Damn it, Mel. What the hell were you thinking when you said yes to this? Are you fucking crazy? Yes, I think am. No one else would have signed up for this gig, and Jake knows it. The thought sends my brain into a spin and I resist the urge to throw up the contents of my stomach all over the floor. Dumortier will only rub my nose in it. Besides, my pride won’t allow it.
Why didn’t I say yes to the aspirin? I know exactly why. I don’t trust Adie as far as I can throw him. There’s no way I’ll know if the tablet he gives me is aspirin or something else entirely. He can inject you with anything he wants, Mel. There’s no way I can stop him while I’m trussed up like this. I have to admire his handiwork. He’s taking no chances with me.
My bladder protests again beneath me, and I realise there is no point holding it in. Adrien is not going to release me until he’s ready to move me, by which time I’ll be unconscious. I might as well get this over with. It’s humiliating, but there we have it. Worse things could have happened by now, and I’m not dead yet. Even so, it’s hard to let go, and I have to concentrate for several seconds before I can accomplish the task.
When warm water finally begins to trickle from between my legs, I breathe a sigh of relief as I finally release the unbearable pressure that’s been building up inside me for the past five hours or so. Not being able to go to the toilet is a form of torture all of its own. The relief I feel at finally relieving myself is almost indescribable. The soaking wet patch that sinks into my leggings is not such a great feeling, though. It won’t be long before I start to smell, but that is not my problem. Dumortier, if I ever get out of here alive, I am going to make your life so fucking miserable, hell will look like a fucking holiday camp. That’s a promise.
I lay there, drifting in and out of dreamland for what seems like hours, though it probably isn’t. Boredom is a special torture all of its own. I can’t hear a thing in Adie’s apartment, bar the incessant drone of traffic below. The man has probably gone back to bed, and for that I should be thankful. While he’s out cold, he can’t hurt me. It’s when he wakes up that I’ll need to start worrying.
What if you can’t get out of this? What if Jake doesn’t come? What if he kills you?
My head is going crazy with all of these unanswerable questions. It would be fucking ironic, if after all my years of working for the government, I die doing someone a favor.
My thoughts drift to Adrien. He’s going to fuck you, Mel. I shudder. That thought should terrify me, and it does – and it doesn’t. I am a control freak. There is order in every aspect of my life, and that doesn’t change when we get to my sex life. I call the shots, I set the pace, and I say when I’ve had enough. This is the way it’s always been. It’s not going to be that way if Adie gets his hands on me. That’s going to mess with my head. Jake, if you don’t step in and get me before this all goes to shit, I will never forgive you.
The torture side of things I can take. I won’t like it much, but I can take it. It’s the sex side of things that will fuck me up. Maybe he’s bluffing. He isn’t bluffing and you know it.
I have no idea how much time has passed when Adrien comes in next, but it’s a while. Pretending to be asleep when he examines me, inspecting the damage, I’m a little surprised when he laughs.
“I know you’re awake and there’s no need to be embarrassed. I’ll get you cleaned up in a minute, but first, I think we need to get some fluids into you.”
If he thinks I’m going to drink anything that he’s prepared, he is much mistaken. I’d rather deal with dehydration. Turning around to look at him, and give him a piece of my mind, I am nearly floored when I see him still in his pyjama bottoms, but this time, the top is missing. This means I am greeted with an eight pack of abs that almost glisten in the hardening rays of the late morning sun. It is mightily disconcerting, let me tell you. My body thinks so, too. Something tightens inside me, and I close my eyes immediately, telling it to go away. Desire is a complication I cannot afford. It’s a weakness. Once you succumb to it, it’s like an infection, growing steadily worse with age. There is no space for weakness in my life.
When Adie begins to walk towards me, I see that he has brought towels with him. He mops up the surrounding mess, before placing one under my backside. He’s infinitely gentle. This is completely at odds with what’s about to come next, and I sure as hell can’t figure him out. I was expecting anger and rage this morning, anything but this.
