I pointed to the laptop. “Never leave me alone with a computer when I’m bored. I tend to dig stuff up.”
“I take it your anger has something to do with this?” He tapped the laptop case and continued, not waiting for me to answer. “I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to assume you did some digging.”
“I did…Master.” I injected venom into the word now, not caring about the consequences. Did it really matter? He could claim disrespect whenever he chose and punish me for it as he pleased.
His long fingers tapped the laptop and silence descended between us. I shifted in my seat and bit my lower lip.
“Raven,” he finally said, “let’s dispense with titles for a moment.”
“Fine by me.” I hated having to call him Master.
“Maintain a respectful tone. You won’t be warned again.”
“Does it matter?”
“You know the answer to that.”
Yes, I did. Nothing had changed between us. He was still the Master, and I the lowly slave. I ripped my attention from him and tried looking anywhere else, but I failed. His magnetism pulled me back and some of my anger crumbled with the overwhelming power pouring off him.
“Now,” he continued, “what did you find?”
“As if you don’t know.”
“I actually don’t. Despite what you think, I can’t read minds.”
“You said you’re not a monster and yet that’s exactly what you are.”
“You don’t know what I do.”
I pointed to the laptop. “You’re in business with my father, and my father is in business…” My voice cracked, but I refused to break down in tears. From somewhere deep inside of me, I found the strength to continue.
“What about your father?”
“He’s at the center of it all: sex slave trafficking and worse. Innocent boys are dying…”
X clenched his fist and sucked in a breath. “I know.”
“Of course you know.” I wanted to leap across the desk and strangle him. I wanted to stab him in the heart and watch his life bleed out on the floor. I wanted to scream and rage, and…I just wanted to curl into a ball and pretend none of this existed.
“You haven’t asked me the most important question.”
I really hadn’t asked any questions. At least, not the ones I wanted.
“I’m disappointed.” His eyes pinched and he leaned back, returning my anger with exquisite patience. “I thought you were a better judge of character. You haven’t asked why I had you access your father’s laptop.”
“To spy on him.” My face heated with indignation. “I presume it’s a power grab. You’re trying to take over his slave empire.”
“Be very careful of assumptions, Raven. They’re never what you think.”
I wanted to hate X. I needed to hate him because I’d fallen too far under his spell.
“How about we talk about what you saw.” He flipped open the laptop and turned it toward me.
I’d already closed out of everything. Nothing but a black screen faced me.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Yes, you do.” He pushed the laptop toward me. “Tell me, did you find his business associate?”
“You mean John Snowden?” That man gave me full body shudders. For that matter, my father did the same. The depth of their depravity wasn’t something my mind could process.
“You found Snowden?” X leaned forward, his entire body wound tight with tension. “Did you find anything that says where he might be?”
“What, so you can meet with him and conduct your business?” I sprung to my feet and pointed an accusing finger at X. “I’m not going to be a part of that.” I grabbed for the computer, intent on shutting down my little backdoor into my father’s illicit dealings, but X was faster than me. He was always faster, stronger, and more cunning than me.
“Give that back to me,” I screeched.
“Sit down, Raven, before I lose my patience and turn you over my knee.”
I laughed in his face. “Go ahead. Without the right protocols, you’ll trip the self-destruct code I placed.”
His expression darkened. “What did you do?”
“You didn’t think you could lead me to my father’s chambers, force me to write code on his laptop and not leave an insurance policy behind?”
X might be stronger and faster than me, but I had outsmarted him in this. He surprised me by not reacting. Instead, he pulled out a cellphone and dialed a number.
X paused, waiting for whomever was on the other end.
“Forest?”
Was forest some sort of code word? X didn’t try to hide his conversation and I couldn’t help but listen to every word he said. I strained to hear the other voice, but my efforts were in vain. I couldn’t make out anything.
“We have access, but Raven wrote in a self-destruct code.” Anger set X’s eyes ablaze, retribution would soon follow. In that, I had faith. I wouldn’t come out of this unscathed.
“Yes. I have it. Do you want me to—” X paused, listening. “Okay. I’ll leave it.”
I leaned forward, intent on hearing the other half of the conversation, but failed.
“No,” X said. “Don’t come. Her father is here. You need to be invisible in this, but Forest…” X glanced at me, a look of admiration in his expression. “She found Snowden. Just like we thought, Carson is working with him. What do you want me to do?”
A long pause followed. I strained to overhear, but all I heard was a deep bass rumble through the speaker. X listened. Every word brought tension coiling in his body. He glanced at me and gripped the phone.
“No. Raven isn’t leaving the island.”
Well, that answered one of my most pressing questions. If X’s estate was on an island, there really was no place for me to run. I’d have to find a boat to take me away. Certainly, there was no way I would be escaping in a plane.
“You know the answer to that. Whatever happens, Raven is mine.” X glanced at me again. “I can send it via courier.”
More time passed as the other man spoke.
“A day or two at most,” X answered. “My business with Carson should be concluded tonight and the slave transfer completed tomorrow. I expect he’ll leave no later than noon.”
More words I couldn’t hear.
