Perilous Curves Collection (BBW Romance) (19 page)

Still holding the knife, Dino scooped up my book bag and shouldered it before looking at me. "Face the door, little dove."

I obeyed him, my brain desperately forming a plan of escape. I would be in the fourth-floor hall of the apartment building in a few seconds. To my left, the building’s single, out-of-service elevator waited. Somewhere to my right would be the door to the stairwell, the one I had thought I was opening instead of the door into hell I’d stepped through five minutes ago. Feo would likely be covering the stairwell door.

If there was another stairwell at the opposite end of the hall, I didn't know about it. Even if there was, it could empty into the basement, leaving me no way out.

If I screamed once we entered the hall, maybe someone would hear and call the police. Or they might open their door to see what was going on. My chest tightened at the prospect. The only other person I was sure was in the building right then was a defenseless eleven-year-old boy. If I screamed and Jaime opened his apartment door, we would both die.

Pressing his chest against my back, Dino used the blade of the knife to push a lock of hair from my ear. His voice husky and unnaturally sensual, he whispered a warning. "Don't think about running, little dove."

I shook my head. I
had
been thinking about running, but I wasn’t going to have a dead child on my conscience. I’d die first. Wrong -- I’d be tortured first, probably gang raped, and only then would they allow me to die. It that’s what it took to save Jaime, so be it.

"I can't protect you if you run or scream."

Protect me?

Dino’s lips brushed my ear. A shiver rolled through my body, replacing my confusion and fear with a reluctant arousal. His body was an inferno. I could feel his heat sinking into my bones, sapping more of my will to scream or flee.

He stroked the tip of his thumb along my jaw line. My trembling stopped, and I drew my first calm breath. He smelled of warm spices -- ginger and cinnamon. The most dangerous kind of predator -- Dino's whole body was designed to attract.

"You run -- they chase. It's in their blood." His thumb trailed lightly down my throat to stop at the collar of my blouse. "What they catch, they rip and tear until nothing’s left."

Dino’s hips shifted. The hard bulge of an erection pushed against my bottom. "Obey me and you'll make it back to your cozy white girl suburb in one piece."

I nodded. I had no doubt I was in the hands of a sadist who thought he could brainwash me into doing his bidding. To survive, I had to convince him he could.

********************

I spent the next hour in the back of a van, my hands kept bound at the wrist. Curtains blocked the front seat, but the gravity of too sharp turns told me the driver had started a sequence of right turns zeroing back in on a final destination. Knowing they were trying to confuse my senses as to the location was almost a comfort.

With no seats in the back, I sat on the floor. Sorting through my bag, Dino cushioned me from the metal wall with his big body. Removing my ID and bank cards, he glanced at them then shoved them in his jeans’ pocket.

I offered a sneer he couldn’t see. He was going to be sorely disappointed if he tried to use any of my plastic. A first-year teacher in the Isaac school district, I had just enough cash on the bank card to buy gas until payday. One pizza away from being maxed out, the credit card was just as useless.

Sitting against the opposite side of the van, Feo eyeballed the necklace I wore. Given to me by my grandmother on her deathbed, it was an antique silver setting with an aquamarine. My grandfather had given it to her on their first wedding anniversary. The blue of the stone matched her eyes -- matched mine, too.

Dino looped a finger under the chain. He flipped the pendant over, studied its silver back for a second and then unclasped it. Holding the necklace up with one hand, he forced me to turn my head until he could see my face. His gaze moved from the stone to my irises and back again.

A flick of Dino’s wrist and the necklace landed in Feo’s lap.

My body already vibrating with tension, I coiled tighter at the loss.

Shushing me, Dino released my face. He shifted our bodies until he could nuzzle my neck and drape one thick arm over my shoulder and across my chest. I heard him breathe in deeply, taking in the scent of my perfume. The arm across my chest pulled me closer and then he pushed aside the lapel of my raincoat. With my blouse exposed, he traced my areola through its thin fabric and the lacy bra beneath.

God help me, my flesh responded even as my mind rebelled. My breasts started to swell and tingling heat radiated between my legs.

Seeing my nipple's reaction, he cupped my breast and firmly stroked the hardening tip with his thumb. I squirmed, but had nowhere to move. My back was against his hard chest and his free arm blocked me from moving left. He kept stroking, his lips joining the attack as he kissed softly at my neck. Grasping the small bud between his thumb and index finger he lightly pinched and tugged until it was fully erect beneath my bra.

I started to shake and he shushed me again.

"Better than a slit throat, little dove."

I wasn’t sure whether he meant the necklace or his touch. Either way, Dino was right. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to relax against him.

"Much better," he whispered in my ear. Releasing my nipple, he gave my breast a gentle squeeze and then ran his hand over my stomach and along my plump thighs. "It’s been a long time since I had someone so soft and sexy in my arms."

All the forced ease fled my body. After Dino had been arrogant enough to tell his buddies in front of me that he would train me as his bitch, I should have realized he planned to use lies.

He ran the back of his fingers along my cheek. "You don’t believe I find you sexy?"

I kept my eyes closed and refused to answer. I could only imagine how, inside his head, behind those cold eyes, he mocked me -- laughing at my body with its too generous curves. Every past lover had complimented me just long enough to do their sexual bidding then left me unsatisfied.

Dino would leave me dead.

Nosing the hair along my ear, Dino responded with a low chuckle. "Baby, convincing you otherwise will be my pleasure."

His hand dipped under my blouse, traveled up my skin to the bottom edge of my bra. "I bet it’s black, little dove. With matching panties,
si
?"

My spine stiffened at his accuracy and he laughed.

"You take time with your clothes and hair -- like you're putting on armor."

