Vanquish (15 page)

This was happening. He'd taken her from her house. Bared her before his eyes. He was raping her.

Her heart panted, a helpless terrified thing trapped in her chest. She wanted to ignore it, to be stronger, but as his powerful jabs shredded and battered her insides, death seemed to be a better option.

His teeth scraped across her shoulder, his grunts lashed her skin with wet exhales, and his arms squeezed around her ribs. Could he see all her flaws in the light? Who else had laid eyes on her, judged her? If she wasn't home... Oh no, oh God, he'd taken her
outside
.

Her pulse went wild, tearing through her body. She bucked in his embrace, but there was no escape. He was too heavy, too strong, plunging in and out of her abused flesh.

The horrifying image of her body spread out beneath him collided with the shackles chafing her raw skin and the cramping pain of her cervix or whatever it was inside her he hammered against so mercilessly.

She closed her eyes behind the blindfold and tried to calm her heart by counting the slam of his hips. One...two...three...four. One...two...three...four. Over and over, she counted until her mind tumbled so far away her body grew numb and limp.

His hand gripped her throat and squeezed. “What are you doing?”

Bright hot reality burned through her, sensitizing every cell in her body. She'd always wanted it harder, rougher, with a firmer hand around her neck, strangling her thoughts. But not like this, with no choice, no safe word. And not with the lights on. “Are the lights...?” Her voice quivered, tiny and reedlike. She swallowed around the clamp of his fingers. “Are they on?”

He tsked and slowed his thrusts. “You don't really know someone until you see them in the dark.” His timbre rumbled through her as he rolled his hips and tightened his hand around her throat. “I'll show you the dark, my beautiful slave.”

Slave.
The blackness burst in a constellation of stars as his fingers bit into her tender throat. He flexed his hips, surging forward, pumping faster than the heaving of her chest. Her lungs caught fire, unable to draw air, as her life burned away beneath the vise of his hand.

A prick of light flickered in the dark void, beckoning. She floated toward it, couldn't stop it from taking her. The moment she gave in, the second she stopped fighting, her body felt lighter, her mind quieter. The pain of his thrusts and the clench of his fist receded as wave after wave of serenity sifted in. It nibbled away at her fear and splintered her thoughts until nothing was left but a hundred vibrating tongues licking along her inner walls, swelling wet heat through her pussy, and soaking his entry.

“Aw, God.” He loosened his grip, grunting a sound full of lust and satisfaction, and sped up his pace. “There's my girl, dripping all over me.”

Her bruised throat sealed up as his words spilled fiery shame through her veins. She'd fantasized about being punished, to be fucked raw and savagely, and maybe she was depraved. But now? Oh God, she didn't want it. Something was missing, something crucial. He took without permission. Every nerve in her body thrummed for more, but he'd stolen her power to stop it.

His balls slapped against her ass, his cock growing thicker inside her. “You love to be dominated.” He ground his pelvis against her clit and bit her earlobe. “Even as your conscience tells you to hate it. I dare you to fight it.”

Somewhere in the recesses of her fucked-up head, a rational voice screamed in horror, lamenting his truths, hating him. But her pussy swelled with desire, throbbing and gripping him harder. The gluttonous flesh grew slicker with every thrust, welcoming him, urging him on.

After two years of fucking in the dark, she was spread open under the lights. It would've been a huge step for her, but she hadn't chosen it. As she lay there, absorbing the brute force of his cock pounding inside her, she discarded whatever self-worth she had left and replaced it with something she could endure. She let the pleasure in.

His fingers scraped through her hair, ripping the strands and tingling her scalp as he yanked her head back and licked her mouth. “I want your release.” His mouth imprisoned hers, sucking the air from her lungs as he drove his tongue in maddening swirls. “Give it to me. Now.”

The orgasm exploded from an unbound place inside her, thundering through her body, every muscle rippling with electric tingles. His hips jerked against hers, and he kissed her with a ferocity that buckled her spine. She didn't have the faculties to bite off his tongue, her release so powerful all she could do was ride it as he dragged a piercing cry from her throat. She dug her feet into the mattress, and the ecstasy carried her into oblivion where she drifted in utter peace.

