“Mr. Weiss isn’t in yet,” Annie said brightly. Her eyes didn’t meet mine though, and I wondered if she was thinking about what Howard had said regarding me not being ready enough to be the replacement “package”. “He should be here shortly, if you’d like to wait.”
“Thank you.” I turned and walked to the chairs that sat across from Annie’s desk. So far, so good. I’d hoped Howard wouldn’t be in this early and I’d been right. I picked up one of the magazines and pretended to read it while I scanned the room, looking for any way I could get into that office before Howard showed up. At least I had a cover story. He had asked me to come to his office this morning to discuss his job offer. Obviously, there was no way in hell I was even considering it, but it would at least keep him from being suspicious as to why I was there.
I was starting to get concerned that I’d never find a way in when Annie stood and walked away from her desk. I didn’t know where she was going, but that wasn’t my concern. Before I could talk myself out of it, I got up and hurried over to the door. For a moment, I was afraid it was going to be locked, but it wasn’t. The doorknob turned easily and I pushed the door open. I glanced behind me and didn’t see Annie, so I slipped inside.
The office was just as neat as the one in his mansion, though I doubted this one had a side room with a bed. Then again, maybe it did. Not that I was eager to find out. I just wanted that briefcase. Fortunately, it was sitting on the desk... right next to a stack of files. Forgetting that I wasn’t supposed to be here, that I was trying to find evidence to incriminate the man I’d been falling in love with, I crossed to the desk with only one thing on my mind: Patricia. If I didn’t have anything else, I needed her file. Her father deserved to know that he was right about her not running off, and the file would at least give the police somewhere to start looking again.
I started going through the pile. I planned on taking all of them, but I had to make sure hers was there first. A wave of relief went through me when I saw it. I picked it up and opened it to make sure that the contents were there.
That was when I heard noise behind me.
An arm wrapped around me.
A cloth came towards my face, the sickly sweet chemical smell telling me this wasn’t going to end well.
Before I could scream or move or fight back, my vision grayed, then the darkness swallowed me.
Chapter 6
My head was pounding before I was even fully aware that I was waking up. My tongue felt thick, my mouth dry, filled with a cloying medicinal taste. I almost gagged as the darkness that had enveloped me started to recede. I managed to stop myself from making any noise. I couldn’t remember what had happened, but I knew it hadn’t been anything good. I searched my memory for clues and it all came back to me in a rush.
Files at Howard’s office.
Someone grabbing me from behind.
Fuck.
Now I wanted to know if it had been Howard or Gavin who’d grabbed me.
Before I opened my eyes, though, I needed to further assess my situation. I didn’t feel any pain other than in my head, and that was fading. At least that was good. As I continued to take my inventory, I realized that I was lying on my back. My arms and legs were spread out and I felt something around my wrists and ankles.
Panic flooded through me. I was tied up, spread-eagle, and since the surface beneath me was soft, I was willing to bet I was in a bed.
Shit.
I tried to stay calm by telling myself that at least I was wearing clothes, but it wasn’t working. I just kept thinking about how I was tied up and all of the horrible things it could mean.
I heard a soft chuckle and tensed. It wasn’t Gavin. I knew that now. That meant it had to be Howard. A flare of anger burned through the panic, and I let it. I thought of all of the things Howard had done and let myself get more and more angry. Then, when all of the fear had been replaced, I opened my eyes.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking down at me with a cold smile and colder eyes. I quickly looked around and saw that we were in the members’ room at club Privé. He hadn’t taken me back to his place, which was good. Being here was bad, but not as bad as it would’ve been if I’d been someplace completely unfamiliar. I knew the layout of the club and if I could get free, I could escape.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t take you long to wake up,” he said. He reached out and brushed the back of his knuckles across my cheek. I jerked my head away, half-expecting him to hit me. Instead, he just laughed. “This is going to be fun.”
I swallowed hard and tried not to let him see how much his words freaked me out.
“I knew you were there, by the way,” he continued in a conversational tone. “Back at my mansion, in my office.”
I couldn’t stop the look of surprise. He’d known? Why hadn’t he done something then? I’d obviously been somewhere I didn’t have permission to be. He could have easily thrown me out.
That was it, I realized. He hadn’t wanted to make me leave the party. He’d wanted me here, like this. What I didn’t understand was why he hadn’t just tied me up back at his place. No one would’ve noticed that I was gone, and it could’ve been an easy excuse that I was sick. Why wait the whole weekend and let me come back to the city?
“I can see those wheels turning in that pretty little head of yours,” Howard said.
Now he didn’t just look like one of those old-time movie stars. He sounded like he was spouting some of their cheesy dialogue. How did he get women this way?
“Did you really think I wouldn’t have cameras outside my office and that my security staff wouldn’t let me know the moment someone went inside?”
Embarrassment mixed with horror flooded me. How could I have been so stupid? Of course he’d have cameras, if not in the office, then outside of it.
“I didn’t know exactly what you’d been looking for, but when I saw the book had been moved and the clipping was on the floor, I knew I needed to give you something to come after.” He shook his head. “I’d told Gavin you weren’t right for us, that you were the kind of person who meddled in things that didn’t concern her. You ask too many questions, and don’t know your place.”