Right again. My shoulder twitched, earning a softer laugh from Dino.

His hand traveled a little higher up the underside of my blouse, his fingers brushing against the center of the bra's front panel. A little groan and he cupped my breast again, his lips hot against my throat. "Lacy with a front clasp, so very naughty
blanca
."

Across from us, Feo watched with a smirk. "Fuck,
ese
, I think she likes it."

"No." Dino tucked my hair over one shoulder, giving him better access to my neck. He kissed me slowly, a fresh tremor running through me at the renewed contact. "She hates it. Hates me. Isn’t that true, little dove?"

"Yes," I spat out.

Another goddamn chuckle and then he unhooked the bra.

"Please…" I closed my eyes, more horrified by the fact that Feo was watching than by the sensation of Dino’s hands on me. I had never been so sexually aroused in my life.

Feo descended into laughter, mockingly calling out
por favor, por favor
!

Dino palmed my breast. His lips and tongue searing my flesh, he moved from my ear to the starting curve of my shoulder as his hand squeezed then massaged then pinched, his rhythm matching his breathing. "How can I train you if I can’t touch you, baby?"

"I don’t want trained," I whispered. I shook violently, unsure how much of my reaction was revulsion and how much arousal. His breathing, the strokes, the little bit of pain followed by the soothing brush of his fingers -- all of it combined to drench my pussy.

"You do if you want to live,
blanca
."

His matter-of-fact tone triggered a momentary breaking. I started to cry, little hiccoughs punctuating my tears. Releasing my breast, Dino turned me until I was cradled in his arms and looking up at him. His thumb caressed my cheek and, for the briefest of seconds, I saw something other than a cold blooded killer in his gaze.

He blinked and it was gone, but the effect lingered in my mind. When he bent his head to kiss me, I didn’t turn away. My lips parted. My breast rose to meet his hand as he slipped it back under my blouse.

When his fingers found the nipple once more and rolled it ever so gently, I moaned. His tongue penetrated my mouth, softly sweeping along the inside of my front teeth. His hot breath fueled my own humid pants, as if he were breathing for me. I moaned again and he pinched a little harder.

The van's engine shut down. A metal garage door screeched behind us. Reality closed back in and tightened around my throat like an iron fist. We had stopped. I was isolated, in a private residence where I would be shuttled from the garage to the interior without a chance of being seen or knowing where I was. I tried to scramble away from Dino, my bound wrists stealing any leverage and making me clumsy.

He wound his fingers through my hair. Holding my head still, he gazed into my eyes. Again, I saw that nameless something -- neither light, nor shadow. "You remember what I told you about running?"

I nodded. Not the least bit threatening, his voice sounded fiercely protective. A wave of calm washed over me, but I knew its undertow was deadly.

********************

Dino drew a black hood over my head then carefully helped me from the van. When he placed his hand atop my head to guard against my bumping it on the vehicle's frame, I was reminded of every episode of
Cops
I had ever watched.

I stopped, an impossible idea clicking inside my head.

A hand squeezed mine, the gesture comforting.

"Keep moving, little dove." The hand moved up my arm to lightly grip my plump bicep. I felt his big body behind me, his free hand finding my other arm as he led me from the garage into the house. The cold air from a swamp cooler filtered through the hood, clearing my head as it chilled my flushed skin.

I could hear Feo in front of me, sounding a few feet away but facing me. "Here little piggy. Little --"

"One step up, blanca." His hands still gently guiding me, Dino’s voice sounded like salt on an open wound. Feo must have decided the tone was meant for him because his taunting ended abruptly.

Tentatively, I lifted my foot, the toe of my shoe searching for where the elevation ended. I took a step forward and then a second. The hard plastic soles of my shoes clicked dully along the floor for a few feet before carpet muffled their sound. Steered right, I could tell we were moving down a narrow hallway because walls brushed against both of my hips.

Voices, all masculine, drifted from the doors we passed. Catcalls surrounded me but they died out at the soft growl of the man guiding me until the only audible noise was a mix of rap and salsa from the different radios playing.

At the end of the hall, Dino snaked an arm around my waist and opened a door. Stepping into the next room, the music from the hall faded. The door shut. Two locks clicked, each sounding as final as the grave. Another switch-like sound and I sensed the room brightening, a ribbon of light suddenly visible at the bottom hem of my hood. A final click and a radio or television started playing. A weatherman warned listeners about the evening thunderstorm rolling in.

Dino navigated around me, his body brushing against mine until his broach chest rubbed once against my breasts. Standing in front of me, he lifted the hood. His keen gaze studied my face as I looked at my surroundings. The room was small, a twin bed taking up half the space. Blackout curtains covered the single window. The only light came from a bedside lamp. A clock radio rested atop a decrepit dresser. Clothes, papers and a few drink containers littered the floor.

Not quite a pigsty, but a mess.

My gaze returned to Dino. Alone in the room, with no audience, he looked more warm than cold, more human than animal.

Afraid to ask the question sitting on the tip of my tongue, I cast my eyes down. My chest tightened, robbing me of the capacity to breath and I knew I had to ask while I still had enough air to form the words. "Getting out of the van, the way your hand shielded my head--"

Dino place a fingertip against my lips, stopping their movement. I looked up in time to see his gaze narrow, the effect a stern warning.

"For someone who looks so soft, you're very tough, little dove." His body almost touching mine, he took a step closer. "You've kept your wits, kept calm."

I was anything but calm, especially with him so close to me. Shaking my head, I moved to my left, away from the bed and toward the window. Dino intercepted me, maneuvering me until my back pressed flush against the wall. Untying my hands, he leaned close and whispered in my ear.