My body shook from the force of being jolted awake. I blinked rapidly several times before a loud bang jerked me fully alert.

For long seconds, I could only hear the sounds of my breathing as blood raced through my veins, heating my clammy skin.

It took some time before my vision adjusted to the darkness and my new reality.

Why hadn’t I listened to my parents? Why had I wandered off after lying about where I was going?

My prison rocked and from the sounds of crashing waves, I reasoned that I was on a boat. Tears leaked from my eyes as I remembered feeling so excited to meet the boy who’d said I was pretty. Look where that had landed me. Not washed ashore, but trapped, bound…taken.

Footsteps approached and I closed my eyes. I wasn’t ready to face the truth of my situation.

Words in a language I didn’t understand were traded between voices I didn’t recognize. The tips of my fingers tingled as I tried to separate my zip-tied wrists.

“I’ll make sure she’s ready.”

That voice was familiar. It was the cute boy from the horse-riding lesson. The one who flirted and made me feel pretty. The one who had convinced me to meet him.

Foggy memories tried to surface. The lie I’d told my parents, however, was clear. I’d said I was hanging out with one of the girls I’d met. Dad had warned me not to leave the main area of the hotel. Stupidly, I believed my parents to be overprotective and I had gone alone down to a secluded part of the beach. I’d gone to meet the boy who made me feel like a woman.

“Get up.”

Harsh tones made the words ugly. A jab with his knee to my back forced me to roll over with a groan.

I didn’t want to open my eyes and face the truth, but a slap to my face forced me to.

“Wake up, princess.”

Though my father had called me that, the handsome boy with the sneer on his face took all the magic out of it.

“Why are you doing this?” I cried.

Fighting against the sting across my cheek and the burn at my back made my words sound weak, pathetic even.

His snide laugh was dark and without humor.

“It’s about time you learn what it’s like to be without your rich parents.”

“But I—”

The second smack across my face reverberated like a crack through the room.

“I don’t care what you have to say.”

He didn’t understand. I wasn’t rich bounced in my head. My parents had saved up for this lavish trip. We’d never once been on a family vacation…ever.

“Get undressed,” he said, using a knife to free my hands.

Instinctively, I covered my chest as best I could. I’d never been naked in front of anyone. I watched his fist ball and I scrambled to curl myself in the corner.

Undeterred, he extended a hand. He didn’t have to reach far to take hold of my shirt. I was yanked forward, but my tank top paid the price. The cheap material tore easily, leaving my bikini top exposed.

Frantically, I tried to crab walk backward and away from him. This time he caught my foot, snatching me closer before ripping the bikini top off my body. My boobs spilled free and he leered at them before I could cover myself.

I was no match for his strength. He easily moved my arms to grope at my chest.

“Nice.” He smirked.

I couldn’t lie and say that when I’d left to meet him, the possibility of him feeling me up hadn’t crossed my mind. Never in a million years had I thought it’d be like this, against my will. I’d thought the night would lead to kissing and maybe he’d cop a feel. But never like this. The boy who’d appeared about my age when I met him looked closer to a man now, an evil one.

“Boss wants to know if you’re a virgin.”

Fear spiked through me. On some level I’d known what might happen given the situation, but the reality of it made tears burst from my eyes.

“I am. I am!”

That didn’t stop him. He didn’t have to take off his pants to make what was about to happen a nightmare. The fact that he was going to probe at the most intimate part of me yanked a scream born from true terror out of my chest.