Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Katya
It takes me a moment to process what he’s saying. And when I do, I start to panic. The dress drops from my hands, landing in a crinkled heap on the floor. My hands press into my chest, trying to get my heart to calm down.
“I can’t,” I gasp out. “Please don’t do this to me.”
His eyes don’t soften at all. Alek is my kidnapper after all. There’s no sympathy for me. “You wanted to be seen as a woman, Katya. I’m giving you that chance. And I’m not asking. I am in charge of you now. You will take your clothes off and change into the dress I’ve provided for you.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I just might have to spank you for naughty behavior. I can’t put you back in the cage you love so much. You’ve changed my plans, Katya. I’m not sure I fully appreciate that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You intrigue me. Do as I say. Change into the dress right before me. I think you’ll find you’ll like it. You want to see a man desire you, don’t you?”
I frown, trying to focus on what he’s saying to me through the noise in my head. “You desire me?”
“I think you’re a very beautiful woman. So, yes. I do. I am curious to know what you look like without your clothes in the way. So change into the dress for me. Now.”
He’s not going to give me a choice and I really don’t want to be beaten for saying no to him. I have to get my panic under control but it feels like I could curl into a ball and never leave that position, not even if the world was ending.
But I have to do this.
With shaking hands, I push my pants down, exposing my underwear to him.
Alek’s eyes rake over my lower body, darkening…
with desire? I never thought I’d be in a position where a man like Alek is looking at me the way he is.
It’s too much. Too overwhelming. He’s my kidnapper. Not my boyfriend or husband.
I stand there for a moment, in my shirt and panties, unable to move further.
“Your top,” he murmurs, pointing at it.
“Please.”
“You sound pretty when you beg. Your top, Katya. Take it off. You want to put on the dress I gave you, don’t you?”
“Why are you doing this to me? You want to hurt my brother. But you don’t need to hurt me in the process.”
“Am I hurting you? I’m not even touching you.”
“You’re playing mind games with me.”
He tilts his head to the side, eyeing me with curiosity. “For a woman who’s stayed hidden away all her life, you sure are smart. How come?”
“I was given books. I had access to the internet. I was still given an education. Just because I was in my room, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
“My apologies. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
“No. You only assumed that my brother kept me captive. An invalid. But I’m not. I have a brain.”
“I can see that.”
His calm demeanor is upsetting me, making my chest squeeze with frustration. “Please, just let me go back into the cage. You want to torture my brother with mind games. He’ll think you’re hurting me and that will hurt him enough. You don’t have to actually do it.”
“You want to be seen as a woman, Katya. Take your top off.”
I’ve wanted to be seen as a woman more than anything for the past few years now but my anxiety wouldn’t let me leave my room. Now’s my chance for a man to look at me with desire and I’m still afraid. Because this isn’t of my choosing.
Alek is a handsome man though. Too handsome, if you ask me. Just his presence is doing strange things to me. My body feels hot, hotter than it ever has before.
I know I’m not going to get out of this so I take my shirt off and toss it to the floor to join my pants. I’m in nothing but my bra and panties.
Alek looks me over without a word, letting his eyes linger on my breasts and on my legs. For just a moment, a throbbing sensation enters my core, right between my legs. It’s intense and hot and I don’t understand it at all.
I understand arousal. I have felt it many times before.
But what I don’t understand is feeling aroused in front of my kidnapper. He terrifies me. He took me from my brother, from my hidden room. I hate him almost as much as I hated my father for taking my mom away from me.
So, why am I feeling this?
“I won’t ask you to take your bra and panties off,” he says. “Not yet anyway. We’ll leave something for another day. Put the dress on I gave you.”
I have to bend down to pick it up and it makes Alek tower over me with his strong, intense presence. Quickly, I stand back up and put the dress on. It’s a little wrinkled from having landed on the floor but it’s still beautiful. Sophisticated. Classy. Elegant.
Alek gently takes my shoulders and turns me to the full length mirror near the closet.
I look like a real woman instead of a young girl playing dress up. Alek stands behind me, keeping his hands on my arms, dominating me even with that simple touch. For a moment, we look like a married couple. Like we’re sharing a moment together that only a couple would share.
But I immediately push that thought from my mind. Alek is the enemy. I can’t get distracted by his handsome face and dominating personality.
