Beautiful Captivity (The Club #1) (8 page)

HIM

…

She rides her orgasm to completion, and I know it surpasses not only the time before, but also all that she imagined it could be. My own has been building and once I feel her fall limp, her body useless after the absolute pleasure she just experienced, I let her legs go and she pushes her thighs tight, guiding me to my own.

Love
. I told myself it was a fantasy. This is lust. There is nothing else. I don’t love. There’s no love left in me. But as I look at her eyes, glazed over from coming, and see her lips turn up into a satisfied smile, it’s for sure. I am a fool. I love her. I will die to protect her. I just might die to protect her, actually.

The knowledge of it does something else to me. It brings my orgasm to heights I have never experienced. With Bella, she was my first, and I didn’t know sex. Not like this. But since Bella, sex has been carnal, lust, no connection. Now, as I stare into Nichole’s eyes, it’s clear. We belong to one another.

The orgasm takes over and thought fades. It is just our bodies, giving and taking, and Nichole takes me to places I thought I would take her. I sit up and push deeper, feeling myself reach the end of her, and she tightens. She holds me inside, and it is a rush, both physically and emotionally. I’m sated after I fill her with the warm cum, but it’s not just my body.

“Baby,” I moan, and fall against her, still inside of her. I want to remain inside of her until I’m ready for more.

The night is perfect. She is perfect. Everything is perfect. Until someone kicks in the bedroom door.

…

I don’t recognize him. I don’t recognize
this place
. He’s huge, covered in tattoos, his head shaved. He knows me, though.

“Tell me, Zane. What could you possibly have been thinking? First, you kill a client. That could have been covered up for you. Things could have been okay. But then you took an asset. Not just any asset either, but Willow, the most valuable asset that particular house possessed. As if we would not find you. As if you wouldn’t pay.”

“Do what you need to do. Just leave her alone.”

He laughs, a frightening laugh, the sort of laugh people laugh in movies before they stab you. “Oh, no, Zane. We
will
do what we need to do. But she will not be left alone. In fact, she looks like she’s something special to you. I am going to enjoy myself with her. She will earn back what we paid for her – and you will watch. After that’s done, I will personally be honored to kill you both.”

I’m not afraid of him. I’m not afraid of dying. I am afraid for her, though. I watch him. I may have to bide my time, but I will stop him from touching her. Somehow.

“What do you want from me now?”

“I want you to explain what you were thinking. And I want you to come up with a plan to earn back the money you lost us.”

“There are other girls. They can-”

He cuts me off. “No. The other girls cannot. She has outstanding bids. She will return, and she will honor them.”

“Fine. But allow me to return with her.”

He looks at me warily. “And why would I allow that?”

“She trusts me. If there is any way to get her to go back, to get her to do what you want, you need me. When she pays her debt, you can keep her there to earn back what she owes. And kill me. But let me go with her.”

He considers. I have to hope I was convincing. Fortunately, it really doesn’t matter, because although they could force her, I’m right. It will be easier if I help. She isn’t going to want to do it, but she will fight back without me there. And that could end with her dead.

He’s not happy, but he leads me to the room where they have her. She’s chained to the bed, metal restraints in the walls holding her arms, and the chains linked to the bed frame for her feet. They have her naked and spread eagle, and I worry that they’ve touched her.

The other man pushes me into the room. “We’ll come for you eventually. We still have questions. Convince her. I don’t care how. After you’re done, feel free to fuck her. That’s a sweet pussy. I can see why she cost so much. I’m looking forward to it myself.”

He slams the metal door behind me. Rage tightens my muscles, but there is nothing I can do right now, and Nichole needs me.

I sit beside her. She turns to me, her face bruised.
Those fucking assholes. I will kill them all
. I can’t believe they hit her. She’s not going to be much use to them, if they think they’re bringing her back to earn her bids, since she’s already sporting a black eye.

Tears spill down her face. “I’m sorry,” she says.

“Shhh, baby,” I whisper, and do my best to hold her, even with the restraints. “Why?”

“They touched me, Zane. That’s all, but I’m yours. I don’t want their hands there.”

My conviction that they need to die grows. “It’s okay, baby. We’ll get out of here.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll protect you. I promise.”

Her

…

I’m happy he’s here. This time, I saw where they brought us, but it doesn’t matter. We’re in an abandoned warehouse outside the city that they’ve renovated as some kind of, ironically, safe house. I don’t think they care that I could identify them, as I’m pretty sure I’m not expected to live very long.

“They’re going to kill us,” I say to Zane.

“No. Well, not yet. They want us to go back. They want you to earn back what you should have brought in. After that… well, they’ll kill me first. I don’t know what they plan to do with you, but it won’t be good. It doesn’t matter, though, because I will get you out of here, baby.”

