Conviction (8 page)

What the hell was she thinking agreeing to this?
She thought as her heart beat thumped through her body.
Abbey, remember just think of Abbey.

“Unpack your things, the chest over that side is empty. You can store your things there. Once you are finished undress and shower. It's through that door." He said as he pointed to a door she hadn't noticed. "There are towels on the rack, use only the white ones. Meet me in the lounge so we can discuss my rules and expectations of you when you are finished. Oh, and Kelly? Don't put on any clothes.” James left the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Kelly again with her mouth hanging open at his final request.

Taking her time to unpack and refold her clothes into the drawers he had allocated for her, she even found his walk-in wardrobe and hung her meagre items. His unique scent filled her nostrils and she found herself running her hands over his clothes. Each item hung precisely, all the hangers facing the same way, as were the front of each item. As well as being perfectly hung, James had organised his suits by shade, ranging from blacks to greys. Even the gap between each item looked identical to Kelly.
What the hell is wrong with him?
She thought as she took in his regimented wardrobe. Kelly curbed the urge to move them all slightly and see if he noticed. Or, if she was being honest with herself, to screw with him.

She didn’t know many men but she knew that most who lived alone certainly didn’t keep their house as immaculate as this. Kelly breathed in his scent one last time before retreating back to the bedroom. She hadn't packed a lot. Not that James gave her much choice in the matter, standing over her as she picked out items and telling her to put some items back. She would have plenty of time to rewash things as she needed. Knowing that she wouldn't be filling her days with study and work.

Once she was unpacked she found the bathroom that he had pointed out and went in. Again she was taken aback by its elegant simplicity. A walk-in shower took up an entire wall facing outside, the head large and square, the rainfall variety, Kelly knew she would enjoy the luxury. Her own shower was lucky to put out hot water most of the time and her landlord wasn't in much of a hurry to fix it. Kelly stepped into the shower and noticed the wall wasn't a wall at all but a set of glass doors that opened to the back deck. An image of James showering with the door open to the outdoors filled her mind and she felt herself blush at the thought. Nothing but darkness stared back at her, but being so exposed left her feeling uneasy, so she opted to leave the doors closed.

Kelly stepped out of the shower stall and looked at the towel rack and laughed. It too was a picture of order. Beige and white towels were stacked in two distinct columns, each folded exactly the same with the curved edges facing out. Kelly picked a white towel even as her hand ran over the forbidden beige, as she had been instructed. Did she really want to find out what would happen if she used the wrong one? The towel was soft and fluffy and she pulled it to her face and breathed allowing its softness and clean scent to calm her nerves.

Slowly she began to strip off her clothes, placing them in the laundry hamper in the corner. She could tell by the tidiness of his house that James wouldn't like her to leave things laying around. Luckily for both of them, she was relatively tidy herself. Clearly not anal tidy like him, but still tidy.

The water fell in soft hot drops from the showerhead, as more began to hit her soft skin it soothed her and she soon forgot about being exposed to anyone who may have been watching from the seclusion of the night. Kelly washed and conditioned her hair with the new shampoo and conditioner that James had obviously selected for her. Kelly could tell from the quality and the amazing aroma that came from the products that they were expensive and she was mindful to only use a small amount.

Drying off her hair Kelly searched in the cupboard under the sink for a hair dryer and was pleasantly surprised to find one. She knew she was procrastinating returning to the lounge where James was waiting, but she needed more time to collect herself. Baring her body to him would be only the start of his expectations and she was almost grateful that he was getting it out of the way this early in their training.

Once her hair was dry she put some oils on her hands before running her fingers gently through her hair and allowing her curls to form, then tied it in a low ponytail at the base of her neck. In the bedroom she removed the towel that wrapped around her body and closed her eyes, begging her trembling to steady so that she could at least
appear
controlled.

As the minutes ticked by she knew she was testing his patience and didn't want him to have to come and find her. There was no way she wanted a punishment from James, she had had plenty of those from Devlin.

