“I’ll get you down there to see her,” said Rusty. “She’s chained up right now, so there won’t even be a need for another guard in the basement. I’ll let you be alone with her.”
It was morning. Cole was sitting on the bed in his old room and Rusty was just inside the door. Cole had slept for a few hours—not many. He’d slept restlessly, plagued with images of Dana in the punishment room, vomiting and vomiting but too weak to crawl across the room to the toilet. He tried to tell himself that there was no reason for Dana to be vomiting. Those were only his own bad memories—someone else in the room, not Dana. But it hardly mattered. He couldn’t sleep.
He’d gotten up once or twice and tried to get out of the room to get to her and get her out. But there was always a guard at the door, someone large and burly who Cole didn’t recognize.
The last time he’d gotten up, though, it had been Rusty. And now Rusty was offering him the chance to see Dana.
Cole narrowed his eyes. “Why would you do that?”
“Two reasons,” said Rusty, coming into the room. “One, you’re my big brother, and I can’t stand to see you so upset. Two, I need something in return from you.”
That made a little more sense. “What do you want?”
“You’re in contact with the SF outside, aren’t you? That’s how you got in. They’ve got the perimeter closed off, so there’s no other way you would have made it in.”
Cole didn’t say anything. He was wary of where Rusty was going with this.
“Look, you can try to deny it, but I heard you on the phone last night with someone.”
“You don’t know who I was on the phone with.” Cole was starting to get worried. This might not be a good thing at all.
“Avery Brooks,” said Rusty. “I heard you address him by name. And I know who he is. He’s SF, and he’s Dana Gray’s partner. So what I want in return for my letting you see her is to try to do some negotiation with Brooks.”
“Negotiation?” That surprised Cole. He’d been expecting something else. Something worse.
“Look, Father gets hot under the collar, but he listens to me. I think I might be able to work something out between them. I’m worried about what the SF is going to do to us out here. We killed their men, and we royally pissed them off.”
“Just give Dana back,” said Cole. “That’s what they want.”
“Well, that’s what they used to want,” said Rusty. “Now, I’m not so sure that’s going to be enough. This farm is my family. I don’t want them hurt any worse than they already have been. So, I want to negotiate. That’s the deal, Cole. Take it or leave it. If you want to see Dana, then give me your phone so I can make contact.”
Cole got out his phone. “All right, fine.” As deals went, it was an easy one to make. Actually, he hoped that Rusty could negotiate something with the SF. Even if he’d cut ties with these people, they were his family too. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to all of them.
* * *
Dana had been chained up in darkness for hours. Her arms were bound in front of her with a heavy chain. The chain was long enough that she could move around and explore every inch of her prison, but it hardly mattered, because it was tiny and dark in here, and there was really nothing to explore.
She had curled up on the floor to sleep for a while. She didn’t know how long. There was no way to be sure of the passage of time in the room.
At one point, the door opened and one of the big guards came in along with bright light which streamed through the door. He gave her some oatmeal and a spoon to eat it with.
Then he slammed the door shut and trapped her in darkness again.
Dana ate the oatmeal quickly. She left the bowl by the door, but she kept the spoon, which was metal and sturdy. She hid it behind the toilet, which was in the far corner. She thought the spoon might come in handy at some point, but she wasn’t exactly sure how.
Sometime later, the door opened again. She was curled up against the far wall. She was cold, and she was still only wearing that flimsy white robe.
“Dana?”
She stood up.
Cole was coming into the room. He had a tray of food, and he was carrying a kerosene lantern, which cast shadows all over the walls of the room but illuminated everything for the first time. She could see just exactly where she was. And there wasn’t anything to see. The room was small and empty.
He set the tray down on the floor and came to her. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault.”
She swallowed.
He touched her face, fingers sliding over her cheek and chin. “I’m going to get you out of here. I swear.”
“You keep saying that, but things keep getting worse, Cole.”
“He put you in here to upset me.”
“What about me? It’s kind of upsetting me, you know.”
He hung his head. “Are you hungry?”
She really wasn’t after the oatmeal. She hadn’t done anything since then except lie around and take a nap. She hadn’t had a chance to work up much of an appetite.
But she was sort of bored and food meant that she had something to do. So she went over to the tray and began to eat. Cole had brought her tomato soup and a peanut butter sandwich.
While she ate, Cole inspected the place where her chains were connected to the wall. “I need to get you out of the chains,” he told her. “If I can do that, we can sneak out through the cellar door at the back of the basement. We’d be able to get out that way, I’m almost sure of it.”
“I stole a spoon,” Dana said. “From breakfast. Maybe I can use it to chip away at the wall. I can get the chains to break free.”
Cole tugged on the chains. “That would take a long time. You’re not going to be down here that long.”
Dana slurped at her soup. “I hope not, but at this point I’m prepared for anything to happen. I feel like I’m stuck in a nightmare that keeps getting worse and worse.”
Cole furrowed his brow. He looked back and forth between Dana and the wall. “Stand up.”
