“Touché.” He winked.
When he stood up, she craned her neck to keep him within her sight. He stared down at her for a minute before saying, “I won’t go easy on you. It will be a fight to the death.”
Her eyes narrowed. “It’s good to know you understand the rules.”
After staring at her for another quiet moment, he acquiesced, “Fine. But I’m not fighting you in the condition that you’re in.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Why?”
He smiled. “No offense, Sunshine, but you smell.”
“And what the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
His hoods lidded over his darkening gaze. “Because, if I win, I’ll be taking more than information before you die.” He turned suddenly, walking out of the room and allowing the door to slam shut behind him.
She stared at the door trying to decipher whether he’d been serious or not. His threats didn’t concern her — he’d never win. But if she could escape …”
When the door opened again an hour later, Xander stepped in; a chained collar grasped in his fist and a mischievous grin plastered across his face. “Bath time.”
Chapter Eight
Her gold eyes flicked up at him and he smiled to see her scowl in reaction to the leash. Technically, it wasn’t necessary, she wouldn’t be able to free herself of the belt, but he wanted nothing more than to break her down physically and mentally. Sure, he’d fight the bitch — but not before getting his fun out of it first. Holding up the leash, he smiled. “Can’t be too careful. I wouldn’t want you to injure me before we have a chance to work this out.”
She sneered. “You’re sick, you know that?”
He chuckled in response. “You have no idea.”
And she didn’t. Remembering back to when Maddy was first brought to the mansion, Xander recalled how he’d been a little too excited to see her chained. He would never admit it to Aaron or Maddy, and the situation had certainly changed over the past two years … but he couldn’t deny that, initially, the power and her submission had enticed him. However, Maddy didn’t excite him as much as the woman on the floor before him. No. Hope was like a wild animal, one so majestic and rare, that to possess her was a testament to the owner’s power.
Stepping forward, he allowed his eyes to wander over Hope’s body. Her hair hung down to her hips and framed her thin face. It was striking, to say the least. But when she opened those eyes, when the gold color shone out and contrasted against the dark color of her eyelashes and hair, that was when he lost himself to her beauty. Her body called to him; the lean line of her frame and the tone to the muscles that lined it. She wasn’t curvy, but perfectly proportioned. It was a fighter’s body hidden within feminine skin. His mouth watered to taste it — to taste her; and he felt himself slipping into a dark chasm of longing and need.
She looked up at him when he approached and he smiled to see the hatred written across her features. The fact that she so obviously loathed him only made his goal of taming her stronger — a need so intense, that he wasn’t sure he could resist taking it too far.
“Bend forward as much as you can. I want you facing the floor when I place this on you.” His grin was wicked “Put your ass in the air for me.”
Sneering, she responded, “You’re not seriously going to put that fucking thing on me? Just let me out of these chains and let’s get this over with.”
He spoke slowly and without emotion. “You stated your conditions, I stated mine. It’s time to remove your stink.” The corner of his lip twisted up in humor to see her eyes narrow further at his insult.
She didn’t bend forward as he’d requested and he grabbed her by her hair and forced her to face down. Appreciating the docility forced on her by the belt, he snapped the collar in place only to grab her hair again to pull her back up. Before letting go, he wrapped his fingers tighter in her thick hair, pulling it just so he could watch and appreciate the way her body reacted to the small amount of pain it produced. He wanted to see more.
Quickly tugging on the chain, he ordered, “Stand up.”
Her gold eyes blinked slowly, her full mouth twisting in indignation. Playfully, he gave the chain two more tugs. His amusement wasn’t easily contained. When she didn’t budge, he looked down on her with an expression of absolute boredom. “We’re never going to get to the end of this if you don’t cooperate now.”
“I cannot fucking wait to rip your smug head from your body.”
He smiled and tugged again.
Pushing herself up on her knees, Xander kept his eyes trained to her body. Even chained, she moved gracefully. He tossed his keys down at her knees. “You’re welcome to unlock the shackles at your feet.”
She sighed and opened her hands to indicate how they were bound to the belt. Her expression mocked him, her understanding finally settling in that he was just toying with her. He bent down on one knee and retrieved the keys from the floor. He swirled a hand in front of her. “Turn around.” She complied almost immediately and an eyebrow cocked on his face to see it. After unlatching the shackles at her ankles, he winced to see how they’d cut into the skin. The air hit her wounds and he watched as her spine straightened from the pain.
“We’ll have to be sure to clean those. I’d hate for them to become infected.”
“Doesn’t really matter. You intend to kill me anyway.”
Standing above her, he tugged on the chain again to instruct her to turn around and climb to her feet. “Yes. But, in case you win, I’d hate to lose my life just for you to crawl off somewhere and die like a wounded dog.”
Her eyes shot to his. “Has anybody told you how fucking aggravating you are?”
He thought of Maddy and grinned. “I’ve heard.”
One more tug and he led her out of the cell and down a side hallway that led behind the ballroom and into the right wing. When he neared the suite he’d made for himself after Joseph had been killed, he pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the large wooden doors. The suite wasn’t as large as Aaron’s but Xander enjoyed having his own space in the mansion after so many years of having nothing more than a small room inside Aaron’s.