At least he running his mouth was keeping me pissed off enough to not give in to the fear hovering at the edges of my mind.
“I figured that if you saw me tell Annie to take the files to my Manhattan office, you’d suddenly decide to take me up on my offer to talk about a job.” He ran the tip of one finger down the underside of my arm. “I got there early and told Annie to pretend I wasn’t there yet. I knew that as soon as she gave you the chance, you’d come in to get those files. Even if they weren’t what you’d been after originally, you wouldn’t be able to resist snooping. You thought you were so clever, but I was one step ahead of you. I’m always one step ahead.”
“You’re a bastard, you know that?” It was hard to come across as tough tied to a bed, but I thought I managed pretty well. “Preying on innocent girls. Raping them. Selling them to the highest bidder.”
“You see, Carrie, that attitude is exactly what Gavin was supposed to fuck out of you.” He leaned closer so that his mouth was against my ear. “I do have to ask though, before I get too caught up in our fun and games. Did you like what I did to Annie?”
I didn’t say anything, but he didn’t seem to actually want a response.
“That little show was all for you, you know. Since I knew you were there, watching, I wanted you to see that I can do what I want, and no one can stop me.”
His tongue flicked against my earlobe and I shuddered in revulsion. Up until that moment, I’d been telling myself that he’d just tied me like this to restrain me, that he wasn’t going to do anything. Now I knew that was a lie.
“Not that she wanted me to stop,” he continued. “All of my girls are trained to love what I do to them, what I have them do to me.”
“I saw her face, Howard.” I spoke through gritted teeth. “Trust me, that wasn’t enjoymen
t I saw.”
He grabbed my hair and yanked on it, twisting my head around so that our faces were less than an inch apart. “Then why is she sitting there in my office instead of going to the police?”
“Because she’s scared of you,” I said. “But I’m not.”
He laughed and released my hair as he sat up. “You think that was the first time I’ve fucked her? How do you think she got the job? I don’t hire anyone who doesn’t bend over and spread them in the interview.” He stood. “Well, women anyway. I don’t do men.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocketknife. My heart began to pound. Maybe he wasn’t going to rape me. Maybe he was just going to kill me. At the moment, I wasn’t sure which one to hope for.
“Shall we move this along?”
I realized now that he’d already taken off my shoes and thigh highs while I’d been unconscious. Easier to tie my ankles, I supposed. I would’ve wondered why he hadn’t just stripped me completely, but I already knew the answer. He wanted me to be awake when he cut off my clothes. He got off not only on the power, but on the fear and pain as well.
He ran his free hand up over my calf, then over my skirt and up to my blouse. I tried to jerk away when his hand reached my breast, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. He grabbed one, squeezing hard enough that I let out a hiss of pain, then did the same to the other.
“Do you have any idea the time and effort that goes in to training someone for what I have them do?” He lowered the knife and cut off the top button. “I’m not some pimp who grabs girls off the street and turns them out to any trick with ten bucks. I only cater to high-end clients with refined taste.”
“So you’re a high-class pimp?” It probably wasn’t a good idea to backtalk to someone with a knife just above your chest, but I couldn’t just lie here in silence. I may not have been able to move, but I could talk, and words had always been my go-to defense mechanism.
Howard scowled. Apparently he didn’t like my question. “My girls don’t just lie on their backs and take it. I groom them to learn how to read a man’s desires and respond accordingly. I do train some for specific purposes, ones whose masters want to humiliate them, I don’t degrade, leaving that pleasure to my client. Ones who are to be left intact, I don’t fuck. But most of my clients are looking for women who can and will do whatever they are told without complaint.”
The last button fell away and my blouse was hanging open, exposing my bra and a pale strip of skin down my stomach. Howard leaned down and put his knife through the thin cotton, easily ripping up one sleeve, then the other. He let the ruined shirt lie in pieces under me and moved down the bed.
“You saw firsthand some of that with Annie,” he said. He began to cut my skirt off. “I groomed her to please me, but in a pinch, she could do the same for my clients. Do you want to know the things I’ve done to her?”
He was trying to get a rise out of me, and I knew I shouldn’t respond, but I couldn’t just do nothing. I really didn’t want to hear what he’d done to his assistant. I shook my head, but it didn’t stop him, just like I’d known it wouldn’t.
“The first time I made her take off her clothes in public, she cried.” He pushed the two halves of my skirt away, leaving me in just my bra and panties. “I bent her over my knee and spanked her for it right there in that park.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, as if I could block out his words. Then I felt his hands on me, the cold metal of the knife against my skin, and had to open them. He wasn’t trying to cut me; it was only the flat of the blade. He was touching me though, running his hands over my legs and stomach, never touching anything covered by my underwear.
“She learned quickly.” He sounded almost proud. “I rarely had to punish her, and never as harshly as the first time. She’d refused to go down on me at a restaurant, even after I’d told her that she would be punished for saying no.”
His hands now moved to my breasts. I pressed my lips together as he touched me. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of a response. Not for this. I would fight him later, but this I could endure.
