by Ross, Sandra
The Taming: Wild Cats 2
The Taming: Wild Cats 2
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Chapter One
A MONTH had passed since the first time Nickolas and Iliana slept together.
Iliana refused to have any other kind of conversation about her past and Nickolas didn’t insist. He already knew what happened after that night and how her life had evolved.
He knew for example, that two people had been arrested and convicted for the death of her parents—the gang member that shot them and the gang’s leader as an abettor.
She was left with her grandmother who hadn’t possessed the physical or mental strength to control her. Her small pension was barely enough to support them so Iliana soon started contributing to their income by shoplifting from several places. She was caught three times by shop owners and managers but no criminal charges had ever been filed.
When she turned 15, she worked in a fast-food restaurant while going to school. She already started attracting the attention of males around her and her misery was amplified by a new source of terror—the pimps in the territory wanted her in on their business. They competed with one another, with gifts and threats, just to have her. She was beautiful, exotic, with her red hair and cat’s eyes. She would surely bring in more profit.
That was when she became Ramon’s girlfriend. No one would dare touch the woman of the seventeen-year-old leader of the Wolves. She was never involved in the gang’s business or at least, was never arrested if she ever did. When she was 17, her grandmother died and she moved in with Ramon in his house.
A year later, when Iliana finished school, someone shot Ramon to death. Everyone knew it was the Panthers, now under a new leader. No one had ever been arrested for this murder.
That’s when she left the neighborhood and never went back.
Nickolas had several ways of learning the things he wanted. Iliana on the other hand, had no idea he knew. And he wanted to keep it that way.
For now.
She spent a lot of time in the Castle and she loved it. Every afternoon, right after work, Nickolas would pick her up and take her there. They worked-out together in the Castle’s fully-equipped gym. Then they had dinner in one of the three luxurious dinning-rooms with magnificent food cooked by Nickolas’ chef and served by one of the maids. Afterwards, they would play pool and video games in the toy room, or watch tv and movies in the entertainment room. Or sometimes they would sit in the library where she would read a book while he was working.
Mostly they made love. Mad, passionate love, for hours, till the early morning. They explored each other’s body with the enthusiasm and imagination of children who learned to play a new game. They rarely left the house any more. Sometimes, Nickolas would give the afternoon off to the staff in the Castle and their love games were expanded all over the house.
The pool table, the Jacuzzi in his monster-sized bathroom, the marble floor of the beautiful ballroom with the mirrors all over the walls, the steps of the white main stairs, the wine cellar and many other places inside the house and out in the gardens, would have a lot of spicy stories to say, if they could talk. Not to mention the big swimming pool inside the woods. That’s where he taught her how to swim, among other delightful things.
Late in the morning, he would return her back at her apartment, on his way to work. She would sleep, do her chores and then leave for the coffee shop.
Some other afternoons, he taught her horse riding. They would take two horses from the stables and follow different paths inside the woods.
She loved these moments, except she always had the impression that they were being followed. Maybe it wasn’t just imagination, because Nickolas never made love to her in there. The guards she knew existed but never actually saw felt close to them once they went outside the house.
He never really admitted it.
Whenever she brought this subject up, all he always said was that the Castle was absolutely safe.
Iliana still didn’t know exactly how big Nickolas' estate was. Even at their horse rides in the forest around the Castle, she hadn’t seen the big wall that surrounded it.
During this wonderful month, they had only one fight, but a big one. It happened on a night after the staff had retired at their quarters, near the tennis field about 200 meters from the Castle. Nickolas decided to show her another one of the 5 bedrooms. It was beside his own connected with it by an internal door. It was a little smaller, clearly a woman’s bedroom, due to the pink color on the walls and the furniture.
It had a bathroom of its own and a big room-closet, just like Nickolas’ bedroom.
The reason of their fight was the content of this closet.
Chapter Two
IT WAS full of women’s clothing and accessories.
Everything a woman could need in a wardrobe. They were all expensive brands and all her size.
She looked at the beautiful things and started to feel very small and very insignificant.
“Tell me this is another woman’s wardrobe, an old girlfriend’s for example. Even that would be more preferable than to think that you bought all these clothes for me.”
“Would it be so bad to give you a present? I’ve got all this money…”
“A present? This is not a present. A present is a scarf, or a flower. This is a whole department store. This isn’t a present. What’s wrong with all my clothes?”
It was a trick-question, Nickolas knew it. Whatever answer he gave, he’d lose. But he was getting really annoyed of her damn pride and independence. He had already been extra patient when he had offered her a loan so that she could move out from that dreadful apartment of hers to one in a safer district and she had just barked at him a no and wouldn’t even discuss it further.
