Chapter Two
“Why do you have such a hard time obeying?”
WINTER
I moved across the parking lot faster than I thought was humanly possible. My legs were throbbing; tired from the marathon they had just run. I stopped outside of the warehouse, looking over the large building before surveying the space behind me. I didn’t know what I was searching for; why I was so scared that someone was following me.
That’s a lie, Winter.
Stop lying to yourself for once.
You have every right to be terrified.
I pushed the voices out of my mind and closed my eyes, trying to form a plan for about the hundredth time since I had broken loose from Caden’s closet. I knew he was going to be beyond furious when he came back to his room to find that I had escaped but I didn’t have much choice.
I had to get out of there.
I had just heard my two stepbrothers talking about how they were going to have their way with me once my stepfather got out of prison next month. After my stepfather had a run at me himself. My stepfather who was twice my age and so rough that I was sure to be broken for a very long time after he was gone. I could survive a lot. Hell, I had survived a lot, but I knew I wasn’t strong enough to survive that. I knew that would destroy me once and for all.
That meant I had to get out of there a hell of a lot sooner than I had planned.
I opened the double doors and shoved my hand into my sweatshirt pocket, trying to hide the fact that I still had a pair of handcuffs clinging to one of my wrists. It had taken all of my self-control to stay silent until Carl and Michael left Caden’s bedroom and went back down to the party. The only thing that scared me more than overhearing what I did was the fear of what Carl and Michael would do to me if they found out I had overheard it. Who knew how far they would go then, they might not think it was so important for their father to have first dibs anymore.
As soon as I was sure they were gone I’d pulled on the top of Caden’s closet shelf with all of my strength, sending it cracking into a huge mess in the middle of the floor. At least I had been able to pull one side of the handcuffs over the edge in order to get free. The problem? One side still hung from my hand. I looked like a god damn criminal on the run.
My attire didn’t help my case. I had realized after I broke free from Caden’s closet just how little clothing I really had on me. Hence the sweatshirt and sweatpants I had stolen out of his dresser drawer and slipped my body into. Another thing I was sure he was going to be just thrilled with me about.
Whatever. Suddenly, Caden Dean was the least of my worries. It was a thought I had never imagined occurring to me. Even more shocking was how true it rang in my own brain. As humiliating as it was to admit, as scared as I was of Caden, a part of me I would never fully understand still felt linked to him. As much as he hated me, as much as he wanted to make me pay for what I did to him… I couldn’t control the part of me that wanted to please him any more than he could control the part of himself that wanted to torture me.
It was sick, sure. Twisted? Definitely.
But it meant that no matter what Caden wanted me to do, I would do it. It meant that no matter how dysfunctional it was, a fucked up and damaged part of me would enjoy it even if I could never fully admit it. Every touch, every word, every game may have terrified me but it also thrilled me.
It was different with my stepbrothers and stepfather, though.
The thought of them touching me, or even planning…
It made me feel sick in every inch of my body.
And that meant I needed to make as much money as possible in the next month. Waiting six more months was no longer a luxury I could afford. So, I needed to work. A lot. I scanned the room for Drew, desperate to find him before I lost my nerve and this whole thing blew up in my face.
My boss was leaning against the side of the bar on the far left of the room, a drink lingering below his lips as he barked commands into one of the daytime waitresses ears. Her eyes were wide as if every word he was saying left her on the edge of her seat. I rolled my eyes; Drew always used intimidation tactics to manipulate the new girls into doing what he wanted. I was used to it, I could handle myself, but girls from nicer upbringings found him extremely intimidating. Good, hopefully, she would be gone by the end of the day and he would give me her shifts on top of what I already had.
“I need to talk to you,” I interrupted them, not bothering to be polite.
Drew glanced over at me out of the corner of his eye before turning his body completely to look at me with a stunned gaze. “What the hell are you doing here?” He took in my sweatshirt and baggy pants and raised his eyebrows. “And what are you wearing?”
