by Kitty Thomas
“Absolutely not.”
“So that’s it, then? I don’t pass your test? What now? Are you going to just kill us?”
Oh. That.
“Kiska, I am still considering setting your sister free in exchange for you. But this was too much for you tonight. Whatever you think, I’m not a sociopath.”
“Then why not just let us both go? What if we promised not to say anything about any of this… just… just let it go?”
“I’m also not a saint. You were so brave back in the spa with me, what changed?”
She’d calmed a little by this point. “It was just too many at one time. I’ve only been with the two guys before and...”
Wait… that was true? Shit. If she wasn’t such a liar, he wouldn’t have to constantly question the veracity of everything she said.
There was a knock and then the door opened to reveal Gabe holding a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. “I thought she might want these if that’s okay with you. I thought she might be more comfortable.”
Anton nodded and took the clothing. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Gabe left them alone again.
He was about to give her the clothes to put on but she had straddled his leg and had started to rub against him. What the hell? At first he thought this was an attempt to seduce him to save her sister, but then he remembered the arousal cream.
Now that the guys were gone and he’d calmed her a little, the magic powers of the cream came roaring back to life. He wasn’t even completely sure she was aware that she was doing it.
“Pet?”
“Yes, Master?”
“Do you want to come?”
A blush crept into her cheeks, and she looked away. Yet she continued to grind on him like some mindless animal.
“Go lie down on the pool table and spread your legs for me.”
Some of the spell from earlier in the spa was broken. Still, the combined power of the threat to her sister, as well as the arousal cream, caused her to obey him with only a brief hesitation.
Anton slowly circled the table, assessing her. If he watched very closely he could see her pulse jumping in her throat. Her breath came out in long, measured pulls as she seemed to be trying actively to calm herself down.
He took one of the balls out of the pocket and pressed it against her mound and began to roll it against her sensitized flesh. As soon as the ball touched her, she started to squirm and moan.
“Good girl,” he said.
She didn’t speak a word to him. She begged him with nothing but her eyes. He could see the struggle playing across her face. She wanted him. She’d wanted him at the club the night before, and she wanted him with the same intensity now. Part of it was the cream no doubt. But part of it was the energy between them. He’d felt it the night before; even with her drunk off her ass, he’d wanted her in a way so complete and primal it had scared even him.
“Please,” she finally said. “Please.”
For a moment, he thought she’d snapped back to her senses, but the way she arched toward him and spread her legs wider, he knew she needed to come. He set the ball aside and began to stroke her directly. He went from finger fucking her, to rubbing her swollen bud until she arched fully off the table, bracing herself with her hands. She came with something between a scream and a moan.
Almost immediately, once her pleasure had passed, she drew in on herself and curled into a ball looking away from him.
“Kiska?”
“Yes, Master?”
It was barely above a whisper.
He gently caressed her back for several minutes, then he retrieved the clothes Gabe had brought and placed them on the edge of the pool table.
“You can put these on and go see your sister. She’s on the second floor, third door on the left.”
When Annette had dressed, she got off the table on shaky legs. Anton helped steady her. She didn’t resist when he pulled her into an embrace and kissed the top of her head. More than anything, he wanted to comfort her right now. He wanted this woman more than he had ever wanted anything. And he didn’t want her terrorized.
Her shoulders began to shake, and he realized she had started to softly cry again.
“You’re okay, kiska. Everything is okay.”
“Thank you,” she said, unable to look him in the eyes.
“For what?”
“For showing me mercy tonight. Please, if you take me in trade, I promise I’ll do better. I’ll be yours however you want. I just got overwhelmed.”
He had thought he just wanted a fuck toy. Someone to own. Someone to tease and torment. But something about the slight brave blonde was about to undo him. She had already crawled somewhere inside his heart, and though he couldn’t bring himself to set her free, he felt as though he’d been entrusted with her somehow. He didn’t want to fuck this up.
“Are you going to let my sister go?”
“Give me a little more time to think about it.”
She looked up at him finally, then, the tears shining in her eyes. Oh, this woman could break him.
“Please. She’s pre-med. She has a future. I want her to have her future. I’ll give you anything you want—for the rest of my life if I have to—but I have to know she can have the life she’s worked so hard for.”
“Just go see her, and let me think.”
She seemed to sense she was pushing too hard and nodded and excused herself.
When she’d gone, Anton sighed and leaned back on the sofa. It would be really good if they could get rid of at least one of their three liabilities—if they could trust that Janette wouldn’t cause problems.
The guys had agreed not to kill Phyllis when she’d made her exceptional cooking skills known. Not only was that kind of food too great a temptation for four bachelors who didn’t want to cook for themselves or have take-out every day, it was a useful skill for the house. They’d agreed to let her run the kitchen.
It was fortunate that Phyllis lived alone with cats, didn’t go out much, and worked part time from her home. She’d once worked with an agency, but had gone independent and was half retired by now anyway. Make that fully retired now.
