Chapter Four #2
“Quiet, Illness,” Sam snapped, studying me, studying where the man held me, and studying the envelope of money on the bar. I had front-row seats to the horrible decision floating in his eyes. Revenge and fury and a shit-ton of pettiness drowned out whatever goodness was left inside him.
Oh no...
“Sam. Don’t. Whatever you’re thinking...don’t.” I rushed, “Look, I’m sorry for tonight. I’m sorry for the things I said. You can keep all my stuff in our apartment. Tell this bastard to let go of me, and I’ll leave right now. You’ll never see me again. Just like you wanted.”
Sam licked his bottom lip and looked at the stranger. “Tell me.” He fondled the money, flipping through the tight stack of notes. “I’m listening.”
The guy’s fingers bruised my shoulder as he chuckled under his breath, almost as if talking to himself. “All of us. Every man on this planet is nothing more than a beast when faced with right and wrong.”
“What?” Sam frowned. “What did you say?”
The guy shook his head, then straightened to his full terrifying height. “The cash is yours in return for one thing.”
“Sam...” My heart pounded, suffocating under the violence and desperate greed suddenly bleeding off the bastard holding me.
The longer he held me captive, the more his voice deepened; his scent grew stronger as if he sweated beneath his impeccable suit.
A heady aroma of leather and lemongrass, musk and sandalwood.
Trying to clear my lungs and inhale the stench of stale alcohol and cheap perfume from the hundreds of other people in the club, I demanded, “Enough, Sam. I want to go back to the hotel.”
“Shut up.” Sam waved the money in my face. “Have you forgotten so quickly? You’re going to the train station, not our hotel. But not before I hear our new friend’s offer.” Grinning, he added, “You were saying? The cash in return for one thing?”
“In return for her.”
“Her?” Sam’s eyebrows came down. Not in a possessive frown but in calculating consideration. “What exactly do you want from her?”
“Doesn’t really matter, does it? All you need to know is, I want her. I’m willing to pay for her—”
“Now, just hold on a damn minute,” I shouted, my stomach nosediving to my toes as I squirmed unsuccessfully under the guy’s pinching hand.
“You can’t just buy me. Who the hell do you think you are?
” I glanced around for support. For one of the bartenders to call the cops.
For other dancers to step in and stop this insanity.
But the crowded bar was eerily abandoned. A velvet rope had been erected, cutting us off from the writhing mass of gyrating bodies, all hypnotised by louder-than normal music and blinded by deliberate darkness.
“Sam!” I fought harder, but the guy merely dragged his hold down my arm and latched unescapable fingers around my wrist.
Sam watched the guy manhandle me.
He watched and deliberated and did nothing.
“I’m not for sale!” I yelled.
“That’s not for you to decide,” the man murmured, his sinful rasp slipping into my ears.
I tried to stomp on his foot with my silver heels. “Let go of me!”
“Not before your boyfriend makes up his damn mind.”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Not anymore—”
“Perhaps if he was, he wouldn’t be contemplating selling you.”
“Samuel!” I snapped. “Give this bastard back his money and—”
“When you say you want her...want her how?” Sam interrupted, tapping the money in his hands. “You want to stick your dick in her and get your rocks off, is that it?”
“Oh my God, I’m going to be sick.” I jerked and struggled, scratching at the man’s hand where he held me. “I don’t care what he wants. He’s not getting anything!”
But it did no good.
The two assholes acted as if I wasn’t even there.
“You take that money, it’s no longer your concern what I do to her,” the man said coldly.
“But...you won’t like...hurt her?” A flicker of humanity came and went in Sam’s stare. “I mean, you’ll just take what you want and then let her go?”
“Sam...seriously?” I blinked with disbelief. “What the hell do you call sex without consent? It’s rape—”
“Hush.” The guy’s fingers tightened around my wrist.
His gaze narrowed on Sam, but he didn’t answer the question.
Terror ricocheted down my spine. “Look, this has all gotten completely out of hand. Stop it. Both of you.”
Sam spared me a glance. “Yeah...you might be right.” He rolled his shoulders. “I might curse the very ground you walk on, Ily, but I’m not so dickish that I want someone to—”
“I won’t hurt her,” the guy muttered. “Not unless she asks me to.”
What the—
“So you do want to fuck her?” Sam raised an eyebrow.
The guy looked at me, winced, then nodded just once.
My eyes popped out of my head. “I can’t believe you think you can pay to sleep with me. Y-You’re delusional.”