“That’s cutting it close. If he sees you…If Snowden finds out we’re on to him…”
X placed the laptop on the desk. When I shifted my attention to it, X gave a sharp nod. “Don’t even think about it.” He motioned for me to sit in the wingback chair. I was beginning to hate that chair.
My fear for what X could do kept me from moving and I sat. He cupped the phone to his ear, talking to the stranger the whole time while he stepped behind me. For a brief millisecond, I contemplated rushing the desk, opening the laptop, and activating the RUN command which would unravel everything I’d done. But in the time it took me to think through that, X clicked something to my neck. I reached up and traced out the links of a chain. I’d been locked in.
I didn’t even fight when X attached a chain to my right wrist and then snapped a third to my left. With me immobilized, he returned to the desk, took his seat facing me, and opened the laptop. He swiped at the screen of his phone, pulled out a stand from a desk drawer, and placed his phone in the cradle. A few seconds later, he put earbuds in his ears, removing me from the conversation entirely. I had a fair idea what was going on, but there was no way X, or that stranger, would break my encryption.
They were royally fucked.
Their conversation continued for minutes. X listened, tapped at the keys, and cursed. I watched his expression turned from consternation to defeat. I didn’t know what he was up to, but felt confident he hadn’t broken through my security. I’d given him access to exactly what he’d asked, Z’s business accounts, but that hadn’t been what I had uncovered. I’d gone layers deeper. My intimate familiarity with how Z’s mind worked told me there would be much m
ore buried beneath the surface. X could scan all of my father’s bank accounts, but none of what I’d seen would be visible to him. He looked up at me and darkness swirled in the depths of his eyes. I swallowed reflexively and guarded against what would come.
“Yes, that’ll be all. I’ll see you soon.”
With those words, X ended the call. He stood over me and bent down, placing his hands on the armrests of the chair.
“You have been a very bad girl.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
X leaned in and I pressed my shoulder blades against the chair. With no place to run, I was trapped and at his mercy. I should hate him for this. I did. I really did, or at least I told myself this was true. I wasn’t a very good liar, at least to myself. The truth was much darker and harder to face. It was inescapable and I was only just realizing how helpless I was around X. I craved the indescribable power he held over me. He made me tremble in fear and I ate it up. He delivered pain and I craved more. More of his touch. His mastery. More of his control. I fought him because the act of resisting turned me on. Nothing about him made sense.
This man did things to me that I didn’t understand. His intensity flicked on switches inside me and turned me into a submissive, yielding, wanton thing. I hungered for him. I challenged him if only because I needed to know if he would push back. My pulse fired. My breaths accelerated. The blood in my body burned as it raced merrily along and ignited sensations I didn’t want to face. But I couldn’t ignore the thrill of meeting X’s strength with my own. I needed to clash with him before I could yield. Our struggle for supremacy defined our roles and I never doubted how our war would end.
That didn’t make me weak. I was stronger than X. The battle of wills raging between us would end only one way, but not until I accepted the truth of what I was, what I needed, and the same for him. Xavier would win in the end, because I let him. Because he would make me.
“You have earned a punishment my dear Raven.”
“You’re a monster.”
I searched his face, needing to see the evil I claimed lived within him. What I saw instead made my insides clench and my nerves light up in anticipation of what would come; not the punishment. I knew how difficult that would be to endure. The punishment didn’t excite me, but rather what came afterward and what I would finally give.
“Know this, my slave, nothing is as it seems. There are things which must be done, horrible things, but sometimes it takes evil to fight evil. I would explain, but you continue to resist me. Until we’re on the same page, you’ll be denied certain things. Know this, I crave the darkness and I’ll do terrible things to you. Your days of resistance are behind you.”
The air between us sizzled with sexual tension. It vibrated in the space between us, melding our breaths, and forging our future. The inevitability of it pulsed with every breath, echoed with every beat of my heart, and filled every word he spoke.
X continued to lean over me, invading my space, dominating me with his presence, and I soaked it all in, craving the delicious torment he promised and hating myself for needing it. Then, suddenly, something within me released. All the tension inside of me disappeared. I searched his face and made my peace.
“Then take me.”
X took in a sharp breath, then he was on me, kissing me, licking me, biting my neck, my shoulders, and pawing at the dress I had just put on. It shredded in his hands as he ripped it from my body. I’d been chained in place, but not truly restrained. If I wanted, I could have fought; pushed him away and squirmed out of his touch. I did none of these things. He devoured me with a ravenous hunger and I sacrificed myself to his need.
Eventually, the chains fell away. Naked, he clutched me tight to his chest. I burrowed into him, tucking my head beneath his chin and clutching his neck. He carried me out of the library, down one of the endless white hallways, and brought me to the doors that led into the room with the chains. I wrapped my arms around his neck, terrified, and yet accepting of my fate.
The cross had been removed from the middle of the room. The couches had been pushed back against the wall. X said nothing as he deposited me in the middle of the room. A storm brewed in his eyes as he steadied me and attached the first chain to one of the three rings around my neck. He clipped the second and then the third. Without resistance, I met the steel of his expression, compliant and, if not willing, at least finally in acceptance of my fate.
