Julian grasped my wrists and wound something around them, tightly binding them together in front of me. By the itchy feeling crawling over my skin, I knew it was rope.

He gave a forceful tug, pulling me forward without warning. My feet fumbled beneath me, fighting to keep me upright as I stumbled after him.

He led me along, turning here and there, occasionally making an abrupt stop for him to unlock another door. He had never taken me out of the room before, and now it was like we had gone on an excursion, blindly following a feeble lifeline for miles though in reality, it had only been a few minutes.

As he pulled me through another door, I listened as the door latched and a lock slid into place. The ropes fell from my wrists as he unwound them and tossed them aside. To my dismay, he left the hood in place.

The high-pitched clank of metal against metal made my skin crawl as it tinkered across the ground, sending faint vibrations through the pads of my bare feet.

Where were we? What was he doing?

My mind raced. Was he going to kill me, slowly and painfully? Maybe he really had found Kiera and wasn’t satisfied with having only one death for the day. Maybe he wanted more. Or maybe he was getting ready to feed on me. I could only imagine how long it may have been since he’d last drank.

The thought of his fangs penetrating my flesh made my blood turn to ice in my veins.

Grabbing each ankle, Julian wrapped and latched something around then, letting the weight of the cool metal weigh my feet down.

He grasped one wrist at a time, extending them above my head and latching them in a similar contraption that gnawed at my flesh.

I heard his footsteps move away from me, the clicking of his heels echoing off the walls. Suddenly, the unmistakable sound of chains clanking together as they were wound onto a wheel rang out around me, and I was being lifted off the ground, my legs simultaneously being forced further and further apart until there was no more leeway. The full weight of my body was dangling in the air by my wrists, pain already coursing through them from the pressure. I was stretched to the max with no hopes of escaping whatever contraption Julian had bound me to.

Finally, the hood was ripped off my head, my hair fluttering in every direction. I frantically searched my surroundings.

He had me bound to dark, metal chains dangling from the ceiling and more on either leg. The crank he had used to spread my legs sat in the far corner of the small dark room where a rack of whips, gags, cuffs, and various other items sat next to it, peacefully waiting for its toys to be put to use. And not to my surprise, that’s where I found him, flipping through the random collection of torture devices until he had settled on two items. To my dismay, I found he had a gag in one hand and a whip in the other as he strode back towards me.

My heart sank.

I shook my head, my eyes wide with terror as they welled with tears.

“Julian, please,” I whimpered. “I’ll be good. I'll listen. I'll never contact anyone ever again.” I tried to plead, but I knew he had made up his mind.

Without a word, he forced the gag into my mouth, the large red ball pushing its way past my teeth, and fastened it tightly behind my head.

Whip still in hand, he began meticulously rolling up the wine-colored sleeves to his satin button-up shirt. As terrified as I was to what was to come, I couldn’t help but admire his body, or the way his taut muscles strained against the delicate fabric. My body trembled as my gaze raked over him and discovered his bulge. If that was what it was like normally, I dreamed of the day I would see it in its full glory.

His hand disappeared into his back pocket and reappeared with a solid black switch blade. Flicking it open, he strode over to me and slipped its tip under the hem of my negligée, the cold metal pressing against my thigh as he glided it upwards, cutting away the delicate material from my body with ease before severing each strap, letting the shredded gown fall to the ground.

He stood before me, his dark gaze drinking in the sight of my bare flesh. As if he couldn’t resist, he reached forward, tenderly gliding his hands across my thin waist in a daze. Part of me wanted to squirm and retract from his touch, but I found myself almost enjoying it, sending chills across my body that caused my nipples to become fully erect.

A deep growl resonated from his chest. “Just as soft as I had imagined.”

He caught sight of my reaction and immediately sucked one into his hungry mouth. The sensation of his hot tongue lapping across my sensitive nipple made me gasp and moan around the gag.

His teeth caught my sensitive nip and bit down, tugging it away from my body.