“I don’t want to do it. I don’t want anyone else to touch me.”

“I know,” he says. “I don’t want that, either. But we will figure it out. I told you, you belong to me. All of this.” He runs his fingers lightly over my entire body. I can’t believe it feels good, in this situation, but it does.

“Zane, I’m scared. I was scared when you took me, but you were kind. They’re not kind.”

He kisses me, brushing my hair away from my face, which is nice, since I can’t move my hands. “Shhh,” he whispers. He’s trying to distract me, and it works. I want to forget. I just want to feel him.

“Please touch me,” I beg. “Help me disappear.”

He nods and slides down my body, until his face is between my legs. I don’t want to die, and I’m scared, but chained to this bed, there is nothing I can do. At least Zane can make me feel something else for a while.

His tongue slips between my folds, and as soon as it’s inside, I focus on nothing but him. If we got out of here, I don’t know what my life would be. However, he is my life now. College is something a different girl wanted, a girl from a different world. Now, all I want is Zane. Inside of me, with me, just us. I won’t go back, though. No one will touch me. I swore to him that every part of me was his – and it will remain that way, even if it kills me. I won’t let him die, but no other man will be where he belongs.

He makes me come with his mouth, and I wish I could touch him, could do anything for him in return, but I can’t. I can’t even move my body except to twist my hips, but I tell him through my sounds and gasps of pleasure just how good he is.

When I’ve come, he lies across me and kisses me, so that I can taste myself on him. It would normally bother me, but he relishes my body so much that I feel excited, grateful.

“Nichole, when we get out of here, when this is done, do you want to go home?”

I shake my head. “You’re my home, Zane.”

He smiles. “Well, to Atlanta.”

I think about it. I’m not that girl anymore. Could I just go back to school, act like none of this happened? Could I listen to my mom tell me that she knew this would happen, that this is how men are? Since my dad walked out when I was a kid, she’s always been angry. If she knew, she would tell me that it figured, that men will always ruin a woman.

And Zane. Could he be worked into my life? What would he do all day while I was in classes? My mother would hate him, because he perpetuated everything she always warned me about. But I don’t see that in him. I see a man who was as angry as my mother is, a man who made a bad choice, and never saw a reason to make a good one.

“I want to go where you are,” I reply. “There’s nothing left there. There was never anything. I guess it’s why I didn’t fight more. I had so little to lose.”

“But now you do?”

I nod. “Now I have everything to lose.”

He runs his hands over my stomach, my hips, my breasts. I wish I could touch him.

“What about you, Zane?”

“I never had anything. When I was young, and naïve, there was Bella. And I thought she was all women. So it wasn’t that I had nothing to lose, but that I just didn’t care. But you’re different. You remind of the man I was, the man I could have been. With you, Nichole, everything’s at stake, because with you, I can be a better man.”

“You don’t need to be any better than you are.”

HIM

…

“You know, I wish I could touch you,” she whispers.

“I’m sorry. I wish the circumstances were different, but I can’t lie. There is something really sexy about you lying here like this, you know. Do you know what I could do to you?”

She gets a wicked glint in her eyes and I try not to notice the bruising around one. This isn’t a game. There is so much at stake, and the danger is beyond anything I’ve experienced. She wouldn’t even be able to process it. I try to keep her present in the moment, not letting her think of what’s outside, of what they want to do to her, of what they will do to her unless I come up with a plan.

“I’d like you to do those things, Zane.”

I smile. “Not now, baby. But when we’re free, I’ll make sure you’re tied up like this – and I will make you come like you can’t even fantasize about.”

“I don’t want to think about tomorrow,” she whispers.

“I know. But we need to. We need a plan. I’ve convinced them to bring us both back, to meet your next client, and give us time.”

“You’d let them do that to me? Let them touch me?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. I’m trying to find a way, and I will. But as a backup plan, we go along, buying ourselves some time.”

“You said I was yours,” she says.

“And you are. Do you think if one of them touches you it will change anything? Baby, if one of them gets near you, I want you to close your eyes, and think of my voice. No matter what they do to you, what they do to your body, you are mine. I will kill any man who takes what’s mine, but we may have no choice at first. Promise me, you will close your eyes and remember me. Remember that their hands, their words, their hurt… there is nothing they can take from you. Because it’s already all mine.”

“I’ll try. I gave myself to you. The thought of anyone else between my legs, of anyone touching me…”

“It makes me sick, too, baby,” I tell her. “I promise you it will be us, only us, one day.”

“Are you sure?”