Chapter 6 - James

James watched as Kelly walked slowly towards him, her head slightly bowed, not out of respect for her dom but in embarrassment as she refused to meet his eyes. She had her arms tucked protectively around her chest, covering her nipples and he almost,
almost
, hated himself for what he was doing to her. He sucked in a breath and shifted on the couch as she took the two steps down into the sunken lounge and stood before him just out of reach.

“Do not cover yourself from me, Kelly. You have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. You are beautiful, more beautiful than the first flower of the spring.” He hadn’t meant to sound as corny as what had just sprung from his mouth. Normally he felt more in control of his emotions and responses, but this girl,
this
girl, was doing something to his head. Inwardly he cringed, knowing that while he needed her to trust him, she also needed to learn to obey him. He knew she would fight him on the smallest things for the next month.
Kelly closed her eyes and steadied herself to reveal the covered parts of her body. After a few calming breaths she lowered her shaking arms, her hands balled into fists at her side.
Damn
. He'd known she was beautiful, her body toned to perfection. Her muscles defined and her skin a pale wonderland. James looked beyond the women and took in her body, his eyes travelling from her feet slowly taking in every inch of her body. She was shaking, and since he had turned on the central heating, rather than wait for the wood heater to warm up, he knew it wasn't from cold.

He took in the marks that Devlin's reign of terror had left on her body. The creamy skin of her breasts were marred with ugly scars. Whip marks, burns, knife wounds, and some he couldn't even determine even with everything he had seen and done in the military.
The bastard
. Scars of varying age criss-crossed her stomach and thighs. Some still red, others had healed to white. He knew that the darker scars had been deeper wounds that had been inflicted and the majority of these were on her inner thighs.

“Turn around please, Kelly.” Despite trying to control his shock, his voice wavered and he knew that she had noticed. He waited as Kelly closed her eyes and took in three deep breaths before turning around. '
How bad can it be? No worse than her front'
he thought to himself.

James swore loudly as Kelly's back came into view unable to stop himself from taking a closer look at the broken body that stood shaking before him. His raised voice had startled Kelly and her quivering had turned into full body shaking. He was scaring her. Not that he’d meant to. He was just shocked at the vision of her before him.

She
was
beautiful, but that sick bastard excuse for a man had left more than a few marks. The globes of her ass were covered marks, from old welts to deep red angry scars that would never fade. Her back was covered in scars, mostly deep wounds that had probably become infected at some point and not treated. There was one scar that he knew to be a bullet wound, never hitting its target but grazing her side nonetheless.

What had him fuming, what had his rage boiling under the surface, barely in control, was the
brand
that had been burned into her lower back towards her left hip. '
Property of Devlin King. If found, return to owner'
it read
.
Partially obscured by the beautiful tattoo that adorned her back, Kelly had obviously tried to cover up the worst of her scars and reminders of her past. A beautiful red and orange coloured Phoenix morphed from flames to spread its wings across her the blades of her shoulders. It was in the flames that he could still see the brand.

“Oh, Kelly.” Reaching for her to comfort his own myriad of emotions but stopped when she whimpered and recoiled when he touched the branding.

“Please, don't...” she said barely above a whisper as she collapsed to her knees, still facing away from him and shaking so violently he thought she would faint.

“I'm sorry, Kelly...I need to...I…Go to bed. I will be there later.” He stormed away from her his fists balled and his hands deathly white and slammed the front door behind him.

James stormed to his car and took out his gym bag. Pulling on his runners and stripping his shirt off, he replaced it with a t-shirt and headed to his shed. Well, it was more of a barn that he had decked out as a gym. With high ceilings perfect for running ropes over and hoisting his boxing bags. Flicking on the lights he deftly moved to the stereo, letting the loud music pump into the quiet of the night. He wrapped his hands with boxing tape and headed to the boxing bag slamming his fists into its unforgiving hardness. He pictured Devlin King's face as he repeatedly swung until he couldn't lift his arms, sweat pouring from his body as he cried for the woman who had been brave enough to stand before him and bare a part of her soul to him. Half falling on and half hugging the bag that swung from the overhead beams James cried for the first time in years. He cried for the pain Kelly had endured and the pain he was about to knowingly put her through. He screamed and yelled as tears rained down his face, falling onto his wrapped hands and wetting the hard material of the boxing bag. He didn't know if he was the right man for her. He didn't know why Xander didn't do this himself. He was stronger and more controlled than he was. He always had been. And Kelly trusted Xander. She didn't trust him, and he would be doing nothing to her in the next month that would change that.

