This confined, dark pit of hell was fucking with my head. Or maybe Alex’s naked body sent me spiraling through the deviant holes of my mind. She lay next to me on her stomach, her warm thigh pressed over my dick, and I couldn’t stop touching her. The cot was barely big enough for the two of us, which was fine by me because I wanted to keep her close anyway. But being so close tested my limits, and being trapped in this never-ending blindness had awakened a certain part of me. The part that enjoyed tracing a finger over the welts on her ass, following the angry lines branded in her flesh.
I’d traced her skin for hours, finding the act somehow soothing.
Blind captivity skewed reality to the point where time was meaningless, and it had a way of driving a person mad. It seemed like weeks had passed since Jax slammed the door, though it couldn’t have been more than a few days. Sandwiches and bottles of water arrived every so often through a slot in the door, apparently on some schedule I couldn’t track due to the pitch-blackness that made it impossible to measure time.
The longer we remained trapped in this dark cell, the closer I came to fissuring, and that pissed me off. I couldn’t let whatever issues lurked in my screwed up head pull me under now.
Thank fuck the screams next door had silenced on the first day. I kept torturing myself with what that girl might be enduring, and I felt like a bastard because I was grateful Alex was in here with me, safe from the monsters outside this room.
But that only left me to question the nature of the monster inside this room with her. Her vulnerability sparked something ugly in me. Something shameful. Something that threatened to unlock what I’d forgotten.
I didn’t want to remember what I’d done to her¸ but I was obsessed with finding out.
She whimpered in her sleep, indicating another nightmare was on the rise, and I gently shook her shoulder to wake her before the horrors of her mind trapped her in the past.
“Wake up, baby.”
She awoke with a sharp intake of breath and pushed to all fours, barely missing my balls with her knee. The bastards had leashed her, and the chain slid along the ground anytime she moved. I brushed my fingers over the cool metal running down her back.
“They were…they…” She sucked in another quick breath.
“It was just a dream.”
Letting out a shaky sigh, she settled against me again. “I’d rather have nightmares of the cabin. At least Zach was…someone I cared about. How messed up is that?”
“Everything about this is fucked up. I’m not surprised you’re having nightmares. I’ve been having them for a while too.”
“I remember,” she said quietly.
Of course she did. I’d practically attacked her in my sleep our last night on the island. Figuring we could both use a distraction, I patted the mattress above my head and searched for the tube of cream someone had slipped through the slot in the door. If I had to guess at who had been feeding us and slipping first aid items inside, I’d put my money on Jax.
Still didn’t make a shred of sense though. I kept replaying his words, trying to find the angle that clicked into something recognizable, but I only went in circles. Jax was the son of Perrone, who’d proposed to Alex. Perrone was behind all of this, but he also had ties to Abbott De Luca, who could easily be involved too.
How the fuck did Jax fit into the equation?
Maybe I couldn’t figure it out because I couldn’t fucking see beyond the darkness trying to choke the monster in me.
Fisting the tube, I squirmed out from underneath her and maneuvered to my knees, depressing the mattress on each side of her legs. I unscrewed the cap and squirted what I hoped was the right amount into my hand, then I palmed her firm, round ass. “Was it this dark in the cellar?” I asked as I rubbed in the ointment.
“Mmm-hmm,” she hummed, the pressure of my hands inducing a relaxed state. I finished applying the cream and glided my palms upwards. Brushing her hair to the side, I massaged her shoulders.
“God, that feels good.”
Her words tingled down my spine, heating my blood to simmering. I was a pussy, fucking terrified of remembering, but I couldn’t help but want to. I wanted to know what it felt like to own every part of her.
“Tell me more about the cellar.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know. I need to know everything.” I pressed my fingers deep into her muscles and worked out the knots.
“You left me naked in the cage. I didn’t have a blanket or any clothes. The thing I remember most is the cold. And the shame. You hated me, but I couldn’t blame you for it.”
“Me hating you…I find that hard to believe.” I lifted my leg and rolled her out from under me, onto her side, then stretched beside her on my back. I draped her over my body, not thinking, only acting on instinct as I embraced her, my fingers moving in slow circles down her spine. She caged me between her knees, and my dick nestled at the opening of her sex, fully erect and begging for entrance.
“Rafe,” she whispered, letting out a strangled moan.
Our captors could burst through that door at any moment, and I was sick for wanting to fuck her like this.
While being held captive.
While the remnants of Brock’s cane still sent unbearable amounts of pain through her system.
She couldn’t move without sucking air through her teeth. I only knew this because I heard her trying to hide it every time she shifted. I feared they’d do it again, that they were giving her time to heal so they could inflict more damage.
It’s what I’d do…if I were a psychotic bastard.
Fuck. My cock grew even harder. I didn’t want her to suffer…I didn’t…but my body responded in a shameful, disgusting way at the thought of being the one on the other end of the cane. I’d never hurt her the way he had, but I wanted to make her cry. The urge intensified the longer we were locked in this dark hole together. Denying it was useless, but maybe if we poked and prodded at my memories, I’d understand it better.
Bury your head in the sand some more, Mason.
The dark tendencies had always been there, but something had made me snap, had propelled me to act on them. I wanted to remember what that something was.