Once Adie is happy that the floor around me is clean, he lifts my head up and brings a small bottle of water to my lips with a straw attached. I twist my head away. I have no idea what’s in that water. If he wants to drug me, I don’t see why I should make it easy for him.
Adie sighs. “It’s only water, princess. If I want to drug you, I’ll just jab you.”
I know what he’s saying makes sense, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do what I’m told. I’m stubborn. It’s about the only form of defiance left to me when I’m shackled to the floor, and I intend to make use of it.
He sighs again when I show no signs of doing as he’s asked.
“Drink the water. You’re badly dehydrated after yesterday, and you need fluids.”
“No.” I don’t see why I should give him any more than that.
“Don’t be difficult. You have my word that I haven’t drugged it.” Adie pushes the clear bottle of water back up to my lips, quietly demanding that I drink it.
“What use is your word to me after what you did?” I glower at him and repeat myself. “No.”
“I’ll give you one last chance, Ione. I don’t want to do things the hard way, but I will if you push me.”
I snort. “What’s the point. I’ll just piss my panties again. It was bad enough the first time around.”
Adie lifts a finger under my chin and brings my eyes back to his, so I have no choice but to be mesmerized by those dark charcoal orbs. His beauty takes my breath away. There aren’t many men that are made like this. When I accepted this gig, I thought I would be able to remain immune to it, but at close quarters I am not so sure. There is already a toxic hum of arousal running through my veins, and if Jake doesn’t get here soon, it’s only going to get worse.
“Do you really want to do this the hard way?” Adie presses the straw up to my lips, hard enough to make an indentation upon them, but I still don’t open. I am not drinking his damn water.
“Torturing me won’t make a blind bit of difference. I won’t drink a drop of that,” I whisper. My voice is ragged when I want it to be strong. Maybe it’s the aftereffects of the drug he’s just given me, or maybe it’s something else entirely.
Adie smiles and brushes his thumb across my chin. I have to resist the urge to bite it. I am not a child and biting my captor is definitely not the smartest thing to do right now, considering the position I am in.
“I don’t need to torture you to get you to drink.”
I don’t respond to that. He can do his worst. I don’t care. Rescue will come eventually. Jake owes me big time for this stunt. When I get out of this mess, I will be gunning for his head.
Adie doesn’t say anything, either. Slowly getting to his feet, he quietly pads out of the room and shuts the door behind him.
Great. He’s probably now gone to find something unpleasant with which to pull me apart, or he’ll go back to bed and see if another couple of hours of solitude and boredom will soften me up. I, meanwhile, have a headache that rivals a thunderstorm inside my head, and a mouth that’s drier than Hades’ backyard. I’ve done all of this for what? Am I really that anxious to be tortured? I sure as hell can’t work it out.
An hour goes by. Then two, maybe. I can’t really judge time accurately at the moment, and Adie has taken my watch away. He must have done it after he drugged me. The mindless waiting is another form of torture, but I endure it as best I can. The pain in my head gets worse with every encroaching minute, and I try not to regret my earlier decision. Sometimes, being stubborn is a failing of mine. I should really
consider the consequences of my actions before making decisions my body can’t cope with. If a chance to escape presented itself at the moment, I wouldn’t be able to get very far in the state I’m in. These are sensible things I should consider when refusing basic necessities like water. In any other situation, I’d have probably bitten the bullet and drank, but Adie does funny things to me. I can’t think clearly around him. He’s a challenge. I think that’s probably the only reason I took this assignment on. I wanted to see if I could deal with it. At the moment, things aren’t looking good.
When Adie finally comes back to check on me, he has to wake me up, and it doesn’t take long for me to ascertain that I feel awful. I am dizzy, light-headed and disorientated. My lips feel like scrunched paper and my eyes hurt when I blink. Great. Way to go, Mel.
Adie, on the other hand, looks fantastic. He’s got changed into black chinos and he’s wearing a black polo shirt, with a Ralph Lauren emblem in the corner. There’s a pair of designer sunglasses riding on the top of his head, so he’s been out and about by the looks of things.