I squirmed, confused by the mixture of pain and pleasure.

With a quick flick of his wrist, he swatted my bare backside with the folded whip, jolting me and rattling the chains.

Julian’s gaze found mine as he groped my breasts, roughly squeezing and kneading them in the palms of his hands.

“Are you enjoying this?” he hissed. “Is this is what you’ve always wanted, someone taking advantage of you, tying you up, and using you in whatever way pleased them?”

Taking the folded whip, he swatted my lower abdomen just above my aching mound. I tried to flinch away but I couldn’t move. I let the sting of the impact crawl across my flesh.

What was happening?

What was happening to me? The idea of bondage had always made my stomach turn. Degrading a person as they were strung up to humiliate them and beat them while they were down, all the while the other person was gaining sexual pleasure from demeaning their hostage? I never saw the allure. And now that I was in the same predicament that turned me off, regardless of how terrified I was of what was to come, I found myself excited. My slit was already drenched and aching for him to take me and I couldn’t force the thoughts away. They stuck to my mind like glue and wanted more. Craved for more like a drug.

“I have been planning this for quite some time. I just needed you to slip up, give me an excuse to violate your tender flesh.” His tongue slowly glided across his bottom lip as he dragged the tendrils of the whips across my bare breasts.

Between excitement and terror, my breaths came in shaky and ragged. It felt as if my heart would cease in my chest.

“But this is what you want, isn’t it?” He swung the whip, colliding the tendrils across my stomach. I screeched out around the ball.

“You want to be used? Bent to my every whim?” The whip cracked against my ass. Tears fled my eyes, staining my cheeks as the pain radiated in burning heat.

He slowly moved behind me, dragging the whip over my damp flesh. He slid the hilt of the whip down my back and over my throbbing backside until it found its way to my puffy, damp mound.

“But this is what you have been yearning for, isn’t it?” he whispered in my ear, his hot, sticky breath on my neck as the handle wiggled its way between my moist lips, rolling against my sensitive bud, causing me to squirm and squeal around the rubber ball lodged between my teeth.

The sensation was thrilling, yet humiliating as I dangled in the air, bound by chains as my body was abused by a foreign object, all without my consent.

Confusion was consuming me. My mind screamed no, but my body begged for more. The emotions collided as he rubbed me faster and harder, my legs trembling in their chains.

“You like this, don’t you?” he growled in my ear, his body pressed up against my back, and I could feel his growing manhood pressing between my tender cheeks.

I didn’t want to enjoy it. I was fighting myself, fighting the urge to release myself to this strange pleasure. But my body was winning. Having him pressed up against me, feeling his muscles flexing as he rubbed my pulsing clit, his hard bulge nestled between my firm ass cheeks as his hands tightly gripped my hips, his fingers digging into my flesh as he held me in place…

I was losing my battle.

My body won over my mind and I let myself relish in the erotic scene.

My head flew back, resting on Julian’s shoulder as my body bucked in its chains as I climbed to pure ecstasy. A high-pitched moan rolled from my throat as my body jolted with every stroke, and in return, Julian growled, groping my hips tighter as he forcefully pressed himself against my wilting body. Pleasure rolled over me as he relentlessly abused my sensitive bud.

And then nothing.

Julian had slid the handle of the whip out from my throbbing slit just before I could reach climax. My body trembled against his as my bliss began to dwindle, my mind clearing off the haze that settled over my rational thoughts, and I was suddenly aware of his presence. I could feel his heart pulsing against my back, his breath dancing across my neck, and the pressure from his hard rod against my ass.

He was just as turned on as I was.

My thoughts begged him to stay there, holding me in his aroused embrace. The feeling of his body pressed against mine alone had my body humming in pleasure. How I yearned for him to hold me like this without the chains. I wanted him to take me, fill my aching slit with his hard rod and make lust-driven love to me.

His body tensed against me, his muscles growing rigid, and I could feel his entire demeanor had changed.