“Your clothing is just fine for the places you go on your own. But when you go out with me, you have to look like a lady, not only be one. For god’s sake, is it so wrong that I wish to see you dressed as you deserve and not with dull, wide rags which don’t flatter you at all?”
His outburst was followed by an unpleasant silence. Her lips were shut tight, turning white and her eyes were throwing ice when she spoke back.
“Since I am not the kind of lady that you obviously wanted, showing it or not is none of my concern. You met me this way and we were able to move on from that meeting with me as I was. What’s next, a luxurious flat at a penthouse in the center of the city? They have a word for women like that where I come from and if I use it you won’t like it a bit. I am who I am and if you now realize it’s not what you want, let’s just end it. So, before I tell you exactly what to do with your lady-like wardrobe, I would like to go home. Now!”
She kicked the closet’s door shut, crossed the room almost running, opened the door forcefully and slammed it behind her while hearing him cursing as he followed her.
She rushed down the stairs and walked to the central door of the house. She never made it to the handle. He got to it first, blocking her exit with his body. He was furious and breathing heavily just like she was. They were now standing face-to-face looking at each other.
His eyes were green flames; hers were icy cold.
“You will not run away like a freaking lousy wild cat every time we fight. We will sit and discuss it and solve it like reasonable human beings!” he shouted furiously.
Then, despite her kicking and scratching, he took her in his arms and walked towards the stairs again.
Several hours, many quarrels and lots of love-making later, they compromised.
She would use the wardrobe inside the Castle or whenever they went out to
gether. She would choose the clothes. He insisted on choosing the shoes and the underwear…
They were together for almost two months when he suddenly changed.
Just like that, one afternoon he came to pick her up and he was dark, unreachable. A mysterious, dangerous man that she didn't know. He took her to the Castle without even touching her, informed her that he had some phone calls to make and locked himself in the office-library.
Insecurity, fear and suspicion took roots in her head.
NICKOLAS was devastated.
His enemy had strike. A new construction project of a mall on the other side of the country was falling apart.
For the last month, little misfortunes and minor accidents were taking place at the construction site, little things that simply delayed construction and were too random for anyone to become suspicious. Until this morning, when several sacks of cement supposedly safely secured fell off from a platform of 20 meters high. A worker walking below it was killed; a man in his late thirties.
He left two little children behind.
It seemed that the ropes tied around the sacks were half-cut and the police had a lot of questions to ask.
Nickolas had to leave immediately. His private plane was ready and waiting.
Chapter Three
HE WAS now thinking how totally stupid he had been 8 years before, when he listened to an old man dying telling him that revenge is meaningless. That only a new beginning was worth fighting for. If he took his revenge on his enemy and his cobra-woman when he should have, none of this would have happened.
He felt the familiar darkness approaching him. He didn’t even try fight it but instead welcomed it. He had deviated from his goal and an innocent man paid the price. Instead of finding ways to protect himself and his people, he played Shakespeare in love. He had even forgotten his plan, the one he so carefully organized all these years.
But now he was back in control and there would be mercy for no one, not even himself.
At last, the panther woke up inside him again.
A few minutes later, Iliana knocked on the door and asked him if he would have dinner with her. She seemed a bit nervous, as if she felt the tension from him and was not exactly sure how to treat him tonight. He politely escorted her in and locked the door silently, without her noticing it.
“I have hardly seen you tonight,” she complained.
“Have you missed me, my pet?” he asked sardonically. He knew she didn’t like to be called pet, or be delegated into the role of someone less than a girlfriend. But she would have to change with him, too. She would have to learn to feel cruelty. There would be no other way, no other recourse. She has to be tamed.
“I am not your pet,” she said angrily and tried for the door.
“Oh… but you are.”
He let the panther take over.
He pushed her and she fell face down on the desk. He held her down with his hand on her back so that she couldn’t move, lifted her skirt, simply unzipped his trousers and invaded her from behind--viciously. He heard the first scream.
Her desperate struggling to free herself made no difference to him, nor her loud screams of pain. He didn’t care a bit if they were loud enough to be heard all over the Castle. With every scream coming out of her mouth, he pushed even harder.
The whole thing ended in a few minutes. He pulled her back to her feet, not minding that she was trembling all over, and informed her in a cold, emotionless voice that he would have to leave immediately, away for business.
He would arrange for one of the guards to return her home safely.
“I am terribly sorry for this inconvenience. Thank you for a wonderful time,” he concluded and left the room while she was just standing there, shocked, and sobbing.
he could feel the beast inside himself roaring…
ILIANA felt like she had woken up from a wonderful dream into her worst nightmare.
His cruelty, his vicious attack and his total lack of remorse afterwards were beyond her sphere of comprehension.
Her amazing, wonderful lover had turned into a dark demon, demonstrating an evil side of his personality she had no idea existed. She had to pull herself together and realized that once again, she would probably have to fight for her safety.