She thought about telling him that she was eating and that she didn’t feel like doing that at all. But the truth was that she didn’t care much about the food. And she didn’t feel the need to punish Cole. She’d seen what Jimmy did, and she didn’t blame Cole for this. Cole was trying to help her. So, she stood up, chains jangling.
Cole pulled on the chains, and they in turn tugged on her hands.
“Ow,” she protested.
He wasn’t looking at her. “Raise your arms over your head.”
She complied, not understanding what he was up to.
He wrapped the chains around the door knob and pulled them taut.
She stumbled backwards.
“Sorry,” he said. “Maybe this would work better if you were closer to the door.”
She headed in that direction. “What are you trying to do?”
He gestured to the links that held her shackles to the chain. “I just want to see if some of these smaller loops of metal are less strong than the others. Maybe if we can put enough pressure on them, they’ll open up, you know?”
“Maybe.”
“Here, kneel down.”
She did, her back to the door knob. Her hands hung back over her head, close to the knob.
Cole knelt down beside her. He yanked on the chains again. He grunted as he pulled. “Okay, let me just see…”
She winced as the metal dug into her wrists.
“No, this isn’t going to work either,” Cole muttered. “It’s just going to hurt you.”
She craned her neck up. “Well, what if you took my wrist shackle things and hooked those onto the door?”
“Maybe.” He shifted so that he was in front of her. Still kneeling, he reached up and began working with her arms, pulling them even higher above her head.
Dana had a flash—her arms chained above her head in Cole’s basement, Cole in front of her, only a blanket between the two of them and her naked flesh.
She felt a ting
le between her legs. She drew in breath sharply.
Cole suddenly looked at her.
Their faces were so close.
His expression was puzzled, questioning. “This is turning you on, isn’t it?”
“No.” But her voice was a little strained.
“I think it is.” His gaze roamed over her body now, and she knew that the robe left her exposed. It seemed like she was always getting into these kinds of situations with Cole, where she was vulnerable, and he was there to exploit her weaknesses.
Cole’s hand moved away from her hands, down over her arm. His fingers trailed over the thin fabric of her robe, into the hollow pit under her shoulder, where she hadn’t been able to shave for days. This embarrassed her, and her face grew hot.
But if Cole noticed anything, he didn’t let on. His hand hand already traveled lower, cupping her breast.
She let out a low, slow breath. His touch did things to her. Even locked up here, chained up here. Hell, maybe because she was chained up here, it was even more intense. But how could that be? She didn’t like being imprisoned. She didn’t like being helpless.
Still, she couldn’t deny that his fingers on her felt better than ever. Her whole body responded to him, tightening in anticipation.
She shut her eyes, groaning under breath.
Cole chuckled softly. “You’re really fucking turned on by this.”
She didn’t answer.
His voice was silk and sex. “You like being tied up, Dana?”
She opened her eyes. “I don’t… just… stop.” But his face was close, so she leaned forward and captured his lips with her own.
He kissed her back, growling deep in his throat as he claimed her mouth. Both his hands were on her breasts then, stroking and squeezing and pinching.
She was a spring—coiled up, getting tighter by the minute. And it felt like heaven.
He gasped, his lips moving away from hers. His eyes were closed. “This is stupid. We can’t do this right now.”
“I’m not doing anything,” she said, trying to funnel anger into her tone. Instead, she only sounded breathless and aroused. His hands were still on her breasts. “You’re doing it.”
Slowly, he opened his eyes. “That’s it, then, isn’t it? If you’re tied up, it’s easier to give in. You don’t have to worry about your responsibility in all of this, and you can blame me.”
“My responsibility? Fuck that, Cole. All of this is you. You’re the one who—”
“Who came down to visit when I was locked up in the SF headquarters? Oh, wait, that was you, wasn’t it?”
“I only went to see you because I was trying to solve that case,” she hissed. “Once I was there, you pushed.”
“And you liked it,” he said. “You like it when I take over and make you do things, because it gives you permission to feel the things you want to feel but are ashamed to feel.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t like anything about you, Cole. You’re despicable.”
He grinned. He reached down and untied her robe. “You like that I’m despicable. That turns you on.”
She slammed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that her body was yearning for him to touch her, to slide his hands underneath her robe and wring pleasure from her.
His fingers trailed over her belly, her mound. They slid into the folds of her sex. “You’re wet again,” he rasped. “You’re wet for me.”
“It’s not…” She shook her head. She didn’t finish. What was the point in denying it? “Okay, okay, there’s something wrong with me. I have some twisted thing when it comes to you. But it doesn’t mean I want you to…”
His fingers dragged against her, and she strained against him, caught up in his touch. “To what?”
“To… do things like like what you’re doing.”
His smile widened. “What am I doing, Dana? Can’t you say it?”
She gulped, tilting her chin up. “I don’t have to say anything.”
He massaged her clit.
She let out a little cry. It felt so good.
