Chapter 21
MIA
M y throat burns. Fuck, how much did I drink last night? My eyelids are so heavy. I blink a few times, but everything is fuzzy. I reach for my covers, but I can’t find them. Cold metal presses against my skin. I must be dreaming, but I’m not with Nox. Where am I? I need to wake up. Fuck.
My head is pounding. Something feels cool against my cheek. I can barely lift my head.
“Wake up, sleepy head.”
Aries?
He was in my bed. I fucked him last night after I fucked Bones. Ugh. I need serious help. I blink again and try to wipe the sleep from my eyes, but my wrists are pinned. Oh, no. My adrenaline spikes as my surroundings come into view.
Panic fills me with dread.
I’m in a fucking cage. Naked. “Aries,” I rasp, my voice hoarse.
I look up to see my wrists shackled to the bars.
“Shhh, no one can hear you.” He’s dressed in nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants.
“Aries, what are you doing? You have to let me go.” This can’t be happening.
He smiles like the devil. “I’m not letting you out until you give us what we want. Your hands stay shackled until you’re ready to sign. And you’re mine to do whatever I want with.”
Chills sweep my body. I knew he was sadistic but not like this. I look around the room and my stomach knots. It’s a sex dungeon. “Please, be rational. This isn’t the way.”
He opens the cage door and slips inside, pressing his body against mine. “I am so fucking excited you like to play hard to get.”
I try to raise a knee between his legs only to find that my ankles are shackled as well. “You sick bastard.”
“I warned you, little lamb. You brought this on yourself. But I think you’re going to have fun too.” He slides his hand in between my thighs. “Let’s get you wet for my toys.”
I suck in a deep breath as he scissors two fingers in my pussy. “You’re a monster.”
He smirks as my juices leak out. “Thatta girl. Nice and wet.” He shoves his finger deep inside my pussy and stills it. “I’m going to play with you all night.” He takes one of my nipples between his teeth and sucks while he thrusts another finger inside my core.
“Open wider for me.”
“Fuck you.”
He nudges my leg, and that’s when I notice the bar between them. Fuck. It slides out and locks, forcing me to hold this stance. “You will obey.” He pulls me forward so I’m sitting on his hand.
“Damn you.” The movement shatters me, and I cum on his fingers.
“Good girl.” He exits the cage and locks it.
“Aries, please. You can’t keep me like this forever.”
He holds up his phone. “You’ve been a naughty girl, Mia. ”
He presses play on the screen and my mouth drops open. It’s me playing with myself in front of Bones in the infirmary. “He filmed me?” I’m fucking livid.
Aries laughs. “I think you’ve gotten a little too comfortable in our town. You forget that we are in control, not you.” He pushes play again.
“Stop. Turn it the fuck off,” I growl.
“But it’s my new favorite show. Should we make another one?” His eyes glow in the poorly lit dungeon. And when I say dungeon, I don’t mean the kind you see in fantasy movies about dragons and knights. No. This is a room with red lighting, velvet furniture, and contraptions that look like torture devices.
I take a deep breath and count to ten. “If you don’t let me go, I will make you regret it.”
He hisses. “Why are you so hellbent on keeping that property? We aren’t stealing it. Draven has made you an offer that will keep your family line rich until the end of time. You don’t even remember this town. Why would you want to be in a place that didn’t want you?”
His words are like a knife to my chest. I blink back tears. “Fuck you, Aries. It must be nice to grow up privileged. To have people dote on you your whole life. I, on the other hand, have clawed and fought for every breath. Every moment of peace.” I turn my head as the tears stream down. I don’t cry for what he’s doing to me; I’m mourning the life I never got to have.
He sighs. “Fuck. You’re supposed to be scared, not sad. I hate it when women cry.”
I choke back another sob. “You think you can break me like this? You have no idea the things I’ve gone through. I’ve slept on the streets, had to barricade myself in dumpsters just so I could fall asleep without the fear of someone fucking with me. I have sold my art for pennies so I wouldn’t starve. Some nights I did. Do your worst, Aries. Nothing you can dream up will be worse than what I’ve endured and survived.”
“Yet look at you now. All grown up and one of the richest women in Ever Graves. Things turned out just fine for you.” He reaches into his pocket to retrieve a stack of papers and slams them against the cage. “Now sign the contract so we can all get back to our privileged fucking lives.”
“It’s not about the money,” I rasp. “Harker Mansion isn’t just a house. It’s my family’s home. My home. I’m not giving it up, Aries. It’s all I have left of them.” I look away as more tears stream down my face.
He stares at me for what seems like forever, his expression unreadable. Until he finally stalks back into the cage. I draw in a sharp breath when he presses his body against mine, my lips quivering as he drags his thumb across my jaw.
“You are going to be the death of us,” he whispers. “Fuck.” He reaches up and unlocks my shackles.
I pull my arms to my chest. “Thank you.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt you, you know.” He kneels down and releases my ankles. “I was just trying to give you a little scare. But I’m not enjoying it anymore.”
