My stomach flipped. I knew that look in his eyes. The lust-filled hunger tearing at his insides. I saw it every time Ralph tried to sneak into my room.
Except, unlike my stepfather, this man didn’t have his beast on a leash. He was right there, baring his jagged fangs and ready to tear me apart.
“You don’t want me.” Maybe I could rationalize with him? Make him understand that he’d made a mistake before I became a disappointment he wanted to get rid of. “I wouldn’t know what I was doing. If you let me go, we can just chalk this up to a huge misunderstanding. I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”
It occurred to me then that I’d just said everything he’d said I would. And that made this entire situation utterly terrifying. If he knew what I was going to do before I did, I was royally screwed.
“I mean… I just…”
He cut me off by placing his other hand on the wall and growling one word. “Strip.”
As intimidated as I was, I didn’t survive Ralph to go down like this. I licked my lips, looked up at him and firmly said, “No.”
“No?” His brow arched down at me. “I don’t like repeating myself, Pet.”
I said nothing. Just pressed my lips together and forced myself to maintain eye contact. Mostly because I was afraid my voice would give away my fear.
He tsked and shook his head, as if he was chastising a child. “Perhaps you want me to hurt you?”
Attempting to stem the pulse of nerves trickling through my system, I swallowed and gripped the hem of my shirt.
The thin fabric was the only thing covering my body. If he wanted to take that from me, he’d have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers.
My act of defiance had the opposite effect of what I thought it would. Instead of hitting me, he glanced down at my white knuckles and smirked.
“I knew you wouldn’t be easy.”
Why did that scare me?
“You should just let me go then.”
The curl in his lips deepened into something dark and devious. “Now, what fun would that be?”
Feral instinct took over then, snapping my calm demeanor. My hands flew through the air, slapping and clawing wildly.
That’s when I got my first taste of just how dangerous my abductor was.
His fingers wrapped tightly around my neck as he slammed me back, bouncing my head off the wall and sending a hazy cloud through my brain, effectively stopping my meager struggle.
“I can play rough too, Pet.” I felt something clip around my wrist. “In fact, I prefer it.”
My thoughts were struggling to fight through the pain radiating in my brain, but I had enough consciousness to know I couldn’t let him bind me.
When he went for my other hand, I struggled to keep my arm away, but he tightened his grip on my neck, until the only struggle I could manage, was the one for oxygen.
Before I had a chance to register what was happening, my arms were being hoisted in the air. He released me and pulled on the cord of what I thought was a decorative tapestry.
All I could do as I was dragged away from the wall was stare up at the ceiling, and the track my arms were bound to.
How did I miss that?
“I’ve watched you for a long time.” He gave the cord one final tug, pulling me into the middle of the room. “I know what makes you tick.”
“You don’t scare me,” I coughed, while greedily pulling air back into my lungs. “I’ve dealt with worse.”
He grunted out a confident, “We’ll see,” and rolled up the cuffs of his shirt, baring forearms bigger than my thighs.
I used his distraction to test my binds, pulling and yanking on the metal cuffs around my wrists. It did no good. They were too strong for my small frame.