I tried not to feel offended. “I need to start working days.”
The waitress he was talking to took the opportunity to scurry away. “Hey,” Drew called after her but it was too late, she was already lost in the shuffle of the crowd. “Thanks a lot,” he snapped. “I was just starting to break her in. Now that I have to pick up your slack I’m going to need all the help I can get.”
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head in confusion. “What slack?”
He pushed passed me toward one of the card tables. “I’m talking about your boyfriend making it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want you working here anymore.” He picked up a few stacks of cards and started shuffling them inside of one another, putting the deck back together.
“Boyfriend? I don’t have a…” I trailed off as realization dawned on me.
Caden.
He was already making good on his threat, taking away anything and everything from me that mattered even a little bit. Starting with the income I had become accustomed to getting. No, there was no way. I needed this job now more than ever. “Drew,” I said, trying to keep the quiver out of my voice. “You know how much I need this job.”
He sighed, picking up a few dice from another table and shoving them back inside of the dealer’s holder. “Look, I feel for you, kid, I really do. You’re great with the customers and put out more drinks than I can make at once, but I feel for my health and business more.”
I tried not to show my annoyance and sound reassuring. “Caden isn’t going to be a problem, Drew, really.” I pushed my hand further into my pocket, ignoring how heavy the handcuffs were starting to feel on my wrist. “What happened tonight was a one-time thing.”
“Oh, yeah? And what about him telling me he was going to add me to his coma count after you left for the night if I ever let you back in this building again? Was that a one-time thing, too?” He shook his head and sighed. “I’m a dead man walking just talking to you, Winter.”
His words left me mortified. Caden had really threatened him just for letting me work here? “Caden won’t be an issue, you have my word.”
“Your stepbrothers I could risk. But a Dean brother? Come on, Winter, you know I can’t put myself in that situation. It’s not personal, it’s just business.” He picked up his glass and downed the rest of the liquid, having the decency to really look like he felt sorry for me.
“’He doesn’t have to know,” I offered up lamely.
“Caden Dean knows everything,” he stated before gesturing over my shoulder in an effort to prove his point. “You take care of yourself, kid.” He patted the shoulder of my sweatshirt as he passed. “I really hope you make it out of here. Someone should, you know?”
I closed my eyes and swallowed down the tears that had started to form there. I knew Caden was behind me before I even turned around, I could feel him all over me, soaking me in his dominant scent.
He was leaning against the doorway, studying me with his intense green eyes as if he had been behind me the entire time, tracking me the way an alpha would his mate. His jaw was arched more than usual, anger burned around the edges of his eyes.
I was in trouble.
He took one step toward me, nodding forward so aggressively that I knew better than to make him wait for a second longer. If I continued to make him chase me he was going to make me pay. I bowed my head like a lost puppy that had been stupid enough to escape in the first place.
I stopped in front of him, peeking up at him out of my eyelashes. “How could you do that?” I whispered. “How could you cost me that job? I needed it.” He had no idea how much I needed it.
“I’ll be the one asking the questions here,” he snapped, taking a step toward me and shoving his hand underneath my arm. “The only thing you fucking need is me, pet. Do you understand me? A pet lives for nothing other than the need to please her master.”
My body started to tremble under his grip immediately.
“Say it,” he hissed into my ear. “Now.”
I could feel my knees shaking heavily under me, threatening to give out before him and send my body flying onto the floor. “I live to please you, master,” I whispered, pressing my thighs together in an effort to keep my balance. And to stop the pool of liquid that was forming there from becoming warm and splotchy.
You’re so sick, Winter.
A man who hates who so much he cant see straight turns you on.
You’re all kinds of wacked.
“That’s a good girl, for once,” he soothed, pushing my hair out of my face and pulling my face up so that I was forced to look at him. “Why do you have such a hard time obeying, pet?”