He left me standing there, forced to watch as he went to the wall where all manner of torture devices waited for unwilling flesh. Instead of grabbing something from the wall, he went to a set of drawers and pulled out something which made a clinking sound. Returning to me, he held out a sturdy leather cuff with silver rings attached to it. Much different from the delicate bands I wore around my wrists, the cuffs looked to have been designed with industrial strength. My stomach clenched and I swallowed, wondering for a moment if I truly had lost my mind. X thrust out the cuff and the deep timbre of his voice settled my nerves and burrowed deep into my chest to lodge in my heart. I chose this fate.
“Give me your wrist.”
This would be my last chance to refuse what came next. My attention turned from the cuff to ponder the storm in his eyes. Something unspoken moved in the space between us. I whispered out an answer.
“Yes.”
“That wasn’t a question.” His brow arched with confusion.
Obediently, I lifted my wrist and placed it inside the cuff. Buttery smooth on the inside, X tightened the leather around my wrist. He lifted the other sturdy cuff, the unspoken command lingering between us.
“That is my answer.”
“To?”
“I won’t beg. I’ll never beg, but I can give you that one word. When you ask, that is my answer.”
“Raven…” He staggered back a step and gripped his jaw. “You will be my undoing.”
“Promise that you won’t make me beg. Do what you must and take what you need, but please don’t ask that of me. It will destroy me and I’m barely hanging on as it is.”
X wrapped his powerful arms around me.
“But don’t you understand, my dear? That’s exactly what I’m meant to do. I will destroy you.”
It would be too easy to sag in his arms and lean against him for support, but for what would come next, there would be nothing but whatever strength resided within me to endure. I’d never felt so alone. I reached over my shoulder and tugged the wrist cuff out of his hands. He released me, a shocked expression on his face as I pressed the cuff to my belly, placed my wrist inside of it, and locked it in place. I held out my hands to him, wrists crossed and locked in leather.
“Then do it.” A single tear tumbled down my cheek and I closed my eyes to take in a fortifying breath. I wish I’d kept my eyes open, but then I would’ve seen the hood. I would have screamed. Instead, the suffocating fabric surprised me as X plunged the world into darkness.
I gasped with shock, disoriented and confused, exactly what X wanted. Before I could catch my breath, I’d been bound in chains and my wrists lifted. I soon understood the sturdiness of the thick leather cuffs as he lifted my arms overhead. I balanced on tiptoe. He’d given me a choice, hang from my wrists or support my weight on my toes. With all that happened next, that had to have been the most diabolical torment inflicted on me.
With my vision forcibly taken away, my other senses came to the forefront. The tread of his feet walking away. The clanking of chains. The slapping of leather against his hand. All of it transmitted to me through the hood. The rich scent of leather flooded my senses. There was a touch against my hip, across my belly, under my breasts, and circling my nipples. My breathing hitched with the anticipation of pain I knew would follow. Except it didn’t, at least not yet. My calves screamed in protest as I struggled to stand on tiptoe. I tried hanging from the cuffs but found my arms straining from holding the weight of my body. I shifted from one agony to the other, trying to relieve the pain, and failing utterly.
Whatever he d
ragged against my body lit every nerve on fire. My skin prickled with goosebumps. Anticipation wound me tight, filled me with fear, and had me aching with desire. For now, fear held me firmly in its grip. I refused to speak. Whatever X had planned, I wouldn’t reward him with my voice. He would have to take, because I’d already given more than I could stand. I’d said yes.
And I wasn’t standing anymore. My calves exploded in agony as a Charlie horse held me in its iron grip. My scream came from that pain, but turned to a shriek with the first strike of what could only be a whip.
“You’re being punished, slave,” X ground out, punctuating his words with another strike.
A wave of fire ripped through my back. I tried to count the strikes, but there was no breath in my body to make sound. Air squeezed out of my lungs and pain tightened my chest. The struggle to breathe became my universe as he struck again.
Eternity swallowed me as X worked my body to exhaustion. I screamed. I begged. I cried and howled. I danced away from the whip, only to trip and hang suspended above the ground. The whip would strike again and I’d regain my feet. X’s fury bit at my flesh and crawled deep inside my bones. He became an extension of me, and I think, somehow, a part of me bled into him. Sweat poured from my body as I struggled to breathe. I lost count of the number of times the whip bit at my flesh. The power of X’s strikes landed with surgical precision turning my world into a constant stream of torment. At some point, I gave in. The pain settled in. I hadn’t escaped it, but somewhere along the way, I no longer seemed to care. I floated in a haze and rode the wave of sensation flooding my body.
A whimper escaped me when the strikes stopped falling. Bound by the hood, I’m not sure what happened next, except I floated on a cloud and the strain on my arms suddenly fell away. My wrists landed in my lap and I curled against the most delicious scent of coming home. Then I was moving. I clutched at X’s neck and nuzzled, then stilled at a grating noise.
“Well done, boy. A few more sessions like that and she’ll…”
“Get out of my way, Zane,” X growled. “I don’t need you to tell me how to handle my slave.”
She’s Mine: A Captive Romance Page 17