Bargain With the Beast (4 page)

It hadn’t occurred to him
before now, maybe because of the manacles, the fucked-upness of the
situation, and the fact he had been looming over him. But now, with
him sat next to him, in an almost non-threatening manner, a smile
on his face, Tobias
did
become aware of it…and he didn’t like that
fact.

Stockholm
syndrome
, his mind hissed. And yet, Tobias
didn’t think there had been time for that, they’d been talking for
less than a half hour. No, it was simply more likely that his
abductor was just very good looking, and what did that mean?
Nothing, Tobias told himself, nothing at all!

“
You can almost think of
us as circling the valley,” the Beast added. “We’re all around
it.”

“
That makes no
sense.”

“
No. I suppose it does
not.” He paused, his gaze fixed on Tobias. Tobias shifted, suddenly
uncomfortable now to be the recipient of that intense yellow gaze.
“Maybe if I show you,” he added, “you will understand.”

“
Show me?”

He leaned forward in the chair, eyes
still locked on Tobias. “Did you imagine I would keep you tied to
the bed forever?”

Tobias shrugged, his heart giving an
odd little flip. “I have no idea what you plan to do.”

“
No one is going to
hurt
you, Tobias,” he
said. “You do realize that, don’t you? You are safe
here.”

“
Safe…”

“
Safe.” He nodded. “You
are my guest for want of a better word.”

“
Guest?”

Another nod. “And no one mistreats my
guests.”

“
But…I’m tied up,” Tobias
said.

“
That was for your own
safety. We have no such thing as locked doors here. I didn’t want
you to wake up and start wandering.” The Beast paused. “These
manacles are not usually used to keep someone captive against their
will. This is my private bed chamber you see, and they have other,
more, personal uses.”

“
I…” Tobias swallowed
uncomfortably, because he suspected he knew exactly what the Beast
meant by that and it made him shudder inside. And yet, even as he
did, it was in that moment, with his arms pulled up tight against
his body, his knees drawn high, that Tobias realized that manacles
or not, he
wasn’t
scared of this man. When the shift had occurred, Tobias
didn’t know. Perhaps when he spoke of giants, or talked about silly
thoughts, or even when he sat in the leather chair, and Tobias
couldn’t explain it, didn’t know if he was being sensible, but
those yellow eyes... As he looked into them, Tobias knew the man
was being honest. He wasn’t going to hurt him. He was safe…at least
for the moment...

“
Come,” the Beast said,
jumping out of his chair. “I will show you.”

Chapter Four

Despite his belief that he was safe
for the moment, Tobias tensed as the Beast approached the bed. The
chains clinked, the manacles bit into his skin, and he felt his
stomach clench. And then there was that scent again. It surrounded
Tobias as the male leaned over him, tickling his nostrils and
making him want to breathe deeper. He didn’t understand where the
impulse came from, or why, as the Beast reached out a long-fingered
hand, he felt like his skin was prickling.

“
Don’t worry,” the Beast
said, and his breath feathered across Tobias’ cheek. “I am only
going to undo the manacles.”

“
And then?”

“
You’ll get to see where
we are.”

He took Tobias’s hand in his, twisted
something, and the next thing Tobias knew the manacle fell on to
the bed. Tobias flexed his fingers, though they felt no different,
the manacle had not been so tight that it had stopped the normal
flow of blood to his hand.

The Beast flashed him a quick
smile—Tobias couldn’t help but shudder—before moving down the bed
and undoing the manacle around his ankle. Again, Tobias wiggled his
digits, but they felt fine.

“
I’m sorry for
this.”

The Beast had his fingers around
Tobias’ other hand now. His thumb was stroking along the bottom of
Tobias’ wrist. It was then that Tobias noticed a small scratch on
the skin.

“
It’s just a scratch,” he
said.

The Beast sighed. “A mark on your
skin.”

“
Yes…”

“
You have beautiful skin,
Tobias.”

Tobias froze. His wrist was still
cradled in the Beast’s hand, though the manacle was on the bed now.
And the tone to his voice…the way his lips moved around the
words…suddenly Tobias understood why his skin was prickling, and he
let out a gasp. He looked up and locked eyes with the
beast.

“
I…”

“
And beautiful eyes.” His
eyes narrowed. “They’re a strange color. Not one we see down here
very often.”

“
They’re blue,” Tobias
said, but he was aware, and knew the Beast was aware, that his
voice came out all sort of low and hoarse, because like the
revelation about just how attractive the Beast was, another came
now.

The Beast was attracted
to
him
.

A year ago Tobias would never have
picked up on it, because he never got noticed, was not used to
seeing the shadow of desire darken someone’s eyes. But that had all
changed the moment his body had started to, and Tobias had become
uncomfortably aware of what that look in a man’s eyes
meant.

The reason for his continued presence
in this room began to tumble and turn. The prospect of what might
happen soon shaped itself in a way that Tobias had not expected. He
swallowed uncomfortably and moved his wrist. The Beast held on to
it, his thumb continuing to stroke up and down the small
scratch.

“
Blue eyes…” he said.
“They’re different.”

“
Lots of people have blue
eyes,” Tobias whispered.

“
Not down here,” the Beast
said. “Down here we have this color.”

At those words Tobias couldn’t help
but glance up and lock eyes with the Beast again. If there had been
any doubt in his mind before now it was gone in an instant. The
Beast wanted him…and Tobias had no idea how to react to
that.

“
You’re wearing contact
lenses,” he said inanely.

The Beast laughed. “No. They’re all
mine. You’ll learn that soon enough.”

