Carnal Captive (8 page)

“Well, I’ll find out soon enough. Out we go.”

Grabbing her legs, he spun her around and hauled her over the tailgate. Something sharp sc
raped her buttocks
. He held onto her shoulders while she plant
ed
her feet under her
. T
hen
he let go
.
She
couldn’t
see
Reno.

Damek
wasn’t touching her.
After all that time b
eing jammed into
a plane
or
the back of
an vehicle,
she was free! Fighting the insane lie, she looked around but couldn’t make sense of where they were, some kind of oversized garage. The open door grabbed her attention, and she tried to
walk
toward it.

“No, no.”
C
lamp
ing
a hand around her bound hands
, Damek
hauled her against him. “An obedient dog stays in his fenced yard. You aren’t to ever forget that.”
 
  

Damn it! She wasn’t a dog!

Half
-
craz
ed
with irrational anger, she fought.
P
art of her stood apart from her struggling figure and laughed at her futile attempts, but she couldn’t stop. Her life depended on getting free
!
Despite the burning haze consuming her mind, she realized the limb she’d been fastened to could be used as a weapon. Putting all her strength into the effort, she jerked free and whipped around. The limb stuck Damek. She didn’t care where.

“Damn stupid bitch!”

Hook
ing
his foot over the rope between her ankles
, he
tripped her. She fell, landing on her breasts and smacking her chin.
When
she
tried
to plant her hands on the ground, he kicked her. The blows were rhythmic and slow, measured.
Mostly t
hey struck her ass and legs but some landed on her back while a few connected with her arms. One
found
the back of her head.

“Please,” she sobbed through her gag. “Oh please.”

“Please what?”
He
kicked
her
right thigh. “Are you begging me, bitch, are you?”

She didn’t answer, couldn’t force out a response. Neither could she
defend herself
. He was leaving bruises but nothing that would leave her crippled.
With
little else to think about, she
admitted his
expertise. He could stomp her to death. Instead, he was teaching her a lesson. Exacting pain
for pain’s sake
.

Someone please help me!

“I’ll stop as soon as you beg me to,” he said conversationally.
“Believe me, I can keep this up a long time because it brings me pleasure to hurt you.” He punctuated his point by forcing his shoe between her
thighs
and pressing against her pussy. “Your owner knows you’re going to be
hurt
. He’ll expect it.”

If only she could curl into a ball! Protect herself somehow.

But she couldn’t.

“Please,” she hissed into the ropes
in her mouth
. “Please don’t hurt me anymore.”

“Beg
, slut
.” The pressure
against
her sex
increase
d
.

“Forgive me, please.”

L
augh
ing, he
grabbed her hair. “Forgive me,
M
aster. I want to hear you say it.”

No! Anything but that!
“I’m sorry
,
M
aster.”

“What? I can’t hear you.”

Her jaw ached from grinding down on the rope, but the pain in her throbbing body was even worse. “Please forgive me,
M
aster.”

Shari’s body was still a mass of pain
when
Damek
haul
ed her through a side door and into a
large room with a rock fireplace and paneled walls
. She’d never hurt like this
, never
.
H
er stepfather had ruled with an iron hand, but she’d learned to stay out of his way.
Today t
here was no
running
.

“Where we are doesn’t matter,”
Damek said in the conversational tone she
knew not
to trust. “It isn’t as if you’re going to be inviting any of your friends here.” He chuckled. “For the record, security cameras recorded our a
rrival
. If it had been an unfamiliar or unanticipated vehicle—well, that’s something else you don’t need to
concern yourself with
. I strongly suggest you take close note of your surroundings because the more you comprehend, the
sooner you’ll
accept that the life you had up until today no longer exists.”

Don’t say that! I can’t handle it.

Stopping, Damek
hauled her close via
the rope
around her neck
. Hi
s body heat
invaded her
.
Grasping her shoulders
again
, he spun her a
round
and
did
something to the rope behind her head. T
o her relief, t
he pressure against her mouth relaxed, leaving wet rope
sticking to the corners. She started to push it out
only to
stop
. Mayb
e she should have waited for
permission
.

No!

The need to work her mouth about was
too
strong
to ignore
. Besides, he’d let go of her, and with the
small
freedom came courage and determination. Silently cursing him
,
she spit out the rope. It fell to the
hardwood floor
. If she had back use of her legs
, she’d
stomp
the damn thing
.

