose. If I couldn’t use her as my toy and we couldn’t have a normal relationship, there was nothing else to do.

  A few minutes later, the water turned off. Tessa emerged from the bathroom wearing a red lace bra and matching thong. Her hair was still damp, but she had it tied up into a messy bun on top of her head.

  “You shouldn’t come out dressed like that unless…” I started to say, but she interrupted me.

  “Unless what?”

  “You really shouldn’t interrupt me, Tessa. It’s rude, and I would feel awful if I had to punish you right now.”

  “Why?”

  She crossed the room and stood before me looking defiantly up into my eyes. A tendril of her wavy blonde hair had escaped, and I brushed it back from her face.

  “Tessa,” I warned. “It’s too soon.”

  “Too soon for what?” She squared her shoulders. “Isn’t this why I’m here?”

  “I think it would be better if we waited a little longer. You’re in shock. If you still want to do this in a few days, we’ll talk about it.”

  “What about you? What are you going to do until then? Are you going to buy a replacement?”

  I brought my hand up to cup her chin. “No, Tessa.”

  “Then why don’t you want me?”

  “It’s not that I don’t want you, baby. I know what happened to you. I think that you should take some more time.”

  “So you don’t want me because another man was inside of me,” she said softly.

  Thinking about what he’d done to her made my blood boil. I suddenly wished that I’d tried harder to kill Alex. I wished that I’d let Viktor kill him that night a year ago. If I had, I could have spared Tessa.

  “That’s not it.” But part of it was.

  “You’re lying,” she accused, and I knew she could hear the doubt in my voice. “It’s my fault. Because I left that day. I ran away, and it ruined everything.”

  She began to cry and as the tears rolled down her soft cheeks, something stirred in me. My cock came alive at the sight of her wet eyes and the sound of her little hitched sobs.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, though it took all of my strength.

  “Yes, Master.”

  15

  Tessa

  I had no idea why I needed him physically so badly. You’d have thought the idea of being touched would repulse me, but it was the opposite.

  When he brought his lips down to mine, white-hot desire coursed through my body. I needed Will inside of me. He had to fuck me because he was the only one who could make me okay.

  And I didn’t want his tenderness. He wasn’t a soft man, and I hated that he was pretending to be something he wasn’t just for me. I wanted him to take me the way he wanted. He’d bought me to use my body for his pleasure, and that’s what I needed him to do. In my mind, I thought it would prove that I wasn’t broken and useless.

  “Get on your hands and knees,” he said. “If you really want this, then you’ll take it any way I give it.”

  I did as he said, and I tried to stay relaxed as he slid open the bedside table. Will was getting the bottle of lube, and I knew what that meant. He wanted to have my ass. I tried to relax, but I was still so afraid of it.

  “Are you doing that because you don’t want to be inside my pussy anymore?” I asked, afraid that I was tainted to him forever.

  He smacked my ass hard. “Hush now. I do what I want to do because it pleases me, and you will let me because it pleases me,” Will said, but he set the bottle of lubricant down on top of the table.

  Instead of entering me, he bowed down and licked my slit. His tongue ran over my throbbing clit, and I cried out.

  “You see,” he said. “Your pussy is still just as sweet to me. I still want you, Tessa. I just want you to submit to me.”

  I nodded my head yes and held still as he lubed up his cock and slid it into me. I felt Will’s fingers working my clit, and moaned as he stretched me wide open with his girth.

  16

  Will

  I wasn’t tired when we finished, but I was hungry. I sent for the night housekeeper, Miranda, to bring us cheese and fruit. Tessa asked if I had any hot chocolate, and Miranda said that she could make some for us.

  Tessa had enjoyed herself, but afterwards, she seemed troubled. I could tell that she had something on her mind, and I felt that I needed to know what it was.

  “What is it?” I asked and her already pale complexion blanched a little. “Just tell me.”

  “You’ll punish me,” she practically whispered.

  “And you don’t want that?”

  “Not right now. Not about this.”

  “Okay, then we’ll just talk. I promise that I won’t punish you for whatever you tell me.”

  Tessa let out a deep breath and she looked a little relieved. “While you were gone, I found your rooms in the basement.”

  “You went in the basement?”

  “I did. I couldn’t get past the curiosity. I’m so sorry, but I have to know why it looked like there was blood stains on the wall of the room with all of the…”

  “It’s a BDSM dungeon, Tessa. That’s what it’s called. Or, you could think of it as a pleasure room.”

  Before I could answer, Lindsey showed up with our food. “What are you doing here?” I asked her as she set the tray down on my table.

  “Miranda’s child was sick. She had to leave, and she called me in.”

  “Can you help me in the bathroom?” Tessa asked before I could say anything else to Lindsey.

  The housekeeper’s eyes flitted to me. She was asking my permission. I hated having her around me, and she normally worked in a position where she had no contact with me or my toys.

  “Go on,” I said and tried to mask my annoyance. The last thing I needed was Tessa asking questions about Lindsey too.

  She nodded her head yes but cowered as if I were going to hit her. The scars on her face and arms turned my stomach. It wasn’t that I was disgusted with her but seeing her made me disgusted with myself.

  Lindsey helped Tessa into the bathroom, and I heard the shower running for a short time. A few minutes later, they came back out and the housekeeper helped Lindsey back into bed.

  When Lindsey was gone, Tessa asked me about her. “What was wrong with her? She seemed so frightened.”

  “She was probably just tired, Tessa. Lindsey normally works during the day, and the night housekeeper called her in to cover a shift.”

  “What about the dungeon?” she asked again curiously. “We got interrupted.”

  “It used to be something I needed. I don’t need it anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  Her face was so innocent. She really had no idea what I was or what she did to me. I wished I could be the man Tessa believed me to be. She probably just thought I was a little dark, but it was so much worse than that.

  “Because I am a cruel man, Tessa. I’m no good, but you silence the sadistic parts of me. When you’re around, I don’t want to hurt innocent people. You’ve brought something to life inside of me, and I didn’t even know it was there.”

  “I like the sadistic parts of you,” Tessa responded with a devilish grin. I didn’t know it was possible to be heartbroken and aroused at the same time, but there it was.

  “You like the sad
istic parts of me that I’ve shown you.”

  “Why don’t you show them to me again?”

  “I think I will,” I said and went to the closet to retrieve four silk scarves.

  I tied her hands to the headboard and her feet to the bedposts so that she was spread wide open for me. I knew that I shouldn’t have made her so vulnerable so soon after what had happened, but it made me hard thinking of her terrified and exposed. I wanted to push those feelings aside, but once I had her tied up, it was too late.

  17

  Tessa

  The next week, Will went back to work. But he still checked with me multiple times per day to see that I was alright. He bought me a phone so we could text. I wasn’t quite sure if it was because he was worried about me still hurting, or if it was more that he was worried I’d leave again.

  I was up and around the house more, and while before the incident with Alex I’d never seen Lindsey before, after I began to run into her a lot. She always seemed to show up wherever I was in the house but never really said anything. She just watched me. It was a little creepy, and I wondered if that’s why Will insisted that she not work in direct contact with him or his guests.

  One thing that really bothered me was that while she was watching me, Lindsey wore this expression like she felt sorry for me. I wanted to ask her why. I tried twice, but each time she took off when I spoke to her.

  I didn’t want to get her fired, but it was disturbing. I was trying to settle into my life at Will’s house, and I had a strange housekeeper following me around watching my every move. She’d even turn up outside when I went out for a swim. There were still a few marks on my body from Alex’s attack, and I swore that she started to cry once.