Savage Chains: Captured (#1) (7 page)

Pausing on the third step and gripping the handrail, he turned to stare down at her as he considered his next move. He’d intended only to retrieve the outfit she’d need for the party and bring it to her, and afterward make her a couple of serious threats that he hoped might bring her in line. But she’d just proved yet again that breaking her will would be no simple thing.

Two of his guards arrived and took up positions on either side of the massive wood front door.

She watched them, her brows raised. He thought their arrival could work in his favor because the men were one more signal her brain clearly needed to help clarify her present reality.

He held a hand out to her. “Come with me. I think it’s time we had a heart-to-heart.”

She looked wary and didn’t move for a long moment. But after glancing once more at the guards, she finally put her feet in motion.

He led her up the stairs, then to the east wing that housed his private quarters, recently renovated to enhance his slaver identity.

He threw the doors wide, then passed by his bedroom, taking his time so she could see the level of his wealth. Money was power, another piece of information she clearly needed to figure out.

He had a sitting room on the right, then his exercise and massage rooms, and finally an expansive bathroom with a deep soaking tub in addition to a walk-in shower.

She didn’t say anything, but she’d slowed her movements to look around, which he took as a good sign.

The last room had cost him over a million, having required the dredging out of tons of rock. But the investment had speeded up his Starlin membership since the room had met the approval of several Starlin men who’d come to make an inspection.

As he grasped the door handle, he looked back at her. Most of her makeup was long gone, and her hair had come down to hang about her shoulders. She was in a state of disarray and looked ridiculously vulnerable as she held her head high. Even like this, with reddened eyes, she was damn beautiful. How he hated that fate had somehow put her in this heinous position.

She met his gaze. “So what’s beyond the door? What is it you need to show me? I’m guessing it’s some kind of oversized closet for your billionaire wardrobe.”

“See for yourself.”

He pushed the door wide, flipped on the lights that dotted the wood ceiling, then stepped aside to make way for her. “This is the game room, a place you and I will be spending a lot of time, starting now, actually.”

She moved in slowly, then gasped. “Oh, God. What is this?”

He’d designed the space based on one of the rooms Sweet Dove had kept in her sprawling home. She’d taken him there on an almost nightly basis. The result was essentially a padded torture chamber full of masks, whips, a variety of implements for cutting, two different kinds of tables with straps and stirrups, and a wall of chains and manacles.

Taking hold of Angelica’s arm, he pulled her into the room, then turned to lock the door. He’d positioned the dead bolt high so that no slave could reach it.

She turned to him, wide-eyed, a frown between her brows. “You can’t be serious.”

He could explain everything to her, or he could show her. He knew she’d been through a lot, but she needed to get with the program now. If he wanted to sustain his reputation in this lifestyle, he needed Angelica on a leash and her demeanor properly subdued by the time he took her to Engles’s home.

“You’re going to learn to obey me, Angelica. I won’t have you fighting me, not here in my home or in public. I own you now, you’re my slave, get used to it and do it fast. I’ve been working for years to gain admittance into the Starlin Group and I’m not about to let you fuck it up.

“Now, we’ll be going to a party in a couple of hours, and while we’re there I need you on your knees the moment I tell you to get on your knees.”

A look of horror passed over her features. “To do what?”

“I think you know exactly what that means.”

She shook her head. “This can’t be happening and like hell I’m going down on you in public. I’d rather die.”

He’d hoped the mere sight of the room would start softening her belligerence. Instead she was more obstinate than ever.

Time for phase two.

He shifted to altered flight, scooped her up, and slapped her against the wall that dangled with chains. He bound her up vampire-fast so that she was once more shackled, and spread-eagled within seconds, her robe gaping wide, her body on display, her feet on the floor. The only difference was that these shackles weren’t preternaturally charged and except for their weight wouldn’t hurt her.

“What are you doing?”

