Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4) (29 page)

“Here we go
. Don’t worry. Glass has done this a hundred times. As long as the weather’s this good, with quiet seas, he can land without fuss. Years ago, a foolish entrepreneur tried making this a resort and failed. No one else lives here.”

“Why?”

“Why’d it fail? In storms, the place isn’t good. No water supply. A tsunami would sweep straight across it.”

Ugh.
Thank god we weren’t staying long.

The plane shushed along in the water then purred its way to the jetty.

“Out we get.” He unlocked the door and swung it open before stepping down into the sea.

Smiling, I followed, jumping into a couple of feet of water and feeling the sand squish under my toes.
This was a deserted island in the middle of the most amazing environment. Open space all around, sky, sea, and me...deep rolling ocean farther out. I needed a camera so badly.

The water was clear as the sky, like
blue glass, and small fish, colorful as china ornaments, shot away when my legs pushed through the coolness. “This is paradise. Like serious holiday material.”

“Let’s get all the stuff unloaded that Glass wants to leave here.”

The small pile seemed to be most of his cargo. What the hell was left to take to Australia? It had to be drugs.

But before we left
, I ran over to do a pirouette on the beach with my dress swirling out in what must be a revealing way. Who cared if they saw my panties? On the last turn Pieter stepped up and caught my hands, sliding down to hold my wrists. Odd. I frowned as his hold tightened.

“I’m glad you like this place, because you’re staying here with me,
meisie
, until I say we leave.”

What. The fuck.
I blinked at him but before I could process that or say a word, he spun me around. Metal clicked on my wrists, circling them. Cold metal. Handcuffs.

“Pieter!” My mind batted back and forth for all of a second.
What was going on? He couldn’t be... Not him. Heat and cold flashed and buzzed inside my head, running down my body in a paralyzing wash. “Why are you doing this?” My throat caught on the last word.

I’d been betrayed. By Pieter. And Glass. The men I’d thought had hearts. The breeze blowing across this little beach
made me shiver. I tried to turn but he held my elbows, his grip so rock hard it hurt. Then he pulled me into his body.

I panted, still trying to squirm loose.

“Hello, Jazmine Foulkes.”

I
stiffened.

“
I know who you are. And that you’ve lied to me all along, and now I get to teach you why that was wrong. When I release you, you’re to kneel in the sand.”

His fingers, encircling my elbows, pulsed on my skin.

Then he let go. I stood there breathing hard, deprived of oxygen and dizzy.
He knows who I am. He knows. Even if I escape, he will find me.
Then I turned and sprinted for the sea. I’d rather drown than be his thing to play with. I couldn’t face more of this darkness.

He caught me
in the shallow waves, and dragged me, sobbing, back to the beach.

“No. Fuck no. Let me go!”
I whispered the words in a squeak. My tears and the seawater wet my face. My nose ran with snot and sand stuck to my face.

With his hand screwed in my wet hair he
towed me forward and made me go to my knees, and he held me there.

I trembled, eyes puffy, heart
pumping so hard it might burst from my chest.

A seashell decorated the sand at my knee. Perfect and delicate. And a monster had me, again.
I waited for my sentence. I’d been so close to going home.
So close!
Home. My bed. My neighbor’s cat who came to visit. My garden. The café down the road. Almost, nearly,
real
, if only the plane had kept going. I jammed my eyes shut. But it was not to be.

“I’m not Gregor,
meisie
, but I will not be lied to. You’re going to learn and I’m going to enjoy teaching.” His hand turned my face so I had to stare into his eyes. With a cloth, he wiped away some of the sand, some of the tears. “You may not believe me yet, but I think you’re going to be happier by the end. You’re mine now and you’re precious to me. I’ll never hurt you terribly like him. Never. Understand?”

Understand.
As if his words helped.

Though maybe they did. Even in my misery I began to think. He wasn’t Gregor.

“I won’t be gentle all the time,” he continued, in that horribly reasonable tone, like a man aiming to convince his pet that it couldn’t go out through the cat flap today.

C
hoking in breaths in an attempt not to cry, I frowned, looking downward.

“But sometimes, I will
be. It’s the punishments you should fear, and I need to punish you now because you’ve been bad.”

“No.” I shook my head
, in a determined way. If I wished it enough, it might come true. “You can still let me go.” I met his gaze, though I cringed. “Please? Let me go, Pieter. I wasn’t going to write about you, or Glass, or the others. I swear.”

“
Shh. You can bear it.”

“I won’t do it.
I won’t tell. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

But he only snorted, and picked me up, t
hen he toted me up the beach to a bench under a roof at the jetty. He dragged me across the bench with my bottom up, sat beside me and pushed up my dress. Then he edged my panties down to the top of my thighs and spanked me. My knees were jarred into the sandy concrete. Every finger mark he left seemed an insult. When I attempted to rise, in spite of still being handcuffed, he tsked and pushed me back then hit me harder. With Glass somewhere nearby, I bit back my noises, clenched my jaw. Only a gasp or two escaped me. Damned if I would show how this affected me.

