Chapter Fourteen
Patient Seventeen
While my body was held down by chains, the darkness inside my mind ran wild.
Tuesday was everything I wished she wasn’t: an unknowing victim of Rook’s sick games. But regardless of her cluelessness about what this place was, she hadn’t come here by accident.
You had to have done something they saw as bad.
As much as I hated it here, I couldn’t pretend it wasn’t what I deserved.
I’d done something bad.
Very, very bad.
My first dream of Tuesday was fuzzy, but I wouldn’t forget what she’d told me.
She’d killed someone.
Doubt had my eyes narrowing on my new psychiatrist. At first glance, she seemed too sweet and sensible to be a killer. But there was no hiding that wicked gleam behind her eyes. Not from me.
I suspected part of her wanted to obey me—to spread herself for me as I asked.
Whether it was just so I’d spill my secrets, or because that bit of mayhem within her was drawn to me like a magnet—I didn’t care.
Whatever the reason, it had her leaning back on the love seat with a furious blush burning her cheeks.
She parted her legs, her gaze foisting from mine.
Palpable shame radiated from her, making the air buzz with delicious intensity.
“Satisfied?” she snapped.
I grinned. “Hardly. Pull your skirt up.”
Tuesday’s blush deepened. A rebuttal burned in her glare, but instead of firing it, she shuffled in her seat and pulled her pencil skirt up to mid-thigh.
My mouth watered as I caught a glimpse of her cotton panties, white and thin enough to just make out the cleft of her center.
She was soaking wet.
The thin piece of fabric covering her pussy was so soaked, it was nearly see-through.
I licked my lips. It was nearly torture ripping my attention from under her skirt to her eyes, yet I managed it. Worth it to see her beet-red face and how she was failing to hide her emotions now.
“There. Now, what’s this secret? And if I find out you’re lying—”
“We’ll get to that in a second, Doc,” I said coolly, as if I was the one with all the power, even though I was the one in chains. “You haven’t fulfilled your end of the bargain yet.”
She blinked. “What are you talking about? I pulled up my skirt.”
I shook my head as much as I could, making the leather groan and the metal chains sway from the movement. “Show me your cunt. That was the deal.”
“I can’t,” she muttered. “You’re my patient.”
“I’ve done worse with mine,” I drawled, dropping my voice to an octave that had her squirming. “Besides. You’ll find things like that have less meaning here than anywhere else you’ve worked.”
“You mean things like professionalism?” she asked with an arched brow.
“Exactly.”
“I doubt Dr. Rook shares the same views. And as my boss, his opinion matters to me.”
“I won’t breathe a word to that bastard. Besides, if I did, there’s a chance he wouldn’t let us see each other after this, and there’s no way in hell I’m giving this up. It’s already the highlight of my pathetic existence.”
Tuesday swallowed thickly, and I could make out the jump of her throat, like she was trying to swallow the fact that she was about to expose herself to me. All for some information from a madman.
My sadistic grin stretched wide behind my mask. “Why so resistant? You want to.”
“You don’t know what I want.”
“At least your body doesn’t lie to me,” I said, my attention dropping back to the wet spot framed so beautifully by her lush thighs. Hives splotched her otherwise milk-pale flesh. What a nervous, lusty, indignant little thing.
Fucking beautiful.
The doctor stared at me for a long beat. Then her body swayed, as if she were about to faint. The urge to catch her in my arms overwhelmed me. What an odd knee-jerk reaction. Maybe on some level, I was already beginning to care for this woman.
Too bad Rook would poison her against me. Soon enough, she’d be torturing me like the rest of his staff, and not in such a fun way as she was doing now.
“I think we need to end this session for now. I’m getting lightheaded. It’s the altitude.”
“It’s not the altitude.” My snarl had her attention snapping back to me. “We’re below sea level, if you can believe that.”
The quirk of her eyebrows told me that she didn’t. “Nonsense. The mountains are just beyond the fog,” she said, gesturing to the haze beyond the window.
“There’s something beyond the fog, alright, but it’s not majestic mountains, Dr. Beckett. Now, enough stalling. Spread your legs and show me that cunt.”
Her chest rose with a sharp breath. “You should be whipped for talking to me like that.”
“I probably will be. Or electrocuted. Or drowned. Or dissected. Who knows. They’ve been mixing it up lately.”
She balked, appearing to hold back whatever line of questions had bloomed from my comment. “I need something more from you if I’m going to…to do this.”
