Yours (11 page)

“She is yours,” he said, looking up an inch or so into my eyes. “You are her master… for now. Do you think you can continue to train her?”

I nodded once, my hands still clasped.

“Yes.”

El Alfa dropped the cracked chicken bones back onto his plate. They landed with a dull clank on the porcelain.

“Then you have her. Nobody else will interfere. If they do, you have my permission to punish them as well.”

David bristled but said nothing.

“Make sure she learns to kneel softly. I don’t want her bruising.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

“And David,” he said, his voice dropping in tone, “don’t touch the girl.”

“Yes, sir,” he repeated through gritted teeth.

I let my hands unclasp and stretched my fingers out to relax them.

As frightened as I was for Jessica, I felt some measure of relief that El Alfa wouldn’t let his henchmen hurt her any more. If I was in charge, I could get her to obey me.

I could find a way to control her.

I knew it.

Chapter Twenty

Jessica

I stumbled back to the cell in front of the guard who had hurt me, my knees hurting from kneeling down on the hard ground. But nothing hurt as badly as the ache between my legs. Vale had left me unfulfilled.

Now I was hungry and thirsty,
and
unsatisfied. The first two I could bear. But Vale had tried to take away my dignity by making me beg for him.

“April?” I whispered. I couldn’t hear her from the cell next door, and the door had been closed when I’d gone by. “April?”

There was no response. I called louder, my voice rising to a yell.

“
April!
”

The door of my cell opened with a clang and I jumped back. My chains rattled against the stone walls on either side of me.

It was Vale. He had a plate in his hands.

“You shouldn’t yell,” he said. Immediately I shrunk even further into myself. His voice, admonishing, reminded me of my mother. Always scolding. I gritted my teeth before speaking.

“My… my friend. The one in the cell next door. Is she okay?”

Vale stared at me strangely. His voice when he spoke next was softer than before.

“Here. Eat this.” He held out a piece of bread from off of the plate. I only stared at it, unable to think coherently. My stomach growled.

“Please,” I insisted. “Her name is April. Is she alright?”

The softness disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Vale’s face was, once again, ice.

“Listen to me, darling. In here, you shouldn’t worry about anyone other than yourself. Understood? She’s dead, as far as you know.”

I flinched at the word. I couldn’t believe something like that, not in here. April wasn’t dead, any more than I was. She was fine.
We would both be fine.

“At least drink something, will you?”

I hadn’t realized that he was offering a cup of water. He lifted the cup to my lips and it was like a spell was broken. Thirst came clawing back up my throat and all I could think about was the physical pain that I’d endured.

I gulped at the lip of the cup, dribbling water down my almost-naked body. When he pushed the bread at me again, I bit into it. Hunger woke up my system and I gnawed at the piece of bread. Right then, it was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted.

“Here,” he said. He ripped off a small piece of bread for me so that I wouldn’t have to tear it myself with my teeth. When I took it, my lips brushed his fingers, and he inhaled shallowly.

There it was—that crackling electricity in the air again. Something between us that I couldn’t name or put my finger on. A connection that seemed to break through the icy wall he kept in front of him.

He pulled back and wiped his fingers on his shirt absentmindedly. It was something he was staying away from, I understood just then. I didn’t know why. But I knew that of all the guards in here, he was different.

Was I going crazy? I’d heard about women who fell in love with their kidnappers, but I’d never thought that anything so ridiculous would happen to me. It wasn’t that he had brought me here, though. That wasn’t why my body ached every time he so much as grazed me with his palm. It was something else, something deeper. A secret that I could sense beneath his surface. A secret that he didn’t want me to get at.

“You still have blood on your lip,” he said.

I tilted my head up and spoke with a hint of sarcasm.

“Untie me and I’ll wipe it off.”

Instead, Vale grabbed my chin and kissed me. His lips took my bottom lip and sucked. He sucked soft at first, then hard, sucked at the cut El Alfa’s henchman had made. Pain sparked through my body, pain and desire both.

And for a moment, a horrible, horrible moment, I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him back.