“How are you feeling, princess?” His eyes wear a look of concern as they examine me from head to toe. This is rich, considering he put me in this position. Maybe he’s just worried about what Jake might do to him if he kills his sister.
“Never better,” I croak. My throat is swollen and getting words out is an effort.
“That’s good to hear,” he says, “because you look like shit.”
Gee, thanks. Love you, too.
“You need a drink. Are we doing this the easy way or the hard way? Last chance.”
He asked me that earlier. If he hasn’t figured it out by now, he’s not very smart. In any case, I remain stoically silent, mostly because it hurts too much to talk.
“The hard way it is.” Adie walks straight out of the room again, and I begin bracing myself for all sorts of nastiness. I’ve been taught how to resist interrogation. That’s a pile of crap, by the way. Nothing prepares you for the sort of nastiness you find out in the field. All this name, rank, and serial number business does is annoy your captor. I prefer silence. One of the reasons I’ve got as far as I have, however, is my high tolerance to pain. You can do a lot to me before I squawk. Pain tolerance varies greatly from person to person. I didn’t know that when I started out. Grown men would end up crying like babies before I’d bat an eyelid. When you’re a girl amongst an army of men, competing in sports and combat exercises you can’t hope to win, it’s nice to have at least one area where you come out on top. Mine is pain, or rather my complete lack of regard for it. I can be shot or have a knife poking out of me, and as long as it hasn’t severed anything vital, I’ll be able to carry on for a good few hours provided I’m not bleeding out. I always refuse the anesthetic when they stitch me up, too. Damn stuff makes me sick. The doctors always look at me in horror before they’re about to remove a bullet, but I barely feel a thing. It used to drive the other men on my team nuts. They’d be squealing like children after being placed in stress positions for hours upon end, and I’d barely blink an eyelid. Sleep deprivation doesn’t touch me, either. I don’t sleep as a rule. If I get four hours a night, that’s impressive as far as I’m concerned.
When I hear Adie’s feet padding against the floor once more along with a weird squeaking sound, I know I’m about to be in for it, and I brace myself accordingly. Moving my head painfully around to see what’s coming for me, my eyes flare in surprise. Adie is not carrying a pair of pliers, a belt, a bucket of water, a Taser or any of the other normal torture devices I’m used to. He’s wheeling in a saline drip and carrying a bucket instead.
I groan and close my eyes. That’s backfired on me big time. Now he can run fluids through me and drug me intravenously, any time he wants. Fuck. I should have gone with the straw.
“I’ve changed my mind. I’ll use the straw,” I whisper croakily. There’s no way I want an IV in my arm around this man. He and his late brother were known to be experts with all sorts of drugs and poisons. This was incredibly stupid of me. I should have known better.
“Too late for that,” Adie says, shaking his head. “You’re dangerously dehydrated now. You had your chance earlier, and you blew it. Let that be a lesson to you.”
Leaning down towards the floor, Adie straps a tourniquet around my upper arm and checks my wrist for a vein. No, no, no.
“Make a fist, princess.” When I make no move to obey him, he simply takes my hand and does all the hard work for me.
It takes a while for him to find a vein, though. My arms are a little chilly. I’ve been lying in this room in wet clothes for hours. While the room isn’t cold, I am not warm.
Adie has something up his sleeve for that, too, though.
“Are you cold, princess? Do I need to warm you up?” His fingers flutter over my arm with a gentle caress, as he looks me dead in the eye. “Maybe an orgasm? Do you think that would work? Would that warm you up, do you think?”
“Don’t you dare,” I whisper, through cracked lips and a parched throat. “Don’t you fucking dare.” No man is allowed to make me orgasm without my permission, and Adrien Dumortier is not about to be the first.
He gives me a strange smile. “What have you got against an orgasm? I’m just being friendly.” His hands reach underneath my wet leggings and his fingernails gently graze up the side of my inner thigh.
