Seventeen
I t was a mistake, and we both knew it. I’d pulled a lace mask over my eyes. You know, the kind they use for those fancy masquerade balls that rich people go to. I liked how it made me look, plus it hid most of the scar too. That was my risk. My identifying feature.
I’d slipped the red wig on too, so I was as disguised as I could be, but the phone was still ringing. Was he ignoring me? Had he turned it off?
Suddenly the screen changed as the ringing stopped, and he was looking right at me. His face dropped slightly. Was it disappointment? Damn it. The illusion was more romantic than my reality. I closed my eyes, my head dropping. Now he’d stop letting me contact him.
“That’s cheating,” he said finally, and I lifted my head to look at him. He was shaking his head.
“A fucking disguise? That’s not fair. I want to see you .”
I felt a grin widening on my face. It was disappointment, but not because he didn’t like my face. Because he couldn’t see all of it. I shrugged, unable to fight the smile now it was there.
“It’s not funny. I’m going out on a limb here. You fucked with my head, and left me in a right fucking mess, and now you’re gonna act like some kind of fucking masked bitch?”
I tried to frown, but the mask made it feel tight on my face.
“I told you. If you know what I look like, then you’ll be able to find me. I can’t take that risk.”
“I’m the one taking all the fucking risks here. Do you have any idea what my brothers all think of me? Bad enough that I was the guy who couldn’t fight off a fucking woman. Now I’m the guy who keeps crawling after her, because she’s the only one my fucking body wants.” He groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
“I’m what?”
“Forget it. Show me that pussy of yours. I want to see you finger fucking yourself.”
I couldn’t focus on his words, because my mind was still replaying the part about being the only one his body wants.
“Dammit, Tori. Show me your fucking pussy. Now .“ He was frustratingly dominant, and I knew I’d been right to keep him under my power that night, because without it, he’d have owned me, taken me, forced me.
“I want to see your cock first. Are you hard for me?”
He brought the phone closer to his face, his eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Pussy. Now. Or this is over.”
Dammit. I lowered the phone, angling it to show him my spread legs, and my fingers sliding through the wetness he’d caused.
“Now you.” He ran his tongue over his lips, when I raised the phone again. I’d never kissed him. I wanted to feel his lips on mine. On my skin. On my throat, as he thrust inside me.
He smirked, keeping the phone aimed at his face.
“Oh, I don’t think so, darlin’. You’ve already seen way more of me than you should have. This is about you making up for that.”
I let him see my glare. “That’s not fair.”
“ Neither is drugging and raping a guy, babe . You had what you wanted, and now it’s my turn.”
His words hit me like a dagger in my chest. He made it sound like a bad thing. Like he’d never wanted me.
He made a low growling sound. “What the fuck is going on? You want this or not?”
I swallowed hard, as I met his eyes, saw the anger, saw the lust. My heart thudded in my chest, and I couldn’t take my eyes off his face. I felt like he could reach through the phone and grab me. Force me.
I ended the call, tossing the phone aside, like it had burned me. What the fuck am I doing?
Ryder
I had no idea what just happened. One minute we’re looking at each other, and I’ve got my damn cock in my hand, and the next, she’s freaking out and hanging up on me. SHE. She freaked out.
What the fuck about me could scare someone like her? She’d already proven that she had power over me. More than just that night. Because the second I heard her voice, my cock was rising, like it had become conditioned to her, and only her.
And to say that had left me seriously frustrated, would be massively underplaying the situation right now.
“You’re gonna put your cock away now though, right?” I heard Ice’s voice, even before I realised he’d entered the room. I cursed, pulling the covers back over me.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Witnessing you striking out with a woman who clearly has more taste than I thought.”
“Prick. Did you just come in here to try and fuck things up for me?” I sat back against the headboard, watching him come further into my room.
“Nah, you did that pretty well all on your own. You scared off your own rapist. Brother, that’s some skill you have there.”
“Look, unless you wanna get me off instead, do you wanna fuck off?”
He smirked, stopping at the foot of the bed.
“I’m not touching your dick, but I wanted to find out why I couldn’t hear the second call.”
“ Hear it?”
He nodded. “I used specialist software to clone that phone, but it didn’t pick up the video call. She might be using an app that I can’t access.”
“It was going so well, and then she rang off.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah, really well, man. Still, you ever wonder why she does what she does?”
I watched him perch on the edge of my bed, leaning on a hand.
