Her mind was still working to make sense of all that had happened to her. She knew she was still in shock, yet she had to pull herself together enough to withstand his attempts to break her.
She got that the man she’d kissed not long ago, the man she’d wanted so badly, was a monster, the worst kind, sadistic and brutal. The room spoke of the kinds of things he intended to do to her. In addition, the nature of the auction, as well as the horrible acts going on in that room, made her future clear.
Yet she rejected all of it, with every ounce of her being.
Her heart pounded in her chest. “I’ll never stop trying to escape this captivity. You have to know that. No matter what you do to me right now.”
He moved in closer and pressed a hand to her throat. “Do you know how easily I could kill you, snap your neck, or just choke you to death?”
He squeezed her windpipe, making it hard to breathe. She felt his latent strength and trembled.
“All I want you to do is submit to me. That’s all.”
Though tears bit her eyes, she refused to bend. If she had to die, then so be it.
She closed her eyes and waited, but after another few seconds the pressure eased up.
She blinked and stared into cold blue eyes.
“How did you enjoy that, Angelica? I can choke you repeatedly without taking your life. How about I do that to you for months or years, only each time I’ll take you just a little closer to death. How does that sound?”
“Go to hell.” Her voice was hoarse as she spoke. “I despise you.”
“What you’re not getting is that I don’t care what you think of me. All I need is for you to say ‘Yes, master,’ and mean it.” His hand slid down her throat to her breasts. He caressed her, in much the same way that horrible woman had done earlier in the week.
“Does that feel good?” He was even using the same line the woman had used.
“I hate that you’re touching me.”
“You can learn to love my touch, or fear it, the choice is yours.” He pinched her nipple and the same kind of fire that had penetrated her breast at that woman’s hand touched her again, a threat that could get much worse. But now she understood that this was some kind of vampire ability.
“All I have to do is let my energy flow and you’ll be screaming. Is that what you want? Pain so bad that you’ll pass out?” He leaned close. “I don’t want to do this to you and you can make it stop. Just submit to me, because, trust me, I can keep this up for hours.”
“She did the same thing to me, only much worse, and I didn’t relent then,” Angelica said. “Why would I give in to you now?”
He released her breast, frowning. “What do you mean, she?”
Angelica’s knees had started feeling rubbery, and she was grateful he’d backed off. He hadn’t hurt her the way the woman had, but he could have and might yet. “The woman at the prison, with this cloud of red curly hair. She came to see me, said she was tempted to buy me herself. I didn’t get it, then, but I do now. She’s a sadistic slaver, just like you.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, he said, “Describe the woman. What did she look like, besides her red hair?”
“Why should I tell you?”
But the moment the words left her mouth, his hand was around her throat again, squeezing. “What did she look like?” His eyes were wild. “Goddammit, Angelica, what the fuck did she look like? You’ve got to tell me. This is important.”
She blinked several times, stunned by the sudden intense look in his eye. The woman meant something to him, something really bad. “Her eyes were a dark blue. She had a small mouth, pale skin. She was beautiful and ugly at the same time. She hurt me.”
“And she was at the prison, where you were held?”
She nodded.
She didn’t know why, but Reyes released her throat, then stepped away from her, sweeping a hand down his face. He bent over as if in sudden pain. After a moment, however, he rose up and straightened his shoulders, coming back to himself. Whatever memories this woman had evoked, he appeared to have shunted aside.
He met her gaze again, his eyes narrowed as though contemplating his next move. “If pain doesn’t affect you, maybe the opposite will.”
When he moved toward her this time, she trembled all over again but for a different reason as his gaze roved her body. He drew close, pushing her robe aside. “You have beautiful breasts. That dress you wore at the Ocean Club still gets me going when I think about it. But what would please you, I wonder?” He leaned down and suckled her breast.
“Don’t do this,” she whispered. She’d had fantasies about Reyes before her abduction, all of which she’d enjoyed.
But right now she was horrified that he would do this to her while she was chained to a wall. For some reason it seemed worse to her than the feel of his hand at her throat, or the fire at her breast, that while holding her captive, he would pleasure her.
In a louder voice, she said, “You sick bastard, stop it. I hate what you’re doing.”
He slowly dropped to his knees, looking up at her at the same time. “You don’t get a say in this, slave. You’ve felt the stick, now let me show you the real advantage of surrendering your will to mine.”
His tongue swirled over her sensitive navel, then began a low, purposeful glide toward the flesh between her legs.
“No, please don’t.”
The shackles held her prisoner and there was nothing she could do to stop him as his hands glided up and down her legs. But before his tongue found her most tender flesh, he rose up in front of her.
As much as she hated him, there was no denying how handsome the man was, his eyes like the clearest water as he held her gaze.
Then his nostrils flared as his gaze roved her throat. He slid a hand around the back of her neck, and to her horror she watched as his fangs emerged.
“Don’t bite me. Don’t you dare fucking bite me.”