“No. You can warm up my arm with a hot towel. Why would you want to go down there? I stink.” I do. Urine smells particularly nasty when it’s been percolating on your body for the past several hours. I’ve got used to the acrid smell, but to him it must be abhorrent.
“I’m going to clean you up. I said that I would, didn’t I? Besides, the smell doesn’t bother me. I’ve smelled worse, trust me.”
I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but in the next instant he’s pulled a pair of scissors out of his pocket. I close my eyes again, mostly because I know exactly what he’s going to do. I don’t want to be naked just yet. I can’t be naked around him. By that time, I want to be seconds away from rescue, and Jake won’t come for me just yet. He’ll want Adie to have some fun first.
Hearing the sound of my leggings being shredded and feeling the cold blade of the scissors reach up my thigh, I try to calm my erratic thoughts. You’re going to be stripped, Mel. In a few seconds, you are going to be utterly exposed and this man will show you no mercy. He’s going to whip you, torture you, torment you, drug you, and most likely have sex with you. He’s already said as much. As the steel blade creeps higher and higher up my leg, the thought of what is to come scares me senseless.
It isn’t because I’m not used to being naked around men. I was humiliated and stripped plenty enough times while I was being trained, and I’ve had to endure it more than once or twice in the field since. No, that isn’t it. The problem here is that I find Adrien attractive. I knew it the first moment I saw him, and that attraction hasn’t dimmed. If anything, it’s grown stronger. I can still feel the hum of electricity throbbing through my veins, even now, when I’m drunk on dehydration.
Adie’s blade melts through my leggings in seconds. He then empties a few items out of the bucket and places my soiled garments inside it before placing it outside the room. My nose is thankful, even if nothing else is.
“There. That’s better, isn’t it?” Adie looks up into my eyes, smiling as if he’s just done me a great favor. I glare at him in return. Oh, the things I could do to him right now if I just had the use of my hands.
“Now, now, now, princess. Where are your manners? Say thank you or get ready for a punishment.” He raises an eyebrow, daring me to defy him. That’s as good a reason as any to make sure he doesn’t get what he wants.
“Fuck you,” I say painfully. Honest to God, talking hurts too much, but sometimes I just need to get the words out there.
“Oh, you will be. It’s just a matter of time, my sweet girl.”
I nearly choke on that. I am having sex with that man over
my dead body. If I am not dead, he sure as hell will be, mere seconds after the event.
Distracting me from my thoughts, Adie’s fingers come up to my pussy and he wraps his index finger around a curl of my pubic hair. He then gives a sharp, painful tug that makes my body tighten in shock. Bringing his hand down upon my mound sharply, giving me two sharp slaps, the resulting sting takes my breath away. It hurts, and it doesn’t. Somewhere inside me a fire has just ignited - a fire that will shortly rage out of control if I’m not careful.
“Say thank you,” he repeats, “or we’ll keep at it until you do.” He raises his hand again, higher this time, and my tongue gets stuck in my throat. That hand flies down with much more force this time, almost bringing tears to my eyes. He raises it again, without another word, and I know what I have to do to stop it.
“Thank you. Thank you,” I whisper raggedly. My poor clit is throbbing in need now. This is the last thing I want. The job is complicated enough without this added element.
“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Adie’s fingers then become infinitely gentle once more, fluttering over my sex with the lightest of touches, before they return to his side. My body cries out with the loss of his touch, but I make sure I don’t move a muscle. There is no way I am letting him know how turned on I am right now.
Meanwhile, Adie is reaching for the stack of wet wipes beside him. Oh, God. Please, no. Desperately hoping he’s not going to do what I think he’s going to do, a single wet wipe is plucked from the packet and it heads between my legs.
“No,” I croak. “No, no, no.” I struggle for a moment. The chains that hold me aren’t tight enough to restrict all movement, but they don’t let me go far. Certainly not far enough to avoid Adie’s hands as they reach between my legs.
Deadly Retaliation: A Dark Bully Harem Romance (A Twisted, Dark and Deadly Romance Book 1) Page 21