“I apologize for the mess, but I haven’t had much time to clean up since you’ve arrived.” He looked over his shoulder and watched Hope’s head swivel to look around the room. Her eyes casually glanced over the books and papers strewn about, but would stop every so often on something she found that interested her. Leading her through the space, he turned right down a hallway that led to the master bedroom and bath. Hope stopped in her tracks to see it.
~ ~ ~
The walls were painted a blood red, the dark color broken up by tapestries depicting mystical scenes and symbols. The furniture was a dark wood with clean lines and the white linens added the only light color to the room. The room was illuminated with candles. Sconces hung on the walls and some floated in bowls set on the tables and chests around the room. She scoffed.
He looked back at her in response and continued leading her through the room. When they entered the bathroom, her eyes found that the bathtub took up the majority of the room, the water appearing to vanish over the sides. The room was also dimly lit with flickering shadows and flame. He stopped, locking her chain to a pipe that ran along the wall.
She stood still, the remnants of the drugs causing her to sway where she stood. She was tired and hungry, her body weak from the lack of food and her injuries. When he turned back to her, she noticed how his mouth twisted and his eyes were dark and hooded. She took a step back, momentarily forgetting to hide her reaction and his lips finally turned up into the grin he’d been suppressing.
“The tub has steps down into it. Should make things easier considering you don’t have use of your arms at the moment.” He reached up, pushing the collar higher up her neck so he could untie the straps of fabric that crossed over her chest. Lowering the straps, she shivered at being exposed, but also because of the way his sapphire eyes burned into hers. Hi
s face was set in some unreadable expression and Hope was angered by how her body reacted to his stare. Her eyes dipped down to look at the movement of his mouth when he spoke again.
“I’m afraid these clothes are going to need to be burned. Your blood is all over them.”
Fury and scorn coursed through body, her skin prickling at the way she been exposed. When he moved closer, still holding her stare, and began to unbutton her pants, she forced her rage aside, desperate to regain control over herself. She had to remain clearheaded to escape, and she couldn’t allow herself to allow emotion to blanket her actions and decisions. He knelt to rip the material down her legs and she considered breaking his nose with her knee. Fighting, however, was not in her best interest as a result of the belt in which he’d secured her.
He stood up, leaving her pants bunched around her ankles. Walking behind her, she heard him pick up something and drag it across the floor. When he approached her from behind, he stood close enough that the material of his clothes tickled the exposed skin of her body and his lips brushed her ear when he instructed, “Sit down.”
The back of the chair he held pushed into her legs and she fell back into it. He stepped around, kneeling again to remove the material from around her feet. When he looked back up at her shadow danced across the violent beauty of his face and Hope attempted to blink away her attraction.
Breathe in … Breath out …
Willing her body not to react, she felt disoriented by the drugs, the flush across her skin a result of the wisps of euphoria that still danced lightly across her mind. Her eyes opened and then widened to see the intensity of his stare. His eyes were the color of a deep sea, churning with violent, impassioned thoughts. Her lip parted slightly and her body tightened in reaction to his gaze.
His hand ran up her leg, curving around her calf before moving around to run along the top of her thigh. He traced his thumb along the sensitive skin beneath, his fingernail scratching and teasing as it traveled. Her body quivered at his touch, the hint of pain driving incessant pulses of anticipation through a body she was having difficulty controlling.
He pushed up, standing above her casting a shadow over every inch of her skin. He curled the chain around his hand, tugging gently until she stood up on shaky legs. Reaching out, he balanced her, his eyes hooding further to see her body sway. Slowly, so slowly, she breathed, an attempt to calm the rate of her heart that pounded like thunder in her head. He stepped backwards, his eyes still locked to hers. Light and shadow danced across his cheekbones, the dip of his cheeks and over the cut of his square jaw. She closed her eyes again — her body betraying her when she couldn’t afford to let herself fall. Her sister was too precious, the only thing good and pure in Hope’s life. But even when her mind fought violently against the hormones crashing across her brain, and when thought battled against instinct, she knew was losing. She looked down, desperate to hide from his eyes. She watched as her bare feet moved over the stone floor, until he stopped. The water beside her circulated through the tubs, the jets creating bubbles that broke at the surface, the sound competing against the sound of rushing blood through her head.
“Watch your step, I’d hate for you to fall without a means of catching yourself.” His voice was a deep timbre, vibrating against her skin with each syllable that left his sculpted lips.
She looked up.
His eyes were shadowed as he stared at the belt around her waist. He allowed his eyes to slowly turn up, to study and burn into memory every feature of her body, until his arrogant look met the surprise in her expression.
She couldn’t look at him long, choosing instead to rotate her body. Looking down at the bath, she smelled gentle fragments of spiced scent that wafted up from the water. Her toe dipped down into the steaming liquid when she stepped down, burning along her skin as she pushed her foot further. The entire length of her body bucked when her ankle met the heated pool and a ringing sounded in her ears when the pleasurable jolt traveled up her legs, wrapping around her torso to snake up the back of her neck. His calloused hand reached out to steady her, the rough texture making it evident he handled weapons often. Her own hands bore those patches of skin wore hard by the handle of a blade or a gun.