Chapter 7 - Kelly

Kelly flinched and wrapped her arms around her chest when the front door slammed. She had known that James wouldn't react well to her body. How could anybody? She had managed to hide her scars, even working at Momentum, the skimpy uniform had covered them. Her tattoo had hidden most of the visible ones and the dim lighting had helped as well. She also wore a skin coloured body stocking that nobody had noticed her wearing yet. Had she been a sub things would have been different. But baring herself to James was the first time she had been willingly naked in front of a man. Devlin had taken her at sixteen when she had still been a virgin too interested in sports to worry about boys. She hadn't expected him to get angry at her though, his rage had been radiating from him even when her back was turned. She had felt his disappointment and had cringed inwardly when he had asked her to turn around.

Kelly slowly pulled herself off the floor, her legs barely holding her up as she staggered to the bedroom and pulled out her oversized sleeping shirt and a pair of boy leg shorts. She didn't want him to be disgusted with her body, so she decided that covering it up would be better for them both. She wished he didn’t have to sleep next to her. How was she going to last a month sleeping next to a man who was so disgusted with her body he had walked out in a rage? Crawling up onto the massive bed she pulled back the doona and sunk into the soft mattress. It was heaven. Encasing her in its mass of elegant softness and hugging her into its depths. She let the tears flow until she finally fell asleep, her pillow wet and her eyes swollen, she pictured Abbey's face, allowing the memory of her daughter that she had spent so much time shoving to the back of her mind, to be the last thing she thought of. As she drifted off, she felt an inner calm, knowing that she would get through this for Abbey. Knowing that she would die in Devlin's house if it meant that James could save Abbey. She was young enough, Kelly hoped, to be able to live a normal life. The freedom of her daughter was the only thing that had kept her going so far and it would be the same thing that would get her through the next month.

*     *     *

Kelly woke and started to stretch before she froze. Someone else was in the room. She could feel them watching her. Trying to control her breath she tried to remember where she had put the knife that rested under her pillow every night. Slowly she moved her arm up and felt under the pillow, her eyes snapped open when she realised it wasn't there.

“Looking for something?”

Kelly sat upright and scrambled up the bed using her feet until her back was pressed up against the bed head making the metal rings clang against the wood. Taking in the white room with its wooden elegance she remembered where she was before her eyes fell on James. He was sitting in a chair at the end of the bed, his white t-shirt clung to his chest and his jeans fitted like a glove. His hair was wet from a recent shower, but it was the knife that he was twirling in his fingers that drew her attention.

“You want to explain this to me?” He looked at her and she took in the dark eyes and stern features. “Let me change that. Explain. This. To. Me. Right. Fucking. Now.”

“I've always had it, for security...under my pillow. I wouldn't have used it on you, I would never ha...” Kelly blurted out until James cut her off.

“You would never have? You do realise that you startle awake like a deer in headlights and the first thing you do is reach under your pillow. It's instinct not choice! You know that it's there and you
would
use it if you needed to. The problem is, you wouldn't even be awake enough to realise that I'm not
him
. It would be too fucking late to come to that realisation
after
you've stabbed me!”

Kelly stayed pushed up against the bed head her brain taking in the available exits and possible scenarios. Her best bet was to go for the door. She scrambled across the bed hell bent on reaching getting the hell out of there.

“Oh no you don't!” James roared as his body slammed into hers, crashing to the ground he  grabbed both her wrists he pinned them above her head and sat on her in one swift motion. “You don't get to fucking run any more, sweetheart.”

