A Beautiful Prison (11 page)

It was a testament to how deeply her needs went that she hadn’t even realized that her feet did hurt, in fact. Lifting her head and looking over her shoulder, she lifted a leg and stared at the sole of her foot. Scrapes littered the bottom of it, and now as she looked at them they started to throb. Gavin came back with a basin and set it on the bed when he was close enough. Inside she saw some medical supplies. “Are you a doctor?”

“No.” He started cleaning off her feet with gauze and peroxide, applied some ointment on the cuts, and started wrapping them.

“Where did you learn how to do this?” It wasn’t like he was operating on her or anything, but his actions were precise and his concentration solid. It looked as though he had done this before. Had he taken care of someone else where he would have had to know how to mend people? Had he been abused and tended to his own wounds? That seemed like the most likely cause. Although Ruby had never been physically abused, she had endured the emotional and verbal kind all through her life. She knew that trauma like that could be why she enjoyed pain with pleasure. Maybe the same thing had happened to Gavin?

For several moments all he did was watch her, and she felt like the prey of a very big predator. “I know what you’re thinking.” He brought his attention back to her feet, applied a strip of tape to the gauze he wrapped around them, and stood to his full, over-six-foot intimidating height. He sat on the bed and gestured for her to face him. “I wasn’t abused as a child.” Ruby didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to because he started talking again. “My life was spent more with the nannies and servants my father had on staff.” He reached out and took her hand. Holding it in his much larger one, he stared at it as he traced her fingers with his own. “I suppose neglect could be blamed for how I feel, and what I desire, but that would be a lie.” He looked at her. “I have always felt these things. Pain with pleasure has always been what I have gone to when I have wanted to feel free. It is what I want, and what I need.” There was no emotion on his face, but then again since she had been in his presence he had kept those locked down pretty tightly. “I could have any female I wanted, and that is not me being egotistical, just stating a fact. The females that I have had lack the honesty of their emotions.” He pulled her in close, cupped her face with his hands, and just stayed like that.

“But how could you possibly know that I would like these kinds of things from just seeing me being sold like that?”

“I didn’t know until I saw your reaction to me.” He had said he knew she was the one for him from the moment he saw her on that stage. But how could he see that she would enjoy this? “I just wanted you, and was bound to make you mine. I saw the fight in you, and that darker part of me wanted you to do the same with me. I wanted you to go against me, to tempt me like no other could, because your emotions would be
real
. They wouldn’t be because of the size of my bank account, or my social standing. They would be bone deep, naked in all their glory, and only for me.” His hold on both sides of her face reminded her of being possessed, of having this man own every part of her. It was strange to feel that way, but there was no doubt that the look in his eyes was proprietary. “Let’s get some sleep, darling.” He pulled her back onto the bed and covered them with the blanket. Gavin pulled her close so she was pressed to his body, and Ruby was just too tired to fight anymore tonight. He had shown her a side of himself that startled her, made her think that maybe her life wasn’t so bad here, but she told herself that no matter how beautiful something was on the outside, the inside was what counted, and she was still his captive.

R
uby sat at
the table, a plate of breakfast foods in front of her, and two older servants bustling around. Gavin was at the other end of the table, a paper on one side of him and a cup of coffee and two slices of toast on the other. It had been a couple of days since she had gotten to the mansion, and it hadn’t been as bad as she imagined. Gavin had taken her around the property, shown her the grounds, the glorious flowers that lined one whole side of the house, and talked about his time when he was younger. She wasn’t surprised to find out he was the CEO of his company, that it had been handed down from his father, or that he ruled it with an iron fist. She had come to learn very quickly what kind of man he was, the kind of man that always got what he wanted. The two servants, who seemed to be the only ones that ran this huge place, kept to themselves.

She looked at Gavin, but his attention was on the paper. The night before he had held her so gently, and she could have imagined that they were lovers with mutual affection for one another. But they weren’t, and she needed to realize that it didn’t matter how caring he appeared, he had a darkness inside of him that was downright frightening.

But what do you have back at that trailer with your abusive bitch of a mom? And what did you think you could have in Fort Hampton?

“Ruby, I have to fly into New York today, and might not be back until tomorrow evening.” He folded the paper and picked up his coffee cup. He watched her over the rim of the dainty cup, and she felt naked once again. It was clear this was the reaction she would always have when she looked at him. “I meant to stay here longer so you and I would get better acquainted with each other, but unfortunately this matter can’t wait.” He set the cup back on the table and turned to look at the older gentleman whom she knew was named Adelbert.

Gavin started speaking to him in a foreign language. The man nodded, glanced her way, and then looked back at Gavin to respond. He then called the woman back into the dining room. She held a tray of fresh croissants, and after she set them on the table the three of them started speaking. Drika, the woman, couldn’t have been too old, maybe in her early forties, but she had a perpetually pinched expression whenever she looked Ruby’s way. Ruby felt even more out of place as she was the only one that didn’t know what in the hell was going on. But clearly no one was going to fill her in on the discussion since the man and woman turned and went back into the kitchen. Gavin grabbed his linen napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth. “You should eat more, darling.”