He got up close. “I’ve already told you. I’m helping you get a good picture of your new life so that you can adjust your attitude accordingly. I want you submissive and meek, and it looks like you need a lesson or two to get you started.

“But feel free to shout. Scream your head off. This room is soundproof and if one of the servants happens by, well, let’s just say that everyone in this house is loyal to me and serves only me. You can’t turn a single person in the immediate twenty square miles against me. You can’t escape, you can’t run, you can’t hide. I’m here. I’m your master. And you’ll do as I say. Do we have an understanding yet?”

“I understand that you can go straight to hell.”

He let out a roar of frustration, but her gaze never wavered from his. Shit, this was going to get ugly if he had the smallest hope of breaking her will.

“Let me go home.”

“Not gonna happen.”

#

Angelica stared at Reyes, her captor, a self-proclaimed slaver.

Her mind was still working to make sense of all that had happened to her. She knew she was still in shock, yet she had to pull herself together enough to withstand his attempts to break her.

She got that the man she’d kissed not long ago, the man she’d wanted so badly, was a monster, the worst kind, sadistic and brutal. The room spoke of the kinds of things he intended to do to her. In addition, the nature of the auction, as well as the horrible acts going on in that room, made her future clear.

Yet she rejected all of it, with every ounce of her being.

Her heart pounded in her chest. “I’ll never stop trying to escape this captivity. You have to know that. No matter what you do to me right now.”

He moved in closer and pressed a hand to her throat. “Do you know how easily I could kill you, snap your neck, or just choke you to death?”

He squeezed her windpipe, making it hard to breathe. She felt his latent strength and trembled.

“All I want you to do is submit to me. That’s all.”

Though tears bit her eyes, she refused to bend. If she had to die, then so be it.

She closed her eyes and waited, but after another few seconds the pressure eased up.

She blinked and stared into cold blue eyes.

“How did you enjoy that, Angelica? I can choke you repeatedly without taking your life. How about I do that to you for months or years, only each time I’ll take you just a little closer to death. How does that sound?”

“Go to hell.” Her voice was hoarse as she spoke. “I despise you.”

“What you’re not getting is that I don’t care what you think of me. All I need is for you to say ‘Yes, master,’ and mean it.” His hand slid down her throat to her breasts. He caressed her, in much the same way that horrible woman had done earlier in the week.

“Does that feel good?” He was even using the same line the woman had used.

“I hate that you’re touching me.”

“You can learn to love my touch, or fear it, the choice is yours.” He pinched her nipple and the same kind of fire that had penetrated her breast at that woman’s hand touched her again, a threat that could get much worse. But now she understood that this was some kind of vampire ability.

“All I have to do is let my energy flow and you’ll be screaming. Is that what you want? Pain so bad that you’ll pass out?” He leaned close. “I don’t want to do this to you and you can make it stop. Just submit to me, because, trust me, I can keep this up for hours.”

“She did the same thing to me, only much worse, and I didn’t relent then,” Angelica said. “Why would I give in to you now?”

He released her breast, frowning. “What do you mean,
she
?”

Angelica’s knees had started feeling rubbery, and she was grateful he’d backed off. He hadn’t hurt her the way the woman had, but he could have and might yet. “The woman at the prison, with this cloud of red curly hair. She came to see me, said she was tempted to buy me herself. I didn’t get it, then, but I do now. She’s a sadistic slaver, just like you.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, he said, “Describe the woman. What did she look like, besides her red hair?”

“Why should I tell you?”

But the moment the words left her mouth, his hand was around her throat again, squeezing. “What did she look like?” His eyes were wild. “Goddammit, Angelica, what the fuck did she look like? You’ve got to tell me. This is important.”

She blinked several times, stunned by the sudden intense look in his eye. The woman meant something to him, something really bad. “Her eyes were a dark blue. She had a small mouth, pale skin. She was beautiful and ugly at the same time. She hurt me.”

“And she was at the prison, where you were held?”

She nodded.

