Madeleine Abducted (15 page)

“I’m
going to wrap gauze around the broken skin at your ankles, ensure that the
ointment stays in place as you sleep.” Aaron continued tending to her injuries
while
Maddy
looked him over, wondered how a man so
lethal, so cruel, could also be as kind as he was in this moment. He had the
body of a warrior, hard, bulky muscles that were cut into his back and chest,
as if a master sculptor had molded him from clay. His skin was golden brown, a
color that contrasted sharply against the pale white of hers. The black silk
that adorned his head had almost dried and she couldn’t help but reach out to
see if it truly was as soft as it appeared. When her hand lightly brushed
against the raven-black hair, Aaron looked up, the light behind his eyes a
mixture of anger, sympathy and raging desire.

Correcting
her behavior, Aaron reached up, grabbed the wrist of the hand she’d extended
out to him, placed her hand back in her lap softly while his words wounded her
more than the shackles had done that day. “You may not touch me without
permission, Mouse; you do not have that right.” The tone of his remark was
razor sharp, a warning wrapped in luxurious baritone, cutting and soothing at
the same time.

Having
completed his task, Aaron repacked the box of supplies, stood up and quickly
moved to the closet to put it away. Without turning back to her, he strode toward
his bedroom, snapping his fingers once, calling her as if she was nothing more
than a dog. Standing,
Maddy
had to balance herself
from falling on trembling legs. Following him into the room, she noticed how
Aaron seemed to know where she stood without having to look back. She watched
as he crossed the room, disappeared into his closet, only to emerge again
holding something small and white in the palm of his hand. Briefly, he glanced
at her, his words curt and without emotion as he instructed her to sit on the
bed. Apprehension and unease filled her body. She’d never slept in a bed with a
man, wasn’t sure that, tonight, this man wouldn’t take her
fully,
use her as she’d been intended. Staring at her hands, she didn’t watch as Aaron
moved into the bathroom and back out into the bedroom carrying a glass of
water.

Extending
his hand out where she could see what he held, Aaron towered above her. Focusing
on what he held rather than the proximity of his large body to hers,
Maddy
realized that he was handing her two small pills and
a glass of water with which she could swallow them down.

“Take
these. They’ll help you sleep.”

Staring
at the pills,
Maddy
shook her head in protest. He was
drugging her, making it so she could not fight against him. Finding a cache of
strength somewhere deep within, somewhere hidden to even her,
Maddy
glanced up at the man staring back down at her. “I
know what you are doing. I’m not stupid. If you are to rape me tonight, use me
as nothing more than a method to get off, at least leave me conscious so that
I’ll remember just how cruel you are.”

Green,
the color of jade, the color of budding life in spring, burned down into her
;
backlit and heated by a fire of rage, of need. Aaron’s
mouth curved at the ends, an unknown thought amusing to him as she attempted to
stand up to a man who controlled her completely … owned her in a way that no
man should be allowed.

Like
lightning, he moved quickly, so fast and unexpected, that
Maddy
gasped when the weight of his body came down on her. The pills fell from her
hand to the floor as Aaron pushed her back on the bed, held his body above her,
his hand roughly traveling up the side of her torso, lifting her shirt to
expose her breasts to his gaze. “If I wanted to take you, Madeleine, I wouldn’t
have to drug you to do so.” The heat of his mouth stung as he wrapped his full
lips around the peak of her breast. His tongue laved against the sensitive tip,
his teeth grazing the same area where he had marked her before. A cry escaped
her lips, part fear, part surprise; part lust so subtle, it caused her heart to
skip in its rhythm. As he worked her body into
a frenzy
,
his hand traveled down to cup her between her thighs. A single finger tapped
against the opening to her body, she cried out again, not understanding the
heat that bloomed within her core. He pushed up suddenly, watched as she lay
panting beneath him. “Even if your mind did not remember my cruelty, your body
certainly would. The pain of being split apart when I bury myself within you
cannot be easily forgotten … even if done while drugged.”

Just
as quickly as he’d come down on top of her, he stood. His eyes searched the
floor and when he found the pills, he bent over to pick them up. This time not
an offer, but a demand, his hand reached to wrap around her face, squeezing her
cheeks until her mouth fell open. Shoving the pills onto her tongue he grabbed
the glass of water, poured the contents down her throat, washing her new form of
chains down into her body. “I have no plans to grant you the satisfaction of my
cock, I simply want you to sleep. I don’t feel like spending the evening
jumping up every time I think you are attempting to escape.”

Aaron
took the glass and as he walked to place it in the bathroom he commanded,
"Lie down,
Maddy
,
close your eyes and let sleep take you. That will be the only thing having its
way with your body tonight."

When
Maddy
obeyed his instruction, Aaron continued his
course into the adjacent room, placing the glass on the counter, he stood back,
took in the image reflected back at him by the large mirror over the sink. His
pants tented in front of him, a reminder of having touched, having laid his
weight upon her just moments before. She was soft in every area where he was
hard
;
her skin, silk against the rough surface of his.
Even though her body was masked in the spice and musk smell of his soap, there
was still a wisp of something about her, a natural essence that called to him,
awakened every nerve ending, everything distinctly male within him.

Resisting
the urge to grab himself, to milk himself to relieve the taut skin wanting to
tear open from the rush of blood, he turned to lean against the counter. His
head lulled back as he waited for his body to calm, his breathing to become
regular, his heart to stop forcing blood into the part of his body that
desperately craved the moist heat only her body could provide.