He placed Tobias’ hand on the bed and
bent down to unlock the manacle around his other ankle. A moment
later and Tobias was completely free. Tentatively he moved towards
the edge of the bed, the other side to where the Beast stood. Once
there he shot up and took a step back. It occurred to him then that
he could run now if he wanted to, the door was right there,
apparently unlocked. Only, Tobias had no idea what was behind it,
and if the Beast was telling the truth, if they really were below
ground, which he doubted, then he might not be able to find a way
out.

The Beast smirked, as if reading
Tobias’ thoughts. He gestured towards the door. “Come,” he said.
“You’ll see what’s out there.”

He strode across to the door and
pulled it open. Tobias followed carefully, his mind racing in a
million different directions because the door opened up into a
long, wide, well-lit corridor. The walls, from what Tobias could
see, were the same as in the room, stone—and dry stone at that—and
the floor was made up of flagstones that suggested many years of
wear.

Underground.

Suddenly Tobias began to wonder if
that really was true. It would explain the stone walls, and, now
that he thought about it, the lack of visible windows.

“
Tobias.” The Beast leaned
against the doorframe, his gaze sharpening. “Before we leave this
room I must warn you. Do not try to run. Do not try to move away
from me. You need to stay close, and you need to do as I
say.”

“
Or what?” Tobias asked
but he didn’t ask in an aggressive way, and clearly the Beast got
that and answered in the same serious tone.

“
The fact that you have
been brought here…” He paused. “It has caused
complications.”

“
He
brought me here, didn’t he?”

“
Yes.”

“
Why?”

“
Because.” He shrugged one
muscled shoulder. “You interfered. Because you saw something you
should not have. Karl, rightly or wrongly, assumed that there was
no choice but to bring you here.”

“
And now?”

“
And now, as I said, there
are complications.”

“
Am I in danger?” Tobias
asked.

The Beast straightened. He was at
least a foot taller than Tobias, and Tobias was almost six foot
himself. “I already said that you are not,” he said. “So long as
you are with me you are safe. I rule here. None will challenge
me.”

“
But what does that
mean
?” Tobias asked.
“That you rule here? What is this place?”

“
Come,” the Beast said.
“And you will understand.”

He turned and strode out of the room.
Tobias followed behind him, his mind racing, his heart pumping
hard, his stomach clenching. They moved along the corridor, the
sconces on the wall lighting their way, and as they did so, Tobias
couldn’t help but feel a small moment of disbelief.

This time yesterday he had been sat in
his apartment eating his dinner, wondering what to do with himself,
how to fill the evening.

Just a few hours ago—because Tobias
didn’t think it could have been much longer, he wasn’t even
hungry—he had been planning much of the same.

And now this?

Taken by some crazy guy called
Karl.

Chained up until the Beast released
him.

Being taken on a tour of wherever they
were.

His whole life turned on his
head.

None of it made sense.

Tobias had no idea what was going to
happen.

He could only hope that it was going
to work out better than he’d first thought.

Chapter Five

The corridor came to an end after
about five minutes of walking. As they had moved along it, Tobias
had become more and more aware that the ‘corridor’ probably wasn’t
a corridor after all, but a tunnel of some kind. He picked up on
this due to the fact that its height and width were not regular.
When he’d left the room he had been held in, the corridor had
looked fairly uniform. But before long it began to follow a slight
incline, and the height of the ceiling decreased. At the same time
the width of the space almost doubled. The more he walked the more
the Beast’s underground story began to make sense, and that was
when Tobias started to feel a new emotion.

Curiosity.

It startled him at first, because to
some extent Tobias was beginning to feel ever so slightly
emotionally drained. He’d been confused, scared, worried,
horrified, intrigued…and then there were the weird feelings that
had filled him when he’d looked into the Beast’s yellow eyes. Did
he want to be curious about where he was being held? Could he
afford to start wondering about where he was, how he had been
bought here?

Tobias thought the answer was surely
no, but as they stepped out of the corridor tunnel, and into the
space beyond, he couldn’t help the gasp that left his lips. He knew
how big the valley he lived in was, he completely understood the
way the cliffs ringed around it, but he had never truly wondered
what the space below would look like. He got it now, understood it
completely.

It was immense.

From his position Tobias stood on what
looked to be a metal walkway. That walkway ran the length of the
cavern they stood in, and was replicated on the other side. At
various points along both walkways bridges connected them. Each
bridge seemed to connect at the point where a tunnel branched off.
That in itself was fascinating, but what caught, and held, Tobias’
attention was the space below the walkways.

His first thought was that it looked
like some kind of bazaar. There was a riot of vibrant colors.
Pinks, reds, blues, greens, and many of them came from the awnings
covering a number of stalls. The rest came from the hundreds of
people in the space, sat around tables, running stalls, chatting
amongst themselves.

Tobias stepped forward, gripped the
edge of the railing, and looked down, down, down. How many people
were there, he wondered. Where had they all come from? What were
they doing?

The questions tumbled through him, one
after the other, and in that moment Tobias was no longer frantic,
or horrified, or even scared. He was burning with curiosity and the
questions began to leave his lips almost of their own
accord.

“
We’re really
underground.”

He felt, rather than saw, the Beast
come up next to him. “This is a natural cave system,” he said. “It
runs around the entire valley. My understanding is that it has been
here for a very long time, many thousands of years at least. Of
course erosion has an effect. In the last few hundred years we’ve
lost a portion of the Eastern system, and in due time we’ll lose
from the West as well.” He shrugged. “Such is the nature of the
planet.”