Chapter Seven #2
By the time we pulled up to the private airstrip, she trembled with terror, and I shook with desperation.
Sucking in a breath, tasting her floral citrusy perfume on my tongue, I fingered my birdcage cufflinks.
Was the GPS location working? Could Q see my little red dot blinking with sin as I sat in a plane ready to fly into hell?
Surely, he’d dealt with other traffickers who had technology like Victor’s and knew how to get around it?
Victor never took his eyes off me as the engines started with a powerful purr.
Ily flinched, a soft whimper under her breath.
“You know, Henri...I was once like you,” Victor said softly as the plane shuddered and rolled into motion.
He tapped his chest, his face full of commiseration.
“I always knew I was different. Always knew I was destined for greater things. I might’ve been born into a middle-class family and taught to get a menial job where I would be turned into a slave for a tyrannical government, but I didn’t accept that.
I didn’t allow myself to be bled dry by taxes and robbed of life’s great pleasures.
If I had, I would’ve eventually gotten sick and died, just like everyone else.
” He shuddered as if his tragic ‘could-haves’ truly terrified him.
“Life would’ve been meaningless, pointless, devoid of happiness and... fun.”
“Rape isn’t fun, you asshole,” Ily snapped. “It’s criminal. You deserve to be in a cage.”
“Deserve? Oh, most likely.” Victor nodded. “Will it ever happen? Of course not. Thanks to following my purpose, I am now immune to society’s laws.” He leaned across the aisle, his dark blue eyes glinting. “I rule my world, girl, and I cannot wait to show you how you will serve in it.”
Before Ily could spit at him or invoke the Master Jeweler’s wrath, I planted my hand on her thigh.
She immediately shoved my wrist, growling like a feral tabby. “I said, don’t touch me.”
“And I said, don’t fight.” I dug my fingers into her firm quad. The strength bristling beneath her skirt surprised me.
Curiosity bloomed despite my tension.
Was she slim and strong because she worked out?
Why did she buy as many rocks as her ex said she did?
Was she truly in love with her adoptive brother?
A shard of jealousy struck me. My fingers bit harder into her flesh.
“You’re hurting me.” She shifted away.
I let her go, shaking out my hand and hating the fire in my fingers.
Victor smiled as bloodthirsty as a shark, missing nothing as I let Ily tell me no.
Wrong move, Ri.
No means yes in this world.
No is a gold-gilded invitation.
I swallowed hard as Victor reclined in his chair.
“You definitely remind me of my younger self, Ward. There’s an angel on your shoulder telling you that touching a woman against her will is wrong.
That the urges in your body are twisted and ought to be ignored for as long as you physically can.
You probably think you can indulge in a quick fuck, no harm done, and then return to your previous life as if nothing ever happened. Am I wrong?”
I froze.
Shit.
Careful.
Tread very, very carefully.
Choosing my words with deliberation, I said coldly, “You’re not wrong, but you’re also not right. I asked to join your club, after all. I want to be who I truly am, but I can’t help it if I’ve been conditioned to play nice.”
“That conditioning will fade, you’ll see.”
I shrugged. “But what if that conditioning is the only thing keeping us human? If we all gave in to what we truly wanted, the world would be run by thieves and sinners.”
“Or the mess of society would be forced to conform to the natural order of things.”
“Natural order?” My forehead furrowed.
“Tell me, Henri, what happens in a forest that has no predators?”
Roland leaned back and scratched his jaw, no doubt used to this spiel and enjoying the entertainment.
I glanced at Ily. She never took her eyes off me.
Two men wanted me to admit all the darkness inside me, while a small, breakable girl wanted me to prove that whatever she’d felt when she first saw me was the truth.
That she’d been right to let me affect her.
That she wasn’t broken because she was wet for me.
That she wasn’t stupid for agreeing to sell herself to me for one delectable night.
I wished I could lie and convince her that I was the good guy.
But even if we weren’t on a plane about to take off—if I hadn’t agreed to traffic her into a world where she would never be found, or condemn her to a future full of pain and damnation—I wouldn’t be able to pretend.
Tearing my attention from her strained, beautiful face, I answered Victor’s question.
“If there are no predators, the ecosystem fails. Prey animals breed too fast. They swarm the area. Devour all the resources. Without a threat to keep them running and an enemy to eat them, their sheer numbers destroy everything.”
Victor slapped his thigh and pointed at me.
“Exactly!” City lights twinkled past outside the oval windows, revealing we were in a small queue of larger aircraft waiting to gallop down the runway.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself. The food chain needs predators and prey.
If there are too many of each, the other cannot survive.
Balance. It’s all about balance.” He grinned at Ily.
“I’m merely providing balance to the rampant breeding by a species that has no natural enemies. ”
“You are one twisted man,” Ily muttered. Her eyes narrowed with bravery even as the airplane’s engines switched from a purr to a fuselage-shaking thunder. She gripped the armrests as we lurched forward, plummeting down the tarmac, racing away from gravity’s hold.
“Twisted?” Victor shrugged. “I prefer to think of myself as enlightened.”
“You are the exact opposite of enlightened.” Ily fisted her hands so hard her knuckles popped. “You dwell in shadows and think you see the fucking light.”
“I do see the light.” Victor chuckled. “Each time I climax in a pretty jewel like yourself, I touch nirvana. You’ll see.
You sit there and judge me, but soon you’ll be above all that.
You think you won’t come too? That you won’t feel pleasure?
That you won’t beg to be fucked? I hate to tell you, but your body will betray you well before your mind, but your mind will soon follow.
And once that happens, your heart will give in too.
You’ll find peace in submission. Joy in service.
My jewels exist in a state of permanent arousal because they’re no longer trapped by fear.
You don’t have to work for a wage, worry about rent, or lie and cheat to get ahead.
You will revert to what you truly are: prey.
Prey whose only purpose is to please the predator who owns you. ”
Ily opened her mouth to say things I had no doubt would get her hurt.
I moved before I fully thought about the consequences.
Grabbing her wrist, I yanked her hand into my lap and pressed it against my never-deflating hard-on.
Her wide eyes flew to mine. She fought to get free. I merely held her tighter. “He’s right, you know.” I rocked my hips into her unwilling palm, shuddering at how good it felt to take rather than ask. “I felt it myself. You were wet. You clenched around my finger like a greedy little—”