“Uncuff me!” I screamed loud enough for the damn man on the moon to hear. Surely, someone had to be in this damn place.
He shook his head like he knew what I was thinking. I kicked at him, connecting with his ribs. Onyx’s eyes narrowed on me, and regret slowly churned in my stomach. He looked pissed and in the worst way possible. Shit, he told me not to make him angry.
The bed dipped when he got up and went to another dresser, pulling out a thick, course rope. “No! You’re not putting that on me!”
I kicked and bucked my hips, but he grabbed my ankle with ease tying the rope around it, then cinching it to a slot in the bottom of the bed. It was almost like those spots were built in to the furniture. I could see those, and my mind raced. Shit, how many women had he done this to?
“Told you. My way or no way. You can spend the next few weeks tied to the bed for all I care. But when I fuck you, I’d rather not have skin and bones, so you need to eat.”
“Fuck you!” The growl came from deep within me and I wanted to fight, but all four of my limbs were tight and uncomfortable as hell. Each movement only rubbed my skin more, turning it raw.
“I love it when you talk dirty to me,” he said without a smile. I pinched my mouth shut, not wanting to give him anything he could enjoy or twist. Casually, he flipped a switch, turning off the lights before he rounded the bed and climbed in beside me.
There were French doors leading to the balcony off the sitting area of the room. The moonlight peeked in through the windows making the all white space still bright even for nighttime. Since I couldn’t find a clock, I wasn’t sure of the time. Given I was at my sister’s in the afternoon and the drive here took considerable time, I guessed it had to be later than ten or eleven.
How could I track my time here? How could I not lose my mind here? I didn’t even know exactly where here really was. This place was huge. Why did Onyx Blake have to put me in his room? Or was it his room? He never really said, but he had clothes here. I was awestruck that he started stripping in front of me, I didn’t think about it before. I had more questions than answers. I had more fear than comfort. And more than anything, I wondered what tomorrow would bring with the mad man beside me.
I tried and failed to keep my breathing under control. The bed was huge. It had to be a custom build as I was certain it was larger than a California King. Yanking the covers—white ones—out from under me, he moved under them and tossed part of the duvet to my chest. He slid over to me and snaked one arm under me, the other over me, then draping his leg over mine. I was cuffed, tied, and covered by a man who was built like a tank. He then moved the blanket, covering us both, and settled his forehead to the side of my head.
“I have to pee,” I whispered, thinking of any way to get out from his grasp.
“Too bad,” he muttered.
I tried to lift my hips. “I can’t sleep with you suffocating me,” I fired back.
He didn’t say anything nor did he move.
“Boundaries, Mr. Blake. Don’t you have any? I’m tied, cuffed, and locked in. I’m not going anywhere.”
He didn’t speak. He gave me nothing.
“Do you like making people uncomfortable?” I asked, not intending an answer from him, more to stop my mind from swirling.
To this, he only gripped me tighter.
“I’ll pee in the bed. Yup, all over your white covers and what I’m sure is a completely clean white mattress.” I sounded like a child throwing a fit, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
He lifted his head. There was a reflection of the light making a sparkle in his dark eyes as they met mine.
“You’ll relieve your bladder in six hours when we wake.”
Before I could reply, he dropped his head back to its place. I didn’t have to pee. I hadn’t had enough time to drink anything in the chaos to need to pee. I just wanted him to untie me, uncuff me, and give me space to think, but the fight for it was fading with every time he turned me down. Unbending, that was how I’d describe him which didn’t sit well for my future.
Every breath I took filled my nostrils with his smell. The soap was woodsy with the slightest hint of spice and vanilla. The concoction made my nose and mind crave more. Each time I inhaled I felt myself breathing deeper and deeper.
While Onyx lay beside me, he didn’t move, he didn’t relax like he had fallen asleep. I was waiting for it. Praying for it even.
Eventually though, with the deep breaths I found myself taking of him, I began to find it hard to keep my eyes open. In time, I was the one who was asleep with the villain who took me from my life, comfortably over me while I was miserable, scared, but still determined he wouldn’t get a thing from me.
This was just another bump in the road called life. One day down, who knew how many more to go?
Onyx Blake did, that’s who.
7
Onyx
The light was unbelievably bright coming in, and I immediately knew I over slept. This wasn’t typical for me, but not unheard of. I led a unique life where sometimes work ran late into the night so it wouldn’t set off alarms to anyone that I was still in bed. And to be honest, if it did, I wouldn’t have given a fuck. Work would wait for the most part. And the few items that were beyond human control, I had people in place to manage so I personally wouldn’t have to deal with it.
The woman beside me had this pissed off look, and I knew her arms and legs probably felt like they were burning. More so, they really would be after I undid the restraints, especially since I didn’t take her as a woman who had been tied up on a regular basis.
“Untie me,” she ground out, practically shaking, her patience with me and the situation long gone. I found her fight to be in control rather entertaining.