Losing
track of time, he straightened his shoulders, pushed himself back up onto tired
legs and moved back toward the bed where he knew she lay sleeping. Half of one
of the pills he gave her would have knocked a grown man on his ass; two would
ensure that her tiny body stayed wrapped tightly within the arms of oblivion at
least until morning light. His eyes immediately sought her as he entered the
room. The soft curves of her body awakening the nerve endings in the palms of
his hands, allowing him to imagine the exchange of pleasure … of pain that
could occur in the throes of passion … of raw and unapologetic lust in those
moments when he laid his hands on her skin. Fisting his hands, his finger stung
where she had bitten him earlier that day, the stretched feel over the once
broken skin causing him to smile in memory of her spirited fight. Even chained,
she'd found a way to strike out, her temper more alive than he'd ever imagined.

Silently
he stalked to the side of the bed, watched over her as her eyelids fluttered, the
induced sleep taking her to some place far away from the nightmare that had
become her life. The mattress dipped under his weight as he sat down beside
her, studied her … wanted her.

The
true depth of his father's cruelty was laid across his bed, softly breathing,
dreaming of beautiful worlds away from his life … from him. The torture
inflicted was so subtle, but brilliant in its execution. He'd never desired a
woman for more than a few hours, but this woman, she sang to his soul through
the use of metal and wood, an instrument through which she spoke to him without
knowledge that he understood the stories she told. Her captivity, the abuse he
must inflict, all in an effort to save her life … he’d been left with no choice
but to turn his own angel against him, to treat a treasured jewel as nothing
more than filth scraped across the bottom of his boot. Yes, his father was a
genius. Even in the madness that claimed him, he was a devil who didn’t need to
destroy those around them; rather, he led people to destroying themselves.

Leaning
down, he breathed her in, his cock swelling again as he lost control of his
body, of his mind. Brushing his lips against the shell of her ear, he
whispered, "Do you sleep, my angel?" When she didn't stir, the
corners of his lips turned up, betraying his feelings for the beautiful woman
who lay beneath him. "Dream of me,
Maddy
. See me
as I want to be; not the nightmare who torments you, but the devoted and
mystified man who worships at your feet."

Brushing
his lips softly across hers, Aaron stood up, walked to the stereo, flicking it
on to bathe the room in the sound of Madeleine's soul. She was sleeping, she'd
never know it was her music that sang him into slumber each night, would never
know how she touched him on a level even he couldn't recognize or understand. The
voice of a woman, one that could invade and infect even the most deadly and
tortured of souls … the one that resided within him.

Lying
down beside her, he struggled against the urge to pull her small body to him,
to cradle her like the precious person that she was. His eyes closed, he lay
there searching for sleep, but not finding the sweet oblivion that he sought.

Sleep
escaped him for so long that the CD he played, the resonate sound filled with
memories and dreams, ended; blanketing him in a silence so deep, his heart
called out for more. When the music stopped,
Maddy
cried out in her sleep. Eyes that, when closed, had appeared so peaceful, so
deep inside sanctuary, now furrowed, the delicate skin turning pink from the
tension that creased her brow. His hand reached out to her, attempted to smooth
away the pain that consumed her, but nothing could console her.

Pushing
up from the bed, he padded barefoot across the floor, starting the music from
the beginning. Once the deep tones again played throughout the room, Aaron
noticed how his captive stilled, appearing peaceful once again. His breath
caught in that moment. Aaron laughed, finally discovering a method to ease her
torment, a gift he could give her that would still fall within his father's
rules for a slave.

Swift
as a runaway train, Aaron powered down the corridor to
Xander's
room. Not bothering to knock, he threw open the door so hard the sound of the
door as it hit the wall had
Xander
immediately on his
feet; a gun in one hand, a blade in the other.

Ducking
quickly to his left, Aaron chuckled as the sound of steel impacted with the
wall where his head had just been.
Xander
blinked
sleep from his eyes, bringing the gun up, but immediately lowering it when he
noticed it was Aaron that invaded his room.

"What
the fuck, Aaron? Are you trying to lose your fucking head?"
Xander
placed his gun on the bedside table, leaned back
against the wall, as his hands rubbed his eyes back into focus.

"You'd
be dead before you could pull the trigger if I truly wished you were no longer
breathing." A feral smile beamed from Aaron, a simple reminder of who the
actual assassin was in the room.

Xander
pulled his hands from his eyes, looked at Aaron with contempt,
but then smiled and nodded his head in assent. "You are correct, my old
friend. It is only the executioner who so thoroughly enjoys the scent of
spilled blood."

Sighing,
Aaron ran his hands through his hair. "I need you to do something for
me."

Xander
balked, still pissed off that Aaron had wrenched him from
sleep. "At one in the fucking morning
?!
Go fuck
your slave, Aaron, that's what she's there … "

Aaron's
hand was around
Xander's
throat instantly; his
movement across the room a slight blur as he pulled the knife from the wall,
had it pressed tightly against
Xander's
stomach. With
his mouth pressed against
Xander's
ear, he warned,
"I'd hold that thought if you wish to keep your intestines from spilling
across the floor." His voice, a venomous tone; poison and blood dripping
from the words that he spoke.

Xander
stood still, not reacting to the snake when it was coiled to
strike. "My apologies, Aaron. I was merely attempting humor."

Releasing
his guard, Aaron stepped back, flung the knife so that it pierced the wall in
the exact spot where it had previously landed. Only the slight arch of
Xander's
brow gave away his impressed state. Aaron was
lethal with a blade and any man who wanted to keep his body intact would be
wise to remember that fact.

“What
can I do for you at this
convenient
hour?” Plastering a fake smile to his face,
Xander
finally stepped back from Aaron and strode to his bureau in search of a change
of clothes.

Following
behind
Xander
, Aaron asked, “Do you know the details
of
Maddy’s
abduction? Did they take her instrument as
well?”