“You want me to make you come?” he murmured. “Ask me.”
“I…” She couldn’t speak. There was too much sensation, and it was all she could focus on.
“Say it, Dana,” he urged.
She ran her tongue over her teeth. She whispered the words, so quietly that it was barely audible. “Put your mouth on me. Lick me.”
But he heard her. He let out a strangled sound, and his other hand gripped her thigh, fingers digging into her skin.
“Open your legs,” he breathed, his voice scratchy.
She let them fall apart.
And he was on her, ardent and fervid, his tongue lapping at her. Her whole body was lit up with acute pleasure.
Her back arched. She tugged against the restraints that bound her hands. She bucked against his mouth.
He held her in place with one hand. His other hand darted between her legs. And then she felt his fingers thrusting into her. More than one, enough that she felt taken and invaded.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream in response to his onslaught.
And abruptly, she was climaxing against his lips and tongue, the spring inside her releasing again and again.
She let the elation wash over her, thinking as it did that it didn’t make any sense. He shouldn’t be able to do that to her, not so quickly. No other guy on earth had ever made her come so effortlessly and so violently. She hated him for that. She adored him for that.
She panted, looking down at him as he lifted his face to stare at her.
“Did you like that?”
She only breathed.
He brought his face close to hers. He kissed her roughly, and she could taste herself on him. He pulled back. “Now I’m very hard, and you’re still tied up. And we’re no closer to getting you out of here. Why do you do this to me?”
She was trembling, still experiencing tiny leftover quakes from her orgasm.
“I should just fuck you,” he muttered. “I should do it without any precautions. I should to it to teach you a lesson, so that you understand how badly you affect me. So that you understand that there are consequences when you get me worked up like this.”
That frightened her. It was always like that with Cole, though. She was half-afraid and half-excited, unsure which was which. She braced herself, expecting him to force his way into her, knowing her body would respond even against her own concerns.
But he stood up instead.
She looked up at him. His crotch was inches from her face. He was looking down at her, and his eyes were in shadow. There was something dark and hungry in his expression.
He unbuttoned his pants and undid his zipper.
Despite herself, she felt a clenching between her legs. She was excited. She knew what was coming.
“I’ve actually wanted this for a very long time, Dana.” He caressed her jaw with one hand, freeing his shaft with the other. He ran his hand over himself.
She dragged her upper teeth over her bottom lip.
His voice was a black whisper. “Give it a kiss.”
She leaned forward to press her lips against the tip.
“Mmm,” he said. “Like that.”
He pressed between her lips, and she opened her mouth for him.
His skin was satiny. She shut her eyes as he filled her. And then she began to move on him, taking him deeper, tasting all of him.
His hand tangled in her hair, stopping her. “Tell you a secret, Dana. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it is all me. Maybe I’m the one who’s responsible for what’s between us. Maybe one day, when we were in high school, I saw you with Kyle Lamar.”
She nearly choked. What? Kyle Lamar? Really? But there had only been one time that—
He drove his member down her throat.
She gagged, her eyes widening.
He kept going, holding her head in place, forcing himself in and out of her mouth.
She couldn’t breath
e. Panic bloomed in her chest.
She shouldn’t trust Cole. Why did she let him do things to her? He was pitiless and harsh, and he didn’t care about her. He only wanted to use her.
And Kyle Lamar? How had he seen…?
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t struggle. Her hands were bound above her head. She tried to kick her legs, but she couldn’t connect with anything.
“Maybe,” he said, slamming himself in and out of her, his thrusts deep and a little painful, “all of this, everything I did, has all been about getting you to give me a blow job.” He shut his eyes. He groaned. And then he pumped his semen into her mouth.
She sputtered on it but managed to swallow it all down. That asshole. He was hurting her!
It was at that moment it occurred to her that she had a very sensitive part of his body very close to her teeth.
She bit down.
He cringed, tightening his grip in her hair, yanking.
Pain burst bright in her skull. She cried out, releasing him.
He pulled his penis out of her mouth, but he didn’t let go of her hair. Instead he knelt down so he was eye level with her, still holding her head in place. “I hate you.”
She swallowed again, her pulse racing.
“I never wanted to come back to this place. I was free of him, you understand that? And because of you, because of your stupid power over me, he’s my alpha again. You fucking bitch.” He tugged on her hair again.
She whimpered.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Fuck.” He let go of her. He stood up. He swept the door open, which caused her to scramble across the floor, because her chains were still hooked onto the knob.
She managed to pull free before he slammed the door closed again, leaving her alone in the dark.
She took a shuddering breath, massaging her tender scalp.
That bastard.
Goddamn it, she hated Cole Randall with every fiber of her being. He was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
She retreated back to the other side of the room, rested against the wall, her chained hands in her lap.
A sob burst out of her.
And then she nudged one of her hands between her legs to relieve the pressure that had been building there since the minute he’d jammed himself down her throat.
Bad Moon Rising (Cole and Dana) Page 14