“Well, what do you think of it?”

“It?”

His exasperated sigh
said
he question
ed
her intellect. “Our surroundings
.
I want you
to
describe what you see.”

Despite the casual tone, she
couldn’t think how to begin
. If she had no choice in this
simple matter, what else was out of her hands?
At least she could speak.
I
f someone entered the room, she’d beg for help.

Or did she dare?

“Damn it, why do you think I’m letting you talk!” He pinched her buttocks through her shorts.

S
tartled, she
tried
to get away
. “I, ah, the room’s massive. There’s this—this fireplace but no fire
in it
.”

Letting go, he
stepped back.
Praying for courage
, she turned
so she could see what he was doing.
With
everything she’d been through, she’d barely noted how exposed her breasts were.
Now, all too aware of her captor’s
focus
on her naked and pushed-out-of-shape breasts, it took all she had not to hunch her shoulders in a vain attempt to make
her breasts
less prominent.

She
was becoming
a sexual ob
ject
.

“Interesting that the fireplace is the first thing you noticed. What about the furnishings?”

Everything about the room screamed
not just
masculine
but
macho. The
heavy furniture was most
ly leather and wood.
The things on the wall—

“Who-whoever owns this place hunt
s
,” she said around her suddenly dry throat. “He’s proud of his trophies.”

“Describe the trophies, slut.”

Slut.
Yet another attempt to demean her. Fighting
another wave of disbelief
, she
identified several
bucks with impressive antlers
, two bull elk heads, a tiger pelt, a bear skin so large it had to have been a grizzly. Much as she hated seeing the grizzly pelt on the floor near the fireplace, the mounted heads with the
ir
dead eyes were worse.

“Yes, quite a collection.” Damek patted her right breast. “For the record, this place doesn’t belong to a single o
wner.
Look around. What else do you see?”

Either she hadn’t noticed at first or her mind had been incapable of absorbing the details but now, for reasons that had to do with
needing to
wrap her mind around reality, she began.

“
Several wood
timbers
extend
from the floor to the ceiling. I—they aren’t load bearing. There—there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to their placement.”

He again patted her breast. “Random?”

Please stop reminding me of what I am to you.
“
I don’t know.”

“Go on.”

Oh God.
“
There are—r
ings and chains
in
the timbers
.”

The man who’d
kidnapped her
stroked her breast. She knew better than to read kindness in the gesture but after being
repeatedly
kicked,
a gentle touch
caught her off guard.
Warmed her.
Desperate for something she
refused to
put into words, she stared up at Damek.

“You’re overwhelmed
.
That’s understandable. It’s part of the process,
one hopefully
you’ll embrace. I hate to think what will happen if you
don’t
.
” He chuckled. “
Think you’ll resist
?”

Rings and chains.
Restraints
.
“Resist?”

He licked his fingers, then closed them around her nipple and slowly drew her close
r
. “
We
shouldn’t be having this conversation.
N
othing in my job description includes explaining things to the subjects. However, I’m a studious man. It’s in my nature to educate as well as manipulate. Oh well, enough of that.”

H
is tone pulled her out of the fog she’d
allowed herself to sink
into. 
 

“Places to go and goals to meet,” he
continued
. “But before we leave this room, I want you to take note of several more things.” Still holding onto her nipple, he pointed at a window that took up most of one wall. “If you’ll notice, there’s no curtain.
T
he view’s amazing.”

It was. The evergreens all around were impressive
—and far different from
the oaks
where she’d begun her day
.

“More than amazing,” he
went on. “Unfortunately,
you
won’t
enjoy them.”

“Wh—what do you mean?”

The hand that had gently massaged lifted. An instant later he
forcefully
slapped the top o
f her breast
. Sobbing, she tried to
escape
only to trip and fall.
T
he imprisoning log jammed against the floor
, causing it to
slid
e
against her back
.
Sensing
freedom, she
pushed. S
uddenly her arms were no longer being forced back. Planting her hands on the floor, she lift
ed
her upper body but couldn’t spread her feet enough to get to her feet.

“Love it, love it.”
P
la
ci
ng
his shoe between her shoulder blades
, he
forced her
back
so
her face
was
on th
e hardwood
. Breathing took effort
. Replacing his shoe with a hand, he knelt beside her, reached under her prone body, and grabbed the rope between her wrists. Chuckling, he rolled her onto her back, hauling her
hands
up to her throat as he did.