Rude Awakening (18 page)

Despite that, she kicked the door and screamed at the empty, dark room.

“You fucking coward!” she yelled at the top of her voice.

Not caring about the pain, she continued to kick the door, to rant and curse the bloody thing for not opening. She’d get out of here somehow, get away from Nigel again if it was the last thing she did. For once in her life she was going to stand up to this bastard.

“Come back here, you prick!”

She slapped her palms on the door, wincing at the sting.

“See! I’m talking like a tramp. Come down here and beat it out of me. Make me speak like a lady if that’s what gets you off. Come on, Nigel!”

Calling him by his name gave her a sense of control, of liberation. It would piss him off, possibly get him flinging that trapdoor open and barrelling down here, rage fuelling his steps.

“You’re nothing like Harry, do you hear me? Nothing! He’s a real Master. Knows how to paddle my arse properly. Not like you!”

Anger and rage built inside her, and she continued throwing taunts and insults until she heard the unmistakable sound of a key turning in the lock.

She was ready for this. Nothing like a rude awakening for a person to suddenly open up and take notice of the abuse they’d suffered. And fuck had she suffered.

No more!

The door swung open, and she stared at him, wondering if she rushed at him whether she’d catch him off guard for long enough to make it along that tunnel and up the steps. He filled the doorway, put his hands on the jamb either side of him, anticipating what she’d planned to do.

Shit.

“So,” he said. “You refuse to behave.”

He closed the door, locked it, then walked towards her. Ruby refused to look away or give in to the fear that had returned, bluntly and without warning. Facing him took a great amount of risk and courage, but she’d do it. She’d get out of here, find Harry, and tell him exactly what had happened. He was a lawyer—he’d help her bring charges against this sick fucker, wouldn’t he? She swallowed past the knot in her throat and glared at him harder, pure defiance against the man and his regime.

“What have I told you, Margaret?”

“How a Master is not supposed to act.”

He bit his lip, in an attempt to contain his anger she’d bet. Enlightenment hit her and she finally,
truly
saw past his suave outfit, his impeccable outer appearance, to the brute beneath the surface.

“I see Knowles has been filling your head with rubbish. The whole ‘A sub is the true Master in any relationship’ bullshit.”

Ruby refused to bite back. It would serve this man right to be at the other end of a beating, to have the whip lash out at him and beat the living shit out of his hide, but now wasn’t the time. She’d wait, see how things went and choose the right moment to strike.

“I’m going to have to train you from the start again.” He shook his head as though weary.

She no longer cared what he thought. No one was going to destroy her ability to speak her mind or be a true sub with all the power.

“He is the better man,” she said.

Nigel lashed out, slapping her cheek with such force her head snapped to the side. The contact stung—Jesus, it stung—but she refused to cry out. He turned abruptly and left the room, locking the door behind him.

Had she succeeded in getting one over on him? Had she actually rattled him?

She had no time to think further. The key scraped in the lock again and he slid back inside, a baseball bat in hand. He relocked the door, put the key in his pocket, and she wondered whether she could get it out at some point. She backed away to the rear wall, ready to defend herself from the blows that were sure to come. He advanced towards her, too fast for her to knock him down, grab the key and rush for the door.

“He is not the better man!” he screamed, smashing the bat against the wall beside her head.

She opened her mouth to scream insults back at him, but he gripped her throat with his free hand and squeezed. Her heart rate soared, and she breathed through her nose, short, shallow intakes of air that weren’t enough for her greedy lungs. She went to wrestle his hand away but the thought of touching him stopped her. She sensed he wouldn’t kill her, that he was just doing this to show her who was boss. And what was a squeeze around her throat? Nothing compared to the shit he’d put her through before.

“You fucking bitch.” He brought his face inches from hers. “You’re my woman, my slut, and I’ll use you however I desire.” He smacked the bat on the wall again and a split from the impact made a deep crevice down the bat’s length.

It showed Ruby the true extent of Nigel’s aggression, how he expected to possess her in every way.

He’s fucking crazy!

“You know, you’re so desperate for him to love you…” Nigel laughed, the sound out of place and scary. “If he figures out I’m your Master, if he comes here to rescue your sorry little arse, all it will take is a few words from me for him to believe you’ve gone back to your whore of a mother. Yes, I’ll tell him you’ve gone back to your mother’s. He’ll buy it. He’ll see your childhood home, see where you came from, what and who you really are, a scumbag common bitch!” He breathed over her face and waited for her to respond.

She held back a shudder from the warm, stinking air hitting her skin. “It doesn’t matter,” she croaked out. “Harry said he loves me exactly as I am.”

But it does matter what Harry thinks of me. It does. I love him with all my heart and would do anything for him, but if he goes to my mother’s and sees…I’ll lose him. No matter what he’s said about my past, how it makes no difference to him, I’ll lose him…

She couldn’t give in to her fear, though, and right now she had to think about her safety. All she wanted was get out of here without any trouble—but if she had to fight she would.

“Let me go,” she choked out. “You can find another person who wants to be your special someone.”

Reason with him. Play up to his narcissistic side.

“There’s someone out there who will worship the ground you walk on, Nigel. Why do you want me?” God, her throat throbbed from his hold. Her voice was coming out odd, broken and raspy. “I’ll never be able to give you what you want, so what’s the point? Don’t you want adoration? A woman who thinks you’re a god?”

That’s exactly what he wants, but he’s hell-bent on making me be that person. Jesus, what was I thinking when I first met up with him? Why didn’t I see him for who he really is?

