Make Me Yours Evermore, Book 3 (27 page)

I glanced at the screen. Still nothing.

“I was trying to get to know her a little more.”

“Hmm.” He waggled his head. “Did it work?”

I thought back. “I don’t know. I told her I wanted to make her happy.”

“And then you spanked her so hard she cried?” Silent laughter made him shake. He put his head in his hands. “Oh shit.”

“Fuck you.” The laptop dinged. Email.

You want to buy? You can try gift one more time. This time do as I ask. Then we see about price.

I sat back. What was he on about?

“Bad news?” Andreas was at my shoulder, reading the screen. “What is this guy? Foreign?”

“I don’t know. I always assumed he was Russian.”

“Uh-huh. What does he want? Us to fuck Zoe? Why?”

Good question. It bothered me. Why not just sell her to us if he was willing to?

“This is a mindfuck,” I muttered. “He’s making us wonder if he’ll refuse to sell her after we do what he asks. Then he has your hands dirtier. Mine too, I guess, though that’s hardly needed.”

“How does he know we didn’t do as he asked last time?”

“Scrim. If he asked her, she’d have told him. I doubt that girl would hold anything back if asked directly.”

Andreas drew in a big breath. “Yeah. True. And you know what…”

“What?”

“Zoe is scared shitless of men. I saw how she reacted around us. Doing this to her on command from your boss, I don’t know if I could stomach it.”

I twisted my mouth. “Me neither.”

We were slightly fucked. Par for the course with Vetrov.

“Say yes. We have to try.”

I nodded. “Okay. I was going to anyway.”

Telling Kat we hadn’t even tried to buy the girl – that scenario had left me feeling empty.

What I’d found yesterday while jogging in the forest came back to me. After tripping over a tree root and sliding into some dirt with my knee, I’d levered myself up only to spot a bone sticking out of the earth. I’d found a couple more. Nothing conclusive but they were from something large, maybe a human. It had sent a chill through me. I wasn’t a forensic pathologist and there was no way in hell I was going to phone the cops and ask them to come look.

Whether human or not though, the find had reminded me of how potentially nasty Scrim and his colleagues were. I didn’t know how far they’d go but I was pretty sure it was a long way past anything I’d done. Kicking someone’s ass in an MMA bout wasn’t the same as killing and martial arts expertise sure didn’t stop bullets. I knew I was bad, different from the average man, but I didn’t kill. I’d sanitized the human trafficking in my mind for so many years, and these men were far closer to evil than I ever wanted to go, if they’d killed. Deep down, lurked a certainty that they had.

Wrong, I must be wrong. Had to be. But maybe I was right? I couldn’t decide and it was fucking with my head.

“So was Kat right? Had that been Zoe screaming?”

“Huh.” I stared at him uncomprehending for a second, jarred by the jump from my horrible memory to what Zoe might be suffering. “I don’t know. It’s possible.”

“I figured that.”

“Bear in mind that she’s stock to them. Money. As long as they can sell her they won’t hurt her too much.” If they thought they couldn’t sell her, though?

“She’s so scared of men.” Andreas scrunched up his brow.

“Seemed so, but I think some men would pay for that. There’s a market for most things.” I hoped there was for her anyway. Her fear might make her easier to sell, or harder.

“Now I’m feeling really dirty. And that’s saying something, considering.”

“Yes.” I leaned back into the chair, resting on my shoulders. “I’m hoping her fear will make it easier for us to buy her.”

“If Scrim comes near me parading any of the other women, I may not be able to stop myself punching his teeth in.”

That made me sit up. “No. Don’t even think about it. The man is armed. So are his friends. It’s not worth it. Stay the fuck away.”

He pulled a disgusted face. “Shit. Okay. I won’t touch him, but I’m still thinking it.”

They allowed me to wait, kneeling, by the door when Zoe was brought back. I could see her past Chris and Scrim, like a frightened animal caged in by men’s legs. This time, she only wore a blue bra and panties. Her brown hair stood up in little wild curls but her lipstick was bright and fresh. I wondered, sickly, if Scrim had a lipstick fetish. I had a disgusting moment where I imagined him forcing her mouth onto his cock.

