Seductive Truths (Seductive Trilogy) (9 page)

    
‘
Sounds rather desperate.
’

    
‘
Well, six months without any contact from a woman does leave me rather hungry for something.  I’m only human after all.
’

    
Only human.  Maggie said something like that
.

    
‘
But it was something else.
’

    
‘
Hmmm,
’
I murmur, only half listening. 

     I am finding his hypnotic voice rather comforting and it is beginning to lull me to sleep.

    
‘
Something…different. 
You
are something different, Alex.  That is why it’s going to make it a lot harder for me to tell you the truth.  I don’t want to hurt you, but it is unavoidable.  You deserve the truth Alex, even if it destroys you.  Alex?  You still awake?
’

     Too tired to reply and on the verge of dropping off, I leave him to continue at his own free will.

     I hear him sigh in frustration as his head lies back against the wall.

    
‘
I wish I never got involved,
’
is the last I hear before slipping into slumber.




     I am walking through London’s streets, but I don’t recognise it.  I walk pass a rowdy pub I have never seen before.  Bright, tacky neon signs are flashing brightly, lighting up the seedy joints littering the stretch of road.  Woman parade up and down the paths in nothing more than tarty miniskirts, tight tops leaving little to the imagination, and high heels they can barely walk on.  Many are just skin and bone looking like they live off nothing but drugs and alcohol.

     A voice inside screams for me to get out, I don’t belong.  I am out of my comfort zone, but before I can run away, a man shouts out,
‘
You open for business love?
’

    
Open for business?  I’m not one of them?  Where would he get such a ludicrous idea from?
 

     Peering down at my appearance, I gasp.  I am one of them, dressed in a short, black miniskirt, red, tight tank top definitely giving an eyeful, and black high heels I would never
have worn
in my life!

    
‘
How did I get like this?
’

    
‘
It was your own doing love,
’
comes a scratchy voice from behind.

     I snap round but see nothing, only a glow of cigarette embers burning in the shadows of the alleyway.  Smoke dispersing in the air.

    
‘
My doing?  How?
’

    
‘
It’s been six months, a woman has her needs.
’

    
‘
But I don’t need to resort to this!  I’m better!  It’s not me!
’

    
‘
Are you sure about that Alex?
’

    
‘
Yes…err….ye-yes I’m sure!
’

    
‘
You don’t sound it.
’

    
‘
Yes!  Yes I am sure!
’

    
‘
Do you actually
know
what you want?
’

    
‘
Yes!
’

    
‘
Are you sure?
’

    
‘
Yes….No.
’

    
‘
Because I know what I want and it’s standing right in front of me.
’

    
‘
You can’t want me.  You don’t even know me!
’

    
‘
It’s been six months for me too, Alex.  But you’re something different and I want
you
.  You
will
be mine.
’

    
‘
It’s been six months for me too, Alex.  But you’re something different and I want
you
.  You
will
be mine.
’

     I look down at myself one more time, but gazing back up my surroundings change.

     What the…?

    
I am now standing on the corner of the street next to a dingy Fish ‘n’ Chips shop with a strip club, aptly named Tits ‘n’ Bits, on the opposite side of the road. 

     From the corner of my eye I catch movement.  A dark coated man steps out from the rowdy pub at the end of the road, cigarette perching at the edge of his lips, shielding it with his hands as he lights up.  With the wind gently ruffling his dirty blonde mane he takes a deep breath and inhales a lungful of smoke before expertly puffing out ringlets of it into the air. 

     He stuffs a leather gloved hand into his long, black coat pocket and inhales once again before turning to walk towards the strip club.

     Three drunken men stumble out of the pub doors he had recently come through, but he takes no notice of them, just continues forward to his destination.

     A few “ladies of the night”
grope him as he passes by and try to tempt him for business, but again he ignores what’s on offer and brushes them off like they are rubbish littering the street.

     He heads for me, looking straight through like I don’t exist.  Maybe I don’t.  Maybe I’ve become a ghost.  He brushes past me without a care in the world.

     Strong, purpose strides pushes him forward, determination in every step.  Taking note of nothing around him except what lies ahead.  He is a forceful man on a mission and not someone you’d mess with. 

     He reaches the side alley backing onto the strip club, chucks the butt end of his cigarette and grinds it into the pavement.  He looks around before reaching into his pocket and pulling out another.

     He takes a third inhalation of smoke when a tall, dark haired man in a slightly rumpled charcoal suit steps out from the darkness of the alley and shakes the hand of the mysterious guy.  Together they look like a force not to be reckoned with. 

     They move slightly into the dark, away from the neon light of the strip club’s sign that aluminates the street at the front entrance.  Secret words pass between the two and with wary looks; a package is exchanged for money.  The guy in the charcoal suit quickly shoves the brown package into his jacket, while the mysterious, black coated guy shoves the money into his.