His arms wrapped around my waist, yanking me so hard against his body that his chest felt like it was about to knock the wind out of me. I gasped and glanced up at him, blinking rapidly. “I-I try to obey.”
He pulled apart my lips. “Yeah? You taking off out of my closet when I specifically told you to stay put? When I tied you up in there? Is that you trying to obey, huh?” He pulled my arm out of his sweatshirt pocket and smirked when he saw my still handcuffed arm. “Not as easy as you thought it would be to get away from me, huh?” He grabbed my other free arm and linked the open cuff around my wrist, forcing my hands together in front of my body.
“Caden!” I moaned in half shock, half pleasure.
I knew I had way more important things to be worrying about at that moment, things that were in much higher demand than allowing Caden Dean to handcuff me in front of a room full of drunk gamblers. Still, all my problems that didn’t surround him seemed to slip away when he was near me.
“I want you to remember that, pet,” he whispered into my hair as he started to pull me through the room and toward the pair of double doors that lead out into the parking lot. “There’s nowhere that you can run, nowhere that you can hide, I will always find you. I’ll always be there, just waiting for the perfect chance to jump out and claim you as mine over and over again.”
My body was worked up, hormones and fear taking over my blood as he swung open the heavy doors and dragged me after him into the parking lot as if I weighed no more than ten pounds.
“You may think you’re safe but you aren’t. The only place you’re ever going to belong is with me. I own you. I’ve owned you for a very long fucking time. I’ve just finally decided to collect.”
I pushed my handcuffed arms away from him. I knew he was right, aware that I had always belonged to him. It wasn’t something I wanted, it just kind of existed, but I didn’t want him to realize how much I got off on that. I didn’t want to ever show him how bad I wanted his protection, how I wanted him to take out anyone who ever tried to hurt me because the second I did that, the second I showed any kind of weakness for him then it would all go away.
Caden didn’t want to dominate me because he felt some unspoken, crazy, unhealthy connection for me the way I did with him. No, the only reason behind every action he committed around me was because he wanted to make me miserable. He fucking hated me.
And what was even more confusing was that I hated him, too.
So, then why did I still want to please him so bad?
“I hate you!” I told him, growing more frustrated with both him and myself by the moment. “Why did you have to do that? I needed that fucking job, Caden! You have no idea how bad I needed it.”
“I suggest you watch your fucking mouth, pet.” He closed the distance between us again, grabbing me so hard that he picked my feet up off the ground as he pulled me toward his car. “You needed that job for what, huh? So you could go around dressing like a fucking slut while other guys got to look you up and down all night? Fuck that shit.”
He stopped abruptly by his car, swinging the passenger side door open and pressing my body up against the side of the blue paint, placing his arms on either side of me in an effort to box me in. “No one else is going to see you looking like that besides me,” he breathed huskily into my neck. “No one else is going to get to fantasize about what’s mine and only mine.” He pushed his free hand between my legs, roughly pushing his fingers against my pussy through the fabric of my pants. “Your pussy is so clean, Winter, just like I knew it would be.”
I moaned and bit down on my lip, trying to remind myself how angry I was at him but the little spot between my thighs was threatening to make me forget, It was full on throbbing, begging to give in to the dominating temptation Caden was giving off above me. “I-I shave it,” I found myself saying.
I snapped my mouth shut.
Why had I said that?
He smirked. “I know you do, pet, it’s so naked and smooth.” He pushed my thighs apart roughly. “Normally, I would be furious that you did something like change your clothes without my permission but it’s pretty hot for me to see you in my clothes, Winter.”
He slipped his large fingers between the open flap at the front of his sweatpants, finding my slit through my panties easily and rubbing his nail up and down it a few times. “It’s just another way to remind you that you belong to me, marked forever as my fucking property.”
“R-really? You aren’t mad?” Every word that came out felt forced and jumbled; as if I was talking with a lisp. Why was he making it so hard for me to concentrate? I gasped loudly as he continued to flick my sensitive spot a few more times.