Suddenly he shoved himself off of me, letting me wobble in my confinement before cracking the whip across my backside again.

I screamed around the gag.

Any sensation of pleasure had been replaced by stinging pain.

In horror, I tried to scream his name, but he ignored my muffled plea and relentlessly whipped my back again and again.

I was left confused yet again. What had I done?! Was that not what he wanted from me? Was it not the reaction he had wanted?

What did I do wrong?!

The thin, long tendrils ravaged my body repeatedly, wrapping around my sides to sting my stomach, my breasts, my arms, my legs.

Every inch of my body was being punished, and I couldn’t place a reason.

My throat burned from screaming and attempting to plead with him, but my words went unheard, my pain and tears unnoticed. This was an anger I had never witnessed from him before. Even when he found out I had emailed Kiera, his rage was only a fraction of this.

But he wouldn’t stop. I desperately kept trying to make him hear me, to make him see what he was doing, but my voice had grown weak, strained from screaming at the rash beating I was receiving. My body was growing weaker. My mind was trying to block out the pain of his raging abuse.

A cool breeze began to tickle my damp flesh. But it wasn’t sweat.

Between cracking strikes, my blurred gaze caught glimpse of my agonized body, thin lines of crimson began trickling down the inflamed purple skin.

I was bleeding.

I choked out a final sob before darkness began to enclose my vision.

Then, all was silent. Still. The only sound was that of my feeble whimpers vaguely echoing off the stone walls.

Every inch of my body burned with fresh open wounds as I dangled there, no strength left in me.

The cuffs around my ankles fell away, allowing my legs to clack together as Julian removed my chains, followed by the loud crank of the wheel, the metal screeching out into the silence as he slowly lowered me to my feet. His fingers brushed against my cheeks as he reached around and unfastened the gag, removing it from my mouth. Saliva dripped from my bottom lip as my jaw fell slack, finally resting from its forced jarring.

Julian removed one cuff from my wrist and my body fell limp, all of my weight dangling from one wrist as my legs refused to hold me up.

The sound of mumbled profanities penetrated my mind.

Was Julian actually upset? Even though he was the one who did this to me?

I wanted to be mad, to allow my anger to consume me, and I willed my muscles to function enough to punch his face. But to my dismay, they refused.

I was too drained, too weak to react to my impulse. Not that it would have helped anyway; he was far too strong for me to take on. But the idea of getting one hit in was pleasing enough.

Julian scooped me up into one arm as the other unlatched my remaining cuffed wrist. It fell to my side with a loud slap, the muscles too tired and strained to function.

My head lolled back and darkness threatened to consume me.

I found myself wondering what had damaged him so much. I wished he could just tell me what hurt him so badly instead of taking out his personal turmoil on me. I was jumping to conclusions, but I could feel it. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, we had a strange, morbid connection. I knew deep down that something had happened to him, and he harbored the burden of pain and hate so deep that it only took a small act to trigger such outbursts. I could only pray that I would live long enough to learn the truth.

My thoughts were disrupted when I found myself being placed on a soft, cushioned surface, wincing as a warm, silky material was draped over my tender, aching flesh.

Forcing my eyelids open, I found myself lying in my bed. The sheets and blankets had been replaced and I was being coddled by a soft, silvery comforter.

A smile meekly tugged at my lips.

Movement from the other side of the room caught my weak gaze and I found Julian opening the door to leave.

Everything else had been stripped from me; my dignity, my morals, my trust. The one last power I had was to know what he was thinking. And I had to know before he left.

I knew it was a long shot, but I had to try.

“Your thoughts?” I croaked, my throat sore and strained. I prayed he would answer me. Tell me something, anything, before he left.

He froze in the doorway, the muscles of his jaw twinging as he fought something back.

“I’m thinking about how I’ve failed you. My weakness and ignorance is what allowed you to make this blunder, and now I’m afraid,” he whispered, his gaze glued to the floor refusing to look at me. “Afraid this will give them reason to take you from me.”