XXX - 145 Enslave: The Taming of the Beast (12 page)

“You’re blind,” he said. “You’re hopelessly naïve. You’re…dependent.”
She shrugged. “I am who I am,” she murmured. “I won’t change that. Please don’t ask me to.”
His arms tightened around her. “I can’t change, either.”
“So there’s no way you’ll trust me,” she said, and the truth of it, the weight of it, threatened to crush her.
He took a deep breath. “You won’t want to betray me, maybe,” he said grudgingly. “But…”
“I will come back to you,” she breathed. “
I swear
, I will always come back to you.”
He crushed her against him, kissing her with a passion that took her breath away.
“An hour,” he croaked, when he finally pulled away. “An hour.”
She sighed. “It would take longer than that to get to the city, and you know it. Besides, I want to spend at least a little time with the baby.”
“How long do you think you’ll need?”
She bit her lip. How long could he take being away from her?
For that matter, how long did she want to be away?
“One day,” she said. “Maybe let me stay the night.”
His face looked anguished. His eyes seemed to try to bore right through to her soul.
“One day,” he finally agreed.
She felt exultant. Not because she was leaving him, but because he
trusted
her.
“But if you’re not back in one day,” he said, his words edged in menace. “I don’t know what’ll happen.”
Was it supposed to be a threat to her? Or a threat to himself? She didn’t know. All she knew was, he looked like he was watching his soul fly away, with a mixture of love and terror.

“
Nadya!
Darling!”
Nadia’s father was quickly shushed by her sisters and her stepmother. In her stepmother’s arms was the baby, a squashed, ruddy-faced miracle.
“Isn’t he beautiful?” her stepmother cooed, not even looking at Nadia. “Isn’t he precious?”
Nadia’s father was beaming; he could barely contain himself.
Finally
, Nadia thought,
he’s gotten the son he always wanted
. Three wives, four children, and he finally struck gold.
She stepped closer. The baby had the sort of wrinkled-peanut face that all newborns did, but Deidre
was
right: he was miraculous. Her heart clenched, looking at him.
“How did you escape?” her father asked, checking her over, and for a second, Nadia felt a flood of warmth at his concern. Until her father paled, glancing over her shoulder. “Are you sure you weren’t followed? Would he track you
here?
”
She swallowed hard as tears choked her. “No, Papa, it’s fine,” she reassured him. “He let me leave.”
The entire family stared at her in stunned silence.
“Just like that?” her father finally said. “He just…let you go? He’s done with you?”
Nadia felt her cheeks heat with a blush. “No,” she whispered. “I have to go back. But he knows this is important to me, so…”
“I don’t understand,” Irina said. “What, did he give you money for a taxi to the hospital or something?”
“Actually, he…ah, he loaned me a car.”
Her father’s eyes rounded. Then he burst out laughing, a loud, roaring sound that caused the baby to wriggle and start to cry. Deidre tried to shush both father and baby, frowning.
“I thought no one could tame the beast, but apparently I did not give my daughter enough credit,” he said, his voice crowing with satisfaction. “You have saved us all, Nadia, pet. You are a miracle worker.”
Irina sighed. “Yeah, but will it get us money?”
Her father’s bright eyes turned speculative.
Nadia felt tears pricking at her eyelids, her chest squeezing. She should have known: saving their lives wouldn’t quite be enough. She stroked the baby’s smooth, amazingly soft cheek. He moved blindly toward her, settling down in his mother’s arms, then yawned, the adorable baby-yawn.
“Come on, he’s sleepy,” Jelena said, getting up and making ushering motions toward her sisters. Nadia wasn’t sure if it was to give their father some privacy with his new family, or what. Irina followed without a pause—babies really weren’t her idea of entertainment. The three of them went to the lobby on the first floor of the hospital.
There was something different about Jelena, Nadia noticed, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on what had changed. Her clothes were elegant, a skirt with a blouse, but her neckline was perhaps a little lower than normal. Her hair wasn’t up in its usual twist, either. Nadia would almost say Jelena looked a little sensual, although it would be a hard argument seeing her next to Irina, who was hard at work husband-hunting in a tight, short ensemble that played up her twenty-four-year-old body to its best advantage.