With her body becoming immersed, the warmth of the water seeped into her body, the ripples around her pink as it washed away the blood. She dipped down allowing it to glide over her shoulder, hissing and biting her lip as the crimson stain was erased from her skin. Her head fell back and her hair became weighted, the strain to her neck only adding to the ecstasy she felt in that moment. Allowing herself to sink beneath the surface, she contemplated staying there, losing herself in oblivion, in numbness and an absence of awareness. But she couldn’t leave Honor behind, couldn’t at least try to get to her sister before they killed her. Hope’s head broke the surface of the water and she pushed up, allowing it to fall in rivulets down her skin.
“Turn around.” She felt the collar pull and she turned quickly, attempting to keep from being pulled completely back. The collar spun on her neck, the part to which the chain connected stopping on that center of her throat.
His grin was crooked and cruel. “God, you are a treasure. It’s a shame we’re not better friends.”
She blinked the drops from her lashes.
The heat from the bath was making her light headed, the steam stealing the oxygen from the air, leading her down a tunnel, making her mind groggy and her body loose. He spoke again, the words disjointed and distant, but the tug on the chain brought her forward, her legs cooperating only to keep him from pulling her forward and into the water.
Her vision fogged over, the details of the room being lost within a blanket of steam. The illumination of the flames fought against the heated gossamer clouds. Reaching the stairs, she looked up into a perfectly blank expression, Xander’s thoughts hidden behind eyes that flashed blue from the light that was able to penetrate. Her head felt heavy and her knees buckled beneath her weight. He reached out to grasp her arms, just as blackness overtook her.
Chapter Nine
He caught her just as her body collapsed. Her skin was pink from the heat of the water and his hands slid along the soft and dripping wet surface of her body. Picking her up, he laughed to himself thinking that she’d been a bit too high to handle the temperature of the bath.
While carrying her to his bed, he couldn’t stop thinking about the view of her body when she’d stepped in the bath. He’d watched intently when she’d descended, noting the way her body shook when her wounds were touched. It took all he had not to rip off his clothes and climb in behind her. Her ass was perfectly toned, the contour formed by hours of running, walking, fighting. When she dipped beneath and when her body broke the surface, he groaned at the way her ebony hair plastered itself with sweat across her shoulders and down her back. But even these intense moments were eclipsed when she looked down to find her skin prickled and flushed while her breasts tightened around achingly aroused nipples. Slashes of battle scars draped heavy and white across her tan skin — prideful reminders of the men she’d fought. She was decadence hidden within a recalcitrant package, a force to be conquered and a predator to be tamed.
Laying her body atop the silk comforter, he instantly noticed how her skin glowed against the blinding white of the fabric. His mouth salivating, his teeth aching to bite down into the smooth flesh of her body, he retrieved a key from his pants, unlocked the shackles at her wrists and pulled the belt from her limp body. He pondered the convenience that she’d passed out again, but brushed it from his thoughts, sliding her body up the bed, securing her arms and legs. He hated to continue using the sharp metallic rings on her wrists and ankles, but anything less and he knew she’d find a way to escape her binds.
He looked over her body, completely bare except for a scrap of material between her thighs. It would be so easy to take her right then and there, but he didn’t want to simply fuck her body. No. He wanted to warp her mind so that she begged him to fuck her, so th
at she believed him as necessary to her as breathing. He regretted that he’d have to fight her, but she was the type who needed to be truly dominated, the type who needed to be defeated in order to be owned.
Moving up the bed, he ran his fingertip across the center of her abdomen, his eyes fixed on the way the muscle flexed beneath his touch. He increased the pressure of his path up through the center of her breasts and over her neck, his other fingers brushing against the slow pulse below the skin.
“Wake up, Sunshine. Don’t leave me yet.” He tapped her cheek playfully and her eyes moved beneath her lids, eventually fluttering open to reveal a groggy cloud within the gold. She looked sated and satisfied, completely lost to a sea of obscurity.
“Come back, beautiful. We were just getting started.”
She blinked up at him, attempting to move her arm to rub the sleep from her tired eyes. When the chained had been stretched taut and her hand couldn’t go farther, she groaned and rolled so that her face was pressed against the pillow.”
Turning, he went back into the bathroom to get a glass of water, filling the cup, he took a vial of clear liquid from his pocket, adding a few drops. It wasn’t fair for him to keep her drugged, however he wanted her shoulder to have time to heal before she moved in a way that might injure it further. He’d lied to tell her that the last dose had been given when they’d removed the bullet, but he didn’t feel guilty for having done so.
When he approached her again, he placed the glass on the table, reaching his hand beneath her back and pulling her up into a seated position. The chains had just enough slack that she could move about semi-freely; another good reason to keep her sedated.
“Drink this. It will make you feel better.”
Her mouth and throat worked hungrily at the liquid, her tongue sweeping out against the glass, desperate for the last drops of moisture. He pulled it away and set it back on the table.