Instead, I rolled out of bed and took a leak in the bathroom. Deciding to let her sweat a little while, she needed a reminder of who’s in charge here, I took my time. The only thing she needed to learn to count on, without a single doubt, was everything would be my way.
“Onyx!” she yelled from the bed as I finished and washed my hands.
Torryn glared at me with all the hate she possessed as I started untying the ropes on her ankles. It made my dick hard. Red burns lay on her skin, no doubt raw, and it turned me on even more. As soon as the first rope was off, she tried to move her leg and screamed out in pain. A nice guy would have rubbed her legs to get the circulation going. A nice guy would have warned her what was to come.
I wasn’t a nice guy.
Hell, I wasn’t even a decent guy.
“Would you stop smiling at me!” she scolded while I couldn’t help but enjoy myself.
“Nope.” Undoing the second rope, she grunted this time not letting me hear her cries. It almost made me want to tie her back up so she would scream. “Collateral, I find I quite like your reddened skin, and the way you cry out makes me wonder just how far I could push your body before I found my release.”
Moving to the side table and grabbing the key, I unlocked her cuffs. The way she stood up to me was both a headache and made my dick harden. She rubbed her arms as she tried to swing off the bed. When she stood up, she had to clutch on to the bed because her legs were unstable. While she had made her pain known, she never once asked for help or reached out for me.
I knew this woman was strong and everything she’s showed me proved my point. Breaking a strong woman was a challenge no man like me could pass up.
As fast as her legs would take her, she rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. I dressed quickly in jeans and a black T. The shower wasn’t running so I knew she was stalling. Oh, the games women play. The bathroom wasn’t a safe zone. With me, nothing was ever safe. Torryn McAllister would do well to learn that shit fast. I wasn’t a man to fuck with, and I wouldn’t be avoided. Opening the door, sure enough, she stared at her reflection in the large mirror. From her expression, she wasn’t seeing what she wanted to see.
“Can’t I have some privacy?” she said t
o the mirror.
Normally, I wouldn’t have given someone the few moments she had. Then again, usually I didn’t bring women to my home, and I didn’t let them speak this much. “Nope. Get out here and get dressed. We need to eat.”
Torryn huffed, turning around, the curves over her body tempting me to take what was mine. She waved her arms in front of her body. “I’m dressed. Same clothes as last night when you kidnapped me. I don’t have anything here, and I don’t want anything from you.” The way she spat her final sentence at me made my insides fire with lust. I craved it, the fight in her.
It brought me joy for her to feel this way, but I always loved a good mind fuck.
“We could always exchange you for your sister.”
The color drained from her face. “She’s married.”
I shrugged. “You think I give a fuck?”
Her head shook back and forth as panic rose inside of her. “No.”
“Then you’re here of your own free will. Right?”
The growl and fist clenching made my dick hard, which she didn’t miss.
“Come.”
Her feet padded on the tile behind me. “I’m not a damn dog.”
“You came didn’t you?”
She stopped in her tracks, hands going to her hips as the fire of hatred burned bright. Ignoring her, I pointed to the far dresser. “There’s your clothes. Change.”
“If you think I’m going to let you order me around, you’ve got…” Stalking fast to her, I gripped her throat and trapped her body against the wall, mine on hers, stopping the words from escaping her full lips.
“I will do whatever in the fuck I want when I want it. If I want to put a choker around your neck and tie you to the bed or walk you around on my leash, I’ll fucking do it and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. You will shut the fuck up and do as you’re told.”
Fury boiled in my veins. I got off on a challenge, but I wouldn’t be dismissed. That was her first mistake, which she hadn’t learned yet. I wouldn’t be defied, and the rate she was going she would soon learn that lesson—the hard way too.
“You wouldn’t.” Her words were unsure, which they should’ve just stayed in her fucking mouth.
“Try me,” I fired back, partially hoping she would. Oh the fun I could have if she would test me. She tempted me enough already, just a little push would send me over the edge to taking what was mine from her.
The fire in her eyes was still there, but a small part told me she was giving in, at least this time. I would take the win this round, and I relished the idea of the next opportunity she gave me to push some more.
In any game, you played your hand one move at a time always aware of your opponents chances while remembering to stay three steps ahead. This little push and pull between us would be fun. For now, she somehow thought she still had a chance to have control, to have a voice, and to be heard, felt, seen, known. It was human nature. Animals ran off instincts. Their place or role in their herd, pack, or pride was understood. Occasionally, a beta would challenge the alpha; sometimes the alpha would win, and other times the power would change. Torryn McAllister was no beta; she was a freethinking alpha-female. Except we weren’t of the same breed, she and I. Eventually, she would see I’m always going to come out on top. Although, I admit the way she continued to seek control, escape, freedom, I enjoyed watching.
There was plenty of time for me to crush her completely.
8
Torryn
The drawers contained several pieces of clothing, everything with a tag still attached. Fifty dollars for a pair of underwear was ridiculous, but I didn’t argue. Usually, I washed my panties before I wore them—all my clothing actually, but I wouldn’t consider this a time where I had an opinion or options at the moment, so I’d take what I could get. Putting them on, I kept my mouth shut, even though curses and screams wanted to release.
