The Princess in the Tower

by Cordelia Gregory

  It was a scenario they were to repeat for a few days while her lawyers fought to get her company back together asserting James had broken the terms of their agreement and illegally sold the percentages to Bazanov and Taylor. The police could not find James or his Russian Mafia friend to charge for her imprisonment and this made Alexandrov and Ilya even more protective of her. She heard them talking quietly together when they didn’t realise she was there. They were worried about Bazanov. He never gave up. Alexandrov was concerned he would now arrange to have her killed. The only reason she had been allowed to live all this time was because James had insisted he could control her. It would have been easier to do that, so the company passed to him on her death. James must have loved her in some strange fashion. Now Bazanov would want revenge and a hit would undoubtedly have been arranged so she could cause him no further trouble. The police had interviewed her but there wasn’t much they could do until they could find them all.

  But she was making progress. Each time Alexandrov and Ilya would take her further around the grounds. The weather was always perfect, and she was allowed to feed the ducks on the lake. It made her feel so safe. This was outside but it was not the real outside. Here she could handle this newfound freedom but the world outside of Alexandrov’s home still deeply terrified her. But Ilya and Alexandrov wanted to go further with her therapy and take her outside the home. Ilya was more impatient and voiced it.

  She was enjoying their early evening ritual of her bathing and playing with the ducks in the freestanding bath in the beautiful white and dark green bathroom. She was dried and put in her short nightie with little flowers on it. Alexandrov pulled her into his arms allowing her to coil her legs around his waist and carried her into the bedroom to deposit her in the middle of the bed. Every night they had enjoyed reading to her while she cuddled her teddy bear but tonight was to be different. They read her a story pretending to be the animals and then closed the book. She would not receive a second story tonight.

  “Ilya and I have something to ask you, little one,” Alexandrov began.

  “I think you are ready to go outside of the house, Diana. It is time,” Ilya spoke with caution. Diana felt anxiety spring to life inside her body again.

  She immediately slipped out of her role as a child feeling the strong need to defend the refusal she was about to give them.

  “No. I am not ready. No way,” she told them fiercely folding her arms in front of her, cross that they had ruined her night.

  “But I want to walk down the street and show off the beautiful, intelligent woman I have on my arm,” Ilya said with frustration. “You need to show the world James Logan did not break you,” he persisted despite the warning look his brother gave him. “The press wants to see you. They don’t stop pestering our offices for news of you. I want to show the world how beautiful you are.”

  “No. I don’t care what the world wants to see or know. I just care about finding my son and being with you both.”

  Alexandrov spoke softly.

  “Diana, you are hiding from the world. You can’t hide forever. At some point, you are going to have to step out into the sun and not be afraid of who you are and what you have suffered. It is a lesson we all have to learn.”

  She didn’t miss the pain behind his words. It made her stop and think but it just didn’t feel like the right time. She felt too bruised at the moment to show herself to the world.

  “I will in time. I just can’t at the moment.”

  Ilya cursed in Russian and started talking in his own language to Alexandrov so fast it made her head spin. She couldn’t translate all of it. All she knew was that he was angry with her. It stung and she just wanted to get away from them to get her head straight. They were pushing her too fast. Alexandrov was arguing with him but all she could pick up was that they needed to keep her calm and give her a little more time. She got out of the bed on the other side of them, with the intention of both locking herself in the bathroom and crying, in essence to hide again. But she wasn’t to make it. Ilya caught her arm and swung her around to face him when she tried to close the door.

  “No. No more hiding. You can’t live like this anymore. Logan’s made you terrified of the world. I don’t want this for you. What happens when we find Ethan? You can’t just live in the house with him. You have to do this. If you won’t I will make you.”

  That was all the fuel she needed.

  “You are just like him. I won’t let anyone make me do anything I don’t want to anymore. Let me go.”

  “I am trying to help you.”

  She strained to get away with him.

  “I am not your ex-husband. I want to help you live.”

  “He is right,” Alexandrov was by Ilya’s side. They were standing together.

  “This isn’t your decision to make,” she retaliated.

  “Seeing as you won’t make it yourself. We will make it for you. I am not going to let you rot in another house prison.”

  Something snapped inside Diana. She raised her hand and slapped Ilya across the face making him let go of her in surprise. He turned his face back towards her and rubbed it. His ice-blue eyes darkened. It made her want to run but as she turned to try, Alexandrov caught hold of her.

  “No, you must be disciplined, little one. You must be made to understand that we are not the enemy here. It is yourself that is.”

  Alexandrov lifted Diana’s struggling body up around his waist forcing her to grip his body with her legs while she used her fists to hit at his arms in an effort to gain her freedom. Ilya came towards them to lift her nightie over her head. It was the first night she had been allowed to sleep in her panties, rather than a diaper, in preparation for their role playing to end for a while the next day. Ilya wasted no time in removing them. She felt him roughly take hold of the top of the chaste white cotton panties he had put her in earlier, while Alexandrov kept tight hold of her around his waist, and tug hard, ripping them away from her bottom and out from where her pussy brushed up against Alexandrov’s hard cock sheathed in his suit trousers.