“I took her into a storage room in the back, took off her panties, pulled down the top of her dress and tied her to one of the shelves.” He slid the knife under one strap and pulled, cutting through the material. He did the same to the other side. “I let everyone who worked there use her, and then they called their friends. I sat and watched, listened to her scream and beg and plead with me to stop them. They took her every way you can imagine. Two, three at a time. I had to have her carried to my car when they were done.”
If he’d meant this to scare the shit out of me, it was working. I’d known he was a sick fuck, but this... it was worse than I’d imagined.
“The next time I told her to blow me in public, she just opened her mouth... then swallowed.”
My stomach roiled. If I’d eaten anything, I would’ve thrown it up. Somehow, I doubted even that would’ve stopped him.
The blade slid between my breasts and I held my breath. He didn’t even nick me as he cut the last bit of cloth keeping my bra in place. It fell off on its own, exposing my breasts.
“I’m going to have fun with these.” He used the tip of the knife to poke my nipple. He didn’t break the skin, but the threat was still there. “Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you?”
After what he’d told me, I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t answer him. Of course I didn’t want to hear it, but it wouldn’t matter what I said. He was going to tell me anyway.
“You need to be punished,” he said as he ran his hand over the length of my body. “And if I had the time, I would spend days with you, teaching you your place.” He cut one side of my panties, then the other. “I would make you beg for what was done to Annie.”
I clenched my hands into fists as he removed my last article of clothing.
“A natural blond, I see.” He smirked. “Not too much hair to bother me, for this anyway.”
He put his knife back in his pocket and walked over to one of the chests. I remembered what was in that one. He opened the drawer and pulled out a pair of nipple clamps, metal with jagged teeth.
“First, I’m going to put these on you. We really should work up to them, use soft ones until your body’s conditioned to enjoy pain, but I don’t have the time. These have a nice chain I can use to pull on them whenever you’re bad.”
When he turned to the wardrobe, I tried tugging on the restraints, but they didn’t give. He came back to the bed a moment later, his arms full. He set the clamps down and then began to lay out an array of dildos ranging from medium to the insanely massive one I’d seen when Gavin and I had been in here that first night. It was bigger than Gavin’s cock, and that was saying something. He was almost too big for me. What Howard had would hurt, no matter how much he stretched me first.
“I’m going to fuck you with every one of these, working up to this beauty. We want to make sure you’re nice and loose.” He put his hand on my stomach, just below my belly button, but not quite between my legs. “Then I’m going to flip you over and spank your ass until it’s black and blue. I’ll probably use a belt or one of the paddles. I won’t stop until you beg me to fuck your ass, and trust me, you will.”
His fingers slid just a bit lower so that they were skimming over the top of the thin layer of curls that covered me.
“Maybe I’ll even use some of these on your ass.” He motioned to the dildos on the bed. “If you’re a good girl and can prove to me that you’re going to behave, I won’t kill you. Instead, I’ll send you to my client in Saudi Arabia whose package was lost. You’ll be a gift to him. One he can keep.” He removed his hand and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “I hear that the things he does to his permanent girls ruins their bodies and their minds.” He straightened and smiled down at me. “But that’s getting ahead a bit, isn’t it?”
His gaze traveled up and down my body, as if he had a thought in his head and was trying to decide what
to do with it.
“This isn’t right,” he said finally. “After all, I’m not the only one you’ve been so rude to. Gavin should be here to enjoy your punishment as well.”
“No, please.” I couldn’t stop myself from speaking. I couldn’t bear to have Gavin here, have him watch and know that he was enjoying watching Howard rape and abuse me.
Howard smiled. “That settles it. I’ll go get him.” He started towards the door, then stopped and turned back. “By the way, there’s no point in trying to scream for help. In case Gavin hadn’t told you, the room’s fully sound-proofed.” He pointed towards the lights above the bed. “Oh, and there are cameras everywhere, recording everything that happens in here, so feel free to struggle all you want. I’ll enjoy watching the tapes later.”
He left and as soon as the door closed behind him, I let the tears come. I screamed, knowing no one would hear me, but unable to keep it inside any longer. I pulled at my restraints as the tears ran down my cheeks, but I wasn’t thinking about escape. I couldn’t think about anything but the anguish and panic flooding me. No one was coming to save me. This was going to happen and nothing I could do would stop it.
Chapter 7
I had no idea how much time had passed because there were no clocks in the room, but I knew that I’d been screaming long enough for my throat to hurt. When I stopped, a sense of calm came over me. Actually, it wasn’t really calm; it was more a lack of feeling anything. No fear. No panic. No anger. Nothing. It was as if by allowing myself to have what was basically a breakdown, I’d bled away the emotions that had overwhelmed me.
I didn’t know how long this feeling would last, only that I had to take advantage of it while I still could. I tested my restraints again, but this time more methodically. I pulled on one leg first, though I didn’t have high hopes for the restraints around my ankles. Slipping my feet out would require a decent amount of give. After I confirmed that I didn’t have any room to move with my left leg, I tried my right with the same result. Frustration crept in, starting to chase away the emptiness. I knew other emotions would soon follow. I pulled with my left hand. I had a bit more movement, but it was still too tight for me to be able to slip out.