“Not much scares me in this world.”
He steps aside, allowing me to leave the cage. “You’re free to go, but… could you stay? I’d like to share something with you.”
I should make a run for it while I can. This could be another trick. Another game. But he’s so beautiful, so desperate in his plea for me to hear him out. I can’t tear my eyes away.
“I can’t stay long.”
He hands me a pair of black leggings, a tank top, and sneakers. They’re almost my size. I arch an eyebrow as I quickly put them on.
“They belong to my sister, Libra. She always keeps a set of clothes here.” He sits down on the bed. “She is the reason I need control of the poison fields. ”
Lettie has told me some of their story, but I’m curious to hear it from him. I sit down next to him on the bed and try not to think about how much I’m drawn to him. It’s his scent, his eyes, his physique. Everything about this man is seductive and inviting. He’s made me cum more than a few times tonight, and I can’t help but crave more. Even though he’s chaos personified, his brand of desire is addicting.
So much so that I’m sad when he pulls on a hoodie, covering up that chiseled body of his.
“Tell me. What happened to her?”
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “So many fucked up things. And I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I didn’t know until it was too late. My father was trading her for favors from business partners. From the time she was sixteen. He’s a real fucking monster.”
My heart sinks. “I’m sorry, Aries. That’s horrible. No girl deserves that. Especially from her own parent.”
He hides his face in his hands. “Lib is tough. But it hardened her. People think she’s a spoiled brat. A bossy rich girl. But it’s just a front. She’s broken inside. Money and sex and drugs is how she copes. Or at least how she used to until she got locked up.”
I can’t help myself. I reach over and rub his back. “I heard a little about that part. Draven’s grandmother had her committed to Absentia Asylum, right?”
He nods. “Yeah. We thought she was dead for six months. But she’s a fighter. She found a way out, and now she’s literally running the place. But she wants nothing to do with the poison business. Not after it took her childhood and her freedom. She gave me her ancestral shares in exchange for Draven’s permission to murder Penny Blackwell.”
And I thought I had issues. These people are more fucked up than me. “Why are you telling me all this?”
He lifts his head to look at me, his watery eyes the color of sea glass. “Because I need you to understand this isn’t a game. We aren’t just some greedy assholes. We have money, Mia. Lots of it. For Draven, it’s about power. The power to stop being at the mercy of our parents. For me, it’s about revenge and redemption. I will never let Gemini Thorn have control over me or my sister ever again.”
Fuck. I don’t want to know their sob stories after all. I don’t want to feel sorry for them. “What about Bones? What’s in it for him?”
Aries chuckles. “Nothing. He loves us. The three of us have been best friends since we were born. If I ask Bones to murder someone, he will. No questions asked. That’s just what we do for each other.”
“Like family,” I murmur.
“Something like that. Except Bones and I… well we have our own shit going on too.” His gaze veers away from me, lost in some distant memory.
They love each other as more than friends. I’ve never had anything like that. And now I feel even more pathetic. Fuck. Which is why I can’t sell the only connection I have to my family. The only home that’s ever actually been mine.
“I’m sorry you’ve dealt with so much, Aries, but… I can’t help you. I don’t care how much Draven is offering. Like you said, it’s about family. And Harker Mansion is the last place mine was.”
He sighs. “I know. I’ll take you home.”
I look around the room again, puzzled at what half of the stuff in here even is. “You’re into some dark shit, aren’t you?”
His eyes light up, and that charm slips back into place. “You’re welcome to play in here anytime you want, little lamb. You have no idea all the ways I can make you cum.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. Everything this man says and does is like fucking catnip for my pussy. “You’re insatiable.”
He leans over me. “So are you.”
My heart races. “You drugged me and kidnapped me. What makes you think I still want you? ”
“Oh, sweet, baby girl. You couldn’t stop wanting me if you tried. And you’re doing a shit job of trying by that look in your eyes.” His tongue lashes out across my lips.
Fuck. I’m a whore for these men. I tilt my chin toward him and do the same to his. He tastes like whiskey and something else I can’t place. Something bitter. Probably poison. “I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.”
He slips his tongue between my lips, and I part them for him. We both gasp as our tongues touch and intertwine. His lips are so soft, like pillows. I whimper as we kiss each other with desperation, with ache and passion and hunger.
I’m losing myself to him.
“Mmm, I want to swallow all your darkness, little lamb,” he groans between kisses.
I shift to get on top of him when a loud bang erupts. We both jump and Aries moves in front of me as the door to the dungeon room flies open.
“You’re getting soft on me, Ries. Playtime is over.” Draven is unhinged. Sweat coats his face as he stands there with his shirt unbuttoned, no necktie, and no jacket. His sleeves are rolled up, showing off his thick black tattoos.
Aries nods. “She’s all yours.”
I gasp. “What the fuck?”
Draven runs a hand through his disheveled hair. “Good. Because your father called a meeting. And I’m not walking in there without that baneberry.”
Fuck.