Chapter 7
The flight was shorter than expected. We beat the sunrise as we landed in Portland, not that we would have seen much of it anyway with the way the sky was crying.
Now the four of us entered Gage’s house.
He shut and locked the door before turning to Katherine.
“Take Eve to her room and sit with her. It’s the last door on the right. ”
She gritted her teeth but went to do as ordered. Eve opened her eyes and looked over Katherine’s shoulder, calling to me.
“It’s okay.” My voice cracked. “Go back to sleep, baby. She’ll tuck you in.” Comforted by my voice and words, she laid her cheek down, and I watched them disappear down the hall.
Gage clutched my arm. “Come on.”
“Please stop,” I begged, fighting our progress toward that door—the door leading to the one place I never wanted to see again. “Gage, don’t do this to me.”
Ignoring me, he inserted a key and the door creaked open, revealing the darkness beyond. I remembered how it infiltrated every corner, every implement of torture. Gage was at his darkest when in that space.
“You said you loved me,” I cried. He pushed me in front of him, and through my panic I heard the door slam and the lock click into place.
“I do, Kayla. So fucking much.”
He switched on a light and herded me down the steps. “Strip.”
“No,” I said, folding my arms.
He took a deep breath and seemed to deliberate for a moment. “You have no options. The only way through that door is by key. Now strip. I want you bare in front of me.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.” His tone was free of anger, free of anything other than resignation, and I wasn’t sure what it meant.
I slipped off my shoes and brought my trembling fingers to the hem of my shirt.
I wasn’t wearing a bra, and his eyes glazed over at the sight of my breasts, nipples puckering in the chill of the room.
I pushed my pants down my legs, followed by my underwear, and stepped outside the puddle of clothing to stand before him, reduced to a shivering mass of vulnerability.
This was about more than stripping me of my clothes.
“What do you want, Gage?”
“Every damn piece of you.”
“Even my daughter?”
“Even your daughter.”
I dropped to my knees from the force of his words. “Let us go!”
His tall frame became a blur through my tears, and I was unprepared for the ball gag he shoved deep into my mouth.
He wrenched my hands up and secured them.
His movements were measured but quick, and I had no time to adjust to what he was doing.
He hauled me to my feet and kicked my legs apart, and I never thought I’d end up back here again—in Gage’s basement of hell, strung up on my toes, hands secured above me and feet spread wide.
I’d come full circle, and I didn’t like it one bit. Unlike last time, when fear and uncertainty had taken center stage, now an all-consuming rage filled my soul. I hated being helpless and at his mercy, rendered incapable of expressing the fury boiling in the vat of my being.
He had Eve, and no one messed with my daughter. Not even Gage Fucking Channing.
He sank into a seat, lowered his head into his hands, and didn’t speak at first—just gripped his hair with those slender fingers that still managed to deliver lethal masculinity, as if he could hold himself together. Minutes passed. He didn’t move, and I couldn’t move.
What did he want?
“I have something to say, and you’re going to listen,” he said, rising from the couch and pacing in front of me.
“I didn’t want to do this. I tried doing the right thing, tried giving you time to come to me on your own, but then you fucked him.
” He stopped, and his face twisted, reminding me of how furious he’d been a year ago after catching me in Ian’s arms the first time.
I jerked my head back and forth, trying to convey his mistake, but he didn’t take out the gag and listen.
His actions made sense now, knowing Gage the way I did.
He thought I’d slept with Ian and now his jealousy had sent him off the deep end.
I had to get through to him. Had to tell him he was wrong.
Some of my anger seeped from my limbs, leaving me shaking with weakness, and for the first time since he’d kidnapped me, I truly feared him. He had everything wrong, but he’d left me incapable of correcting his assumption. God. What would he do to me now?
He wouldn’t hurt Eve…
I thought the words, turned them over in my mind, but a spark of doubt remained. He was too unpredictable in his jealousy. Especially when he appeared calm.
And he was calm. This was bad. I screamed around the gag.
“Damn it, Kayla! Don’t look at me like that.” I broke out in a cold sweat when he unbuckled his belt. “I’m going to prove I can get angry—fucking furious even—and still punish you without losing control.” Brandishing that painful strap of leather, he disappeared behind me.
How did I get back here?
A year without physical pain had weakened me.
