Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Leah
Up, breakfast, pick at the wallpaper, nap, food, stare out the window, and sleep again.
That was my life. Over and over again. The only reason I knew that any amount of time had passed was that the meals on the trays brought to my room were always different.
They were delicious, but I didn’t really taste anything. My mouth felt like cardboard, and day by day my spirit seemed to seep out of me.
This isolation was torture, which was exactly why Viktor was doing it. He wanted to break my spirit, and in a way, he was succeeding. But there was one thing he didn’t know about me.
And it was something he probably should have realized, I’d been broken before. Maybe not like this, but I had been at rock bottom, and even when I thought I couldn’t go on, I always managed to get up and dust myself off.
This wouldn’t be any different.
Stretching my arms above my head, I yawned. I wasn’t sure how it was possible when all I did was sleep, but I was still tired.
“Another day in paradise,” I said to the empty room.
“The first sign of madness is talking to yourself, Leah.” Viktor rumbled from the bathroom. He appeared a few seconds later. His naked chest rippled with water, with a towel perilously low on his hips.
He looked good. How had I forgotten how good he looked? For a second, I let my eyes travel down the hard expanse of his chest before meeting his eyes. “What are you doing in here?”
A dark eyebrow arched. “I’m showering, which is something you should probably do. I don’t appreciate the new earthy smell you seem to be emitting.” His full lips thinned. “When was the last time you showered and dressed for the day, Leah?”
From my place on my throne of pillows, I stared at him. “How long have I been locked in here?”
“Almost three weeks.”
I did a double-take. Three weeks? He had left me locked in my room for three whole weeks? That meant we had been married almost a month already.
Time really did fly when you were having fun. I rolled my eyes at the thought and my lips twitched.
“What’s so funny?” Viktor cocked his head to the side.
“Nothing.” Schooling my face into a frown, I sighed. “I guess the last time I showered was the day you snuck into my room.”
Viktors eyes glittered. “The night I licked you out until you were screaming my name and—”
“You didn’t come back.”
“Some things came up, and anyway.” He took a step towards me and paused, his nose wrinkling. “Sometimes a little distance makes all the difference. And it worked because you sound like you’ve missed me?”
Had I missed him? Yes and no. Yes, because, apart from the staff who brought my tray in every day, I hadn’t had any other human interaction, and even arguing with Viktor was better than nothing at all.
Throwing his head back, he laughed. “You should shower and dress today, Leah. Breakfast will be served in the dining room in an hour. ”
My head snapped up, and at first, I wasn’t sure I had heard him right. “In the dining room?” I parroted back.
“Yes, unless you want to stay in this room longer?”
I scuttled out of bed before he could even finish, heading toward him and the shower beyond, but before I could get that far, he grabbed me by the elbows and forced me to stop. I half expected him to pull me into him, but he kept me at arm’s length.
Maybe I really did smell?
“I am putting my trust in you, Leah. You will be allowed out of this room. You will be able to explore the house and amuse yourself, but there are rules.”
Of course, there were. I rolled my eyes. “What are they?” At this point in my confinement, I didn’t care what they were. I just wanted to get out.
“All of the previous ones still apply, but there is one more. You do not leave the house.”
I swallowed hard, so I was just exchanging one prison cell for a slightly bigger one. Great.
“The weather has turned, so there’s nothing in the gardens for you, but if you want to go outside, then come and find me, and I’ll take you.”
Nodding my agreement, I inched closer to him. “I understand, Viktor. Biting my lip, I looked away. A blush heating my cheeks. “Does that mean you are going to come and visit me in the nights again?”
Viktors face went slack, and a familiar dark look entered his eyes. Reaching up, he brushed his fingers down my cheek. “You would like that, wouldn’t you?” He asked in a husky voice that was so full of promise that my core clenched.
Would I like that? Or was I so starved of human contact that I wanted him back in my bed?
“We will see Leah,” curling his thumb under my chin, he tilted my head up, craning my neck so his eyes bored down into mine.
“But I can promise you, I will not be touching you until you have showered. You have really let yourself go, and I can’t allow that.
Now get in there and wash the stink away, and hopefully, I will see you this evening. ”
“You won’t be spending the day with me? Not even breakfast?”
Why did I have to sound so beggy? It wasn’t like I wanted to spend time with him, and it would be easier to spend this year apart. I knew that.
So why did I need him?
Pursing my lips, I frowned at myself. I didn’t need him. The time in solitary confinement just made me think I did. The plans I had made when I was alone still stood.
If I got the chance, I was running.
“Not today, no. And remember what I said, Leah,” stepping away from me, he headed towards the door to leave.
“No leaving the house. I have eyes everywhere.” He left without saying another word, leaving me with nothing but my jumbled, confused thoughts and the promise of hot water reinvigorating my body.
Five hours later, I had explored every inch of the house, both breakfast and lunch had been eaten alone, but that was ok because I was out of that god forsaken room, and right now, that was all that mattered.
Well, not all, because knowing the layout of the house was important as well. I needed to know it all if I was ever going to escape. Just like I needed to know the times the staff appeared. It might take me a few days, but I would memorise it all, and then I would escape.
