6. Chapter Six #2
When we reach the entrance to the maze, I turn to the guard on duty – Robert. “There’s a man inside the maze that needs taking care of. He’s close to the center, in a dead end area, lying on the ground. Jeffrey. You’ll know it when you see it.”
Robert nods. “I’m on it.” None of my staff questions me. I pay them well and they respect me for it.
“It,” Sasha says, shuddering.
“What?”
“It. You called that man an ‘it.’”
“So?” I tug her along back to the house.
“So? He was a real person.”
“Who tried to rape you. You can’t seriously be concerned about what I call him, can you?”
Her lips part in surprise. It only makes me want to kiss her. We shared the tiniest kiss at our wedding but it wasn’t enough. I need to consume Sasha with my entire being.
“I mean…” she trails off. “He was still a person.”
“Fine. He. It. Whatever. Everyone blends together for me after a while.”
She digs her heels into the ground, making us stop. “Have you killed that many people that you can’t even remember who you’ve all killed?”
“If you’re trying to get into my head, Sasha, then think again.
I’m a killer. It is what it is. I’ve done bad things and I’ve accepted it.
And I will do bad things in the future. Don’t think you can appeal to my conscience.
Sweetheart, it left me a long time ago.” I tug on her arm and she resumes walking.
Once she’s back in our room, I head for the door to return to the party when Sasha speaks again.
“You’re going back in there?”
I look at her, standing in our room, holding her red panties in her hand, looking small and scared and vulnerable.
“Do you want me to stay?”
A scowl crosses her face. “No.”
“Oh, good then. So why does it matter if I go back in there?”
“What were you doing in there? Before you heard me calling for you? Were you hunting another woman? Were you…”
“Was I what? You’re going to have to be more specific.” I stalk towards her and to Sasha’s credit, she stands her ground.
“Were you in the middle of…”
“Spit it out, honey. I don’t have all day.”
“Fine.” She rolls her eyes. “Were you hunting a woman? Were you going to have sex with another woman?”
“What if it was a man?”
She squints at me for a second. “Was it a man?”
“No. It wasn’t a man. I wasn’t hunting anybody. I wasn’t having sex with anybody. I was watching. Watching my guests enjoy themselves.”
“Have you thrown this event before?”
“Many times.”
“And in the past…”
I place my hands on her hips and give them a squeeze. “Yes. I’ve hunted other women and fucked them right in my maze. But I’m a married man now. The only woman I want to fuck is you.”
“That’s a relief,” she mutters, clearly being sarcastic. I can’t wait to stick my cock into her mouth one day. But I enjoy her feistiness too much to make her be quiet. “I hate to break it to you, Nico, but if you’re planning on only being with me, you’re going to be waiting a long time.”
“How long?”
“You’re going to die before you ever get to touch me.”
“I’m touching you now.” I give her waist another squeeze to remind her of it. As if on cue, she blushes.
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then you need to be more clear. If you’re saying you’ll never let me fuck you, then so be it. But I’m confident I won’t have to wait until I die. You’re going to give in to me sooner or later.”
“Later being the key word. Never, actually.”
I tilt her chin up and give her a quick kiss on the lips. Sasha gasps and leans back. “It’s cute that you think that. But you’ll want me eventually.”
“You’re full of yourself.”
“Soon you’ll be full of me.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Gross.”
I let her go with a laugh and head to the door. “Stay in here the rest of the night. And for the record, how did you get out?”
“I’m not telling you that.”
“Maybe I’ll have to spank you again to get the information out of you.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” I can tell she’s trying to be brave but she can’t hide the slight quiver in her voice.
“Have a fun night in our room, Sasha. Do not leave again.” I can feel her eyes on me as I walk away and I make a point of not looking back.
Sasha
My backside hurts when I try to sleep that night but every time I roll onto my back, I’m reminded of how sore my ass is.
Nico eventually joins me sometime during the night but I pretend to be asleep and he doesn’t bother me. I can’t believe him. Actually spanked me. And after he killed a man on top of it. This is the man I’m married to.
What happened in the maze last night will haunt me for a long time.
I know it. Between what that man, Jeffrey - Nico called him – tried to do to me to Nico killing him to Nico then spanking me in a sea of other people at an orgy, it was a crazy night.
And what hurts the most is that Nico was right: I wasn’t ready for any of it.
I resented how sheltered my father kept me. I hated Denis for how he kept me as a prisoner.
It’s their faults that I never had the experiences to handle a situation like last night. They kept me as a little lamb and I was led to the slaughter.
Nico is gone by the time I wake up in the morning. He must know I need some space. That or he’s playing mind games with me again.