  “You will be disciplined with my belt, malysh.” Ilya’s tone was firm and uncompromising as he tossed the remnants of her panties to the floor. Despite his annoyance he was still calling her baby in Russian.

  Now she was completely naked. Alexandrov nodded to him. Diana found her efforts to get Alexandrov to release her were useless. She could not fight his strength and even if she managed to get her feet back on the floor she wouldn’t get very far. Ilya would have her in his grasp before she knew what was happening. Despite the whipping that was to come the way they worked in perfect unison together to keep her safe and obedient made her heart leap with joy. In a strange way, she couldn’t quite yet decipher, their need to discipline her for a lack of obedience made her feel protected and loved something she had never received from her parents or her soon to be ex-husband. This was nothing like his own special brand of violent discipline. There was thought and care behind its application. Even though she knew all of that she still had the urge to resist determined to enact her will. It was a habit she would need to learn to control.

  While she still pushed at Alexandrov’s chest with her hands to try and make him let go of her, she turned her head and gasped when she saw Ilya undoing his belt buckle.

  “No, Alexandrov, don’t let him whip my bottom with his belt.” She made sure she used the sweet, little girl voice to try and persuade her daddy to protect her from her second daddy’s discipline. But Alexandrov moved his hands from her thighs and clasped her bottom tight making her give a small shocked squeal.

  “It must be done. Obedience must be learnt, baby girl.”

  She heard Ilya pull his soft leather belt from the loopholes on his trousers, jangling the silver buckle as he did so. Diana gulped. This was going to hurt. She quickly put her arms around Daddy’s neck and buried her face in his shoulder. She heard him chuckle. He removed one of his hands from her buttocks and placed it on her back. He rubbed gently and
spoke another of his endearments in Russian.

  “Ah, Malen’kiy,ya lyublyu tyebya,” he whispered in her ear while she clung to him like a child. She knew that Malen’kiy translated as little one, but she wasn’t sure about the rest, she had a strange feeling.

  Are you telling me you love me again?

  “Hold her still,” Ilya ordered.

  Alexandrov gripped her tighter, holding both of her legs to keep her bottom in place. She felt her shaven pussy rub against his trousers and the hard length of his cock. He loved her being naked around him, simply so he could view and touch her when he wished. He was different to Ilya who appeared to love tearing her clothes from her. Both were fun but not today. She was too angry. The rumination was torn from her consciousness when she heard the whoosh of Ilya’s folded belt swing through the air and land firmly across her bottom. She bucked hard against Alexandrov’s body, her pussy lips parting to fold neatly around his long hard cock.

  The sting of the belt was sharp and burned despite the cold shiver it sent coursing up her spine and throughout her body. She clung tighter to Daddy as Ilya got in his stride lashing the seat of her fragile bare bottom with the makeshift whip, his belt, with expertise. The strikes made her buttocks tremble and made her feel weak, yet she could feel wetness lick warmly between her thighs and inside her channel to war with the pain she felt from Ilya’s belt.

  She finally slumped against Alexandrov’s body worn out with Ilya’s brand of punishment, the anger and fear whipped from her. Everything became clearer in her mind. She hated to admit it to herself, but they were right, she was hiding, and it was time she showed herself to the world.

  Chapter 12

  It started with a trip to see the Empyrean-629 the next day. When they left the house in the car there was a huge press contingent outside snapping photographs. It made her tremble, the flashing lights startling her eyes. They had been there all of the time and the billionaires and their security had been shielding her from it.

  They led her inside the hangar at Heathrow Airport. Thankfully, she hadn’t yet been outside on the streets and here she was contained. Besides she had a huge distraction. Her heart swelled with pride and tears gathered in her eyes when she saw her own creation in the flesh. She was always possessive of her projects and worked in a traditional way involving herself in every area of the design not just the engines. It was one of three Dyeus Airlines already possessed and it now bore their Airline logo, the Sumerian symbol for the meaning of Dyeus, the sky.

  The plane was to make its first flight carrying passengers to St Petersburg, Russia and would leave at noon on Friday. Ilya and Alexandrov insisted they all went on the flight so Diana could see how it flew. A small contingent of press was allowed in for a news conference and she was surprised when she found her voice and talked about her aircraft and company. She declined to comment on the personal circumstances of her case as requested by the police and after Alexandrov shut their constant questioning down, she breathed a sigh of relief when they got back in the car. Now for the real test, London.

  Both billionaires were protective of her as they led her from the car to the exclusive designer lingerie boutique. There was so much noise outside. So many people bustling around them on the London street in Mayfair it made her want to cover her ears. She hadn’t been shopping for a long time. It still even felt strange to wear clothes. She had been denied the pleasure of them for so long.

  “Diana, slow your breathing,” Alexandrov instructed watching her face intently before they moved away from the car.

  “You can do this, baby girl,” Ilya soothed, linking his arm with hers. “We will help you.