“I’m all ears, Doc.”
“You’re going to answer my questions directly. And don’t give me some half-assed cryptic answers and try to pass it off as mental instability. You might be evil… But I don’t think you’re crazy.”
I considered her words for a moment before releasing a long, agitated sigh. “And what if the things I tell you don’t make sense even if they’re true? Are you going to believe me? Or will you just shrug it off as nonsense and toss me some pills?”
Now it was her turn to mull over my response. “I–I...don’t know. It’s my job to make sense of things…”
Her voice wavered and trailed off. She didn’t need to finish her line of thought; I knew what she was thinking.
Nothing about this place made sense.
Least of all, me.
Had she convinced herself that the man in her dreams couldn’t be the same person strapped down in her office? The face, the voice, the name, it was all the same. Had she convinced herself it was all a coincidence?
No. She was clever. Despite what logic told her, there had to be a voice within, screaming to her that something was way off. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be moments away from flashing me her juicy cunt.
The minutes crawled by on their hands and knees. “Our hour is just about up, I suspect. So make up your mind. You don’t want Rook walking in to find his newest doctor spread like that. He might take it as an invitation.”
“If I’m going to do this, you’re going to shut up,” she hissed.
To demonstrate to her that I could behave myself, and listen to instructions—with proper motivation—I didn’t respond.
“Okay—” She breathed, closing her eyes while she gathered herself. Then, she parted her thighs so that they were in an obscene V position. She hooked a finger under her panties and pulled them to the side.
“Spread your folds, and hold yourself open for me,” I finally spoke, my voice laden with grit. I could see the goosebumps forming on her skin, even from this vantage. She hesitated for only a brief moment this time before obeying.
“Wider. I want to see your insides.”
My command had her clenching—fucking hell—I could see her soft pink walls twitching under my attention.
Soft and wet and warm.
The things I’d do to break free from my restraints and take my shrink’s pretty pink hole right there on her office sofa.
It was torture not being able to hold her and kiss her. By force, if she fought me. Might be fun to hold her down while she kicked and screamed, knowing there was a bigger part of her than she’d ever admit that craved it.
A sinuous groan rattled up my throat. Fuck—if I ever did get close to her, I wonder if I could stop myself from hurting her.
While my father labeling me as a cannibal was a bit of a stretch, I did love ripping apart the flesh of my enemies.
Biting it, feeling the gush of blood inside my mouth.
Did I have the strength to be gentle with her?
The even bigger question was if I cared enough for her to even try.
I hated that the answer to that was an unequivocal yes. Past her armor, she seemed good-natured. But underneath that, she had a spark of fire inside her. If she didn’t learn how to use it to protect herself, this place would eat her alive.
But even without the jacket or the chains, the mask was padlocked to the back of my head. Only Rook and Nurse Beatrice had the key.
My tongue flicked out—the slick bastard had a mind of its own—and pushed through one of the larger holes in my mask.
Her eyes widened into saucers as she watched my drool soak the leather, oozing from my chin in a long rope.
I wasn’t embarrassed. I was too hungry to give half a fuck how much the primal energy rolling off me in tidal waves scared her. I liked that spark of fear and defiance in her eyes.
She closed her legs quickly, her wet thighs making a wet clap. “There. You got your way, pervert.” My cock jerked at the flustered husk in her voice. “Now tell me what you know.”
My eyes flicked to the clock on the wall. “We have ten minutes until our hour is up. You really think I can tell you everything I know in that time? I’m wounded, Doc.
“I’m going to do you one better. I’m not going to tell you exactly what situation you’ve landed yourself in.
You wouldn’t believe me. So, I’ll give you evidence instead.
Find the inmate named Barbara Reed. She goes by Bunny.
She’s a patient in the low-security ward.
Take her for a walk—you can do that with general pop patients. Ask her to show you Dr. Rook’s office.”
“I’ve seen his office.”
“Ask her for her old doctor’s office. The one where she wasn’t made to…do things under the desk.”
Tuesday went rigid, but nodded. “Okay. And I’ll see you again in a week.”
“That’s not soon enough.” My voice came out like a bark, making her jump. “Arrange for it sooner.”
“I can’t. Rook won’t allow it.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the door opened, and orderlies poured in to collect me. They wheeled me away, and with my head strapped down, I couldn’t even turn to cast her one last glance. “In the meantime, I’ll see you in your nightmares, Doc.”