Or he’s just busy with work, is what Maria tells me. Even on our honeymoon, his work never ends.
I spend the day roaming around the house, looking at all the different nooks and crannies. All the beautiful architecture. Searching for any hidden doors to any secret rooms. A house this big has to have some secrets.
When I don’t find anything, I eventually regulate myself to the library and spend the afternoon readding, which I find hard to do when my mind is swirling with the memories of last night.
Enough, I tell myself. Put it behind you. It happened and now I need to move on.
Nico doesn’t return even when dinner is served. I ask Maria where he is and she tells me that he must still be busy with work. It makes me wonder where he’s at. What exactly is he doing.
After I eat, I realize that I’m tired of being stuck in this house like another prisoner. I’ve traded one prison for another. The problem is, Nico has guards scattered all along the house, making sure no one can get in.
Or no one can get out.
I can’t just walk through the front door.
I can’t call my family. Denis won’t let me talk to them. While him and Nico are allies now, that doesn’t mean me and Denis are ones. He wants to keep my family isolated.
Besides, there’s no phone around I can use to call. I wasn’t allowed my own cell phone with Denis. And Nico hasn’t offered to buy me another one.
I try asking Maria for hers but she tells me that Nico gave instructions not to let me use the phone.
So Nico is trying to keep me locked up just like Denis did. Keep me isolated. It’s going to drive me mad.
I have to get out of here. I have to do something .
It’s then I realize I don’t have to walk out the front door. Surely there can’t be a guard at every corner of the house.
The backdoor is guarded also so I choose one of the windows on the first floor and sneak out.
I don’t see any guard on this side of the house so I take off running.
The sun is low in the sky but I have a few hours before it sets.
I just need to find a police station and ask for help.
I need a phone to call Natalya and make sure Mikhail is safe.
I need to find a way out of this hell.
Especially the hell in my mind that tells me I hate Nico while I can’t stop thinking of his hand on my backside last night. How warm and strong it was. How I liked it a bit more than I would ever admit out loud.
The mansion is surrounded by vineyards on either side so I pick the one closest to me and I take off running through it. I manage to make it through and out the other side onto a road. Then I walk.
It takes me over an hour to reach the actual city itself. Rome is bustling, even as the sun is setting. Tons of people are still out, going to shops and restaurants. Tourists take pictures of the setting around them.
For a moment, I feel safe.
And then a man approaches me. He’s young, probably in his twenties. He’s not dressed like a tourist.
“Are you lost?” he speaks in an Italian accent.
“I’m fine,” I tell him, trying to walk past but he grabs my arm and tugs me towards a dark alleyway away from the crowds. “I said I’m fine. I don’t need your help.”
“Ah. An American. I can help you.”
“I don’t need it.”
“But I think you do.” He tugs me further into the alleyway and shoves me against the wall.
I’m well aware of the danger I’m in and I try to scream before he clamps his hand over my mouth.
“If you want money,” I gasp when he removes his hand.
“I don’t want any money. If I had wanted money, I would have pickpocketed it from you without you even noticing. No. What I want is a girl who is lost. Now you’ll come with me, won’t you? I can get you to safety.”
“You shoved me against a wall. I don’t think you want to get me to safety.”
“How smart. A smart American. What a surprise.”
“I don’t have any money on me. Just let me go.”
“I don’t want your money,” he snaps. “I want a pretty little thing like you. Do you know it’s dangerous to walk the streets of Rome at night? Men like me come out to play.” He punches me right in the stomach, knocking all the wind right out of me.
I fall to my knees. The hard cement is going to leave bruises behind – that is if I survive this night.
The man begins to kick me right in the stomach, over and over and over again.
“Why?” I groan.
He stops, breathing heavy. “Why not? You were lost. Vulnerable. You walked right into my trap.”
He raises his foot to kick me again when he lets out a strangle noise and stumbles back. That’s when I look up and see that his throat is bleeding.
And standing behind him is Nico, holding onto a small knife. It’s covered in blood. The man clutches at his throat but it doesn’t do anything for him. He falls to the ground and bleeds out.
Nico turns to me. I brace myself for a lecture but instead, he holds out his hand and tentatively, I take it.
“How did you find me?” I whisper, clutching my arms around my stomach.
“One of my guards spotted you running through the vineyard near the house. It wasn’t hard to figure out which direction you were going. But it was pure luck I found you when I did.” His eyes rake over me. “Are you hurt?”
I start to shake my head when I double over, groaning in pain.
“Shit,” Nico grumbles. “I have a private doctor I can get you to.” He scoops me into his arms and carries me away from the man he just killed, acting as if he’s my knight in shining armor when he’s really the devil in disguise.