“I'm not your
sweetheart
, and what the hell do you expect me to do, you're holding a knife,
my
knife, and twirling it around like it's a fucking toy!”

“I'm not going to hurt you with it, Kelly. And stop fucking swearing at me! Calm the fuck down, you are making me out to be some kind of monster, but the monster is in
your
head, not here in this house. He's
not
HERE god dammit!”

Each of their chests were heaving with exertion and emotion and Kelly took the moment James decided to close his eyes to get his bearings and calm himself to kick out from underneath him and get the upper hand. Using every ounce of strength and dexterity she possessed she tossed him onto his stomach and sat across him with her knees dug into his lower back, wrenching his arms behind him until he grunted.

“Don't. Call. Me. Fucking. Sweetheart.” With one last pull on his arms Kelly released him and stood up, backing away from James as he raised his tall frame from the floor.

“Firstly, I will call you whatever I like, secondly, you pull that shit again and the deal is off. I will get her out another way. Thirdly, do not swear at me. Ever. That is your
last
warning on the subject. I have been lenient on you so far, despite what you think. And
lastly
,” he stalked towards her as he spoke, “I don't remember telling you to put clothes on when I left you last night.”

Kelly stepped backwards for every step forward James took until she was backed up against the wall. Her eyes widened as he prowled towards her, stalking her like a predator. Reaching to the floor he slowly picked up the knife that he had dropped in the scuffle without taking his eyes off her.

He placed himself in front of her until their bodies were only an inch apart, his hands resting on the wall on either side of her head.

“
Sweetheart
, your moves are quite astounding, I shouldn't have underestimated you. I'm impressed. But don't forget, you
are
here willingly. I'm not going to hurt you unless I have to and right now, I want to put you over my knee and spank that beautiful ass of yours until it fucking
glows
. I want my hand print on your creamy skin to sting so much that every time you move you will think of me.
Not
him
.”

Reaching down he pulled at her nighty until it was away from her skin, then using the knife, he slowly cut it from her, careful not to put the blade against her body. She whimpered when he tore it open and her heaving chest was once again exposed to him. When he reached for her boy shorts she cried out and shrank to the floor waving her arms above her head in a blind attempt to stop him.

“I can do it myself, please, please,
Sir
...please just stop!”

James stood towering over her before slowly retreating backwards until he was sitting on the bed. He face was red and sweat was beading on his brow. He was still breathing heavily and closed his eyes to try and gain some composure.

“Do it. Now.”

Kelly stood and braced herself against the wall as she slipped off her underwear and dropped it to the floor.

“Thank you. I'll be keeping this. You won’t need it here, you understand?”

“Yes, Master James.” She answered automatically.

“Actually, I kind of liked it when you called me Sir. Would you prefer that?”

“Yes, Sir, I would.” She was grateful for the small concession on his part. “Um, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m not an asshole, okay. But we do have a job to do here. There is no way in hell we would be here right now except for Abbey.” He stood slowly from the bed and went into the wardrobe returning with a white, fluffy robe. “Put your arms in and then turn around so I can do it up.”

Kelly did as she was told, once he had tied the belt securely around her waist she looked into his face and felt disgusted at herself.

“I'm...I'm sorry.”

“What are you sorry for, Kelly?”

“For the knife...for the clothes...for my attitude towards you. You have shown me nothing but support with trying to get Abbey out and I have made it hard for you. I'm sorry. I'm trying! I really am. This isn't easy for me.”

“Thank you for your apology, Kelly. That actually means a lot to me. Master Xander and I never said that this would be easy and I know you are trying, but you need to try harder. We just don't have the time to baby you into this. I know that with your past, with what...happened to you that this is a shitty thing to ask of you. I get that. But I believe in you, I believe that you are stronger than you think, stronger enough for this.” He paused and took in a breath before continuing. “You are dressed in a robe because
I
picked it out for you. Unless I tell you directly to get dressed or give you clothes to put on, I expect you to be naked at all times. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir. I understand.” Kelly let her shoulders slump in defeat. She couldn't fight him, give her submission and save Abbey if she didn't change the way she was reacting to him. She had to learn to
like
him at least. She still didn’t understand why he wanted her naked if he detested her body so much. Unless it was so he could get used to it before they went in to get Abbey. She was sure she would be naked that night. She shuddered as the image crossed her mind.

