Chapter 17
EVELINA
Every thought in my head is screaming for me to turn and run.
The exit is right there.
I’m not physically restrained or held captive. He’s even dropped his iron-like grip on my wrist .
And yet, I still follow Vaughn wordlessly through the party, as if there’s an invisible collar around my neck that has me stumbling after him to keep up.
In a last-ditch attempt to extricate myself from this hold he seems to have over me, I furtively glance around, searching for Gabby, hoping she’ll come save me from this man, or from myself.
But she’s nowhere to be found.
There are no allies here.
Only him.
Vaughn opens a door at the side of the open area where the party is being held, and I shiver when he reaches back, wraps a strong hand around my upper arm, and yanks me after him into the darkness beyond. I gasp sharply as I almost trip over my heels before the door is slammed shut behind us.
A lone, flickering candle sitting on the back of the vanity casts dramatic, dancing shadows around the powder room. My eyes dart to him as he starts to loosen his tie.
“Anything you’d like to say?”
My throat tightens.
“I—I’m sorry,” I blurt. “I didn’t mean to throw my drink in your—”
“I don’t give a shit about your childish attempt to be petulant,” Vaughn murmurs.
It’s the cool, even tone of his voice that sends ice through my veins. He’s not angry. There’s no threat in his voice.
It’s just…flat.
Dead.
Inhuman.
“I don’t understand,” I say quietly.
Vaughn turns to me, his head tipping slightly to the side. “Say it,” he says quietly. His icy blue eyes suck the meager light from the small bathroom around us, until they’re almost glowing with a chilling intensity. “Say your word, Evelina.”
Slowly, I shake my head side to side.
Vaughn exhales. “Again, the absence of that word is your implied consent. Be quite sure you understand what you’re agreeing to.”
“I—” My voice breaks. “I understand.”
“No, you don’t,” he says quietly. “But you will.” He pulls his tie the rest of the way off, then wraps it slowly around one of his fists.
I start to tremble as I realize again I might have gotten in way over my head.
So why is that feeling inside me coiling even tighter?
Clenching.
Liquifying.
“There are rules, Evelina.”
He calmly shrugs his jacket off his broad shoulders.
He methodically hangs it from a hook on the wall before he turns back to me and begins to roll up the sleeves of his dress shirt, revealing his muscled forearms, inked with the same dark, swirling images of skulls, violence, and death that the rest of his tattooed body is covered in.
The feeling inside me begins to shimmer and spark.
“While you’re under my control, I will fuck you: whenever, wherever, however, in any hole I choose. You’ll obey, or there’s the door.” He points to the locked bathroom door behind me. “Just say your word.”
I barely keep the shake from my voice. “I’m not going to.”
Vaughn’s lips pull into a hungry smile.
“We’ll see about that.”
He cracks his neck as he finishes rolling up his sleeves.
“I’m not going to make love to you.”
“I didn’t expect you would,” I croak.
“But you have a naive perspective on sex, given that you never had it before my cock introduced itself to your pretty cunt and bathed in your virgin blood.”
A shiver ripples down my spine, coiling and snaking through my lower belly.
“I’m saying this, Evelina,” he continues, “so that you understand that me fucking you does not mean we are in a relationship.”
“I know,” I mutter. “I’m not stupid.”
“Then say it out loud. The whole thing.”
My lips twist before I take a breath. “I know that you…”
“Say it,” he purrs.
My face throbs.
“That you fucking me does not mean we’re in a relationship.”
“You not saying your word,” he continues, “is implied consent to anything. Is that clear?”
I tremble. “W-what does anything mean?”
“I think it’s fairly self-explanatory.”
Heat flickers inside me.
“Will you hurt me?” I whisper. “Like you did last time?”
“Probably even more.”
Jesus.
My brows knit. “Does…does that turn you on?” I mumble, feeling my core tighten in a way I’m not sure I understand. “Hurting me?”
Vaughn’s eyes glint in the flickering candlelight.
“The way you respond to me hurting you does.” His jaw sets. “I don't get off on inflicting pain, Evelina. I get off on how that pain pushes you to break for me.”
I tremble. “So… It’s a power thing?”
“Obviously. Stop stalling.”
He steps toward me. I gasp quietly, retreating until my back hits the door.
“You…you said whenever, wherever, however…”
“And in any hole I choose, yes,” he growls, still slowly moving toward me, a predator stalking wounded prey.
My pulse skips. “What about whoever?” I say quietly.
Vaughn stops dead in his tracks, his face darkening.
“I mean, will there be other people involved?”
The words rattle like dry leaves from my mouth.