Without warning, he yanked off the blindfold. The quietude evaporated, replaced with the horrifying intrusion of natural light. An A-frame ceiling soared above the bed, its exposed rafters reaching beyond the railing that lined the long, narrow loft where she was held.

She didn't want to look at him, but he was as much a threat as the windows towering above him. She lifted her eyes, and his terribly beautiful face filled her vision. Still deep and hard inside her, he leaned back, his gaze smoldering with blatant lust. Sweat beaded over his forehead, gathering in the furrows and threatening to drip. Oh God, why couldn't he just wipe that away? She couldn't bear for it to fall on her and averted her eyes.

In the corner, a staircase spiraled into a two-story room. The only way to escape was down. Was the room below walled with glass, exposed to the outdoors? She didn't know. All she could see was the source of the light, the glow of twilight bleeding through the triangular windows that crested the two-story wall beyond the railing. The pinkish clouds against the purple sky might've been picturesque if the view of outside wasn't shuddering through her, chattering her teeth and shortening her breaths.

Jesus, stop.
The windows were too high to see in. It was just the sky looking back. None of this could hurt her. Breathing deeply, she could feel the heat of his eyes watching her from his kneeling position between her legs, his cock still buried inside her. She refused to look at him again, and her gaze stumbled over her body. The shame of her nudity, all laid out in the light, was sharp and swift as it clenched her insides in a blinding chokehold.

Her arms trembled wildly, her hair sticking to the sweat on her face. The evidence of her arousal smeared her inner thighs. But the worst of the view was her oversized breasts bouncing lewdly as he began to thrust anew with hard-hitting strokes.

“Please cover the windows.” She knew he couldn't. They were two-stories up, with no attached curtains or blinds.

He put his face in hers, the pink scar on his cheek bunching with his smile. “You realize, what exists in the light doesn't go away in the dark.”

Fuck his condescending smirk. Shadows hung like drapes on the three windowless walls surrounding them, hovering just out of reach, but soon they would close in with the setting sun. The approaching darkness in this unknown place both comforted and scared the shit out of her.

His eyes wandered down her body to lock on where they were connected. All that distended flesh was likely wrapped around his cock, folding up and down his length, so fucking grotesque it made her eyes burn.

“Stop looking.” It was a tear-choked plea, one he acknowledged with a furrowed brow then rejected as he sat up, gripped her ass, and angled his head, watching himself slide in and out.

She thrashed and jerked, but her efforts didn't distract him from staring at her pussy.

A twitch tugged the lower lid of her eye, jumping manically, angry and relentless. She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed slow and deep. Numbness settled over her arms, and a throb awoke in her chest, like an over-pressurized artery pulsing above the muscle. If only it was a heart attack.

Instead, it was the smothering pain of panic crashing over her. She tried to calm it by focusing on something other than the sight of her body. She studied his heavy-lidded eyes, strong nose, and full mouth, all arranged in perfect symmetry. The angles of his face followed lines of natural geometry. Uniformed cuts of muscle sculpted his pecs and abs.

He was a kidnapper, a rapist, and she ached to be repulsed by him, just to prove she was sane, but she couldn't. And she wasn't. His scarred beauty radiated seduction and danger, a deadly combination.

She'd told him he would see why she'd given up modeling, yet he continued to fuck her as if he hadn't seen every inch of her terrible nudity. His arms braced beside her waist, his biceps flexing as his cock pistoned in and out of her, scrambling her thoughts, overwhelming her.

The dime-sized scar in his shoulder was the last thing she saw as tremors attacked her nervous system, seizing her body and arching her back. Blackness invaded, the clouds faded from the windows, and she fell into nothingness.

A hand slammed into her jaw, shooting a stinging fire through her nose. She blinked, gasping for air, and his scowl bleared into focus.

“Stay with me, goddammit.” Silver flames lit his eyes, sparking above her in blurry, iridescent flashes.

He pulled out, ripped off the condom, and pumped his hand along his length, hard and fast. Bending over her, he propped himself up, his arm straight, biceps straining as his fist stroked. His eyes locked with hers, and his mouth opened with a guttural shout as come squirted over her mound, belly, and chest.