I pushed forward on my tiptoes to deepen the kiss, and he pushed back, conquering me with his mouth. He licked my bottom lip, sucked at it, until I could taste the coppery blood. I moaned, and my body arched into him, stopping only when the chains at my wrists tightened and held me back.

Vale looked down at me in wonder. The electrical energy between us seemed to brighten the room, even as my shadow passed over his body.

“Jessica,” he whispered.

I closed my eyes. I would not give him the satisfaction of letting him see what he had done to me. It was crazy, this blistering attraction. But nobody could blame me for going crazy. Was I crazy?

His hand slid between my legs, stroking me, and despite myself I turned wet as soon as he touched me. I was crazy. I was. This was all insane.

“Vale—” I started to say. I was choking on the air in this stone cell.

“Don’t lie to me, Jessica,” he whispered. “Do you want it?”

“Vale, please—” My words fluttered out over my tongue, but I didn’t know what to say. I wanted him, yes, I was crazy and I wanted him and my world was crumbling down all around me because of it.

“You want me. I know you want me.”

“No.”

Had I said the word, or had it died on my tongue? His hand burned the place between my thighs, coiling me tighter with every slow stroke.

“Tell me you want me to fuck you.”

His voice was a growl that sent shudders down my body. I couldn’t do this. Even though every dream of mine had been about this—or something like this—it wasn’t right. There was something that kept us apart, and I couldn’t bring myself to let go completely. I wasn’t this girl. Jessica was a good girl.

“No,” I said weakly. “Please—”

“You’re so fucking hot for me. Look at you, your perfect tight hot cunt. You’re so wet—”

My breath was hot in my throat, and every part of me tensed as his fingers stroked me. His body was strong, but as much as I wanted him to possess me, I knew that I couldn’t do this. Not really.

“Please… please…oh!!”

He flicked my clit, and I was there already, the coil inside me wound so tight that all it would take was a little more.

“I’ll make it good for you,” he said. “Christ, I’ll make you come hard all over my cock, I swear it.”

The worst thing was that I wanted it. I was scared, terrified, but I wanted it so bad.

“Tell me how you like it. Tell me how you want me to fuck you.”

“No,” I said, dizziness overtaking my brain. “I don’t—”

“Tell me,” he said. He whispered. He growled. “Tell me.”

“Tell you?”

My voice was a breath that was so light, it floated away. His hands were the only things keeping me anchored to the ground.

“Tell me how you like being fucked.”

I bit my lip, shook my head. Even now, I couldn’t lie to him. How could I answer that? I didn’t know how I liked being fucked. I’d never been fucked. In that instant, I wanted to be fucked, though. It would be a lie if I denied it. I wanted him to fuck me so badly.

“I don’t—I don’t—”

“Tell me.”

I said the only thing I could say.

“I’m a virgin.”

Vale yanked back like he had touched a hot flame, ripping his hands away from me. Immediately the need inside my core flamed up. But the ache in my body from being left untouched wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the look he gave me. He stared at me so coldly that it seemed all of the heat in the air disappeared. It was like he was going to rip my head off right then and there.

“Vale?” My voice was hoarse. I knew that there was more to him, a secret that I hadn’t quite been able to catch. Now, though, he pulled back from me and I felt alone, completely alone. And terrified. The walls of the room seemed to close in on me. What had I done?

“Vale?”

He didn’t say anything, only giving me that terrible, conflicted look. Then he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

“Vale!”

Fear choked my throat. I immediately regretted telling him that I’d never been with a man before. Stories of virgins poured into my mind unbidden.

Virgin sacrifices. Virgin blood. Stories of terrible men who pay top price to torture and fuck virgins.

God, I shouldn’t have told him. He’d come back with that awful man, El Alfa, and do terrible things. They would sell me to the highest bidder, to a man who wanted to take a girl’s virginity. Jesus, what would they do to me?

I breathed shallowly, panting for oxygen. The collar around my throat seemed unbearably tight. And I couldn’t turn around. I couldn’t go
anywhere
. Blood rushed in my ears and dizziness began to overtake me.