She didn’t know why, but Reyes released her throat, then stepped away from her, sweeping a hand down his face. He bent over as if in sudden pain. After a moment, however, he rose up and straightened his shoulders, coming back to himself. Whatever memories this woman had evoked, he appeared to have shunted aside.

He met her gaze again, his eyes narrowed as though contemplating his next move. “If pain doesn’t affect you, maybe the opposite will.”

When he moved toward her this time, she trembled all over again but for a different reason as his gaze roved her body. He drew close, pushing her robe aside. “You have beautiful breasts. That dress you wore at the Ocean Club still gets me going when I think about it. But what would please you, I wonder?” He leaned down and suckled her breast.

“Don’t do this,” she whispered. She’d had fantasies about Reyes before her abduction, all of which she’d enjoyed.

But right now she was horrified that he would do this to her while she was chained to a wall. For some reason it seemed worse to her than the feel of his hand at her throat, or the fire at her breast, that while holding her captive, he would pleasure her.

In a louder voice, she said, “You sick bastard, stop it. I hate what you’re doing.”

He slowly dropped to his knees, looking up at her at the same time. “You don’t get a say in this, slave. You’ve felt the stick, now let me show you the real advantage of surrendering your will to mine.”

His tongue swirled over her sensitive navel, then began a low, purposeful glide toward the flesh between her legs.

“No, please don’t.”

The shackles held her prisoner and there was nothing she could do to stop him as his hands glided up and down her legs. But before his tongue found her most tender flesh, he rose up in front of her.

As much as she hated him, there was no denying how handsome the man was, his eyes like the clearest water as he held her gaze.

Then his nostrils flared as his gaze roved her throat. He slid a hand around the back of her neck, and to her horror she watched as his fangs emerged.

“Don’t bite me. Don’t you dare fucking bite me.”

“You think you’ve felt pleasure before? You have no idea what’s about to happen, and once I’ve given you this ride you’ll be begging for more.”

She had little strength left to fight him when he tilted her head to the side, then struck with his fangs.

She winced at the sudden sting, but a moment later, as he began to draw from her neck, a new layer of desire rushed through her, a kind of euphoria she’d never known before.

She wanted to scream her frustration at feeling so many unwelcome sensations, but he was right: the pleasure she felt grew more intense with each draw from her neck. It hit her like the strongest drug, and while part of her raged against it, she was powerless to stop the waves of bliss that overtook her.

He suckled greedily, groaning as he took her blood down his throat. She felt each draw in a heavy pulse deep between her legs. He slid an arm around her now, caressing her bottom once more, then anchored his hips against hers.

Through his pants, she felt the thick rope of his erection and groaned once more. He arched his hips, pressing into her flesh in just the right way so that she cried out.

Maybe it was the complete despair of the moment, or the fact that she was fully aroused, but her body took over and she writhed against him, an orgasm building. Her whole body felt sensitized so that as his hips pressed into her repeatedly, pleasure ran up and down her arms and legs, her back, and over her breasts.

His hips moved faster, pummeling her now with swift strikes that brought her closer and closer to the edge. Even his suckling increased in speed.

The sound of the moans he made added another layer—so that suddenly she flew straight over the cliff, crying out once more as a lightning flow of ecstasy rushed through her, taking her high into the stratosphere.

Pleasure peaked, fell back, then peaked again. He kept working her body, kept drinking from her throat, and she cried out repeatedly, pleasure, just as he’d promised, rolling through her again and again.

She finally came back to earth, her body growing quiet as he released her throat.

He planted his hands on the wall on either side of her head, staring into her eyes, his expression as serious as ever. He was breathing hard, his brow pinched. She knew without having to be told that though he’d been aroused, he hadn’t come and the experience had no doubt left him in pain.

For that, she couldn’t feel bad. He ought to suffer.

Her legs didn’t want to support her and her arms had started to hurt. Not that her captor cared.

Her mind spun in circles. She’d gone from Reyes frightening her to giving her the most incredible release she’d ever known.