He smirked, aware of the effect he was having on me. “I didn’t say that.” He pulled his fingers out of my legs and pushed his crotch hard into my knees. “I said I’m not furious about that. It’s just one thing in about twenty million that you’ve done to fuck my life up.” He slipped his hand behind my neck and tilted my face up roughly, studying my wide-eyed gaze. “And tonight, well tonight, you’ve been extra naughty.”
I wanted to tell him there was a reason I had left him like that. That I had just overheard something so awful that I had been left with no other choice but I knew better. Even if I ever told Caden what I had heard, he wouldn’t believe me. Jason was like his brother; he would never hurt his blood enough to make them leave me alone.
Even if he could…
Maybe Caden was just waiting until he was done with me to pass me along. Who really knew? He said I was his but it didn’t seem like he wanted to keep me forever. I knew he would wake up any second and get bored or move on when he had finally felt like I paid enough for everything I had done to him.
One thing was for sure.
Me telling Caden could play out in about fifty different scenarios.
And every single one of them ended badly.
“It’s only been one day, Winter, and you’re already trying to push me over the edge.” Caden’s normally green and dark eyes were even more intense than usual; as if something I wasn’t aware of was close to making him snap.
Just like that night.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself not to think about it. I hated imagining how horrifying that night had been. Sometimes at night, just as I was drifting off, I could still see all the blood. I could still hear my muffled screams, the sound of pleading for Caden to stop, to let him go. But it had done little good, he had been lost so far in a trance a whole search party wouldn’t have been able to find him.
I shuttered. “What happened tonight?” I risked the question. “What did Luke want when he came and got you from the bedroom?” I knew I shouldn’t have been asking him about it but I couldn’t help it. I felt like whatever was going on inside of him right now had less to do with me and more to do with whatever drama had unfolded after he had left the room with his little brother.
He froze over me, disapproval written over his features. “Did I say you could ask me any questions, Pet?” He slipped his hand up the hem of his sweatshirt I was wearing and ran his hand back and forth over my stomach.
“No,” I admitted, trying to ignore how hot his touch felt against my skin. There was a chill creeping through the outside night air but I felt like my body was burning up. “Can I ask you a question?”
“No,” he said casually. “You know that’s not how this works.”
I swallowed. “How does this work?”
He shrugged. “With you doing whatever I say when I say it. That’s the only way this thing works.” His fingers were just below my breasts now, tracing small circles underneath my underboob. “It’s ironic you have the nerve to look surprised right now. What did you think was going to happen after what you did to me, Winter? That I would come back a changed man? That I would just let it go, not bother giving you all the awful things that we both know you deserve?” He shook his head and grabbed the bottom of my flesh, squeezing roughly. “Even you can’t be that naïve.”
“Crap,” I mumbled as my body lunged back in anticipation, smashing harder into the side of the car. “What do you want from me?” It came out as more of a whimper than a statement.
“What I want,” he paused, his jaw hardening, “is for you to pay.”
“I have.” If he only knew how much I had paid.
His smooth jaw straightened out as a small smirk played across his lips, revealing teeth so sharp and white that he should have been in a toothpaste commercial as the damn after picture. “Oh, my little naïve pet, you haven’t even begun to pay yet.” He leaned into me, brushing his lips into my hair and inhaling deeply. “But you will. Trust me, you will.”
I sighed, wishing for once I knew what the hell he was talking about. He talked in riddles, words filled with double and triple meanings. I just wanted to know what was going to happen to me. For once, I wanted to have a plan, a future. It was something I had never had before.
I tried not to let my fear show. I knew he was aware that just being this close to him made me shake for a million and twelve different reasons. Feeling terrified and anxious about what he was going to do to me next were just a few of them. I had no doubt he would follow through with everything he was promising me, I just had to pray I could get away from here before anything blew up with my stepfamily once and for all.