She moaned again, face nudging the side of my neck. Rolling her hips, she slid her mound up and down my length in sensual madness.
“Fuck, Alex.” I twisted my head and nipped her lips, nudged her chin until she turned and bared her ear. My breath wafted over the delicate skin beneath her earlobe, and I whirled my tongue, savoring the salt of her flesh. The urge to bite became overpowering. I couldn’t help it, couldn’t stop it. My mouth had a mind of its own, and I sank my teeth in with a groan.
She pulled at my hair with frantic fingers, and my traitorous hips jutted up to meet hers. “Don’t stop talking. What happened next?”
“You left me in there for a few days. You fed me”—her wet center teased my tip, and she gasped—“gave me a bucket to piss in. That was a dick thing to do, by the way.”
“What other dick things did I do?” I tried not to think of how close my dick was to pushing inside her.
“You cooked breakfast for me, let me take a shower. Made me eat off the floor.”
“I fucking what?”
“I knocked my plate off the table, so you made me eat off the floor.”
I’d been a mean sonofabitch, and I didn’t know how she could relive that while grinding on me, her pussy slick over my shaft. Fucking teasing. She could easily impale herself on me, but instinctively, I knew what she was waiting for.
She wanted me to force her cunt onto my cock. I grasped her hips and almost pushed her downward. She’d fit me like a glove. I knew she would. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I’d already been inside her. How could I forget something like that?
“Later that night, you fucked me.”
I groaned at the mental picture of her helpless beneath me, skin doused in sweat, her body shuddering. “Tell me when you were most scared.”
“When you made me tell you about Zach…or maybe the night I almost drowned in the river. Both were pretty fucking terrifying, Rafe.”
I stiffened all the way to my toes. “Talking about the past is a bad idea.” I pushed against her, but she only held on tighter.
“You’re scared you’ll remember.”
“I want to remember.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”
I sighed. “Both, maybe. Going there will open something that can’t be closed. Whether it’s my memories or a lunatic who’ll do worse damage—”
“You can never do worse,” she interrupted.
“What was our first time like? Did I hurt you? Did I make you cry?”
“You’re right. Let’s not do this.” Her voice wavered, telling me all I needed to know, yet I couldn’t stop picking at the scab of our history together.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“You were angry.” But I heard the pain behind those words. Our first time still haunted her, ached somewhere so deep, she’d never forget it existed.
“You didn’t deserve that. There’s wrong, then there’s wrong. I don’t need to recall those missing years to know I crossed a line.”
“Then uncross it,” she whispered. “Fuck me like it’s our first time.”
I groaned, but before I could protest, she slid down my chest, her dainty palms warm on my skin, and the cool metal of her leash followed suit. Her hair brushed my abs, her breath a tempting blast of heat on the tip of my cock.
“Don’t,” I told her.
“Why not?”
“Not the time or place.”
“We might not get another time or place. This might be it.” She paused. “Or is there another reason you’re holding back?”
Good fucking question.
I was kidding myself by not answering. She was too willing. Something about this room, about the suffocating blindness, drove me crazy. I tamped down the urge to force her onto her back, but my mind sprinted ahead. I imagined straddling her chest, my weight pressing her to the mattress, one hand fisting her tiny wrists as I shoved my cock deep into her mouth. Her eyes would pop open, her lips stretching as they wrapped tightly around my shaft.
Struggling to breathe, I bucked her off. That hadn’t been a fantasy, but a memory. I’d forced my cock between her lips in my room back on the island. The one that was undoubtedly turned to ashes now.
“What’d I do wrong?” The tremor in her voice sliced me deep, but it also sent a rush of blood straight to my cock. How could I hurt so much at the pain in her voice, yet want to force tears from her eyes all the same? I licked my lips, craving the salt of sorrow.
“It’s not you.”
“What is it, then?” She shifted on the bed, and her chain rattled through the darkness.
I became obsessed with that thing. It would be the perfect way to restrain her to my bed, the band of metal around her throat a constant reminder of my power over her.
Perfect…if I weren’t also trapped inside this dungeon with her.
Fuck. What the hell was wrong with me? This room, the welts on her body, that chain…all of it poked at my own personal Pandora’s box.
That chain…
Holy fuck. We had a weapon in here. Why hadn’t I thought of this sooner? I scrambled off the bed and wrapped a loose fist around the chain, following it to the hook in the floor. Reaching out, I slid my fingers down the smooth surface of the door, roughly two feet away.
Those assholes would come back, and when they did, I’d tangle them up in their own leash before they had the chance to drug me again. I prayed to God I could get my hands around their throats and apply enough pressure to subdue them. I’d fucking kill them if I had to. It’d be risky, especially if they were packing heat, but if I could get ahold of a gun…
We were out of options. I’d searched every inch of this room by touch, had spent hours listening, hoping to find something that would give me a clue. We weren’t getting out of this damn dirt hole unless we tried.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice small. Timid. Hurt.
Rejected.
“I want to fuck you, sweetheart. Believe me, I do. But I just had an idea.”
“An idea?” Disbelief dripped from her tone.
I had a lot of ideas tumbling though my chaotic mind, most of them deranged and dirty and involving her at my mercy. None of them involved being in this place and at the mercy of others.
I tightened my fist around the chain. “Yeah. An idea.”