This was how I needed to be in order to survive. Fighting with a man like him wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I just knew it. Inside, I felt like I was dying being contained to this stark white room all day and cuffed at night—it was degrading, something I never experienced before. With each passing moment, my hatred for him only grew as did my frustration with my sister for ever getting involved with a man like Onyx Blake.
My tactic. Learn. Absorb everything I could from my surroundings. Knowledge was power, and right now Onyx had it all. I needed to figure out a way to reclaim it. That meant watching and listening to everything around me and hoping to put some of the puzzle pieces together.
Onyx Blake had food on a platter that he set on the dresser. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Eat, watch TV, stare at the fucking wall, I don’t care. I’ll see you later.”
Without waiting to see if I would eat, he turned and walked out.
By the time late afternoon rolled around, I was bored as hell staring at the white walls, furniture, and bedding. Staring outside was my only burst of color. Twilight was on television so that cut out a couple hours of my day, but if this was how I was going to spend my time here, I would go nuts.
The lock clicked and the door opened, revealing Onyx in a suit and jacket. How he could pull it off was beyond me, but he did. Tattoos be damned. He was carrying a tray of food.
“Time to eat.” He kicked the door shut before he set the food on the dresser, then went back and locked it.
Onyx sat with me on the bed as we ate. He loved to flip through the damn channels over and over again. I had no idea if he thought something different would be on the second, third, or fourth go around, but he was a clicker.
“What are we doing?” I asked, laying on the bed with Onyx about a foot away.
“Watching TV.”
I sighed loudly, “No, me during the day. I need something to do.”
He pointed to the television. “Watch something.”
“Seriously? There’s only so much TV a person can watch.”
He shrugged. “I’ve got business, and you stay here. Figure out what you can do to pass the time.”
“You really are an asshole,” I growled out.
He smirked. “No shit?”
“Yeah, no shit.”
After getting ready for bed and laying down, I tensed when I felt him. He was holding metal cuffs. “No, please don’t cuff me.”
He didn’t listen and clicked the metal around my wrists. “You really suck.”
Onyx said nothing, just wrapped himself around me. He fell asleep first, while I tried to get comfortable, which wasn’t an easy task.
This man was going to test my wills of patience.
One Week Later
This was how the days ticked by. I was able to watch the news to keep track of what day it was when I woke up. Being in this jail though was debilitating.
Every night, Onyx would bring me food, stay with me watching television, tie me up and go to sleep. It was a pattern. One he knew I didn’t like.
The click of the lock caught my attention. Onyx stood by the door holding it open. “Come.” Come? I fucking hated being treated like an animal, but maybe that’s all he saw of me. Not a human being but something for him to possess like an object. It only made my disgust for him grow.
The positive was him letting me out of the room. With every passing day, I thought this room would be my jail cell, and him allowing me to leave it gave me a bit of hope because somewhere in this castle was a phone. My sister would tell me what he has that she wants, and we could come up with a plan. If it wasn’t for Kennedy, I would be handling all of this so differently. For my sister and whatever he has over her, I could do this, no matter what it took.
The door shut behind me as the coldness of the space surrounded me. It was like living in a snow castle where everywhere you turned got colder and colder. Without complaining, I followed behind him, down the hall, and down the stairs. Every door to every room was still closed. Everything locked up tight like the man holding me here. How could someone live in this house? It re
minded me of a blanket of snow and ice on a winter day.
My feet stopped instinctively when an older woman with light blonde hair and gray streaming through it stood at the sink. I wasn’t alone. All week, I had listened intently and it sounded like no one else was allowed in The Manor, but this gave me more hope of finding communication. It also explained who had been preparing the food I had been served by Onyx daily. Morning, noon, and evening, he would pop in with a tray and leave me again. I had no chance to run, no where to hide, and nothing to do but dwell on the lack of options I found myself stuck with.
She smiled up brightly. “Well, Onyx, who do we have here?” She had a bit of a Southern twang to her voice, and she was roses and sunshine in this dreary place.
“This is Collateral,” Onyx answered her in a monotone, but he allowed her to question him. Then, he’d allowed me to ask anything, even if he didn’t always give me an answer.
Her brows pinched together, and I stepped forward. “I’m Torryn,” I gave her as I watched Onyx roll his eyes.
“Now that’s a name.” Her excitement was almost infectious. Almost. I had too many emotions tangled inside me to allow myself to hold onto anything good at the moment. “I’m Ellen Sue, and it’s so fantastic to have someone here!” She practically squealed like a happy as hell pig starved for human attention. I hoped that wouldn’t be me when this was over.
“Food,” Onyx ordered, and I glared at him. This was how he talked to everyone? Treating them like the shit beneath his shoe. There was seriously something wrong with this man. This lady seemed kind and happy in the stark white of this castle, there was no reason to order her around.
PowerHouse_Anti-Hero Game_Power Chain Book One Page 5