I’d only ever fainted once before, when I was a kid and overheated on the playground. But the panic that rose up inside of me was enough to make it happen again. Black spots shimmered in my vision and I gasped for breath.

As I blacked out, I saw the shadow from the moon behind me. It was a cold, cold blue shadow, colder even than Vale’s eyes, and I could only whisper April’s name as I fell into the shadow.

Chapter Twenty-One

Vale

I’d thought she—fuck, I’d thought she
wanted
me. I’d thought that there was something between us, but of course there wasn’t. There couldn’t be. I had kidnapped her.

Now I couldn’t get her face out of my mind. That face she’d made when I asked her how she wanted me to fuck her. I’d made the biggest mistake.

“Please, no,”
she’d said, and I hadn’t believed it, but I sure as hell believed it now. What had I done? What had I become?

Ten’s voice rang through my head—”You’ll be doing his dirty work.”

Nothing was as dirty as my own dark thoughts. A virgin, and I wanted to fuck her, for Chrissakes, and she was a virgin and I had chosen to throw her into this hellhole. No matter what El Alfa had told me to do, there was no way that this was going to be a part of training. I couldn’t do it.

I’d thought she wanted me, I thought I’d seen that in her face, and then it was gone and I was just a monster again.

No. No. I couldn’t do this—I just couldn’t.

I leaned over the toilet in my bathroom and retched. Nothing came up but air, but I retched again and again, thinking about what I’d almost done to someone who was completely innocent.

“You alright?”

My head snapped up. David leaned against the doorframe. El Alfa’s head honcho. The man responsible for Jessica’s cut lip. I’d tasted blood when I kissed her, but now I tasted blood again. I couldn’t wait for the chance to kill El Alfa, and I hoped to whatever God existed that I had the chance to kill David when that time came.

“Why are you in my room?” I asked, standing up and letting my body draw itself up into its full height. I was a head taller than this asshole, but he was a whole lot meaner. He scowled.

“I heard you in here and thought I’d make sure you were okay.”

Sure you did.

“I’m fine.”

“You were vomiting.” He picked at his chin, where his sunburn was peeling right under his jawline.

“Must have been something I ate for dinner,” I said nonchalantly. I rinsed my hands in the sink and splashed water on my face. Still he stood in the doorway, watching me with that ugly look on his face. Dark eyebrows that ripped across his forehead. A mean look, like a dog who couldn’t wait to bite.

“Can I help you with anything?” I asked, turning around and crossing my arms. He might have been head guard to El Alfa, but I was here now, and he wasn’t going to bully me around. I wasn’t going to let him.

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, smiling sickly.

“What?”

“How’s training going?”

I thought of Jessica’s split lip, and how she had recoiled from my touch when I’d asked her if she wanted me to fuck her. Was I any better than this asshole? Maybe not. But I sure as hell was going to try to keep her from harm.

“Fine,” I said coldly.

“If you ever get sick of training that girl, you just let me know.”

He leered at me, and something inside me broke. Despite myself, I couldn’t hold back the barb.

“Yeah?” I said. “Does El Alfa let his dog train bitches?”

Maybe I wasn’t in control of myself, but damn, it felt good.

Red with anger, David jumped forward at me. He lifted his arm with a punch that was telegraphed so far ahead, it was nothing for me to catch him by the wrist.

I slammed him into the bathroom wall, holding him up just high enough that he was forced to stand on tiptoe. My arm braced against his neck, threatening the chokehold I could easily put him into.

“Let me go!” he hissed.

“Sure,” I said. “As soon as you apologize for trying to hit me.”

“I wasn’t—wasn’t gonna hit you—I’m not…”

He squirmed, but that was as much apology as I was likely to get from him. I let him down, shoving him towards the doorway. He caught himself on the doorframe and craned his head back at me when he was just out of arm’s reach.

“You’re fucking with the wrong guy,” he said.

David stormed off and I slumped back against the sink. This wasn’t working. I had to kill El Alfa. I had to kill him soon. But the raid wouldn’t be for another week.

That was a week I had to spend training Jessica. A week I had to spend sparring with David. A week to keep my secret hidden from El Alfa.