In contrast to Jelena’s subtle sensuality, there was Jelena’s face. Her expression was like frozen marble, and there was a sternness there that Nadia had never seen before.
“How long have you been here?” Nadia asked carefully. “You look exhausted.”
“A few hours. The C-section went perfectly.” Jelena shrugged. So if it wasn’t being at the hospital, then something else was causing that strained expression on her sister’s face. “Are you all right?”
Nadia blinked. “Well, yes. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’re with
that man
.” Jelena’s eyes narrowed. “We thought he’d hurt you. Possibly even worse.”
“Must have been hard, not knowing for sure,” Nadia said, biting her lip. Her eyes misted.
Jelena sighed. “I have been trying to do whatever I could, to free you. To help you.” Her voice broke on those last words, and that frozen expression on her face turned even more coldly determined. “You have no idea.”
Before Nadia could pursue it, Irina interrupted. “She’s divorcing Henry. Divorcing
him
,” Irina said with heavy emphasis.
That might explain the stress. “I’m so sorry, Jelena…”
“I’m not.” Jelena’s voice was crisp. Her blue eyes were like blowtorches. “It’s not important. You said you have to go back to him. What happens if you don’t?”
“Jelena, are you nuts?” Irina said quickly in Russian. “He’ll come after us!”
“So we should just sacrifice Nadia for our own safety?” Jelena’s drawl was low and surprisingly sinister. “What happens when it’s your turn to pitch in, Irina? Will you mind when we leave you to die?”
Nadia and Irina gaped. Jelena was usually so pragmatic, the first to say that a woman’s place was supporting her family. This change of attitude…“Jelena, are
you
all right?”
“How can you ask me that?” Jelena’s laugh was rough, painful. “You’re the one who’s forced to stay with that…that
murderer
. That beast.”
“You don’t know him,” Nadia said quickly.
Jelena’s eyes widened. “Good God. And he’s even got you defending him.” Jelena looked pale. “I need to go outside.”
Nadia watched as her eldest sister walked away unsteadily. “How long has she been like this?” she asked Irina softly.
Irina shrugged. “She’s had a bug up her ass since you left,” she said. “I figured her husband was cheating on her. They all do. Bastards.”
“Has she moved in with the family, too, then?” Nadia asked. “With the divorce happening and all?”
“No, and here’s the thing.” Irina leaned forward, her eyes brightening as her voice lowered. “She’s keeping the house. And I think she’s getting a boatload of money, too. Despite the prenuptial agreement, can you believe it?”
Nadia gaped. Actually, she couldn’t. Jelena was hardly a barracuda. She was more like a minnow…or at least, she had been. “Did father do something?”
“What could he do for her that he couldn’t do for me?” Irina scoffed. “Besides, he’s pissed at her, because she won’t tell him how much money she has, and she’s not giving him anything more than the usual stipend.
Man
, he was furious.”
“I can imagine,” Nadia murmured.
“He tried yelling at her. I thought he was even going to hit her,” Irina confided. “But you know what she did? She just stood there, like an Amazon, and lifted her chin up. And she looked scary as hell.”
Nadia could imagine that, too.
“So, do you think
The Beast
will agree to something?” Irina said. “You know, paying the family. We’re really hurting since my divorce, and with the baby here, it’s going to be tighter than ever. I can’t spend
anything
.”
Nadia grimaced. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” Irina asked, pouting. “That sucks. If he can afford a Testa Rossa, you
know
he’s got lots of money. And you’re sleeping with him, right? He likes you enough to let you borrow one of his cars. That sort of makes you, what, like a girlfriend? You should be able to squeeze some money out of him. Let him know it’s important.”
The avarice in Irina’s voice turned Nadia’s stomach. “Irina,” Nadia murmured. “Did you worry about me at all?”
“Worry? Why?” Irina shrugged. “You’re fine, right? I knew you would be.”
“How did you know?” Nadia pressed.
“Bad things don’t happen to you.” Irina sighed. “After all,
you
didn’t get married when you were eighteen, like the rest of us did. You haven’t been divorced, and—”
“I’m going to go check on Jelena.” She cut off Irina’s irritated whine by getting up and stalking out the doors.