She stared at the globs streaking her body, dazed. Why had he come on her and not in her?

He answered her unspoken question when he swirled his fingers through the ejaculate, spreading it over her skin as if rubbing it into her pores, marking his territory.

“Beautiful.” His voice was thick with lust. He leaned down and lapped at it, collecting a white puddle on his tongue.

Before she could analyze the come licking, he crawled up her body and captured her mouth. His salty kiss swirled past her lips, aggressive and consuming. She tried to fight it, but she was too weak, too lost to the drugging glide of his lips, the salacious pressure of his teeth, and the undivided focus of his desire.

He'd seen every shameful flaw, and still he kissed her as if he believed she was beautiful? She closed her eyes and could almost taste a man beneath the cruel lash of his tongue. The flavor bore a hint of cleanliness. Earthy. Carnal. Human. It gave her hope that a modicum of kindness might've been buried in there, too. No doubt it was a hope fabricated from desperation.

He broke the kiss, and his tongue darted out, trailing the seam of her mouth. “If turning off the lights is the only way you can get off, you need to replace it with something else.” His lips whispered over her cheek. “With trust.”

“Are you shitting me?” She twisted in the restraints, kicking and heaving against his heavy body. “You fucking raped me!”

A dark cloud rolled over his face, and his eyes grew unfocused, his voice eerily quiet. “To call that rape insults the brutality inflicted by the worst kind of man.” He blinked, and his eyes cleared. He rubbed his forehead, dropped his hand, and his mouth tilted in a crooked grin. “You liked it too much.”

Fire spread over her body, lighting up her nerves and burning her throat. “I'm tied down, dammit. I didn't have a choice.” She didn't have a choice to like it? Okay, not a whip-smart response. “Untie me.” She glared at him through blurry eyes. “Or do you plan on raping me again?”

“Maybe.” He winked. “If you beg.”

The fuck she would. “Is your name really Van?”

His fingers caressed a path around the outer swell of her breast, over her ribs and hip, and slipped between the raw skin of her lower lips. “My mother named me Van Quiso.” He shoved two fingers in her opening and curled them, coaxing her muscles to clench. “You'll refer to me as Master.” His timbre was a velvet sheath swaddling an obnoxious order.

He shifted down her body, hovering like a dark mountain of dread, and wedged his massive shoulders between her thighs.

Her heart rammed against her ribs in a violent protest. Oh God, she never wanted anyone down there. Not after Brent. It was her biggest shame, her eternal regret. “Please, don't. You don't understand.”

He bared his teeth, grinning, and bit down on her clit. White-hot pain pierced through her pussy in concentrated heat. She cried out as his teeth continued to pierce and yank the sensitive nub, his tongue flicking back and forth as swiftly as his thrusting fingers.

She screamed thick, sobbing shrills of agony. Hot tears rolled down her face, her cries garbled and raw. He released her, kissing the sore flesh. The tenderness only made her cry harder.

She was on display, naked and hurting, weak and defenseless. And her future would only get worse. What would happen to her without her routine, trapped in some unknown location, at the center of a madman's attention?

For two years, she'd hidden herself in the darkness of her self-pity. She wasn't living. She was barely surviving. The idea of returning to her house was as grim as staying here, with him. Was this the beginning of a new misery, where her days were consumed by a rapist who made her come? The thought trembled through her. That was a whole different kind of sick.

As the edge of pain dimmed, the pinch of something else took hold, a realization as spiteful and psychotic as the monster before her. It hardened her spine and sharpened her focus.

He might've had the upper hand, but he couldn't control the mess in her mind. If he planned to keep her around, he'd damned well better be prepared. She was going to make his life a living hell.

He reached for the buckles around her ankles. “You ready?”

She was ready, for what she had no idea. She'd been beaten, drugged, taken from her house, and raped. She was already fucked in the head, her dignity long gone, and now she was backed into a corner she couldn't escape. She had nothing to lose.

She raised her chin and met his eyes. “Yes.”