“Do you think I want to train someone new, woman? Why should I bother when it will only take a week or so to have you back to normal? I don’t deny I could have any woman I wanted, but you—you’re something special. There’s something about you… I enjoy you hating me, Margaret. When you showed signs of caring for me at the start, didn’t you notice how I beat it out of you? And this is where you’re dumb. Another woman might have realised what I was doing, but not you. No, you hated me even more, doing just what I’d planned all along. Your hate makes my cock hard.” He pulled the key out of his pocket and dropped the bat, kicking it out of reach. “I’m going to show you how special it can be between us, how that hate of yours can make my cock so hard you’ll think I’m fucking you with metal. And even
that
can be arranged…”

Ruby looked at the crazed man. How had he managed to get away with this shit for so long?

Because I let him. I played right into his hands. Fuck!

Licking her lips, she thought about her life with him over the past few years and couldn’t find a single memory where the pain and torture had been a form of affection. Nigel was a sadist—nothing more and nothing less.

“We are going to play,” he said, removing his hand from her throat and gripping her hair in his fist.

Ruby struggled to get out of his hold despite her earlier thoughts of remaining calm until she found a chink in his plan that would enable her to escape. Instinct took over and she made to run, not caring if she left a handful of her hair in his hand. He caught her around the waist and threw her against the wall. The pain in her temple from the contact was instant and shocked her system, but she wouldn’t be contained. Even while her head ached and submitting seemed like the easiest option, at the same time she was determined to be free.

He thrust her up, hand to her throat again, blessed relief on her scalp as he let go of her hair. She gasped and lashed out, smacking the side of his head.

Nigel growled, covering the spot she’d hit. “That’s it, you bitch. Hate me, hate me some more. My cock’s hard for you, see that?”

Strength infused with revulsion filled her. She shoved at his chest and smacked at his arm until his hold on her throat weakened. She fought until he dropped his hand, then charged past him to the door, her legs wobbly, head pounding.

“Give me the fucking key!” she shouted, knowing her request would be denied. Why had she gone against her earlier plan? Why had she allowed instinct to overrule her like that? Yes, she needed to escape, to get out of this place, but he wasn’t going to just hand over the key and allow her to walk away. She damned herself, could have kicked her own arse to kingdom come for this massive error. Now she’d just given him something else to get hard over, more hatred, more of what he wanted.

He stalked to her, grabbed her around the waist again and threw her against the wall next to the door, landing a punch to the side of her head. A cry erupted from her lips before she had a chance to stop it. Stars glittered, her vision faded, and she panicked at having lost control. She should have remembered what he was capable of, but her newfound confidence from being with Harry had masked the utter horror of her past with Nigel. God, she knew exactly what he could do, but now she was in the thick of it again, she realised some of his punishments had faded in her mind—the terrible nastiness of them, how they had hurt…

He clamped a hand around her throat again, menace clear on his face, the veins in his neck protruding through his skin.

She clawed his hands.

“Do you see what I can do to you? I can squeeze the life out of your useless hide. You mean nothing to me. Do you hear me? Nothing! You’re just a vessel, a body I can abuse.”

He stopped and Ruby couldn’t think against the panic welling inside her.

I can’t breathe.

“Now, we’re going to go and play for a while. Let me make one thing clear, Margaret. You start any of your pathetic games, and I’ll end you and the useless piece of shit you’ve been shacked up with. His friends will mourn his loss at first, but after a while no one will care. I will kill him, understand?”

Ruby knew now he was capable of anything. He was truly demented. She sagged and tried to think of any way out of her situation but couldn’t handle the prospect of being killed or causing Harry any ill will…or death.

She nodded at him, the last swirls of breath left inside her almost gone.

His hold tightened a fraction before he let go.

“Good girl,” he whispered.

Ruby collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, and once again vowed to get the hell away from him somehow. All she needed was time. And that baseball bat.

“Now, I think you need a little reflection time before we start playing, don’t you?”

He knelt, caressed her cheek, and she had to hold back the flinch inside her. She thought of all the times she’d been in this same position, frightened and afraid.

This time was different. She wasn’t only fighting for herself but fighting for Harry.

“I can’t wait to fuck your cunt again and retrain you to be mine,” he growled, slamming his lips down on hers.

He bit into her lips, demanding a response when she refused to kiss him back. She couldn’t give him anything.

His teeth sunk further. She winced at the taste of blood. Nigel came up for air and looked at the damage he’d done. Arousal was clear in his eyes. She tried to cover her disgust but he must have seen it. He slapped her round the face repeatedly, her head going from side to side. Three to four slaps later, her face hot and her mind a mass of activity and revenge, he pushed her away.

“Now, I think an hour or so down here alone again should do it.” He stood looking down at her. “Think about Harry, about how much you want him to live, because if you don’t play this game properly, I
will
kill him.”

He scooped up the baseball bat, unlocked the door and slammed it behind him. The sound of the key turning, the bolt hitting home, didn’t make her feel despair as it may have in the past. No, it gave her strength. She’d get one over on him, have his arse hauled to court, have him brought to the stand to try and justify his treatment of her.

This time she wasn’t going to break.

This time he’d see her hatred in glorious colours, bright and in his face.

Let’s see if his cock gets hard over that!

Chapter Fourteen

Harry’s head hurt. So much so he dared not open his eyes. Had he drunk too much brandy the night before? He couldn’t remember, didn’t even know what day it was. The thought that it was Monday and he was meant to be in the office snapped his eyes open, and for a second or two he was confused as to why he was in a small dungeon in the club until remembrance came crashing in on him.