Guilty Pleasures (14 page)

He pulled out of her and shut off the shower, then scooped her up and carried her back to the bedroom. He held her in his arms, both of them still wet and dripping and let her cry on his shoulder.

She was whimpering and babbling, “Please, Sir. I didn’t mean to. I’ll be good. I still have bruises from before, please . . . ”

“Did I say I was going to hit you there?”

“You said earlier you’d flog me.” Her words were muffled into his shoulder, but he seemed to hear them, or at least get the gist of them.

“But I didn’t say I’d flog your ass. You’ve got a lovely back I can use for a canvas, do you not?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The door opened then. Vivian looked up to find a man she hadn’t seen before, standing in the doorway with a silver bracelet in his hand. Vivian burrowed back into Gabe’s neck.

“You’ve got this one crying already?” the man remarked, impressed.

Vivian heard the other man’s footsteps moving closer and found herself cringing away, burrowing so hard against Gabe, she may as well have been clawing to get inside him.

“Not now, Brian. She needs more time. You start in on her before she’s ready, and we’ll break her too far. Anton won’t be pleased.”

Brian cursed. “But I like new toys.”

“Did Anton even say you could play with this one? As far as I’ve been told, he wants only me and Lindsay touching her.”

“That’s not how he normally does things.”

Vivian could feel Gabe’s shrug against her skin. “Talk to Anton. Leave the bracelet with me.”

Brian made an agitated sound and left. When he’d gone, Gabe pulled her away from his shoulder. “You will be punished for the shower incident, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet, so you’re safe for now. All right?”

She nodded as he wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs.

“Give me your wrist.”

He unlocked the plain, silver band and secured it around the offered wrist. “We’ll lock the other chain around your other arm when you’re to be confined to your room. This band will allow you to go outside to a certain point and around the mansion. There is an invisible fence. If you cross it, you’ll be electrocuted.

“It will incapacitate you. We’ll come get you, and the punishment will be worse than anything you can imagine. The mansion and grounds are equipped with security cameras, and if we see you fiddling with the bracelet trying to get it off, you’ll face a similar punishment. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Sir. I can leave this room?”

He chuckled. “Well, I certainly wasn’t going to serve you breakfast in bed. There are some gym clothes in one of those drawers.” He pointed.

She looked away, not wanting him to know she’d already checked out everything in both rooms. If he noticed, he didn’t comment.

“Put them on, and I’ll take you to breakfast,” he said.

Vivian unfolded herself from his lap and went to the drawer to get dressed. She knew he admired her bruised ass as she walked away from him. She could feel his eyes boring hot little holes through her skin. Tension and uncertainty hummed through her while she slipped the clothing on.

“Socks and shoes, too. A bit after breakfast you’ll be sent to the gym to train. We can’t sell flabby merchandise. And with the food here, it’s easy to get flabby.”

It was hard to assimilate everything. Gabe made her feel weirdly safe. He’d just protected her from being molested by Brian. And yet, he’d just done much the same thing himself.

If she was going to the gym after breakfast, it made some measure of sense that she’d be wearing gym-appropriate clothing. But she still found it hard to believe any of them would allow her the small measure of dignity normal attire afforded.

Gabe had retrieved his clothes from the bathroom. She glanced shyly at him as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“If you have any questions, I’ll allow them right now. I know a lot of this must be confusing and weird for you.”

Also criminal and evil, but she was trying to put that part on a shelf, since whining about her captivity wouldn’t change the situation. She sifted through the questions that had bubbled to the surface since she’d been brought here, trying to find the most pertinent ones that hadn’t already been answered. Even if he was allowing her a question and answer session, his patience wasn’t infinite.

“What happens out there?” she pointed at the door. “How do I act?”

“Outside this room, you’ll meet others like you. Try to get along. Some of them can be nasty, and more than one has been confined to her room for a week at a time for bad behavior. If you want my advice, interact as little as possible. They don’t concern you anyway.