She hated that he called her those little endearments. “Darling” and “Princess” didn’t make her feel like he cared for her, but more like the object she truly was. But angering him was not her intention. If she had to be here, for however long that was, she didn’t want to have to constantly fear that he would be upset and resort to the levels of punishment he had threatened her with. But he was leaving the country, and wouldn’t that give her the perfect opportunity to leave? “And if you’re thinking that you could escape while I’m gone, Adelbert and Drika will keep an eye on you. They may not know exactly why you are here, but they know you are very special to me, and that you need to stay here for your own good.”

Wait, his servants didn’t know she was a prisoner? If they didn’t speak English, telling them that she was wouldn’t do any good, but she had to still try.

The two servants came back in and gathered the dishes. She had eaten half of the food but her appetite was almost non-existent, and she had forced herself to finish that much. When they went back into the kitchen Gavin leaned against in his chair and stared at her.

“What?” She shifted in her seat. It had been a few days since she had lost her virginity to him. Ruby was still sore between her thighs from his insatiable appetite. The warm baths he had run for her and forced her to take after they had sex went a long way in easing her muscles and the soreness in her body. But then he had taken her this morning, this time slowly, and touched her like she really was a fragile and breakable piece of porcelain. Ruby didn’t know how to feel about that exactly, because it was nice, and he made her feel so good. The build-up had been easy, rising slowly until it broke free from her and she was gasping from it. And then he had helped her bathe, checked her feet to make sure they were healing well—which they were—and kissed her lightly on the lips. He was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and her head spun from the shifts in his personality. Now here she was, aroused once more and her pussy tingling even after he had gotten her off already. Why could he look at her, not even say anything, and make her feel so liquid?

“I’m just imagining you naked.” His grin slowly changed the hard contours of his face. He had picked out what she was wearing. The white satin blouse had tiny pearl buttons, and her neck was adorned with a strand of pearls as well, as if he wanted to coordinate her attire and accessories. The pewter-colored skirt was loose and very feminine with tiny white flowers on it, but almost modest as it went past her knees. Ruby had felt like a doll as he laid out her clothes and told her to dress for him, and she had felt even more so when he came up behind her and started running his fingers through her hair while he whispered very filthy things to her. She was his little sexual doll, one he could groom, dress, and do with as he pleased. Why didn’t that bother her as much as it should?

“Drika will help you with any personal needs. Adelbert will be here mainly for the house upkeep, but since he is the only one that speaks any English—albeit not very fluently—he will help you as well.” Well, that answered her question about the English. She’d have to search the house, maybe find a phone or laptop that she could use to access the internet. She could send an email to the FBI, or someone that could actually help her. She felt him watching her and she looked up, not realizing that she had been focusing on her glass of juice for so long.

“Okay.” That seemed to be a word she said a lot, but what else was she supposed to say?

“Oh, and just so you aren’t rummaging through the house on a wild goose chase, there is no landline on the estate, and I take my cell and other electronic devices with me when I leave.”

Shit
. “What if there’s an emergency?” Not that she cared if she could get in contact with him, but maybe she could gather some information on where she could go if she needed help.

“Adelbert will contact me, and I can be back here quite quickly.” Great, he was leaving her with people she couldn’t even communicate with, and had no means to reach out for help. He stood, smoothed his hands down his three-piece suit, and looked at her. “Come here, Ruby.” She slowly stood and moved around the table. Glancing down at his pants, she saw that they were tented. How could he be this insatiable? He had just had sex with her hours before, and by the gleam in his eyes and the erection he was sporting, it was clear that wasn’t really an issue.

God, she was sore between her thighs, and her unused muscles protested even the simple act of walking, but it seemed her body didn’t care, because she was wet, and suddenly felt so hot. When she was in front of him he wrapped his hand around her hip, curled his fingers into her body, and pulled her close. There was discomfort from the bruises he had left on her flesh. The purple and blue fingerprint-sized marks shouldn’t have made this flush spread throughout her body as she looked at them, but they did. A deep sickness filled her that when she had seen them the first thing that had sprang to mind was that they were his marks of ownership. He moved his hand up to her neck again, but she had already decided that he enjoyed holding onto that particular part of her body. Maybe it made him feel powerful, like he would restrain her so very easily.

Of course that was the reason.

“What are you doing?” She blinked back the need to close her eyes when he leaned in close and she felt his warm breath brush along her lips. He smelled faintly of hazelnut from his coffee. But he didn’t kiss her, just kept his mouth perilously close.

“I’m enjoying you while I can. It’s going to be hard—
I’m
going to be hard—being away from you.” He pulled her in even closer so their chests were pressed together, and she felt his erection prodding at her belly.

“But you said you wouldn’t be gone long, right?” She was trying to get a better idea of how much time she had to try and escape again.

“It might not take me very long at all, Ruby. In fact,” he brushed his lips lightly across hers. “I might be back as soon as tonight.” He moved both of his hands to her shoulders and pushed her back. She blinked rapidly to get rid of the haze that settled over her. Maybe she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe she was demented in the head, more so than she initially thought. What other logical explanation could there be for her need to be by him after only being in his presence for such a short time?

But he didn’t kiss her, and instead exerted pressure on her shoulders until she was on her knees and looking up at him. Her mouth instantly went dry when he let go of her and pulled the zipper down of his pants. It was erotically sick the way he pulled his erection out through only the flap, not even bothering to undo the button. This felt cheap in every way, but that didn’t stop her from getting even more turned on.