The man jerked me into him, his lips skating over my ear. “Am I delusional that the moment I set eyes on you I wanted you? Am I delusional that I’m doing something completely against my wishes, yet somehow, the longer I go along with this, the harder it is to stop?”
I froze.
I couldn’t catch a proper breath.
He nipped at my lobe, sending a gush of sensitivity down my spine.
“Merde, if you could feel how hard I am...how fast my heart is pounding.”
I shivered.
Violently.
“If you knew why I’m doing this and why I need you...
” He let out an involuntary groan right against my cheek.
“If you knew how hard I’m fighting to stay human...
you’d know that the helplessness you feel right now is exactly how I feel.
” He nuzzled me. “You don’t know me and I don’t know you, yet every cell in my goddamn body is snarling to bend you over this bar and claim you.
” He chuckled. “So yeah, maybe you’re right: I am delusional. ”
I stumbled backward as I sucked in a shaky breath. I hated the visceral reaction he caused. The heat. The awful, awful flush of awareness and shock and rage and...want.
I had no idea what to say.
He successfully gagged me with brutal honesty or conniving lies.
Twisting my arm in his fingers, I croaked, “You said you’re doing something against your wishes? Well, you have my permission to stop. Let me go. Take your money. And leave.” My gaze flickered down to his trousers, my heart skipping at the bulge between his legs.
He wasn’t lying.
He was hard.
And somehow, that turned every part of me into a traitor.
What was it about this man that irked me, infuriated me, and intoxicated me quicker than any other substance on earth?
“I can’t do that,” he said almost sadly, his fingers pulsing around my wrist.
Self-preservation shot like a sobering cure through my veins.
Squirming again, I bared my teeth. “Yes, you can. You can’t buy me, rent me, sleep with me, or do whatever it is that you think you’re doing.
If you don’t let me go this instant, I’m going to knee you in the balls, then call the cops, and—”
“Shit.” He wrenched me closer. His face twisted as his lips returned to my ear, hot and seducing, feeding his sins directly into my blood.
“I should warn you, I don’t do well with threats.
I wish I was free to do exactly what you demand, but I can’t.
The only thing I can give you is advice....
the more you fight me, the worse this will be for you.
So, don’t fight. Just give in...like I have.
Surrender, Ily, and this...this can all be over soon. ”
My name.
He claimed my name without it being his to use.
The way it rolled on his tongue and clung to his teeth. It felt as if the soft sunshine I’d been named after just had its light smothered and heat frozen over with his arrogant, dangerous tone.
I positively hated that my nipples pebbled; my core clenched on phantom need.
Surrender?
To him?
No way.
Never.
Not when the very foundation of my life shuddered like quicksand beneath my feet.
Whoever he was, he wasn’t delusional or dangerous. He was a demon and death all in one and I needed to run.
Balling my hands, I yanked my arm. Not that it made a shred of difference. “Let me go—”
“No.” His nose nuzzled against my neck, inhaling deeply as if he wanted every spritz of my rose-quartz-and-freesia-infused perfume to soak into his lungs. “I told you, I can’t. I wish I’d never set eyes on you. I wish you didn’t exist. I wish...merde, it doesn’t matter what I wish.”
“I’m going to scream.” I leaned away, but he merely wound an arm around my back, pinning me to him.
I shivered against my will. “I’ll do it.”
He groaned as if my threat turned him on. “But I haven’t even touched you yet.”
“You’re holding me.”
“And you feel so damn breakable. So fucking good.”
“I can still hit you. Hurt you.”
“Do it and I won’t be able to stop what I do in return, Ily.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Stop using my name. It’s not yours to use.”
“Mine’s Henri. Now you know what to scream.”
My mouth hung open at his audacity.
My heart tripped over his words.
And my body...good lord, my body betrayed me.
I was wet.
Tingly.
Confused.
Who the hell is this man?
Terrified nausea roiled, churning with desperation to get far, far away. “Look, Henri...I’ve had enough. This has gone on long enough and—”
“It’s only just begun.” He bent from his tall height, pressing his nose to mine. “I’m truly sorry, you know. So fucking sorry—”
“Sorry for what?” Sam snapped, his hand still locked around the envelope of cash. “What the fuck are you two whispering about?”
The deafening music returned.
The humidity of many dancers.
The awareness that we weren’t alone.
It all slammed back in, drenching my senses.
How did he do that?
How did a single touch and a whispered threat make the world drop away, leaving me bound with a total stranger, locked together by some sick connection?