Tied To You (3 page)

He froze, hesitating for a moment. Tears squeezed from my eyelids as I endured the wait, which was almost worse than what was coming. I was certain his pause was just to toy with me, to make my apprehension that much worse, and it was working.

“Fuck.” He roared the curse word, and a second later, I flinched when he punched the mattress, at least two feet from my head. I obviously hadn’t been his target. With another expletive, he suddenly pulled away from me and rolled off the bed. “I can’t do this. I fucking cannot do this.” He sounded shocked and angry.

Hope fluttered through me, and I didn’t know how to react when he sat down on the bed beside me a couple of moments later. Was he doing something else to me first, or was he perhaps letting me go?

His fingers were gentle when they unwound the tie around my face, removing the garment and allowing me to see again. I blinked at the sudden return of light, though the hotel room wasn’t excessively illuminated. After a moment, I could focus, and though my eyes were still blurry and itchy from the tears that had escaped, and more that wanted to fall, I was able to focus on his face. I caught my breath at what I was certain was remorse in his expression.

“I’m going to take the gag out in a minute, but I wanted to make sure you don’t scream first. You have every right to do so, but if you remain calm, I’ll untie you and take you to the hospital. If you don’t need to go to the hospital, I’ll drive you straight to the police station.”

I frowned at him, not speaking until he’d removed the gag and had cut through the ropes on one of my wrists. Then I said, “I’ve seen your face.” What was wrong with me to point that out? Idiot.

He gave me look full of bitterness. “I’m not worried about that. All black people look the same to people like you.”

I glared at him before pointedly closing my eyes. “You have high, chiseled cheekbones, full lips, a straight nose, and dark brown eyes that shine like chocolate diamonds. Your eyelashes are obscenely long, and I wish mine were half that length. You have short, close-cropped hair complete with your natural curl. You’re at least a foot taller than me, and you’re strong and lean. I can describe you in a heartbeat, Mickey—if that is your real name.”

He didn’t confirm or deny his name, but he did shrug. “Then you’ll be able to give them an accurate description, won’t you, Ms. Chastain?”

The disdain in his tone when he spoke my last name raised my hackles. “I guess this is something to do with Wayne, but you should know that I don’t like him either. Whatever you do to me, he won’t give a damn about. It’s not like he loves me or anything. I’m only a Chastain because he adopted me for show. That’s the kind of shit politicians do, you know?”

He sighed, finally cutting through the last binding of the rope on my other hand. He eased away from me with exaggerated care, folding the knife and placing it on the nightstand as he moved farther from me. “Yeah, I guess I figured that out too. When it comes down to it though, it wouldn’t matter if you were his favorite. I still couldn’t do the same nasty, disgusting, deplorable thing to you that he and his friends did to my sister.”

My lips parted in a soft gasp, and I stared at him with haunted eyes. “Are you sure?”

He laughed bitterly. “I’m positive, and Annika reminds me every time I look at her. Oh, not in words, but in her frail demeanor, and her inability to engage with the outside world. Not only did they destroy her body that night, but they seriously damaged what made her her. Your stepfather and his neo-Nazi friends tore apart her innocence and her spirit. She’s never been the same.”

“Why aren’t they in prison?” My voice was full of outrage. Abruptly, I realized I was still naked and rolled over and pulled the sheet up to cover me. “They should be in prison for that.”

The look Mickey gave me was full of irritation. “Do you really believe that happens to rich, white politicians who happen to destroy the life of a young girl, especially if that girl is black? Annika refused to report it, because she knew she would be the one exposed to ridicule, with her every move dissected just so she could be given the blame of the encounter. I supported her decision, but I vowed Wayne Chastain would pay, along with his three buddies.”

“Rich Sewall, Louis Burgess, and Craig Olson?” I asked, barely repressing a shudder of repulsion. Even at my mother’s funeral, those three bastards had been leering at me. I’d never gotten close enough to let them try anything, but I didn’t doubt they would if they had the opportunity. I also didn’t doubt Mickey’s assertion of their crime any longer. I hadn’t really to start with. I’d simply wanted to refuse to believe they could do such a terrible thing to anyone.