“Show respect to the men with proper address. They won’t do anything too extreme to you out there. If they want to use you they’ll bring you back to this room, or in some cases their room. You won’t be expected to kneel or anything like that outside of these specific areas. When you are bought, your master might want something different. That’ll be out of our hands.”

“I thought only you and Lindsay were allowed to touch me?”

“For now. That may change. I’m not sure how Anton wants to handle you. Anything else?”

“No, Sir.” It was a lie, but there was no way he could answer every thought flying through her head to her satisfaction.

ELEVEN

In a mansion one might think the appropriate word would be
kitchen
or
dining room
or––considering the size of the space––
dining hall
. But it was more of a cafeteria. The room was large and noisy with a brunch buffet set up on one end.

Vivian was left to help herself with a parting warning from Gabe that if she overdid it past what she could work off in the gym, they’d restrict her eating. That threat held some level of menace considering the vast spread of food available. The mansion must have a few top chefs.

Hell, for all she knew, Gabe could double as a chef. Or that Brian guy. The more she explored, the more she felt like Alice down the rabbit hole. A stoned caterpillar wouldn’t have shocked her at this point, and she would have gladly requested some of whatever he was smoking.

She looked at the many tables scattered about the room. There were around thirty girls eating and chatting. A few sat alone, looking uncomfortable. Maybe new like her? Or maybe women who had been burned by the nastiness of some of the others.

At the center table, Vivian easily spotted the queen bee. If there was such a thing as an alpha slave, she was it. Several girls crowded around the table hanging onto

the queen’s words. A moment later, they all laughed and looked over at Vivian, predatory interest in their eyes.

Vivian ignored them and loaded up her plate. When she turned, she was surprised to find the queen bee had gotten up from her table and now stood only a few feet away.

The woman had raven locks that fell to her waist. Her features were statuesque, and she appeared to be in her early twenties. “Wow. They’re just bringing in anything off the street now, aren’t they? What are you? Like forty?”

Vivian rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure what kind of catty sorority sluts movie this woman thought she was in, but Vivian was such a loner, social posturing had little effect.

She put on her best cheery, fake smile. “Let me guess. You were the prom queen, the homecoming queen, and the head cheerleader. Now all your power has been stripped, but somehow you lead everything here, too.”

The queen bee’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t want me for an enemy,” she hissed.

Vivian shrugged. “The way I see it, we’re all in the same boat here. So go ahead and enjoy your last burst of feminist power while it lasts.”

A few girls giggled in the background, and the queen’s eyes widened. Vivian didn’t see the fist coming, mainly because women like this one tended to scratch, smack, and pull hair. Not punch.

Vivian dropped her food to reflexively grab at her bleeding lip.

Within moments there was a flurry of activity as several men entered the room. Gabe came out of the crowd and stopped in front of the queen bee. His move to put Vivian behind him, keeping her out of range of a second punch, wasn’t subtle.

“Sabrina,” he said, harshly. “Did you forget we have security cameras?”

Vivian backed up a little so she could watch the queen. Sabrina’s face held the same fake apology and confusion that many beautiful women could get away with. Hell, Vivian had played that trick and won a few times, herself. But Gabe seemed utterly unimpressed with the trembling lower lip routine.

Sabrina dropped to her knees and kissed his boots in a grand, sweeping show of submission. “I’m sorry, Sir.”

Gabe backed out of her reach as she continued to abase herself. It was as if someone had pushed a mute button on the room as all chatter and eating stopped in light of the new unfolding drama.

Vivian could taste the copper tang of her own blood and felt a trickle running out from the corner of her mouth. She watched the scene with growing apprehension.

Gabe finally spoke again. “Sometimes I think Lindsay and Anton were wrong about you. You’re far too resistant. Do you know why you’ve been here a year?”

“No, Sir,” she said quietly. Vivian thought she could hear the barest tinge of derision in the woman’s voice.

“Nobody wants you. We can’t
give
you away. Potential buyers take one look at your behavior, and they don’t want to shell out money for it. The few who have, through some sick need to break you, have all been turned away. You should live on your knees at Anton’s feet, thanking him for the monsters he’s saved you from. I honestly don’t know why he bothers.”