She found Jelena standing a ways off from the hospital doors, smoking a cigarette in a hand that trembled slightly. “I haven’t seen you smoke since we were teens,” Nadia said, walking up to her.
Jelena shrugged. “I’ve picked up all sorts of bad habits.”
That sentence held a wealth of pain. Nadia scraped her toe on the sidewalk. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “About the divorce.”
“There’s no need for you to be sorry,” Jelena said sharply. “I’m sorry I wasted so many years of my life trying to be perfect for him, trying to make him happy. So many years putting up with his
bullshit
.”
Nadia recoiled from the venom in Jelena’s voice, but her sister did not seem to notice.
“Sorry that I let him say all the things he did, basically calling me a whore for the arranged marriage. Making me feel like I owed him for every mouthful of food or piece of clothing I wore. And you know what I’m the most sorry about?”
Nadia shook her head, feeling a little scared.
“The fact that I did it all for our father, who can’t keep his dick in his pants to save his life.”
Nadia wouldn’t have been more shocked if Jelena had punched her in the stomach.
“Why are we doing this, Nadia?” Jelena’s eyes were glossy with unshed tears, and she put the cigarette out on the concrete with a harsh twist of her foot. “Our father, who has been bartering us away for his comfort since we were teens. The man who would rather steal cars than get a decent, boring job. Why do we keep hurting ourselves to help him?”
Nadia let out a low, quavering breath. She’d felt that way, but she’d kept all the resentments bottled up for so long…hearing them on her sister’s lips was a revelation, slicing her open. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
Jelena saw them, and nodded. She took Nadia’s hands. “We don’t have to,” she said. “Not anymore. Come with me. I think I’ve figured out a way to protect you.”
“No,” Nadia said.
“Father doesn’t deserve our help.” Jelena looked grim. “I won’t let the baby starve, or Deidre, they’re innocent enough. But father is going to learn to live his own damned life.”
“You’re right about that,” Nadia said. “But about me…I don’t need protection from Dominic.”
“Right,” Jelena said with a sneer. “But you have to rush back to him. Because you
want
to, not because he’s got you scared of what will happen if you don’t go back.”
“Yes,” Nadia said quietly, realizing it was absolutely true.
Jelena studied Nadia’s face carefully, then a look of dawning horror crept into her features. “You think you’re in love with him, don’t you?”
Nadia bit her lip, then lifted her chin slightly.
“He’s broken you.” Jelena’s eyes lit with fury. “Twisted you.”
“He’s been broken,” Nadia countered. “He is different.”
“So,
what
—you’re going to stay with him? Hope that he’ll change…that he’ll learn to be your lover instead of your keeper? That maybe you’ll have some happy life with a man who is
keeping you prisoner?
”
“I know what it sounds like,” Nadia said. “And if I tell you it’s not that way, you won’t believe me. I wouldn’t believe me, either. But it really is different.”
They stood there, silent, the words like a brick wall between them.
Finally, Nadia broke the silence. “I have to go,” she said. “It’s a long drive. Give Papa and Deidre and the baby my love. I’ll visit as soon as I can.”
Jelena shuddered. “Go back to him, then. You don’t know any better,” her sister said dismissively.
“I’ll be all right, Jelena,” Nadia whispered, reaching for her sister’s arm. Jelena tugged away. “Take care of yourself. You seem…”
Stressed? Damaged? Enraged? Insane?
Nadia couldn’t come up with the right word, so she let the sentence trail off.
“You will be all right,” Jelena muttered. “You’ll see.”
It sounded ominous.

Chapter Ten
Jelena sat in the lobby of Alexis’s bordello with grim determination. She was going to have sex—not all that big a deal since by this time, sex had lost its risqué novelty. Now, however, she was going to pay for it. Honestly, she didn’t want the sex. She was paying for a different service altogether: revenge against the man who had turned her sister into a complaisant, even willing, slave.
If it came with fucking, so be it.
A well-dressed, prim-looking young woman, wearing a severe black suit, her hair in a glossy French twist, walked up to where she was sitting. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked, not impolitely. More like a receptionist, all cool smiles and bored friendliness.