At his stunned expression, I said, “They’re his usual circle of acquaintances. I figured it had to be them. Are you sure they’re neo-Nazis?” That was even easier to believe than the idea of them raping a young woman, because I’d heard the things they’d said most of my life. Even as a little girl, they had sickened me.

Mickey nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve spent the last six years learning everything I could about the disgusting bastards, including that information.”

“Six years? That’s when they…raped your sister?” At his nod, I closed my eyes for a second. I wondered if my mother had been alive or dead then. Had losing my mother, whom he had genuinely seemed to love as much as he could anyone, been the catalyst driving Wayne? It didn’t matter if it had been, because it was no excuse. There could be no excuse for such an action.

He continued when I didn’t speak again. “Unfortunately, I have yet to discover solid proof of any illegal activity, though I’m certain they’re shunting weapons from Sewall and Burgess’s gun company to hate groups, but until I find proof, there’s no way to bring them down. I got frustrated, and when I found out you were coming home, I decided I would just settle for revenge the old-fashioned way. An eye for an eye. My intent was to do to you what they had done to Annika. I’m sorry. I deserve whatever you decide to do to me, up to and including making me turn myself in to the cops.”

I nodded, eyeing him calmly. “But the simple truth is, you’re not a rapist, are you, Mickey?”

Slowly, he shook his head before padding over to the chair to retrieve his underwear. I watched him put them on, the taut cheeks of his buttocks catching my attention and making my breath freeze for a moment.

New moisture flowed from me, and I realized I was still overwhelmingly attracted to him. Perhaps even more so now, knowing that he didn’t have the ruthless nature required to dish out the vengeance he had planned. Really, the only thing holding me back was the idea that he hadn’t been personally attracted to me. I had simply been a means to an end. “What will you do to him now, since you can’t bring yourself to fuck me?” Wow, did that sound as pathetic and needy as I thought it did?

He stiffened and turned toward me, wearing a frown. “Bring myself? It was all I could do to stop. If it’d been consensual, well…” He trailed off with a shrug. “Since it wasn’t, I couldn’t just take you even though I wanted to. That wouldn’t be right and it wouldn’t be fair. And I’m sorry you were dragged into this. I had no right to expose you to this ugliness, and all I can do is apologize and explain why I did it, which was a misguided attempt to avenge my sister.”

“Do you think Annika would have wanted you to do this?”

His lips compressed, and his eyes sparkled with banked anger. “No, I don’t suppose she would have sanctioned this. Honestly, I’m not sure I ever would have told her if I had gone through with this. I definitely won’t be telling her unless she comes to visit me in prison.”

I softened further toward him, and though I was perhaps an idiot for doing so, I said, “Relax, Mickey. I’m not going to send you to prison. I’m not going to tell anyone about this humiliating experience.” I couldn’t hold back a bitter laugh, thinking how much of a thrill Isabel would have gotten hearing this tale. I finally had a hot guy interested in me, and it was simply because I was Wayne’s stepdaughter, and he had planned to use me ruthlessly to hurt a man who didn’t give a damn about me.

Isabel would find it hilarious in that cruel, catty way of hers, so I certainly had no plans to tell anyone. No harm no foul, I supposed, other than some residual anger and a nasty case of sexual frustration.

“Thank you. That’s more than I deserve, and if you want, I’ll write down a written confession for you in case you change your mind.”

I shook my head, knowing I wouldn’t. “No, that’s fine. I guess I understand your actions, though I wish you hadn’t involved me in this. I finally meet someone I like, and he turns out to hate my entire family, even though I’m not really part of it.”

I closed my eyes as tears pooled behind my eyelids, this time prompted by humiliation and disappointment. I didn’t open them until he sat on the bed a moment later, and his fingers brushed my cheek. I couldn’t resist the compulsion then to look at him, though it made me burn with humiliation. I should have known a man like him wouldn’t want a girl like me.