Pausing, I stared in shock. I’d looked into this room, which I was guessing was some kind of library earlier, but then the ornate patio doors had been locked. Now they were wide open, and letting a stream of rain inside to soak the rug.
The doors were wide open! My heart clamored in my chest so loud it sounded like a drum against my ribs.
Was this it? My chance of escape?
Nervously, I glanced behind me. The whole house was still, like it was holding its breath and waiting for my decision, just like I was holding my breath.
My bare toes curled into the thick carpet. I wasn’t dressed for the weather, and I didn’t even have shoes on, but when would I ever have this opportunity again? Probably never.
If I were quick, and luck was on my side, I could run and get to the road before anyone even realized I was gone. I could flag down a car. My feet moved on their own, taking me toward freedom before I could even really think about it.
Wind whipped my hair behind me, cold rainwater splattered against my face, and I had never felt anything better.
I could even smell the storm brewing in the air, and it smelled a lot like freedom. I took another step forward, and Viktor stepped out of the darkness, right into my path.
His eyes took in the rain-soaked front of my dress and my flushed cheeks, and his eyes narrowed. “Going somewhere, Leah?”
By the sound of his voice, he knew exactly where I was going. For all I knew, he had planned it just to see if I would try and escape, and like a fool, I had fallen for it.
“Viktor,” clutching my throat, I backed away. Stumbling over my feet. “I wasn’t—”
The sound of the doors being shut behind him made me yelp. “Yes, you were. You were going to run. Even after I told you expressly that I would be watching you.” He took a threatening step toward, his always-tall frame, growing even taller.
I backed away as fast as I could, my hand held out behind me so I didn’t bump into anything and fall down.
Falling would be bad now because Viktor was angry, angrier than I had ever seen him.
His eyes were so dark they looked like they had turned black, and like a man possessed, he crept towards me with the threat of violence pouring from him.
“I can’t let that go unpunished, Leah.”
My heart slammed into my throat. Why was his voice so calm? It was terrifying. I wanted him to rant and rave because that would be easier to deal with.
The quiet was too much like a threat.
“I’ll just,” turning on my heel, I did the only thing I could think of doing, getting as far away from him as possible, “go back to my room.”
He caught me halfway down the hallway, gripping me by the back of the neck. He stopped me in my tracks and slammed me face-first into the wood-paneled wall. The only reason my face didn’t make contact was that I got my hands out in front of me to stop it. Pain spiraled up my palms and forearms.
“Viktor,” I cried out as his hand tightened. “Stop it, you are hurting me.”
Ignoring my cry of protest, he curled his giant body against mine, trapping me against the wall. “And you tried to run. Whatever punishment you get now is your own fault, Leah. You brought this on yourself.”
Keeping his grip on my neck, he slipped his hand up under the knee-length wool dress and dragged it upwards to bare my panties. Those were ripped away, the sound of material ripping loud in the quiet house. He smoothed his hand across my bare backside.
“What are you going to do to me?” My voice shook. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Hard to do anything at all except concentrate on what his hand was doing.
“I am going to punish you.” His palm came down hard and fast against my flesh in a stinging slap. Over and over again, he slapped me, and this time there was no holding back. Unlike in the car, which had been almost playful, this was meant to hurt, and it did.
I sobbed, and the sound was muffled by the sound of his hand hitting my ass.
“Mr Petrov, there is—” the man’s voice trailed off, and through my tears I watched as he froze at the end of the hallway. I knew what he saw. Me, completely naked from the waist down, ass red, and face streaked with tears, as Viktor spanked me.
I didn’t know what the man who walked up on us thought, but I knew what I would have thought. I would have assumed that I’d walked in on some sort of sex game. But there was no pleasure here. There was just pain .
I wanted to cry out for him to help me, but Viktor got there first. “Leave, I’ll be there shortly.”
The man left before I could even open my mouth to beg.
“I should punish you again for letting him see you like that.” Keeping a tight grip, Viktor turned me, lifting me bodily until my feet dangled eight inches from the carpet.
He was the one who wrapped my legs around his waist, his hand fumbling between our bodies so he could press the leaking head of his cock against my opening.
There was no foreplay. He didn’t make sure I was ready for him, he just thrust upwards with so much anger that I felt like I was being ripped apart. My smarting ass rubbed against the paneling painfully.
Crying out, I clawed at his shoulders, “Viktor, stop it.”
“No.” His mouth came crashing down onto mine as he continued to fill my body. “You let him see you like that. You let him see what was mine.”
I wanted to scream at him that he was the one who let this happen. He was the reason I kept trying to run. I wanted to tell him that if he just acted like a normal person inside of an insane monster, then things might be different between us, but I couldn’t because his tongue was in my mouth.
He kissed me like a starving man, and I was the only thing to eat in a thousand miles. His lips were bruising.
“You are mine,” he roared and emptied himself inside of me. I felt the pulsing over his cock inside my pussy. Filling me with his cum.
With a grunt, he let me fall to my feet and then to my knees. I sobbed again. What had just happened?
“The next time you run, things will be worse, Leah,” shoving himself back into his trousers, he stalked away.
“I hate you.” I sobbed after him.
“I know,” he called back to me sadly.
Why did he sound sad? I was the one who was on my knees crying, so why did he sound sad?