“I’m sorry,” I told him because I knew it was better than trying to defend myself. He was breathing heavily above me, barely giving me an inch of space. I could feel his adrenaline pumping off of his bones and radiating down onto my frame. He was so pissed I had left him; so angry he had come back to his room to find it empty. And in the end he had found me anyway, he had found me almost as fast as I had left.
His words echoed in and out of my mind.
I’ll always find you.
“I’m sorry,” I found the words slipping from my mouth again.
“You aren’t,” he said matter of fact, tipping his head to the side as he studied every inch of my face. “But you will be.” He grabbed my hair at the base of my neck, twirling it around his fingers. “Why did you leave?”
“L-Leave where?” I played dumb in an effort to buy some time.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” he warned.
I silently cursed myself. How did he constantly know what I was thinking without me speaking? I was starting to feel like even my thoughts weren’t safe. “I don’t know… I guess it just started to become too much. I had to get out of there. I was… I was nervous.”
He smirked, enjoying my anxiety at his expense. “Oh, pet, you thought that was too much?” He dropped my hair. “We haven’t even gotten started yet.” He took a step away from me, starting at my toes and not letting up drowning my body in his eyes until he reached my eyes. “On your knees, pet.”
I blinked a few times; sure I must have heard him wrong. “Um, what?”
He strained his broad back, narrowing his now black eyes on me as his tan and defined jawline tensed up. He didn’t like being questioned by anyone but especially not by me. “I said… kneel, pet.” He inched closer to me, licking his lips in anticipation.
Oh, God, he was really turned on.
The thought of control always did that to him.
Not just him if the wetness between your legs is any indication, Winter.
I pushed the annoyingly accurate voice out of my mind and glanced around the parking lot. He couldn’t be serious. He wanted me to kneel before him out here? In the middle of an open space where anyone could walk out and spot us at any moment? There was no way!
“We’re in the middle of a parking lot!”
“What the fuck are you, Google maps?” he declared, growing more impatient by the second. “I didn’t ask you for a location report, Winter, I asked you to kneel before me like a good pet would her master.”
“Caden…”
“Call me sir,” he interrupted.
Fuck, he was killing my throbbing pussy with that sir stuff again.
“Sir,” I moaned slightly. “What if… what if someone sees?”
He raised his eyebrows.
“I just mean another man could, um, look at what’s yours if they see me, sir.” I could barely get the words out without completely flushing. I couldn’t believe I was talking to him like that, I couldn’t believe I was letting him turn me on like that! It had been a while since I felt anything close to the thrill that came along with being so close to him. Even if it was unhealthy and terrifying, I couldn’t help the screwed up part of me that enjoyed it. It had been so long since I really felt anything, since I hadn’t been so far checked out from reality in an effort to shut down the world, but with Caden, I was more alive than ever.
He would never know I used him in that way.
That would be my secret to keep until death.
“If anyone looks at what’s mine I’ll kill them,” he said as if it was a completely reasonable statement and then grinned when he saw the terror creep into my eyes. “Now, kneel, Winter. If I have to ask again I might start to get angry and we both know you don’t want that.”
I shoved my thighs together, starting to give up any hope that I wasn’t going to cream all over the inside of my panties. What the heck was the matter with me? Maybe I was as naughty as he said I was. The thought made me blush as I pushed my body onto the ground outside of the car door.
“I’m waiting,” he soothed, his voice tight.
“Y-Yes, sir,” I told him.
“Good, that’s really good, pet, now look at me.”
I peeked up at him and almost lost the balance of my knees completely. He looked even more beautiful glowing in the moonlight than he normally did. It was hard to believe a man like him wanted to dominate me, wanted to control me. I wasn’t delusional; I knew he could have any women in this town with just one glance.
“You know you have to be punished, right?” He reached down and patted my head. “I can’t have my property running around breaking the rules without any consequences. I told you to stay put and you didn’t listen to me. For every action there’s a reaction, right?”
“Yes. Yes, sir,” I corrected.