Jelena pulled Alexis’s card out of her purse, and handed it to the woman. “I was invited.”
The woman’s eyes widened fractionally. “I’ll have to see what we have available,” she said, with a nod. “In the meantime, can I get you anything? Wine?”
“Do you have any vodka?”
“Of course. Gray Goose all right?”
Jelena took a deep breath. “If you’ve anything Russian…”
“Of course,” the woman repeated warmly. “I’ll be right back.”
The woman went back to her ebony desk, quickly picking up the phone. Her voice was too low for Jelena to hear, but from the quick movements of her lips and the tightness of her expression, she got the feeling that Alexis’s card was something special.
She only imagined what that meant, in the context of this place. Were the men extra well-hung or something? Talented?
What the hell am I going to have to prove now?
The receptionist had disappeared. When she returned to the lobby, she had a small selection of shot glasses, sitting like an arrangement of flowers in a bowl of crushed ice. “These are our best Russian vodkas,” she offered, putting the bowl on an occasional table by Jelena’s chair. “We’ll have your room ready momentarily.”
“No rush,” Jelena found herself murmuring. She sampled two of the glasses. It was obviously expensive, going down smooth as silk before blooming fire in her chest, warming her throat. Her nerves calmed fractionally.
Until the receptionist returned. “They’re ready for you now.”
They are?
What “they” was she referring to?
Jelena got up, following the girl down a maze of hallways. It was completely, almost eerily silent.
Soundproofing. Her heart started to pound.
The woman finally opened a door, ushering Jelena in. Alexis was sitting there, looking impeccable in a blood red dress with matching heels. She surveyed Jelena with amusement.
“You’re not police,” Alexis said. “I checked.”
Jelena nodded. “I want…”
“Not so hasty.” Alexis’s voice was twice as smooth as the vodka. “You might not be on their payroll, but there’s nothing to say that you wouldn’t be working for them, nonetheless.”
“If you knew anything about my family,” Jelena said sharply, “you’d know helping the
politzya
is the last thing on my mind.”
“Easy to say.” Alexis stood. “You’ve come here. I imagine you’d like to sample the services.”
Jelena shrugged. “Not particularly, but if that will convince you, then by all means.”
Alexis’s smirk was cold. “You’re willing to fuck to get what you want. That’s easy enough.”
Jelena shrugged again, nerves causing her stomach to bunch. “And then we can discuss the real business at hand?”
“So professional.” Alexis’s tone was openly mocking. “I want to see how serious you are.”
She opened a door. In walked one of the most handsome men Jelena had ever seen…totally nude.
She gasped in surprise. He was gorgeous—all of him. Chiseled muscles, gleaming with some kind of massage oil. Other than the abundant gold locks on his head, he was completely bare.
Completely
.
Strange, that of all the things involved in this scenario,
that
was what made her blush.
But the door didn’t shut behind him. Instead, another man walked in. Equally gorgeous, only this time more exotic-looking. Asian, she wanted to say, perhaps mixed with Hispanic? His eyes were almond-shaped, his coloring a deep, burnished bronze. He was as tall as the blonde.
She felt her mouth go dry.
“Both?”
Alexis nodded.
“Concurrent,” Jelena said, her voice cracking slightly, “or consecutive?”
Alexis burst out laughing. “As you like.” She went through the door, her hand on the doorknob. “I’ll give you an hour with my boys. Let them give you a good time. Then we’ll discuss business.”
The door shut quietly behind her.
Jelena studied the nude men.
Good lord
. She had no idea how to proceed on this.
“What are your names?” she asked slowly.
“Tom,” the blonde said.
“Blade,” the exotic one said. She noticed the blonde rolled his eyes, ever so slightly.
“Tom, Blade,” she repeated, shaking her head. “Okay. What does she want me to do with you?”
“Whatever you want,” Blade said, and the blonde nodded in agreement.
She stepped close to them, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I need her help,” she said, low, fierce. “What will impress her?”
Tom’s eyes narrowed. Then he looked at Blade, who shrugged.
“Maybe some music,” Tom said. Blade went to a Bose stereo system, on the nightstand by the king-sized bed that now seemed to dominate the room. Music, something instrumental and jazz-fusion inspired, poured out.