His first strike purged more tears from my eyes, and the second lash crashed on top of the first, back to back, leaving me no time to acclimate to the overwhelming sting.
I cried out in muffled abandon with each strike, and by the time he ceased hitting me, my legs were gelatinous, and I was sinking…
He released my hands, and I collapsed to my knees. I peered up through my messy hair, plastered to my face from sweat and tears, and met his guarded expression. Something lingered in his eyes. Hurt?
Was it even possible to hurt him?
“I’m no good for you,” he said. “He’s fucking perfect for you.
He’ll give you the idyllic life, white picket fence and all with two-point-five kids.
I can give you anything and everything, but I can’t give you that.
I don’t do normal!” His hands bunched as he came toward me.
“But I can’t let you go either. You’re under my skin, in my head.
I dream of you when I sleep and it’s making me crazy.
” His eyes narrowed, alight with the emotion he didn’t want to spill.
“I want to kill him for touching what’s mine, and whether you like it or not, you are mine.
Your body knows it, and I think your heart does too. ”
I brought my hands up and pulled out the gag. “I didn’t sleep with him!”
He dropped to his knees in front of me, and his hands came up to frame my cheeks. At first, his touch was gentle, but as he brought his face closer, he dug his fingers into my skin. “You better consider your next words carefully, because if you lie to me about this—”
“It’s the truth,” I interrupted. “I didn’t sleep with him.”
“I saw you guys. You were all over each other and barely made it through the fucking door.”
“Obviously, you didn’t stick around.” I jerked back until his hands dropped. “I made him leave.”
His mouth claimed mine, hard and insistent. I whimpered, but he ate it up, leaving me to question if I’d made any sound at all. He pulled away and searched my face. “You promise you didn’t sleep with him?”
“Yes,” I said, tears still streaming down my face. “I couldn’t. It didn’t feel right.”
“But when we’re together…it feels right, doesn’t it?”
I choked on my answer.
“Do you love me, Kayla?”
“It doesn’t matter what I feel. I can’t live like this! You can’t just do whatever you want because you’re jealous.”
He shook his head. “I won’t live without you, so I guess that leaves you with two options. One, you can fight me every step of the way, but you’re still not leaving. Or there’s option two.”
“What’s option two?”
“You can accept we’re meant to be together and compromise with me.”
I arched a brow. “You, compromise?”
“Yes. Compromising isn’t something I do easily, but I love you enough that I’d do it for you.”
I scoffed. “How nice. You’ll be a decent human being because you love me.
Are you listening to yourself? Does any of this really penetrate your thick skull?
This”—I gestured between him and me—“isn’t normal!
You don’t treat someone you love like this.
This here…this is a watered down version of what Rick put me through. Why would I go back to that?”
“Don’t you ever compare me to that piece of shit again. I might hurt you, but I’ll never harm you.”
“But you do harm me. Every time you take the choice from me, and I’ll be damned if I let your methods corrupt my daughter. I want her to know what love is. If I stay with you, she’ll grow up believing this is how relationships are supposed to be.”
“No,” he said in a level tone. “We’ll contain the more unconventional aspects of our relationship to our bedroom and down here. She’ll never be exposed to anything inappropriate. I’ll protect her. I’ll protect you too. No one will ever hurt you again, including me.”
My gaze dropped to the front of his pants where his belt had been moments ago. “What do you call beating me?”
“Punishment.” He slipped his fingers between my legs. “Your wet cunt suggests my belt isn’t such a punishment after all. I’ll have to come up with more interesting methods.”
Every part of me tingled at his touch. I didn’t have the energy to deny it. Everything this man did turned me on, and I’d long ago forgotten whether he’d conditioned the response from me, or if it had been there all along.
There were no more lines; they’d blurred until nothing but pixilated confusion remained.
He rose, picked up his belt from the floor, and wound it through his pant loops.
I silently watched as he crossed the room where he pulled out a silky robe from a closet.
Sticking out a hand, he helped me to my feet and held the garment open for me to slide my arms into.
His fingers tangled with mine as he led me to the couch.
“Now, let’s talk boundaries,” he said after we were sitting side by side.
“I’m listening.” I’d hear him out, and then I’d get the hell out of there with Eve the first chance I got.
“I need to know your hard limits.”