People would definitely miss Janette if she never came back. They probably wouldn’t find her, but they would miss her. If she was allowed to return to her life, she could make up a reason for her sister’s absence. Short of killing everyone, this was the tidiest ending they could hope for.
While he considered all this, the other guys wandered back into the game room. Brian took his seat next to Anton on the sofa but didn’t turn on the gaming system. Lindsay and Gabe sat in plush comfortable chairs nearby.
“Are you keeping her?” Gabe asked.
“Yes, but she came here to trade for her sister.”
“Fuck no,” Brian said. “We can’t let anybody go. We can’t trust Janette. She’ll go crying to the police the second she gets free, and then we’re all fucked. I say we kill her.”
Anton shook his head. “I can’t do that, not after everything Annette is willing to give up for her.” She’d passed his interview the second she’d dropped to her knees in the spa and begged him to take her. And every second beyond that had only sealed things further.
“Well, I can do it,” Brian said. “We could just pretend to set her free and then kill her.”
“I said no. I wouldn’t be able to look Annette in the eyes.”
“So don’t let her look you in the eyes. She’s your slave isn’t she? You make the rules. Or we could just kill them both, and then we’re back to just having Phyllis around. I say we do that. It’s cleaner.”
Brian was far too eager to start building a body count.
“No!” Anton said. “Annette is mine.” He’d always know Brian had some serious psychological issues, but it was still hard to believe he was this cold. Anton had never been more glad that they’d agreed to be equal partners. If Brian had been in charge, no one would ever be safe in this house.
“Let’s vote.
All in favor of killing the twins,” Brian said, raising his hand.
Lindsay raised his hand, which surprised Anton.
“What?” the older man said, “He makes a good point. I don’t think Janette can be trusted to keep her mouth shut. She’ll break. I’ve seen her type. And if you kill her but keep Annette, then she’ll be nothing but trouble. Brian’s right. It’s not pretty, but it’s what needs to be done.”
Gabe stared at the ground, his hands firmly gripping the edges of the chair as if to reinforce his no vote. “We can’t vote with four. It’s an even number.”
“Come on, Gabe. You know it’s what has to be done,” Brian said. “We can’t keep her and let her sister go. How would that work?”
“If you kill them, you’ll have to kill me, too,” Gabe said, “because I won’t stick around for that. I didn’t sign on for this. I’m here for some kinky sex with willing women. That was the way the game was sold to me.”
The game had been sold a lot of ways. Unfortunately, none of them were true, and Anton was only now coming to understand that.
Chapter Three
When Annette reached the door to her sister’s room, she sat on the floor in the hallway for a minute and cried as quietly as she could. She had to get herself together before she saw Janette, but if she didn’t get these feelings out, she risked them coming out with her sister. Her twin could always sense when something was wrong, no matter how well she hid it.
Despite the powers of that cream Anton had rubbed on her, once they’d reached the game room, she’d been so scared. It was too much too fast. She couldn’t be passed around like that. She’d tried to be stoic for her sister, but she’d just shut down.
She’d been sure she couldn’t trust this man, and that the future for her would be very dark. She would still do it. She had to do it, whatever he wanted to get Jan free. But when he’d sent his friends away… that small mercy and kindness when he could do whatever he wanted… it was doing funny things to her. God help her, but it made her want him. And what had happened after with just the two of them… she felt so confused. That moment downstairs was the most pleasure she’d ever had at the hands of a man before, and yet, this man had taken her sister hostage and wanted to own her like a piece of property. It was so wrong to be attracted to him, to want his hands on her. And yet, the entire world seemed to only spin right when his hands were on her.
Any shrink in the world would lock her up.
Annette had been attracted to him at the club when she’d spun all those bullshit stories, but now, if possible, she was even more attracted because it seemed possible he might protect her and that he wasn’t willing to completely destroy her. Maybe this could somehow work.
The relief of that mercy still overwhelmed her.
Before tonight, she’d slept with a grand total of two men. One of them had been a year or two younger and a bit too thin. One had been about a decade older with the beginnings of a beer belly.
Neither of them had lit her world on fire. She’d decided then that if that was what the world of men had to offer, she wasn’t interested. The benefits she’d found in sex were what men would give her in exchange for it, not the act itself. Both Dennis and Jacob during their respective relationships had showered her with jewelry and flowers and treated her very well. She’d loved them each well enough, but it wasn’t the stuff of sexy romance novels.
It was nice being the object of such desire. It was good to be wanted and pampered and taken care of. But she never reached the heights they did in bed. It was all just about their needs.
And then later, when she wasn’t seeing anybody and had taken on the phone sex job, those men had—in a way—showered her with an apartment and clothes and food. They’d ultimately paid her way in life all because she could tell them dirty stories and pretty lies that got them hard and got them off.
For a long time now, she’d been serving the sexual desires of men in exchange for things, so how was this any different really? But it was… so different.
She took a deep breath, wiped her face, and got up off the floor. She was surprised when the doorknob to her sister’s room turned easily in her hand. Part of her had been sure she’d have to talk to Janette through a locked door. But there was no need for that. Her sister wasn’t going anywhere.