“Please, make yourself comfortable,” I muttered snarkily, and he grinned.
“I’m serious.”
“Yeah, of course I wondered. Why?”
He looked unimpressed. “Jeez, do you just permanently keep your head up your ass? I mean, it’s pretty fucking obvious to me.”
I tried sitting up to glare at him, but I was worried about flashing my junk again.
“So fucking enlighten me, then you can sod off.”
He was shaking his head as he got up again, making a huffy sound.
“I’d imagine that only a woman who’d had her power taken by a man, in some violent way, would even consider drugging a man for sex. Maybe someone did to her what she did to you.” Jesus .
He headed for the door. “Try to keep off the phone for the rest of the uh… morning… I’m fucking shattered.”
After he’d left the room, I wondered why the fuck that hadn’t occurred to me already. Maybe he was right, and maybe my head really had been firmly lodged up my ass this entire time.
I picked up the phone again.
Me : I’m sorry if I scared you.
I fell asleep waiting for a response, which I never found until the next morning, when I finally woke.
Unknown : This number has been disconnected, and your message could not be delivered.
I sat up, staring at the phone in horror, my heart thudding in my chest. No. NO. I couldn’t lose her again now. And that’s what had me thumping my fist against Ice’s door, dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts, at an hour he considered ungodly, especially after being awake with me at gone 3am.
“What the fuck do you want?” He snapped, poking his face through the few inches of door he’d allowed. His hair was sticking up, and he looked exhausted.
“She disconnected the phone. Jesus, Ice. I need to be able to reach her.”
He slammed the door in my face, and I stood there blinking for a minute, before I absorbed the fact that he wasn’t going to help me. I deserved that, but it still fucking left me with no idea what to do. I turned to leave, and as I did, the door opened again a crack.
“She’s playing you. That response you got is a text, not an automated message. Now fuck off, and don’t bother me again until after noon. At least.”
Oh. That game playing bitch .
It was only later that afternoon that I found out that Ice had tracked a camera feed from the alleyway, and had an idea of which building she was now staying in. The plan was for me to reach out to her, and keep her busy on the phone, while they moved to sneak up on her.
The idea of one of my brothers even touching her was almost unbearable. When had I become so protective of the person who’d assaulted me? I pretty much got in the faces of everyone going to retrieve her, issuing demands that they don’t hurt her, and that nobody fucking touches her, except what was necessary to take her captive.
Reacher dragged me away from the team, so they could leave.
“You’re getting attached to the bitch. Remember what she did to you, brother. What she’s done to countless other men. How she killed a guy. She’s not to be trusted, or protected. Or kept alive. Understood?”
I swallowed down the instant protests in my mind, and the almost debilitating urge to grab him by the throat and threaten his life, if anyone caused her harm. What the fuck was that? Instead, I retreated to my room, poured a tall glass of vodka, and sat on my bed with both phones in front of me.
My part was to keep her busy. It was time to test Ice’s theory, that she’d faked disconnecting her phone, and I’d deliberately left it until now to check.
I hit redial on the last call in my call log, praying that she’d pick up. It rang three times. Four. Dammit. She was gone for real.
“I’m going to destroy this phone,” she said hurriedly, the second she answered. “It was a mistake to make contact with you after that night.”
Shit . “Wait! Look, I can’t believe I feel like I need to apologise to the person who did what they did to me, but I didn’t want to scare you off. I don’t know why, but I can’t bear the idea of you being gone. I have no idea how you did this to me…”
Honesty was the best policy right now.
She was quiet for a moment. “You’re too… you’re… you wouldn’t understand. You’re just a man. You… everything is easier for men. You don’t have to be afraid. I… why are you calling me right now?” Fuck!
I forced myself to let out a soft moan.
“Because I want to finish what we started. I have the worst case of blue balls-”
“Bullshit. There’s a reason you’re calling me right now. Are they tracing me somehow? Are… what’s… NO!” She ended the call with a scream, and no amount of calling back was getting me anywhere, so I dialled Reacher.
“Getting a little lazy, aren’t we?” He never said hello when he answered his phone, grumpy asshole.
“Did they get her?”
He muttered something away from the phone.
“We haven’t heard back yet. Why?”
“We were talking, and then she screamed, and the call cut out. Did they get her? Was it us? Has someone else taken her? ANSWER ME!” I was yelling at my Club President. That was never going to end well .