“You think you’ve felt pleasure before? You have no idea what’s about to happen, and once I’ve given you this ride you’ll be begging for more.”
She had little strength left to fight him when he tilted her head to the side, then struck with his fangs.
She winced at the sudden sting, but a moment later, as he began to draw from her neck, a new layer of desire rushed through her, a kind of euphoria she’d never known before.
She wanted to scream her frustration at feeling so many unwelcome sensations, but he was right: the pleasure she felt grew more intense with each draw from her neck. It hit her like the strongest drug, and while part of her raged against it, she was powerless to stop the waves of bliss that overtook her.
He suckled greedily, groaning as he took her blood down his throat. She felt each draw in a heavy pulse deep between her legs. He slid an arm around her now, caressing her bottom once more, then anchored his hips against hers.
Through his pants, she felt the thick rope of his erection and groaned once more. He arched his hips, pressing into her flesh in just the right way so that she cried out.
Maybe it was the complete despair of the moment, or the fact that she was fully aroused, but her body took over and she writhed against him, an orgasm building. Her whole body felt sensitized so that as his hips pressed into her repeatedly, pleasure ran up and down her arms and legs, her back, and over her breasts.
His hips moved faster, pummeling her now with swift strikes that brought her closer and closer to the edge. Even his suckling increased in speed.
The sound of the moans he made added another layer—so that suddenly she flew straight over the cliff, crying out once more as a lightning flow of ecstasy rushed through her, taking her high into the stratosphere.
Pleasure peaked, fell back, then peaked again. He kept working her body, kept drinking from her throat, and she cried out repeatedly, pleasure, just as he’d promised, rolling through her again and again.
She finally came back to earth, her body growing quiet as he released her
throat.
He planted his hands on the wall on either side of her head, staring into her eyes, his expression as serious as ever. He was breathing hard, his brow pinched. She knew without having to be told that though he’d been aroused, he hadn’t come and the experience had no doubt left him in pain.
For that, she couldn’t feel bad. He ought to suffer.
Her legs didn’t want to support her and her arms had started to hurt. Not that her captor cared.
Her mind spun in circles. She’d gone from Reyes frightening her to giving her the most incredible release she’d ever known.
But her stomach boiled with anger and disgust. Just because he’d brought her didn’t mean she’d thank him for it, or even value what had just happened.
On the contrary, something about having been worked up sexually against her will served to strengthen her determination.
“You’ll never break me. You can tear my flesh apart with one of those whips, you can give me a thousand orgasms, but I promise you, I will never submit to you willingly.”
Chapter Four
Reyes stared into Angelica’s hard brown eyes. He’d just introduced her to a new world of sensation that would have taken any other human female to her knees. Instead she glared at him.
He knew from his own experience that every man or woman could be broken, given enough time, and he knew that eventually he could make her submit. However, given her spirit, the process would require days, maybe even weeks to accomplish, and he didn’t have that kind of time.
He knew something else as well. He couldn’t do it. What he’d done tonight had been something he’d promised himself he’d never do: force either a human or a vampire to do anything against his or her will.
Yet that’s exactly what he’d done.
Worse still, when he’d sent a light preternatural charge through her breast, giving a hint of the kind of pain he was capable of inflicting, she’d told him something that had sent him reeling.
If he was right, the woman who had hurt her might very well have been Sweet Dove herself. The physical description matched and the terrible truth was that he’d learned from her how to focus his power into a debilitating stream in order to cause pain. How many times had she hurt him in just that way, sometimes to create sexual pleasure, other times to torture him just for her gratification?
Guilt and shame washed through him, and slowly he set about unlocking Angelica’s shackles. When she was free, she rubbed her wrists, then tied up her robe. She moved slowly to sit on the nearby padded table.
Her shoulders were slumped with fatigue, but her eyes still sparked defiantly.
Despite his guilt over trying to break her, he knew by the look in her eye that he’d done the right thing in buying her. If Engles had won the bid, he would have battered her senseless by now, savoring how hard she fought him. But she would have died within a few days because he would have beaten her, broken her bones, cut her to ribbons.
One of only two things was going to happen from this point forward. He would tell her about his mission and either she would agree to help him or the game was over. There was simply no way he could take Angelica in her present state to Engles’s mansion and have anyone believe that he’d brought her under his command, that she was truly his slave.
But would she ever agree to help him after what he’d just put her through?
He removed a soft linen handkerchief from the pocket of his pants and wiped any remaining blood from his lips. He’d almost come at least three times while taking down her life force. She’d tasted as sweet as her blood had smelled and he was satisfied—another reality that filled him with guilt.
He paced slowly, trying to find the right way to tell her the truth and to ask for her help. At this point, however, he’d be stunned if she ever believed another word that came out of his mouth.
Finally, he moved to stand in front of her, then swept an arm to encompass the room. “So none of this really frightens you?”