     Then the atmosphere changes and everything is tense.  The guy in the charcoal suit spots a man with dark, wavy hair and a blue and white pin stripe shirt heading straight towards them.

     Panicking, charcoal suit guy rushes into the alley and away from his associate, while the mysterious man casually leans against the wall and puffs another cloud of smoke into the atmosphere before conversing with pin stripe guy.

     Minutes later, confused and skeptical, the pin stripe guy makes his way back across the road from where he came, but all of a sudden all hell breaks loose.

     A black Mercedes Benz comes hurtling around the corner like a crazy maniac, screeching of the tires echo in the air, speeding up as he drives along the road without any indication of slowing down.

     The loud crunching of bones and tearing of flesh is heard as metal hits human at an alarming rate, but the car does not stop.  It continues off into the distance and around the corner out of sight, leaving a path of disruption and
chaos
behind.




     I wake from the nightmare with my heart wildly beating, palms sweaty, everything feverish and eyes stinging with unshed tears.

    
What the hell was that all about?  Where did it come from?

    
And what on earth am I lying on?

     Something soft and warm is tickling my nose.  I go to wipe it away with my hand and almost punch myself in the face.

    
Huh?
 
Oh, I remember
.

     I am blind, gagged…no not gagged, not anymore.  Blind, tied and held up in a place unknown with a man who scares me but strangely, makes me feel safe in ways I have never experienced before.  And now I find myself lying against his side wrapped in the comfort of his jacket after having fallen asleep at some point, with only the sounds of his shallow breathing to fill the air.

     I try lifting my head but I’m weak - weak, tired and helpless.  I have no energy left.  No energy to think, no energy to move.  I’m hungry, thirsty and confused.  I don’t know what’s right or wrong.  The lines have started to blur.  I don’t know what to feel.  I am numb.

     How long have I been missing?  Could be days, hours or just minutes, I have no awareness of time.  I am lost.

     There’s a piercing ache in my head and I frown to concentrate on its location but it only results in intensifying the pain.  I feel nauseous and groan in agony as the dizziness consumes me.

    
I swear I am going to be sick.
  I can feel bile rising in my throat, choking me, wanting an escape, but I cough instead.  Rough and dry coughs which scratch my throat and disturbs my companion at my side. 

     He shifts and I grow rigid, breath caught.  Heart thumps wildly, waiting.

    
Please don’t wake, please don’t wake.
  My eyes squeeze shut in
silent
pray
er
.

     And as he settles, steady breathing returning, I know my pray
er
has been answered, for now.  I may not be so lucky next time. 

     The longer I am here the more vulnerable I become.  Not knowing what is to happen, his intentions and the strange sensations he ignites in me leaves me open.  He is digging into a new part of me I never knew existed.  Well, not for certain anyway.  Somehow I knew I had more to give, but it wasn’t until this man came along and showed me did I believe it was real.  But the question I should be asking myself is do I like what I’m discovering?

     It is wrong to feel anything towards him. 
Everything
is wrong about this situation.  I should be screaming, lashing out at my captor, but instead I’m resting my head comfortably against his shoulder like it is the most natural thing in the world.  This is not right, not one bit.

     I should be at home, with William, with my head resting on
his
shoulder.  I should be enjoying
his
comforting scents,
his
warm embrace, not this stranger’s. 
God what is happening to me?

     I need familiarity.  I want to go home.  My body can’t take much more of this suffering.

     Lost.

     Alone.

     Desolate.

    
Kill me now and get it over with!
  I don’t want to know the truth; I just want to go bac
k to my life.  Let all this be a
nightmare and allow me to wake!

     Exhausting myself with irritation takes what remaining energy I have left.  Slowly my body becomes limp and my neck resists the weight of my head no more as it relaxes against the muscular shoulder of the sleeping man.

     My troubled mind is laid to rest for the time being as it succumbs to the beckoning darkness.

     Blood.

     Crimson blood slips through my fingers to form a puddle at my feet and my skin turns tacky from the sticky substance.  The harsh red burns my eyes, imprinting the guilt, the loss, into my brain.  The image will never leave me
as
long as I live.

     But I don’t feel like I can carry on.  My strength has been cruelly taken from me along with the life I grew to depend on.  Love even.  I’m consumed with so much intensity I can’t handle it.  It
is taking over me.  I’m not “me”
anymore.  I don’t know who I am and the blood staining my hands confuse
s
me further.

     Where did it come from?  How did it end up on me?  Am I hurt?  No.  Then who is?  So many questions with no answers.  I’m stuck in a maze and every turn leads to a dead end.  Then when I think I’ve found the exit route it turns out be a red herring which only forces me back to the start.  I’m in an illusion I can’t get out of.