A
nother slap landed on my ass, cramming me forward onto the metal slats, then another, and another, until the pain seemed to balloon out from my skin with each pulse of blood. My humiliation, anger, and misery, tangled up and shattered my self-control, and I cried.

From th
en on each blow drew more loud cries or words of protest from me until I was barely conscious of what came from my mouth.

By the time he was do
ne, Glass was preparing to leave, and the props on the plane were turning. Through my tears, I saw this, before I turned away, embarrassed that he too saw my degradation.

T
his was far beyond what I could have imagined Pieter was capable of and I was trapped here with him, with no one to see what acts he perpetrated on me.

I
had
to get away. From the corner of my eye, I could see the endless surface of the sea. This was so far from civilization, from other people and he could overpower me with one hand. There’d been a rifle unloaded with the boxes. I didn’t even know where this island
was.
Despair wrenched another sob from me.

Then he laid his big palm over one cheek of my ass. The burn
from the spanking seemed to intensify where his skin met mine.

“Poor
Jazmine. I guess I should feel sorry for you. Do you think you’ve been punished enough?”

What a
dumb question.

If I was good, subtle, sneaky, maybe I could slowly win him over and convince him to free me?” “Yes,” I squeaked out past a sniffle. “I do.”

“Hmmm.”

The ache in my finger stump on my left hand reminded me of what I’d lost to Gregor, but having Jazmine ass up before me, over this bench, what did that mean to me? The feel of her softness under my palm, and knowing I could stop or I could keep going until every bit of her was equally red...

Crazy.

Such a gorgeous ass too, attached to a woman I should really have naked right now. The breeze played with the blue-and-yellow cloth of her dress where it lay shoved above her waist. Where I had left it. Me. Her owner.

I could do what I liked with her.

The headiness of this situation was getting to me.

All my careful thoughts had been obliterated by the reality.

The roar of the plane’s engine faded into the noise of the surf crumpling onto the beach on the other side of the island. The sun would be going down in a few hours. I should be thinking of organizing all the gear, but I had a woman here, trembling at my touch. I squeezed her butt then scraped my calloused thumb across her skin, brushing a mark I’d just made. Nothing. No reaction. I dug my nail in harder, still harder, scratched it along. And she whimpered and tried to shift away.

F
ok
. Scintillatingly good.

There was no one to see what I
did to her. Not for a hundred miles or more of bare ocean. Only the fish, the birds, the crabs, and me, the big dirty-minded sadist.

“You think I’m done, do you?”

She watched from the corner of her eyes, face damp from tears, sucking on her lip. If I hit her right now she’d bite herself. Those tears were so attractive, as were her little sounds when I hurt her, and that wriggling she did would win awards for seductiveness. My cock was telling me more bad things I could do.

I reached down and
traced the path of her tears over her cheek then I freed her lip from her teeth. As slowly as a snake traversing steps, I bumped my finger along her front teeth, nudging past her moist little tongue tip. That she didn’t dare to try to bite was telling.

I could, theoretically, fuck her mouth right now.
My cock hardened and I reached down and grasped myself through my surf shorts.

No one to stop me putting it there, or anywhere else. No watch do
gs, no police, no neighbors, and no limits whatsoever.

What
the hell was I doing?

I
wrenched my attention away from her, stood, and walked off the concrete to the beach. I let the wind buffet me. Sure there was only me, but I’d been used to putting my trust in myself all my life. I liked making a woman scream when I whipped her but that wasn’t new. The only novelty was that this one, Jazmine, had no say in what I did or when I stopped.

Being her judge and executioner was totally doable.
I
trusted me.

I took my dose of antibiotics from the packet in my shorts and swallowed them. Then I looked at her, noting
she’d moved back into a kneeling position. There was a good reason for chastising her. I hadn’t told her to do that. Having logical reasons for my sadistic impulses seemed important.

I went to the box full of toys and goodies I’d bought in a rush
this morning from the local kinky shop – my first essentials for this desert island holiday, along with food, torches, sleeping bags and so on.

Gags, whip, rope, straps, bars, more rope, clamps, etcetera,
and so on and, of course, the cane. I fished that out along with a pair of padlockable ankle and wrist cuffs, her new red collar, and a leash that had come from the pet store. I’d found a good metal tag that had
Kitty
engraved on it. Damn, I hoped she’d spit when I attached it to her neck.

I’d even packed some needles.
Elenor would’ve run screaming from those.

When I tur
ned up in front of her with the collar in hand, her eyes grew round.

“No. You took off the collar from the House. Please,
those are evil.” Her shudder rocked her breasts, reminding me of my idea.

When I laid my finger across my lips, she fell silent.

“This is a collar from me, no one else. It says you’re mine. You’re to leave it on, unless I say to remove it. Sit still.”

As I adjusted and buckl
ed the collar, her lips firmed and I sensed a new determination to resist me. So be it. Game on. I had plans to make her mind come around. I didn’t intend to have to monitor her every day, every second. The tag swung and I flicked it.

“Says Kitty. I could call you that but
meisie
will do unless I’m in a kitty cat mood.”