To her surprise, Tom moved forward, wrapping her in his arms, pressing kisses on her face, then on her neck. He nibbled at her jaw line, her earlobe.
It felt marvelous.
“She’s listening,” he whispered in her ear. “Watching. You’re being videotaped.”
Jelena stiffened, and he covered her motion by biting her ear, causing her to gasp more audibly, her head tilting back.
“Don’t let on,” he whispered. Over his shoulder, she could see Blade, pulling back the bedsheets with a businesslike briskness. “If you want her help, she wants something she can blackmail you with. This is her insurance.”
Jelena gritted her teeth. Of course. But what difference would a sex tape make? She wasn’t running for office. She was trying to save her sister from a fate worse than death.
Worse. She was trying to save her sister from herself.
“All right,” Jelena said, trying not to notice how good his hand felt as it cupped her ass, massaging her. He reached for the zipper on her skirt, undoing it, letting the garment drop to the floor. “Anything else?”
He looked into her eyes, kissing her deeply. He was an amazing kisser, she couldn’t help but notice. Her nipples hardened despite herself.
“She believes that sex is power,” he whispered, burying his face in her hair.
“Lot of that going around,” Jelena muttered back, thinking of Phillipe.
“If you put on a good show…if you act like you believe the same thing…” He undid the buttons of her blouse. “Then she’ll respect you.”
Jelena shivered as he nibbled her neck. “All right.”
She nudged him away, unbuttoning her blouse and tossing it aside. She removed her bra and panties and heels, and went to the bed. Blade was already stretched out, looking bored, she noticed. It was rude, really. What if she were a customer?
He wasn’t hard, either: another sign of disrespect. She shoved him back onto the pillows. He looked a little surprised.
She kissed him as she grabbed his cock, brushing her rock-hard nipples against his bare chest. The feel of his shaven balls was strange, like rough silk under her fingertips. He groaned against her lips.
She felt Tom move behind her, his cock already stiffening, pressing against her buttocks as he spooned behind her, pressing hot, insistent kisses on her back. He seemed to know every strange, insistent erogenous zone she possessed. Without thinking, she stroked Blade’s now-perky erection with more insistence, rubbing her thigh against his, feeling Tom’s leg stretching behind hers.
Blade’s breathing had sped up slightly, and he was kissing her back, his tongue invading her mouth. She grunted with irritation, shoving his face away. “Not like that,” she said sharply, and he scowled at her. “You’re here for
my
pleasure. You serve
me
.”
She turned her back to him, reaching for Tom, kissing him. Tom’s lips were warm, firm, pliant. He kissed her with gentle insistence, and the heat of nerves in her stomach turned into a different type of heat altogether. Sighing, she curved against him, his leg parting her thighs.
Blade growled with irritation. She didn’t turn from Tom’s face. “Blade,” she said, against Tom’s lips, “you’re not pleasing me.”
“But I will.” His voice, low and rough, actually made her shiver. Then she felt him, kissing her back much as Tom had. Then she felt his hand cupping her bottom, his fingers delving gently for her cleft.
She let out a rough exhalation when he found what he was looking for. With more care than she would have given him credit for, he parted the folds of her, caressing the delicate inner flesh. She took a deep, shuddering breath as Tom moved from her face to her breasts, kissing first one, then the other…then suckling one gently as his hand traced the opposite nipple with a delicate, experienced hand. She arched her back slightly, pressing her breasts deeper into his wet, hot mouth. Blade spread her legs, and she felt the prickle of his short haircut between her thighs, the blaze of his breath against her quickly dampening flesh.
When he suckled on her clit, she moaned loudly, closing her eyes. The sensation was unbelievable, more than she ever would have imagined. Her hips gyrated against his insistent, mobile tongue. He laved her, his tongue tracing her every line, every hidden crease. Jets of heat shot through her, from her breasts, from her pussy.
“Yes,” she said, mindful of her audience. “Yes.”
She spread her legs a bit further, and Blade edged upward, his chin moving, making way for…she felt a broad finger trace the opening of her pussy, then delve deep, as his teeth grazed her now rock-hard clit. She cried out at the sensation, and he nibbled, making it increase ten-fold. It was almost too much.
