Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Leah
His words echoed in my head as he pulled away from the curb and along the street. Twisting in my seat, I watched as my small apartment grew smaller and smaller, and right there on the pavement was the bag he had packed and a flash of a pink strap. My good bra.
“My bag.”
He didn’t even flick his eyes in my direction. A deep line appeared between his eyebrows. He was concentrating on the road so much. Or maybe he was concentrating on something else. His face was unreadable.
“Viktor,” I tried again. “My bag—”
A lump formed in my throat as the bag grew smaller and smaller, and I didn’t know why. Maybe because I had worked so hard for everything I had ever had, and he had just tossed it aside without even a second thought.
“You won’t need it,” he said out of the corner of his mouth. “Didn’t I just fucking tell you that you don’t need it. You are mine, Leah. I’ll buy you everything you need.”
Frowning, I stared at him. He was angry, but I didn’t understand why. Surely he didn’t believe all the nonsense he had just said. I was a person. I couldn’t belong to someone.
“I don’t need you to buy me—” I trailed off as his eyes darted to me. His lips thinned.
“There is nothing in your old life that you need, Printsessa.” He said through gritted teeth. “I will supply everything you need as my wife.”
Clasping my hands in my lap, I bit my lip. “Maybe there’s nothing I need, but maybe there are things I want,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to make him angry, although it seemed to be his default setting.
I didn’t know Viktor well or at all, but unless he was deep inside my body, there didn’t seem to be a gentle, happy bone in my body, and even then, gentle wasn’t the word I would use.
“You dragged me out of there before I could even grab anything of value,” I muttered.
Viktor chuckled. “Of value?” He laughed mockingly. “There was nothing in that dump that had any value.”
My clasped hands tightened. “Emotional value.” Asshole I added silently. “You just dragged me out of my life. You didn’t even think about actually asking me whether this was what I wanted. I haven’t actually agreed to marry you, Viktor,” I pointed out.
“You are being seriously ungrateful, Leah, like a fucking child. I am well aware that you haven’t agreed, but are you aware that I don’t actually care? But carry on acting like a child and throwing these tantrums, and I will take you over my knee and punish you.”
Leah. He had called me Leah and not Printsessa. I didn’t know why it bothered me so much, but it felt like a bad sign.
Both of us lapsed into silence, but only for a few minutes, before I opened my mouth and spoke again.
“I need to call into work. They will be expecting me.”
Viktor’s lips thinned, but this time he didn’t look at me. “I will take care of it.”
“Viktor,” I groaned, exasperated. “You can’t just steamroll my life like this. You said I had a few days to decide, and I would like those days.” His profile was rigid. “Please,” I added for good measure.
He seemed the sort of guy who would enjoy my begging .
“No.” He didn’t even glance in my direction. “Now be quiet, you are starting to give me a headache.”
Biting my lip, I turned to look out the window. He was such an asshole. Completely overbearing.
Last night, he had taken charge, but not in a way that made me want to punch him in the eye. Last night it had been hot. In the cold light of day, the dominating, overbearing Viktor was annoying as fuck.
“See,” Viktor’s voice filled the silent car. “You’re even pouting like a child.” Reaching out, he ran the pad of his thumb across the seam of my mouth.
I turned my head away. “I thought you told me to be quiet?” I hissed through gritted teeth, moving out of his reach.
Anger bubbled off of him, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
Arguing with him was dangerous, but he kept changing the goal posts, and I was tired of it.
Since he had turned up in my life, I had lost all control over it.
He didn’t ask, he told, and I didn’t have a say.
He gave me no chance to give anything because he was already taking it.
It was driving me insane, and I wasn’t about to pretend otherwise. Sure, we had sexual chemistry, last night had proven that, but I didn’t like him.
Not one little bit.
“Hey,” my eyes widened as I took in my surroundings. Trees lined the road, thick with pine needles, and beyond that, I could glimpse fields. Bare, now that winter was almost here.
“Where are you taking me?”
How the hell hadn’t I noticed? We had left the city. Hell, we weren’t even in the suburbs anymore. This was the countryside. And it looked like there was nothing but trees and asphalt for miles around us.
My heart slammed into my chest, beating erratically.
“Viktor?” I asked even louder. “Where are you taking me?” My voice shook with sudden fear. “Why are we leaving the city?”