I don’t think I could do that. Submitting to him and his madness is one thing. But what if he wanted to offer me up to his friends like fresh meat?
“Vaughn,” I croak, my eyes wide. “I—”
“No.”
The word scrapes like a blade over his lips.
“Just me. You belong to me, and you will not be touching any other cocks but mine,” he hisses, a cold edge to his tone that scares me. “Do you understand?”
I nod quickly.
“Also, when I fuck you, I will be fucking you. No kissing. No cuddling.”
Vaughn stops right in front of me, towering over me, his sheer size pinning me to the door at my back.
He raises his hands, unhurriedly uncoiling the tie from the fist it was wrapped around.
He loops it and makes a knot, his eyes never leaving mine.
He tightens it with a jerk that brings a gasp from my throat.
Then he hands me the tie.
I frown curiously, looking at the looped slip knot, the rest of it trailing down.
“Take it.”
My hands are trembling as I take the silk from his hands.
“Put the loop around your neck.”
My pulse skips, and a twisting sensation tightens low in my belly. My eyes snap to his, waiting for him to smile and admit he’s kidding.
He doesn't.
Because he’s not.
You not saying your word is implied consent.
I lift my arms, looping the tie over my head and letting it settle at my neck.
“Give me the end.”
I’m shaking as I hand him the length of silk. Vaughn takes it, his eyes locked with mine. Then, slowly, he pulls.
And pulls.
The tie tightens around my throat, not enough to choke me, but creating enough pressure that my pulse jangles and my core clenches.
“Get on your knees,” he murmurs.
My throat is dry and my heart is racing dangerously as my eyes meet his.
“Now, princess,” he growls.
Part of me still wants to defy him. Maybe another part wants let fly my safe word like a mic drop and just leave, to be done with all this insanity.
But the other part of me, that came alive the other night when he tackled me to the ground, and fucked me like a whore—and, yes, hurt me…
That part wins. That’s the part in charge when I find myself dropping to my knees on the powder room floor in front of him.
Vaughn’s blue eyes gleam.
“Take out my cock.”
When I hesitate, he tugs on the tie. The silk around my throat tightens slightly, making me whimper and jarring me into compliance. My hands shake as I reach for his belt, my vision tunneling as I fumble at it.
“I—I can’t get it open,” I mumble, my face heating.
Vaughn pushes my hands aside and undoes his belt buckle. Then he opens the button on his slacks before letting his arms drop to his sides again.
“Your turn.”
I swallow and reach for his zipper. I grasp it between my fingers, and when I tug it down, my face heats as I feel something heavy and thick twitch in his pants.
He’s already hard. Why does that excite me so much?
My thighs squeeze together as I undo the zipper the rest of the way. Then I grab his pants and pull them to his knees.
Jesus.
The front of his black boxer briefs tents obscenely right in front of my face. My face pales as I stare at it, my throat tightening as my gaze slides over the huge bulge throbbing in the black cotton.
My fingers slip into the waistband, and the pulse thudding in my ears becomes louder and higher as I start to peel his boxers down and off his grooved, muscled hips.
Suddenly, his cock springs free.
Holy.
Hell.
For a second, I’m literally frozen, just kneeling there staring at it.
Long. So thick, with a swollen, darker head. A pulsing vein winds down the shaft to the base, and big, heavy-looking balls hang between his legs.
I know I have almost nothing to compare it to. But I’ve seen porn. And this is leagues bigger than anything I’ve seen there.
How in the holy hell did that all fit inside me?!
“Open your mouth, princess.”
Heat floods my face. My core clenches. A needy ache builds between my legs.
“I…I mean…”
The corners of his lips curl in amusement. “You’ve never sucked cock before.”
I cringe and shake my head. “No,” I mumble.
“Well, tonight, all I need is for that mouth to be a wet hole. You’re not going to learn to suck my cock tonight, Evelina.” His eyes gleam again. “You’re going to be a good little whore and stay there on your knees while I fuck your face.”
I know—I know—that everything he’s saying right now should make me scream my safe word, possibly slap him, and go running back to my boring life.
I should be disgusted.
Turned off.
Indignant.
I’m…not.
I stare at his huge, bulging erection, curving up from his chiseled lower abs and the v-line grooves of his hips, and I don’t feel any of those things.
“Open your mouth, baby.”
Baby.
God, why do I love that he just said that?
I tremble, looking up at him past the cock bobbing in front of my face. My pulse hammers in my ears, my heart skipping as electricity ignites in my core.
I part my lips.
Vaughn takes his cock in his fist, his jaw clenched as he looks down at me and guides his swollen head toward my open, waiting mouth.