Chapter 17 #2
“Stand here,” he growls, twisting his hand so that his fingers now point to a spot on the floor directly in front of him, to the side of his desk.
Not a fucking chance.
“You’re on a call,” I mumble. “I’ll come back—”
One second, he’s still a few feet away. The next, he’s surging across the floor, grabbing me, bending me over, and pinning me face-down across his desk, a firm hand on the back of my neck.
I’m shaking, my breath coming in short, sharp bursts. Bane reaches over and unmutes his phone.
With his other hand, he grabs the back of my yoga pants and yanks them down over my ass.
Heat tingles over my skin as he continues his phone conversation in Russian.
His fingers slip into the back of my thong, and I shudder when he slowly peels it down and off me before letting it tangle with my yoga pants mid-thigh.
He continues to speak in a rough, somewhat angry voice. My body tenses, my heart thudding as I wait for the jump-scare that still doesn’t materialize.
Mid-sentence, I suddenly yelp loudly when his hand smacks my ass, still tender and brutalized from last night.
Bane’s thick finger stabs the mute button. I hear multiple other men speaking in Russian as Bane winds up and roughly spanks me again.
One cheek. Then the other. Then back to the first. I cry out, squealing at each vicious smack.
I spasm, shuddering when he roughly hits the inside of my thigh, forcing my legs a little wider apart as I lean across his desk.
He stabs the mute button again, barking what sounds like orders into the phone.
The next second, his hand comes up between my thighs and slaps my fucking pussy again.
He hits the mute button just in time to stop my broken, savage, fucked-up screams of pleasure from reaching the men on the other end of the call.
“Now tell me what the fuck you came in here for, little bird,” he rasps into my ear, sending a tremor down my spine.
I pant as my legs shake, my core turning molten. “I—the contract—”
“What about it,” he murmurs right into the shell of my ear. His hand stays on my ass, softly stroking the red, smarting flesh.
“I…all the things I agreed to on the list…”
Bane starts to chuckle. “You’re wondering why I haven’t fucked you yet?”
I go still, not daring to contradict him.
Bane exhales slowly. His hand grips my bare ass tightly, and I shiver as I feel him lean over me, his lips brushing my ear.
“Don’t worry, little bird,” he rasps. “I will fuck you. But you and I both know it’s not as fun without an element of danger.
Of fear. Of surprise. So when I do fuck you, it’s going to be when you least expect it.
I don’t want to be served my meal of you,” he continues.
“I want your adrenaline screaming through your system when I force you to your knees to take my cock.”
Holy fuck.
I almost tell him my adrenaline is through the fucking roof right now. But I just keep trembling, the hard wood of the desk biting into my hipbones as he keeps me pinned prone across his desk.
“Now,” he growls. “Me not knocking on your door is because it’s my fucking house. That privilege doesn’t extend to you. This is my office, and that”…he taps the side of his phone on the desk next to me…“is a very important call.”
I yelp, shuddering against the desk when his palm slaps my ass hard.
“So unless you want me to fuck you in the ass right now, bent over my desk while I take care of business on the phone, I’d leave.”
I shake all over when his big hand slips between my legs and his palm cups my leaking, embarrassingly wet pussy.
“Fly away while you can, little bird.”
He lets go of me and steps back. I’m shaking, my thoughts scattering in a million directions and my eyes unable to focus as I stand up and pull my panties and yoga pants back into place.
Then I’m gone, bolting from the office as quickly as I can.
Back in my room, I listen to him barking into his phone for a while, yelling about something. Eventually, that fades.
I end up spending the rest of the day unpacking my boxes, hanging my clothes in the walk-in closet, and otherwise setting up my room as best as I can.
It’s quiet later—so quiet that I assume Bane has left again. I creep through the penthouse, nervously glancing into every room, my adrenaline still pulsing through my veins. But the house is empty. No Bane. No Alfred.
Just me.
I’m heading back to my room with a bag of pretzels snagged from the kitchen when I notice the door at the end of the hallway.
It’s open.
I don’t think it was open before. Actually, I don’t think I even saw this door before: I would have peeked inside looking for the monster of the house, whom I seem to both fear and gravitate to.
I chew on my lip, hesitating. Then I carefully approach the door.
It’s stairs, leading up into darkness. Common sense or at least basic survival instinct would tell me to leave this alone.
But then I prove just how fucking crazy I am and start to climb the staircase. When I open the door at the top, my breath catches.
I’m outside, on the roof of Bane’s penthouse. But even though I can see the glow and lights of the city all around me, there’s a heavy, dark structure covering the whole space, keeping it shadowed, dark, and gloomy.
I suddenly realize I’m a huge, gorgeous, Victorian-style greenhouse.
The glassed-in space is full of huge, leafy, potted trees and plants, giant statues of humans, monsters, and gargoyles, and rows of hedges in planter boxes.
I step out into the glass-in night air with a shiver, wondering if I should go get a sweatshirt. The door clicks shut behind me.
My heart jumps as I whirl and grab the doorknob.
Fuck.
Locked.
The air around me shifts. A black energy creeps over my skin, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I start to turn, shaking a little, looking for the source of my anxiety.
I don’t get the chance.
Because just then, a weight slams heavily into me. I scream, my heart leaping into my throat as I'm shoved against the door. My palms and cheeks press flat to the metal, and the familiar scent of leather and woodsmoke invades my senses.
Strong hands grab mine, keeping them pinned above my head as stubble and lips brush against my earlobe.
“You wanted to play, little bird?” Bane rasps into my ear. His huge, muscled body leans hard against me, pinning me to the door. His teeth nip at my ear, and I shiver as a needy ache slithers through my core.
“Let's. Fucking. Play.”