I just want to return home to my room where I know I’ll be safe.
“Now that you’re in this dress, you can wear it to the party I’m throwing tonight. I have some guests coming over. They all want to meet Dimitri Ivanov’s secret sister.”
My heart pounds against my chest so hard it hurts to even breathe. “Who are these people?”
“Friends of mine. Co-workers. Now that you’re mine, I should show you off, shouldn’t I?”
“I’m not yours,” I whisper.
He brings his lips to my ear and goosebumps spread across my skin. “You are mine, Katya. You just don’t realize it yet. But you will help me beat your brother in this war. Trust me on that.”
“No. I love my brother. I would never do anything to hurt him.”
“Even though he kept you in that room?”
“I told you: he never held me captive.”
“Maybe not. But it seems that he enabled you. Allowed you to stay in that room when you should have left. Denied you the chance to live your life as a woman. Doesn’t that make you just the tiniest bit angry?”
I can’t deny that it does. Dimitri did enable me. He built me that room when I was a little girl instead of getting me into therapy. When I got older, I realized that I could have used therapy to help me deal with my mom’s death. But by then, I was already in my room and didn’t want to leave.
And when Dimitri finally starting urging me to get out more – after he married Sofiya – I was too used to my room. Too scared to leave.
Now, Alek has forced me from my room and I doubt I’ll ever be able to return to it. Alek is showing no signs of bringing me back home to Dimitri anytime soon, if ever. I never even got to say goodbye to my room, the one place in this entire world that brought me comfort.
“Katya?”
“I don’t have to tell you what’s on my mind.”
He skims his fingers along my temple. It makes my head tingle. “Should I spank it out of you?”
“No!”
“Then tell me what’s on your mind.”
I hesitate before I speak. “It’s complicated. My feelings for my brother. My feelings for my hidden room. That is all.”
“All right then. Well, I am offering you the chance to become your own woman now. You will join me for the get together I’m hosting tonight.
My friends will see who you are. This is your chance to be a woman.
Not a little girl. Trust me when I say: when my friends see you in this dress, they won’t be able to think about anything else. ”
“I don’t want this,” I whisper as a couple of tears slip down my eyes.
He only wipes them away without commenting on it. “I know you don’t but I think you’ll find you need this.”
“How can you know what I need? You only just met me today. This is all too much.”
“Because I know what it’s like to raise daughters.”
“You have daughters?”
“No. A friend of mine does. I helped raise them. Of course, I don’t think of you as a daughter.
But my point is that I understand women.
I understand that sometimes they need something when they act like they don’t.
And I understand what you need, Katya. You need the chance to flourish as a woman instead of being kept away in your house forever.
You’re too beautiful to stay hidden. This is what you need. Do you disagree with me?”
I hate to admit it but… I don’t disagree with him. I’ve known for years now that I have to get out of my room. It’s just been too hard. I want to be a woman. I want the chance.
Ironically, this is my chance.
But I can’t take that chance with my kidnapper. With Dimitri’s enemy. I just can’t.
Alek isn’t going to give me a choice though.
The doorbell rings.
“Ah. That would be my guests arriving. Shall we go greet them?”
“With me at your side?” I ask dumfounded.
“I told you I want you to be mine, Katya. That means standing at my side. I’m going to show the world who you are. Dimitri’s secret sister. Not a secret any longer.”
He pulls out a pair of white high heels from one of the shopping bags and kneels down at my feet. “Let me.” I inhale sharply when he gently takes my ankle and places my foot into one of the shoes. Then he does the other one, leaving goosebumps behind on my skin. “There. Perfect.”
It’s like a twisted Cinderella. My dark prince charming. But I doubt there’s anything charming about Alek. Only darkness.
He takes my hand and leads me downstairs. “Stand there.” He positions me in the foyer so I’m standing tall… like a woman would do.
After opening the door, his guests flock inside. There are around ten of them. The sight of so many people makes me overwhelmed. This is too much. Too much. Too much.
I place my hand over my chest, trying to get my heart to calm down but it’s not listening.
His guests – of which majority are men – all look at me with curiosity.
“Who is this?” a man asks. He’s older than Alek. Probably in his fifties with a large beer belly.
“This,” Alek announces, placing his hand on my back, “is Katya Ivanov. Dimitri Ivanov’s sister.”