“Come on, it's time for breakfast and we can sit down and go over the rules. Hopefully without the added bonus of knives and chasing you down. I promise, my cooking is really
not
that bad.”

Kelly felt herself smile as she allowed the softer side of James to seep into her skin, caressing her mind. Part of her was relishing in the security he was offering her and his consistency in not hurting her even when he had the chance.

*     *     *

Kelly was surprised at James cooking for her. Nobody but her parents had really ever cooked for her. He was a surprisingly great cook. As his submissive she had expected to be serving him in all ways. Cooking, cleaning, showering, everything that he desired of her with the exception of sex, as per their agreement. He had made her sit on a stool at the kitchen bench and watch as he moved swiftly and confidently around his kitchen. In minutes he had poached eggs with bacon and thick crusty bread ready. Served with freshly squeezed orange juice.

Once they had eaten James quickly removed their plates and put them into the dishwasher before tidying up the kitchen. When he considered the kitchen clean again he turned to her with what she now called his 'mask'. His ability to stop his emotions from appearing on his face is what made him a good dominant, she knew that, but it still disarmed her and made her feel like he was hiding part of himself.

Kelly watched as he moved around the kitchen, his jeans slung low on his hips and his white tee moved easily over his muscles. She could tell by the definition in his arms and what she could see through his shirt that he looked after himself. She had seen other naked men during her time with Devlin, and also the men who frequented Momentum. But she had avoided watching James when he played. She had avoided having to be the one to observe a scene if he was taking his clothes off. Squirming on the chair, Kelly realised for the first time in her life that she was actually turned on. James had managed to arouse her simply by moving around his kitchen.

“Kelly? Are you listening?” His deep voice brought her attention to him and she blushed at the quirked eyebrow and the knowing look on his face. He had caught her checking him out.

“Sorry, Sir...I was just...thinking.”

“About what?”

“I'd rather not say.”

“Well, in that case, I'd rather you did. You might as well get used to this, Kelly. I expect you to tell me anything, whenever I ask it of you. And you will until it is second nature to you.”

Kelly squirmed again in her seat, desperately willing herself to think something up to tell him, rather than the truth.

“The truth, Kelly. Nothing else.”

“I was just...” Kelly sighed and her blush crept up her face until her entire head felt like it would spontaneously combust at any moment. “I was checking you out, okay? Happy now?”

“Very. Thank you for telling me the truth, I appreciate your honesty.” Coming around the kitchen bench, he slowly reached for her hands that were clasped tightly in her lap, giving her time to adjust to the idea that he was going to touch her. When she didn't pull away he wrapped his warm hands around hers and squeezed them gently. “Good girl, I know that was hard for you.” He removed his hands quickly and Kelly instantly missed his touch. Not understanding the feelings that were threatening to overwhelm her Kelly began to panic. Her breathing increased and she felt her heart thumping in her chest. She had never wanted to be touched every again. Not by anybody. And she hadn't allowed it unless she was training or fighting.

“You're okay, Kelly, just remember to breathe. You'll be okay. Come on, let’s get you dressed so I can show you around.”

Kelly watched as James reverently laid out the clothes he wanted her to wear and then sat in the same armchair that he had been sitting in when she woke up that morning. With a sigh she slowly stripped off the robe he had given her and slipped in to the jeans, bra and top he had picked out. He had taste at least. The blue tee was one of her favourites, not too clingy and still enough shape to be feminine. He
had
denied her panties, with no explanation, simply not laying any out for her. Swallowing her desire to fight him on such a minute detail she accepted his decision and stayed quiet. Once she was dressed and her shoes had been laced up by James he stood and they walked towards the door.