Next morning, the same guard who had brought her home the previous night was at her door again. He gave her a cell phone ordering her to keep it always close to her because Nickolas would call her. She instead informed her boss at the coffee shop that she was sick and would probably stay away for a few days.
The phone rang at about 10 the same night. She didn’t answer it and it didn’t ring again.
On the second night at the exact same time, it rang again. It continued ringing every five minutes for about an hour. She only answered it to say something.
“Go to hell!” she screamed and hang-up.
She turned it off.
On the third night she felt strong enough to confront him, so she answered it. He was smooth and polite as if they were two strangers having a civilized conversation.
He informed her he would probably return the day after the next. And then asked what she was wearing.
“Nothing you’ve bought,” she retorted.
“Then better take it off,” he ordered.
Her mouth opened in shock at the audacity. But before she could say something to let him know exactly what she thought of that, there was another command.
“I want you to touch you fucking tits right now, and knead them, just the way I do it.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I’m touching my dick right now, pussy cat... seeing you in my head. It’s hard because I’m thinking of you. Now, take the damn clothes off and start touching yourself. Do exactly what I tell you… make me come… Iliana…”
She gulped.
And before she knew it, she was taking her clothes off with hands trembling in excitement.
Chapter Four
THEY ENDED up having phone sex without her even understanding how they got there. It was raw and to her despair, incredibly stimulating.
On the fourth night, she went out and left the phone at home. There was no doubt that she found having phone sex with Nickolas to be incredibly fulfilling sexually, but didn’t do anything to her self-esteem. She mustn’t enjoy it when someone was clearly only using her. She mustn’t come just because at the moment, she was what could make Nickolas hard wherever he was on the other side of the globe, like he’d said before he hanged up.
There would be no future for them. He’s going to hurt her again. Hadn’t she suffered that with Ramon? At the time, she had no choice. It was either him, or a lot of men forcing her once she become a prostitute. And drugs. And suicide probably as soon as she could manage it.
Besides, Ramon had cared in his own way. It was a cutthroat world. Each had their way of surviving. Ramon, unfortunately, was not able to survive long enough to change his life.
Now she has a choice. She wasn’t going to ruin it.
An old friend of hers from the coffee shop worked as a waitress elsewhere and she decided to go and see her. It turned out that her new place of work was a strip-club, one of the most infamous in the city. Iliana didn’t care. She had seen much worse places than this in her early years and knew well how to move in there without attracting unwanted attention. Thank god for Ramon’s lessons on that. She stayed there for a couple of hours, talked and laughed with her friend.
When she returned home, she didn’t bother to see if she had any unanswered phone calls.
FOR FOUR days she stayed in the apartment. She hardly went out. She thought, remembered and analyzed every single day of the last two months.
She realized she had lived in a fairy-tale with a dreamy castle, beautiful clothes and luxuries beyond compare, carefully organized for her by her handsome, charming prince. Except that she didn’t believe in fairies anymore and her prince was much darker than he showed initially.
He had never spoken
about himself, not really. After two months she knew nothing about his past, his dreams, his inner thoughts. She had no idea what his feelings were for her except that he wanted to keep her. As a pet, she thought in sarcasm. As if she was a stray cat.
Ever since they first made love, if it was love, he carefully manipulated her into becoming a personal sex pet and never accepted her as an equal companion. He had locked her in a golden cage, cunningly cut her off from all her friends, her own self, her world.
She could see it clearly now and it caused chills all over her body. God… she had seen the cheese…how could she have missed the mousetrap? How could she have forgotten all the survival lessons she had taken as a child… as a teenager? Was she in such desperate need of love?
Obviously, she bitterly thought. He was like a god-given gift. He was unbelievably good, and she has never met anyone like him. She had felt a certain darkness, but she never tried to believe it would seep out and hurt her. She stupidly believed in his words that she would be safe. With him, in his beautiful castle.
The Castle… she adored the place, but she always had this weird feeling about it that she couldn’t exactly place. Suddenly, it came to her. How could she have missed it?
Or had she deliberately tried to block it, because she never wanted the illusion to end?
Not a single photo anywhere.
Not a book left forgotten half-read on the bureau beside the bed. Of course he had people that took care of the house, but still… everything was in perfect order, clean, organized… cold. Like those model-houses the estate agencies kept.
Perfect, dreamy. No one lived in them until they were purchased.
His past…
No one really knew anything about his life before he came to the city. The vague story that was circulated, about being born by the sea, raised by conservative but loving parents and studied economics at a university in Boston... just didn’t fit. His body as she knew it when they make love was full of scars.
And that raging darkness inside him was not something acquired by a happy, peaceful life.