“I’ve decided I don’t want to do this in the city. Too many prying eyes and listening ears.” He didn’t even look at m e
My heart was galloping now. There was a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow.
“You don’t want to do what?” My voice shook.
But it kind of all made sense now. The sudden change of plan. Him coming last night and then turning back up this morning. Even the bundling me out of my house and leaving my stuff behind on the curb.
It all made sense. He was taking me out of the city to kill me. Viktor had bedded me and found out that he wasn’t that interested in me paying off the debt with my body, and now he was driving me to my death.
“Be quiet now, Leah.” Viktor’s voice was clipped, his face stony as he slowed to take a corner, and for a second, his attention didn’t seem to be directly on me.
Heart pounding, I surveyed my surroundings and made a decision. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was the only one I was going to get.
As quietly as I could, I unclipped my seatbelt. The metallic sound was loud in the quiet, and I risked a glance at Viktor to see if he had heard. He just continued to stare stonily ahead.
I lunged for the door handle, the door swung open, and I felt the whoosh of cool air blowing against my face and whipping my hair back for a split second before Viktor’s hand closed around my wrist and yanked my hand back. “I don’t fucking think so, Leah.”
The yank closed the door with a bang.
He swerved to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes so hard that it was only his hand wrapped around my arm that stopped me from smashing forward into the dashboard.
“Leah, Leah, Leah.” Killing the engine, he undid his own belt and turned to me. His grip on my arm tightened.
Panicked, I lifted my eyes to him. And the anger I saw in them floored me. My heart felt like it was in my throat. This was it, my end. He looked murderous.
“What the hell was that, Printsessa?” he asked, and his voice was clipped and icy. “Did you really just try and throw yourself out of a moving car?”
“Yes.” Bully for me that my voice didn’t shake. Maybe it was the knowledge that I was about to die that made me brave. Some kind of acceptance. But one thing I knew was that I would face death bravely.
“And did you have a plan for after you fell onto the road?” He cocked his head to the side and studied me like I was some kind of wild exotic animal that he had never seen before. “I mean, if you didn’t break half of your bones, that is.”
“Run.”
His eyebrows quivered upwards, and a smile spread across his full lips. “Run?” He parroted back. “And how far do you think you would get before I caught you?”
I frowned. I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. All I had thought about was getting out of this car.
“Can we just get on with this?” I snapped with more bravery in my voice than I felt. “I mean, this road is pretty private, so you wouldn’t have an audience.” The waiting was killing me and making it harder and harder to be brave.
“It is private,” Viktor’s smile grew as he glanced around. “Isn’t it?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck he was actually going to do it. I should have kept my mouth shut.
But then what difference would that make? He was going to kill me anyway. The where and when didn’t matter.
“So you want me out of the car or—”
“I mean, we could. I think I’d like to see you spread out over the hood of my car.”
Spread out? Fear bit into me. I’d thought it’d be quick, a bullet to the head or—”
He yanked at my arm, and I fell forward, right across his lap.
“What the hell?” I hissed, and my cheek hit the car door painfully. “Viktor, what the hell?” I asked again when he began to tug down my yoga pants. Panties bunched in them, he didn’t stop until they were tangled around my knees.
“Good girls get pleasure, bad girls who try to escape get punished.” His hand came down hard on my left butt cheek, and a stinging pain zapped through my body. He did the same again, this time to the right cheek.
And then there was nothing but pain. Relentless and burning hot until it felt like my ass was on fire. Tears prickled my eyes, and when I blinked, they fell down my cheeks silently.
I wouldn’t cry out, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hearing my pain.
“Ow,” I broke my vow on the next slap.
He chuckled above me. “Does it hurt, Printsessa?”
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Good.” He did it again, and the stinging started again, but this time he massaged the burning cheek.
Hard and rough, but it took the sting away.
“You shouldn’t have run from me, Leah. Your actions have consequences.
” He went back to spanking me hard, but he rubbed away every pain with his thick, skillful fingers until I didn’t know whether I was coming or going.
It was like every atom of my being was teetering between pleasure and pain until I didn’t know which was which anymore.
“Oh, Printsessa.” Something in Viktor’s voice changed. His hand, kneading at my ass cheek, dipped lower. His fingers slid through the slickness between my thighs. “You liked that, didn’t you?”
“No.”