  Alexandrov nodded and linked her opposite arm with his directing them towards the pretty boutique a short walk down the street. She’d heard him tell the driver to park a small distance away so she could become accustomed to walking down the street. A continuation of their plan to get her comfortable with being outside again. Diana felt ashamed of the terror that threatened to overwhelm her but her determination to conquer the problem was stronger. She felt lightheaded as they slowly walked down the street guiding her each step of the way. Diana’s eyes darted back and forth, the sights and sounds making her dizzy with their fast speed whirling all around her as her mind took them all in at once not being used to the commotion. She jumped with the sound of a horn beeping, the noise of the traffic, the whizzing sound of a motorbike courier and the wail of police sirens not far away signalling they were in the city of London.

  “We are nearly there,” Ilya reassured her, squeezing her arm. He smiled down at her with satisfaction, clearly pleased his wish of walking down the street to show her off had finally come true even though she was so nervous at first and she wanted to hit him for it. Now it made her pleased and gave her encouragement.

  “You are doing so well. I am proud of you, zyozdochka.” He raised her hand to his mouth and planted a small kiss across her pale skin to reward her.

  She would always love their adoring pet names for her. To Alexandrov, she was his little kotyonok, his kitten. To Ilya she was his zyozdochka, his little star. And to them both she was their malen’kiy or little one. Diana smiled inwardly and for a moment felt safe enough to let herself become lost in pleasant thoughts. But she was to be quickly jarred out of them when a moped suddenly mounted the pavement and headed straight for them. The rider of the moped was brandishing a weapon and aimed it straight at Diana. Ilya and Alexandrov acted quickly while Diana could only stare in horror. The weapon discharged but the bullet never struck. Both men propelled her against the wall of the nearest building and shielded her body. The moped raced towards them. Ilya moved away from her and charged at the rider just as he aimed the weapon, once more catching up with him before he was able to shoot.

  Ilya caught hold of his arm and raised it upwards, so the bullet shot into the air and pulled him from the back of the moped onto the ground. Alexandrov kept Diana pressed against the wall facing it, completely shielding her with his body. He was holding her so tightly she could barely breathe. She turned her head to the side catching a glimpse of Ilya tackling the man he had torn from the moped. The man had held on to the weapon and was aiming at him. Diana held her breath afraid for Ilya, but he was twisting the rider’s arm behind his back and slamming him face downwards on to the bonnet of a Mercedes parked at the side of the road. He removed the gun from the dazed, limp man’s hand as they watched the other rider disappear on the moped down the street.

  Thankfully, someone from the shocked group of shoppers watching the disturbance had called the police evident by the sudden wail of sirens. Alexandrov turned to look at his brother still keeping Diana firmly against the wall. He nodded to him, showing him the black revolver.

  “Clear,” he told him.

  The way he spoke with clarity and command made Diana think about the way he and his brother had worked together in their days in Russia’s elite special forces, GRU Spetsnaz under Alexandrov’s command. They rarely talked about it but occasionally they would mention something in Russian to each other about it thinking she wouldn’t understand. Some of their exploits in the elite force such as stealing a helicopter from a US Army base made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her eyes widen. Despite their new professions they were still strong capable soldiers and she had no doubts they still had links to the force they could call on. The security team they employed around them to guard the house, whom they had so casually dismissed for their shopping trip with her around Mayfair, were mostly ex-employees from the GRU Spetsnaz and the British SAS. Security was something they took seriously, and they kept themselves fit and ready for action themselves at any moment. Old habits die hard. Ilya still deferred to his elder brother as the alpha leader and commander as he was in Spetsnaz and in their family when growing up. Now that they were reunited it appeared to work well again.

  The police and the armed response unit surrounded them allowing Alexandrov to move Diana away from the wall.

 
“Are you okay, little one?” His Russian accent was thick, and she could feel a slight tremble in his body as he drew her into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

  “Yes. I am fine, Alexandrov. Please don’t worry.”

  “I thought we were going to lose you again. They won’t give up.”

  She tightened her own grip on him and tried to smile and calm her own shaking.

  “But I have my brave men to take care of me. I am safe. I love you both so much,” she soothed reaching up to kiss him, tears brimming in her eyes.

  “Please take me to Ilya.”

  “I can’t yet. He is talking to the police and we will have to as well.”

  It seemed to take an age before she was allowed to see Ilya. She propelled herself straight into his arms, forgetting her fear of being outside for a short while. Tears spilled out onto her cheeks.

  “I thought…” her sentence was stopped by a sob as she considered he could have been killed, reliving the scene over and over in her mind.

  “Shh, baby girl. I am okay.”

  “I love you, Ilya. I love you both,” she cried prompting him to hold her more firmly. Alexandrov placed his palm on her back and rubbed it to help her calm.

  “I love you too, darling,” he replied with a smile.

  “We both love you, kotyonok.”

  Alexandrov smiled at her pressing his body against hers from behind while Ilya continued to hold her.

  “They are going to interview the man and find out who he is. They believe he has links to the Russian Mafia and Bazanov. One of the officers recognises him,” Ilya offered the information to his brother.

  “We should take Diana home. I think she has had enough for one day,” Alexandrov said tenderly caressing her back with his hand again.

  Diana hurriedly blinked back her tears, a new strength overtaking her fear of the outside. She moved out of Ilya’s embrace even though he still held on to her arms to keep her protectively in place between the middle of them.