Then they let her through and the new small cuts on her body became obvious. Fresh blood leaked in tiny spots. So small they’d not be dreadful wounds but seeing them, knowing they came from the time of those screams, I wanted to get the nearest lethal instrument and hack Scrim to death.

I seethed, hatred leeching into my bones, my fingernails, but I held it in, only clawing crescents into my thighs with my nails, and I smiled at her. She crawled toward me, peeked around at the men, and when no one gave her instructions, she lay on me, with her head and the top half of her torso on my lap.

“Shh.” I stroked her trembling body while I tried to hear what the men were arguing over.

“We’re not fucking her,” Chris was saying again.

They seemed to be going round and round arguing.

“Hang on.” As if he were finding out about something trivial, like a pizza delivery, Scrim punched a text into his mobile.

While we waited, Andreas came over and squatted nearby, studying Zoe. When she didn’t look up at him, he rose again and backed away to lean on the wall. Good man. Again I was slightly stunned at how nice they were being to her. Where the fuck had all the caveman attitudes gone?

“Okay.” Scrim tucked the phone in his pocket. “Here’s the deal. You fuck her one way or the other or you don’t get her. He says fucking in his definition incudes this slave of yours fucking her with a strap-on. But he wants a pic as proof. Email it. Faces are to be on the thing. You’re all to be in the picture.”

Chris stared at him, rock still.

“That’s it, gentlemen…ladies.” Scrim mocked me, inclining his head and grinning. “So what’s it to be. Yes? No? And it’s one hour only, then she comes back to me while the boss decides about the purchase. Take it or leave it. No further discussion will be entered into, the man said. Got that?”

Shit. This was asking Chris and Andreas to hand over proof of a crime to whoever this boss was. My heart rebelled, aching and pounding away. They’d refuse. They would. And even if they agreed to this…me, use a strap-on with Zoe?

She was pretending none of this was happening and had her arms loosely around my waist, her face up close to my stomach while I patted her hair. I bit my lip, thinking. If it was the price of keeping her safe, I’d do it, as long as she wasn’t traumatized. It wouldn’t have to be more than a second for a photo anyway.

No one had spoken. When I checked, Chris was turning back after having looked to Andreas. He nodded. “Deal.”

I bowed my head and whispered to Zoe, sure she had been listening. “Don’t you worry about this, okay? Do you know what a strap-on is?” I hoped she wasn’t as innocent as she appeared to be.

She nodded. With her face on my leg, one eye was hidden but she was sneaking a look at me.

“I’ll make it like it’s nothing more than…” What? Trying on a dress? It was sex for god sakes.

“It’s fine,” she whispered. Her hand at my back poked my waist lightly, tapping with her fingertips, like she was checking I was still me. “If it’s you, I’m good with it. I trust you.”

“Okay.” I frowned down at her, trying not to tear up.

If this happened, we then had to give her back to Scrim for a while. I prayed the men could buy her afterward. If not, there was nothing I could do. Absolutely fucking nothing. Be positive, at the least that will make her happier. She’d heard what was happening, the agreement. There was hope.

“Thank you.” I kissed above her ear. “You’re brave.”

They hadn’t even asked my opinion of all this. I wasn’t that surprised – for Chris it would be something I was told to do. With Andreas I wasn’t sure. Disappointment niggled at me. I think I wanted more from him. Maybe I’d imagined him as something he wasn’t?

But I considered what this meant. The picture they had to take directly involved them in this slavery operation. This wasn’t just money they had to spend. It was far more dangerous.

When the door closed, Chris approached and crouched beside us. “You heard what you have to do?”

“Yes, Sir.” I kept patting Zoe.

“Sit up, Zoe. I want to hear you say that too.”

The girl climbed to her knees and managed to meet his gaze.

“You know we’re aiming to buy you.” He glanced at me. “And that Kat has to use a strap-on with you while we take a picture?”

“Yes, Sir.” No hesitation there. If only she knew what Chris could be like. So far though, he’d treated her gently, like she’d disintegrate if pushed.

“Okay. Let’s do this then. You’re in charge of her, Kat. I’ll be watching you both. Come.” He clipped a leash to Zoe’s collar and climbed to his feet.

Ugh. Thanks, Chris.

Then, almost as an afterthought, he reached around her and caressed my cheek. For a second I connected with him, paralyzed by…an awareness of
Him
as my master, wanting more of his touch, but he turned away.