Vivian saw the subtle shift in Sabrina’s body, the little cringe.

“We try to do what’s necessary so our girls will have an actual personality when they leave this place. We thought socializing you with each other would be a good idea. But we’re rethinking that. At least for you. In order to make back our investment, you’ll have to be broken almost completely. You will spend the rest of your time until you’re sold in your room. You will not see anyone except for the men you service.”

“NO! Please, Sir. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll be good. I won’t cause anymore trouble.” Sabrina shot Vivian a look so cold that she flinched. The other woman’s gaze promised retribution. Even if it was an empty threat, it was still scary. Sabrina had obviously gleaned a sense of power from the way she lorded it over the other women.

Brian and another man came forward and pulled her off her knees.

She kicked out and struggled. “You can’t do this to me!”

“We should have done it in the beginning. We’ve been far too lenient with you, and it ends now. You’ve always kept your behavior just this side of unacceptable, but assaulting another girl will not be tolerated.”

“Please, Sir . . . please, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll blow you, right here, right now.”

Gabe chuckled. “If I wanted you to blow me here, you’d do it anyway. You belong to us. You have no chips to bargain with.”

She continued to wrestle uselessly against the grips of the men who held her. Finally she gave up the fight, the fire going out of her eyes. Gabe nodded once, and they dragged her off.

He turned toward Vivian, his anger still palpable, and she took an involuntary step back.

“Come here,” he said softly.

She moved toward him, afraid she’d be in trouble for baiting the other girl. She didn’t throw out empty apologies because the truth was, she wasn’t sorry. She wasn’t sure the woman deserved total isolation, but she had deserved what Vivian had said. And it was Sabrina who had chosen to escalate the situation beyond mere cattiness.

“We need to clean you up and get some ice on this. Did you even get to eat anything?”

“No, Sir.” She looked at the scattered food and bent to clean up the mess.

“Leave it, and come with me.”

The other girls went back to their breakfast and conversation as Gabe led her away. He’d been so cold to Sabrina that Vivian was suddenly afraid of having that hardness turned on her.

In the midst of her captivity, he’d shown her kindness, and she didn’t want to admit how afraid she was of that kindness ending. They went down a couple of hallways. At the end of the second was a spacious bathroom with a Jacuzzi that seemed more for socializing or orgies than bathing. He gestured for her to sit on the edge of the tub while he sorted through drawers and cabinets.

When he returned, he knelt beside her, using a soft, wet cloth to wipe the blood from her chin and lip. He held her face to the light. “She clocked you a good one.”

Vivian caught his smirk. “Are you upset with me?”

“No. I should thank you. I’ve told Anton forever she was going to do something like this. I was waiting for the opportunity to get her away from the rest of the girls. You might have a bruise by tomorrow. It doesn’t look too bad, though.”

Annette came through the door then and handed an ice pack to Vivian.

“Tell Anton I said I told you so,” Gabe said.

Annette shook her head quickly. “Please don’t make me say that. He’s pissed enough.”

He laughed. “All right. I’ll do my own gloating.”

Annette nodded, relieved, and took that as her cue to leave.

“I want you to keep the ice on your lip for a few minutes, then we’ll get you fed,” he said, combing her hair with his fingers.

“Can I stay in my room?”

“To eat?”

“For good. Until I’m sold.”

He arched a brow. “Sabrina is the biggest trouble maker, and she’s no longer a concern.”

“What’s the point of being around them? If I make a friend, I’ll lose her forever. If I make an enemy, it’s just more drama.”

He seemed to consider her request. “You’d still have to go to the gym.”

She waited, afraid to say the wrong thing when he looked so close to relenting.

“There’s a library here, and many rooms you’d be free to explore when no one’s using you.” She knew he saw her cringe at that, but he didn’t acknowledge her discomfort. “There’s even a pool outside. You could think of this place as a resort.”

She would never think of this place as a resort.

He was silent for a moment, then lifted the ice pack from her face to look at the swelling. He pressed it back against the corner of her lip and sat back, observing her.