“That’s crazy.”

It was only when he refuted the words that I realized I had spoken them aloud, further compounding my shame. I was certainly up for most pathetic girl of the year award tonight. “It’s okay. I get it. I’m just sorry you won’t be able to get your revenge through me.” I shook my head. “I mean, I’m glad you’re not going to hurt me, but I’m sorry this won’t do anything to Wayne or to get justice for your sister.”

His hands were gentle on my face when he cupped my cheeks, his thumb rubbing over my lower lip in a tender fashion that reminded me of the way he had caressed my clit earlier. My thighs clamped together at the thought, and I barely stifled a moan. I still wanted him in spite of everything. Maybe even because of it all. There was something forbidden about him, but something that called me just the same. “You know, it would still kill my stepfather if he knew that I lost my virginity to you.”

Mickey froze, clearly torn on how to proceed. I couldn’t believe how brazen I was being as I let the sheet fall to my lap, revealing my breasts. “You could still send him this video? He doesn’t love me, but I’m a Chastain, and it would kill him to know that I had been
deflowered
by a black man.” I lifted a hand to trail over his chest, pausing to rake my nails slightly over his nipple and enjoying his indrawn breath. “He would hate it, but I would love it.”

“You make it really hard to do the right thing here, Gabriella.” He sounded stern, but his cock pressed insistently against the cloth of his boxers, and I knew what he really wanted.

He couldn’t fake that reaction, and I realized that he was attracted to me. I wasn’t just some means to hurt my stepfather, and perhaps the attraction was what had saved me from the fate he’d ultimately planned.

I didn’t think so though. Even if he had Isabel at his mercy—and she was the world’s biggest cunt—I didn’t think he could have gone through with it. He was angry and hurt, and clearly committed to finding justice or revenge, but he was too gentle to pursue it in the way he had planned. He could never be like my stepfather, and that was another reason to admire him. “What do you think?”

“I think this is a terrible idea,” said Mickey as he lowered his head, his lips touching mine. It was our first kiss, and it was hard and soft, gentle and rough, and most of all, full of urgent need. It was a million different emotions and conflicting sensations all wrapped in one, and I’d never had a kiss like it before. I was a virgin, but wasn’t so pathetic that I’d never been kissed.

I’d just never been kissed like this by a man who knew what he was doing, who seemed compelled to leave his mark on me. I reveled in the taste of heaven and the feel of his mouth against mine, his tongue pressing insistently into my mouth, stroking, probing, and massaging me before he sucked on my lower lip. I retaliated by biting his gently, and he ripped the sheet off my lower half to leave me bare before him.

This time, his hands were more confident and less teasing. This go-round, there was none of the doubt or hesitation in him. He stroked my breasts confidently, his mouth sucking on my nipples and my areola, drawing inside as much of my breast as he could. His dark skin against my light complexion was an amazing turn-on, but it was the man himself who was really raising new emotions in me.

When his mouth sought out the heart of me, I parted my thighs and whimpered at the first touch of his lips against my lower ones. He licked the outside of my mound before his tongue flicked inside, first teasing my clit lightly before dipping lower, exploring the length of my slit prior to slipping into my opening. He paused at the barrier, an unwanted artifact from my virginal life that would soon be gone, and I couldn’t wait.

As he wiggled his tongue inside my sheath, I decided I could wait a little while longer as I moaned and arched against him, bucking my hips in urgent need as he flicked his tongue in and out of me before moving slightly higher again, this time engulfing my clitoris in his mouth and sucking firmly. The suction, coupled with the way he flicked his tongue across my clitoral hood, sent me flying apart, and I screamed out his name.

As my orgasm crested, I was vaguely aware of Mickey shifting positions, parting my thighs wider as he settled between them, the head of his cock nestling against my opening. As he eased inside, I took a deep breath to steel myself for the pain. Slowly, his shaft breached me an inch at a time, pausing to make shallow thrusts that soon had me throttling toward another orgasm as I circled my pelvis. “Please, Mickey, just fuck me.”