I shook myself and followed them.
Slipping, Kat.

One hour, we had only one hour. This was insane. Who was this person Scrim was arranging this through? The boss would be the man deciding if Zoe could be sold to us…to Andreas and Chris. I searched inside myself, wondering at the joy I’d felt thinking that. I’d have someone to share this existence with, someone to talk to. Maybe to play with.

Someone who should be free. Was I that bad a person that I wished her here with me rather than free?

I didn’t know anymore. The chance of Zoe ever being free again was remote. This was a good outcome for her. It was. If this went wrong, she was going away somewhere unknown to be sold to god knows who, probably someone who liked making innocent little girls scream.

I squeezed my eyes closed. Shut that out, damn you. Shut it out. This is what’s happening now. You will have a pretty girl in your arms soon and you’re going to make her enjoy what happens next. That’s the responsible
nice
thing to do. Because then, maybe, she gets not to be fucked by some depraved man who wants to feed off her terror.

My men treated this like some sort of mechanical thing they had to accomplish – getting us out onto the deck where, apparently, the lighting was better, setting up the camera on the phone for a delayed shot after taking a few pictures to check the area was covered by the lens. Though they discussed nothing within my hearing, Andreas’s strained expression told me that at least he was shocked and unhappy.

I whispered thank you to him, as he chained us both to the big couch. He smiled quickly, nothing more. While they went to search for the strap-on in the supply cupboard of kinky toys, I lay with Zoe, just cuddling. Though I desperately wanted to know about her new wounds, I wasn’t going to question her and remind her of what Scrim or some other man might have done.

The beauty of our surroundings made this seem even more perverted. Above us, splashes of reflected sunlight flickered across the cream canvas of the roof. Every few minutes, one or two orange butterflies flitted past looking for pollen or for a mate in that never-ending dance of life.

I breathed, absorbing some measure of calmness.

I had Zoe against the back cushions and I moved atop and propped myself on my arms so as to kiss her gently. My hair fell about us, framing her as I played with her lips. I murmured onto them, unable to resist punctuating my words with more kisses. “Let’s get you undressed…”
Kiss.
“…before they come back, Zoe.”

The more I said her name the sweeter it seemed.

“Okay.” Her reply was so quiet, but she managed to smile as she said it. So I kissed her again.

“Good.”

I kissed her throat, reveling in the taste of her skin and how it recalled to me the taste of her pussy. The straps of her bra slipped easily off her shoulders and I left them halfway down her arms with her breasts bulging out the top of the low-cut cups. I pursed my lips, amused and aroused. They made her look trapped. Carefully, like they were precious objects, I scooped each breast from the bra and tucked the cloth beneath.

“I could look at you all day, Zoe.”

For the first time I saw fire in her eyes. Wickedness even. “Whenever I see you, I want to gobble you up.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow, wondering if I should lick across the top of her succulent nipples.

My clit throbbed at this naughty image of captured innocence. I wriggled until my legs were between hers and pressed myself onto her pussy.

My most desperate wish right then was to tangle and tie her arms up in those bra straps. But it was too soon, too nasty, with Scrim arranging this, too everything.

I curled my tongue up onto my lip and smiled, exulting in her in lying under me. A little growl of appreciation sneaked out.

Her eyes shone and she ground up against me.

Fuck. The little devil.

“You like this?”

I cupped her throat, wrapping my fingers around into her nape hair, wanting to see whether she still liked being controlled. My thumb probed her larynx. She whimpered. Fuck again. Hot. This was getting a little out of hand.

“I just need to get you wet…” Swallow. “So you can take the strap-on without pain. Tell me if you don’t want anything.”

“I won’t say no to you,” she whispered. “I want you to do sexy things to me. Please? I want to forget…the other things that happened.” She put her arm up and brushed her hand across my lips. I licked her. “I like you. Please, Kat?”

Oh crap. What a thing to tell me. But I couldn’t say no to that, could I?

“We’ll see. I’m not going too far with the guys watching.”

If I made her stand it would be simpler to take off her panties but I had a flashback to Chris doing the same thing to me. Instead I slipped down her body, taking unexpected nips of bits of her that tempted me too much. Her cries enticed me to nibble on her even more.