It must be her vulnerability, her fear, that makes me do it. I swore it would never happen again. I swore I wouldn’t feel, but I want her to know that she is mine, beyond the physical. I hate the idea of that man with the tattoos on top of her, inside of her, but we can move past it. I will help her move past it if it comes to that, because it’s more important that she’s alive. But I make a promise that falls from my lips before I can even think of what I’m saying.

“The first thing I’m going to do when we’re free is to make you my wife. I want the world to know you’re all mine, Nichole.”

Her

…

Marriage? Do I want marriage? I’m still a kid. I’m barely eighteen. I had this whole life planned. I was going to go to college, grad school, maybe even law school or something after that. Sure, someday I figured I would get married, although probably when I was older, and I never thought about a family or kids. My own parents hadn’t done a remarkable job.

But when Zane says it, I do want that. I would like to go to school again someday, but I also want him in my life more than I want to think about a career. I guess I always saw myself as independent, never needing a man, and while I still want to be somewhat in charge of my own life choices, I have grown to feel attached to him in such a short time. I like knowing he will take care of me, that there is someone who wants to be there. He talks about control, but I am willing to give it. I like being his.

“Touch me,” I ask. “It doesn’t have to be sex, but I want to feel your hands on me. You make me feel loved.”

He’s gentle this time, and he doesn’t move between my legs. He simply runs his hands along my body like I’m a wonder to him, and it makes everything else disappear. My fear is still present, but he’ll save me. I know he will. I trust him.

“I’ll do whatever I have to do. For you. For us. But no matter what they do to me, Zane, they can never make me not love you. If they touch me, if they hurt me, it won’t break me, as long as you’re there when they’re done.”

“I’ll be there, baby,” he promises.

“Zane, can you ask you something?”

He continues to run his hands along my body. My wrists and ankles hurt from being bound, but if I focus my attention on him, it goes away temporarily.

“Anything.”

“Why me? Why did you pick me?”

“You’re beautiful. And I saw you and knew you were special. I didn’t want to feel anything. I just thought you would be exactly what we needed to bring in profits, but when I saw you the first time, I was ruined. You’ve ruined me, Nichole. I can’t be anything but yours now.”

I smile. “I thought
I
was
yours
.”

“We belong to each other, baby.”

He rests his head on my chest and we fall asleep. I fear the days to come, but not with him by my side. This has to be enough to save us both. It just has to.

…

I wake to someone touching me, and at first, I’m happy. The hand between my legs, the fingers slipping inside of me, they feel good. I open my eyes, looking for Zane, his head now bald, and his dark eyes looking down at me. Instead, there is a man. A large man with tattoos that run along his arm and his neck, down his chest, and all the way to his stomach. They end right before his giant cock, which is erect, and pointed at me.

I try to get away, but chains hold me in place.

“No,” I say.

“Good morning, Willow. That’s your name, correct? Willow?”

I nod. I don’t want him to know my real name.

“Well, Willow, I’m
Ky. I think we need to talk. About what your place is in this organization.”

He takes his hand out of my legs, which is a relief, I suppose. However, I don’t feel like this conversation is going to go well.

“I’m not your whore,” I spit. “You can’t just take people from their lives.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Obviously we can. Do you come from money, Willow?”

“No.”

“So then you have no idea what money can do, do you? You can own anything you want if you have the funding, sweetheart. And you? A tight, pretty little virgin? There are many, many men who wanted that. However, you had to go and ruin it, didn’t you? You had to go be a little slut and fuck
a nobody. Do you think Zed is going to take care of you? He can’t even take care of himself, Willow. We own him, too, you know.”

“I guess it’s too bad. Because now I have nothing you can take.” I feel a bit of pride at that. They can do whatever they want to me. I gave myself to Zane and he will always have that part of me. They’re wrong about money. That was something no one bought. They tried, but I gave it to Zane for nothing. Because I chose to.

“You may not be a virgin, but there is plenty we can take. And plenty we intend to take. You
will
earn that money back.”

“And if I don’t?”

He smacks me hard. It’s blinding in the pain, but I refuse to cry. I bite down on the inside of my lip and try to focus through the pain.

“You will. Or we will kill you. We’ll probably kill you anyway. But I guess the question is how long you want to live. There’s also the matter of Zed.”

“What about him?” I feel a chill run through me.

“Let’s just say you have control over certain things, Willow. If you do what we want, if you serve the clients who paid a great deal of money to have you, maybe we’ll even let him live. If you continue to be so… resistant… well, then, I guess we will just have to use him to demonstrate exactly what will happen to you.”

“Don’t hurt him,” I plead.

“Don’t make us.”

He leaves the room with the warning between us. I wish I knew where Zane was.