She glanced around. “Actually, I’m frightened out of my mind, I’m just too worn out to show it. Any chance you can leave me in peace for a while? Let me get some sleep?”
“I wish I could, but there’s something I need to explain to you. I’m not a slaver and you’re not really my slave.”
She held up both hands. “You’re driving me crazy. What does that mean, I’m not your slave? From the time you brought me here, you’ve messed with my mind. You hurt me badly, then did all that shit to me while I was chained against the wall, and now you’re telling me you’re not a slaver?”
“I need you to listen to me. For a long time now, I’ve been working to infiltrate the Starlin Group, the same outfit that abducted you and forced you to walk down that runway. This organization is one of the most powerful sex-slavery rings in our world.
“When I told you to leave the Ocean Club that night, I was trying to warn you that you were being scoped by a Starlin acquisition team, a group trained to hunt all over the world for beautiful but vulnerable women who could be removed from their lives without significant repercussions.”
She blinked. She looked exhausted, which of course she would be. She’d already been through hell before he’d brought her into his home, then he’d added to her misery.
Her shoulders fell a little more. “But you told me you joined this group, that I was your first buy.”
“Both of those things are true, but I didn’t buy you to keep you as a slave.”
“Then what did you buy me for?”
“For one essential reason, to uphold my reputation as a slaver.”
“But you just said you’re not a slaver.”
“No, I’m not.”
She glanced at the chains on the wall, the whips, the knives. “So what is all this? Are you saying you don’t use this room?”
“Never, not until tonight.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “You’re lying. You’re a fucking, lying bastard and you’re messing with me again. How can I believe you? You hurt me just now, or at least you showed me how much you could hurt me if I didn’t do as you said. Then you used your fangs on me. I’m just surprised you didn’t shove your cock between my legs and take the whole thing the rest of the way.”
“I wanted to. Believe me, I wanted nothing more.”
She released a heavy sigh. “So you drew the line at raping me.”
“Yes. I did.”
“You’re disgusting.”
He saw the level of her revulsion and knew he wasn’t explaining things well enough yet. “I bought you to support the role I’m playing as a slaver.”
“What role?”
“I have only one goal here, Angelica, to bring Starlin down. And I still want to. When I succeed in destroying this slavery ring, I’ll be saving tens of thousands of lives, maybe more. These auctions will end forever. That’s how I’ve justified, until this moment, doing to you what I just did. I don’t know how else to say this to you, except that I’m deep undercover and I have a plan. A damn good one.”
“And that’s what you meant when you said I fucked up your plans?”
He nodded. “That’s what I meant. What I did in buying you has put me an inch away from blowing my cover.”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
“Yes, because it’s the truth, the only one that matters right now.”
“And it’s Starlin who abducted me and all those other women there tonight, parading our bodies and selling us at auction.”
He nodded again. He could see that she was turning all this new information over in her mind, so he waited.
Finally, she met his gaze straight-on. “Let’s say I choose to believe you for now. So tell me about this Starlin Group. I take it they’re a significant player.”
“One of the biggest.”
He gave her numbers, something an accountant would appreciate: The Starlin Group moved twenty thousand human women through its organization every year. Between the prostitution houses they owned in a nu
mber of countries worldwide, as well as the auctions they sustained in the vampire world, they generated eighteen billion dollars a year.
Then he added the worst stat of all: without exception the human slaves died, so the inventory had to be replaced at a quick, steady pace.
She stared at him, a deep frown drawing her brows together. “All of them?”
He nodded once, slowly.
“How? Why?”
“In a slave situation, a certain percentage of humans, about fifteen percent, will not live beyond the two-week mark even if they’re treated well. Ultimately, it’s a matter of the will.”
She pressed a fist into her cheek, her eyes pinched. “And after the two-week period?”
“A second transition occurs at six months, but the survival rate drops to fifty percent. Beyond that, only a handful live past two years.”
“Oh, dear God. So my life expectancy, in the best of circumstances, would have only been two years.”
He nodded. “But I also want to stress that in the Starlin Group, the percentages are much worse.”
“Because of the sadistic element.”
“Yes. The torture. Humans just don’t hold up well.”
“Are there other auction houses in your world?”
“A few, but not at this level.”
“And you intend to take this beast down.”
Again, he nodded.
“Are you working alone?”
“Pretty much.”
“But how can one man really bring down an entire organization?”
“It will still take time, but the most critical element is that I need to find out who runs this show. The head guy, the brains behind the operation, must be eliminated first. After that, I’ll use my resources to take every single member of this club down, one by one, until nothing is left.
“Despite my efforts to find him, the man who’s behind Starlin remains one of the biggest secrets in our world. He goes by the code name Scorpion, and to my knowledge only one man has access to him, a man called Engles.”
She frowned slightly, tilting her head. “Do you know, I used to think you had to be involved in black ops missions of some kind. You had that look. I’m beginning to think my first assessment of your character was right. So are you some kind of military man in your world?”