His finger stroked carefully, in and out, as if he were simply taking her measure. Then, after some searching, he finally found the sensitive spot, high and inside. She growled, letting him know what he’d discovered. Tom laughed, nipping at her throat.
“Suck on me,” she said, not sure which man she was ordering. “Hard.”
Both did as requested. Tom kissed her throat, his mouth drawing enough pressure to cause pain, surely enough to leave a mark. It was eclipsed by the pleasure brought on by Blade’s determined pull. He stroked, suckling on her clit, his mouth pressing on the mound just above the nubbin. She hadn’t realized that it, too, was a pleasure center. His keen, knowing pressure, combined with the pain, combined with his suckling, combined with the stroking of her G spot…
She screamed as the orgasm tore through her, letting out a flood of wetness.
Blade retreated, his expression smug…and gratified, she noticed. She reached for him, ignoring his hands, reaching instead for his hips. She only saw his smugness drop in surprise when she took his cock into her mouth, tracing the head with her tongue, quick as lightning. She took him as deep as she could without gagging. Turned on beyond belief, the orgasm still resonating through her system, she sucked gently, then twisted her face, stroking him in a gently gyrating motion. Using her saliva as lubricant, she stroked the rest of his impressive length with the slickness. She smiled around his girth when he made a low noise, his hips arching toward her.
Tom had moved behind her, and she heard the sound of a condom being rolled on. She wiggled her hips, eagerly, shamelessly. For the moment, all sense of purpose was gone. She was in the moment.
Alexis was right. Sex
was
power. And right now, Jelena was a goddess.
She was still sucking Blade when Tom entered her, his penetration eased by the juices of her previous orgasm. He was large, and gratifyingly broad, she realized with a moan of pleasure. He moved carefully, his cock tip circling her inner lips, his fingers still working her still-quivering clit. Then he eased himself in with a deep glide, and she moaned around Blade’s cock, gripping him hard. He growled, his hand knotting in her hair, holding her captive to him.
She moved away, shaking her head at him, and he looked at her with something between a sneer and a plea. She nudged him down on the bed, then moved between his legs. Tom moved with her, sinuously.
She was on all fours, hovering over Blade’s enormous, tumescent erection, glistening from her attention. Tom covered her back, his hips against her ass, his cock buried deep in her pussy.
“
My
pleasure,” she chastised Blade, and he closed his eyes as she massaged his cock between her breasts. Then Tom started to move, his hips pressing against hers, his hands pulling her flush against him. She spread her legs a little more, accommodating him. “Yes,” she murmured. He was good…so large…so intent.
Blade made a growl of protest. She flashed a glare of her own at him.
He moved up, kneeling in front of her, cupping her breasts in his hands with almost painful insistence. He kissed her fiercely. His tongue tangled with hers, and she let him, pulling him roughly to her. The sensation of his hard, hot cock nestled against her stomach as Tom pressed inside her was thrilling. She nipped at Blade’s lower lip. His moan in response, his kneading massage of her breasts, was enough to make her shudder with the pleasure of it.
Tom started moving faster, harder, his hand reaching between her body and Blade’s, searching out and finding her clit. She moaned, leaning her head against Blade’s shoulder, meeting Tom’s every thrust with an equal backward thrust of her own as Tom’s hand massaged her clit mercilessly. She was muttering incoherently now, writhing between the two men’s bodies, sweat starting to dew over her skin. “I want you,” she said. “God, I want you
both
.”
Tom stopped, and she cursed. “Can you?” he breathed.
It took a moment to understand what he was asking. “No,” she said, feeling some of her pleasure ebb. “Not…no. I’ve never…”
He reached between them. Sweat slicked, he parted her buttocks, his finger probing gently.
She tensed, pulling away from him, pushing even closer to Blade. He was large, but not as large.
“It can be enjoyable,” Blade whispered now, his voice surprisingly gentle against her ear.
She froze. She knew what they were proposing.
No
. Not this. Nothing was worth this. She could enjoy sex, even with two men, but she was not so far gone as to…