Janette paced back and forth across the room. It might appear normal, if not tense, except for the fact that there was a chain bolted into the wall beside the bed. The other end of the chain was locked around her ankle.
Her sister rounded on her, mid-stride. “I thought you’d call the police or something. Not come yourself. Why would you come here?”
The room looked nice, clean, and well appointed. At least it wasn’t some basement or dungeon. She was relieved to find her sister didn’t look dirty or hungry. In fact there was an empty plate and glass next to the bed where it appeared she’d had a sandwich and some fruit. And the chain looked like it stretched to the attached bathroom at least.
Stop trying to make this okay.
Annette crossed to her sister and hugged her. She tried not to cry, thinking this might be the last time she’d ever get to do this. “He said he’d kill you if I called them.”
“I know. I was there.”
“I thought he’d take a trade.”
Janette’s eyes widened. “What do you mean a trade?”
“Don’t play dumb. You’re way too smart for that. You know exactly what I mean. Me for you. It’s a smart deal. You’re the one with the future. You could be a doctor and save lives. What am I going to do? Talk dirty to lonely men on the phone until I’m seventy? It’s not like that comes with a good retirement plan. I wasn’t doing anything productive, and I was never going to do anything productive. We both know it.”
“Don’t say that. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to go to school and have a roof over my head. You kept us going.”
Annette sighed. As much as she’d worked and as hard as she’d tried, school was just so expensive. And there were still a lot of years of expenses to go. “You’re still going to have enormous school debt, despite how hard I’ve tried.”
“Well, not now, I won’t,” Janette said with a small laugh.
“How can you make jokes about this?” But she knew. Sometimes inappropriate jokes were the only way to cope with bad situations. There had been a lot of bad jokes when their parents had died. The therapist had said it was okay; they were processing their emotions, and jokes could be healthy in grief. The accident had been sudden. It had been a lot to process.
“Have they hurt you?”
Janette shook her head.
“Then what’s this?” Annette pointed at the bandages wrapped around her sister’s wrists.
“Oh. That’s from where he had me tied up, and I tried to get away. But that’s all. None of them have done anything else. Maybe we can convince them to just let us go and promise not to say anything.”
Of the two of them, Janette was definitely the optimist.
“They won’t go for it. I think they’re operating some sort of criminal enterprise from this house.”
The door opened, and Anton stepped inside, followed by Brian. “I’ve made a decision.”
Annette exchanged a glance with her sister and gripped her hand. Please, please let her go. Please.
He pointed at Janette. “You are going home.” Then he turned to Annette. “You are staying.”
Annette let out a relieved sigh as Brian unlocked the metal cuff around her sister’s ankle.
“No!” Janette shouted.
“Yes.” Anton tossed her the car keys. She caught them out of the air.
“But I can’t afford the apartment. I’ll have no home to go to! You have to let us both go.”
“No. One in, one out. That’s the rule,” Anton said.
A rule he’d obviously just made up.
“I won’t go!”
“Shut up!” Annette said. “You are going home, and you will figure something out.”
“Your sister tells me you’re in school. Pre-med. That must be very expensive,” Anton said. “You will go home. You will not speak a word of any of this to anyone. If you do, I will kill your sister.”
Annette flinched at that. Would he really kill her? How could he when he wouldn’t let his friends hurt her before? She wanted to believe he was bluffing just to get Janette to keep her mouth shut. Though she wasn’t sure that was the best way to accomplish that goal.
Anton continued. “You will go back to school, and you will work part time at Dome so I can keep an eye on you. In exchange, I will pay for all of your schooling and any school debt you’ve accumulated up until now. I will also pay for your apartment and give you a monthly allowance to cover food and any other incidentals.”
Janette’s mouth gaped open. She appeared to consider it for a moment. On the surface, it seemed like such a good deal. The only problem was, she’d have to leave her sister, and Annette knew that wouldn’t be an easy sell. The loyalty between them didn’t just run one way.
“You have to go,” Annette said. “Really, I’ll be fine here.”
Janette shook her head. “No. I can’t leave you with them.”
This was when Brian stepped forward. He pulled out a gun and grabbed Annette off the bed, pressing the metal against her head. Annette looked to Anton, who seemed eerily calm. Would he really just let this mentally unbalanced thug shoot her? But what about what had just happened downstairs? She wasn’t sure how to process this sudden shift in things.
She fought back the tears. It was stupid to feel betrayed by a man who’d keep her hostage forever as a slave, even if he’d been kind and spared her the sexual attentions of his friends temporarily. What an idiotic thought process. None of this was normal. And she couldn’t cry. She had to keep it together. If she fell apart, Janette wouldn’t go, and this would all have been for nothing. They shouldn’t both die or be kept prisoner because she couldn’t keep her shit together.
“Go, or I’ll kill her right now,” Brian said.
When she hesitated, he racked the slide on the gun. “I’ve killed before. And this girl means nothing to me.”