“Good. I hope this isn’t going to become a pattern, Winter, it’s very unbecoming behavior. Now go ahead and bend your head down so I can move your hands behind your back.” He pushed my hands over my head and behind my back effortlessly and painlessly once I obeyed his command. “Stand up,” he pulled me to my feet and turned my body around, pressing my chest into the side of his car so that my butt was sticking straight up into the air. “Are you ready for your spanking, my little pet?”
A thrill shot up and down my stomach.
He wanted to spank me again! Oh, God!
And here? In the middle of a parking lot!
Panic filled me. “Caden! We can’t! Not here!”
He pushed his chest into my back and kissed the side of my neck. “Oh, trust me, we can and we will.” His hand was between my legs, rubbing my cheeks and slit slowly. “And this time you’ll be pulling your panties down, Winter.”
Redness immediately floated my cheeks. “Someone is going to see!”
“Shh,” he cooed into my ear. “You knew what would happen if you were a bad girl, Winter.” He stuck his fingers into the back of the waistline and pushed the top of my pants and panties down so they rested on my upper thighs.
I prayed like hell he didn’t turn my body around because the second he did he was sure to be able to make out the black and blue bruises that laced my skin. Even in the darkness of the night, he would be able to make out the freshness of the wounds. I closed my eyes and held my breath.
Please, don’t let him turn me around.
Please.
I knew I would have to find a way to deal with it sooner or later. The thought of using makeup to cover them up was something that was manageable but it was next to impossible when he kept popping up out of nowhere making sexual demands that got my panties all moist and my insides twisted up into a rock the size of Texas.
“Are you ready to be spanked, baby?” His voice made me jump, a sharp reminder he was close enough to me to break my body in half with just a few strokes. He let his gaze drop down to my ass and I could hear him take a sharp inhale of breath. “Fuck, Winter.” He pushed the palm of his hand back and forth over my white skin. “That’s what you’ve been hiding under all those clothes all these years, huh?”
I opened my mouth and moaned. “Y-Yes, sir. I mean, I guess?”
He chuckled and pulled his hand back, grabbing a piece of my flesh tightly in his knuckles. “It’s so tight, Pet, I can’t wait to see the red marks that I’m going to leave on your pale skin as punishment.”
“Not… not too hard,” I pleaded.
“We’re kind of beyond that, aren’t we?” he whispered evilly, leaning down and opening his mouth wide as he moved his tongue back and forth over the skin on my neck. “All those nights all alone in there, pet, thinking about the things I was going to do to you. Imagining the look on your face when I took your body to places it had never been, when I was finally able to claim my prize, and fuck if you don’t taste even better than I thought you would.”
I let the sensation of his tongue wash over my body guiltily.
Caden Dean was the most seductive kind of devil.
“It’s true what they say, revenge really is the best kind of thrill.” He pushed off me, placing one more kiss on my neck before putting some distance between our bodies.
Suddenly, I felt extremely cold.
Get back over here!
“W-Where are you going, sir?”
“You’re learning.” He smirked as he glanced over his shoulder.
I watched him open up the back door of his SUV and pull something out, yellow wood glistening in the darkness. He slammed the door shut behind him and turned the object back and forth in his hands.
“What is that?” I choked out.
He laughed. “You’ve never seen a wooden spoon before?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I’ve seen a wooden cooking spoon before, Caden. I mean, what are you doing with it?” I glanced over my shoulder, paranoid I heard someone behind us, but all that lay there was darkness.
“I grabbed it before I left the house to come and find you,” he informed me, taking a few steps closer to me again. “You know, after you broke my closet and ran away from me?”
I was trying not to get annoyed with him. “Why did you do that?”
He raised his thick eyebrows and ran his thumb over his bottom lip, looking me up and down as if I were naked for about the hundredth time since he walked into the warehouse and got me. “For your spanking, of course.”
My heart started shooting rapid fire.
The second I thought I could handle him he had to up the stakes.
Shit.