Lauren yanked away from him, her legs trying to push free from her confines on his lap. "Don't you dare- don't you talk about my mother!" She gritted her teeth, refusing to let herself cry. He knew about her friendship with Macie. He knew she'd been a virgin. And aside from the odd interview in his office when they spoke about her mother passing from cancer, the girl suspected her horrible husband knew quite well how much she'd had to shoulder after losing Aurelia. This man had violated every part of her life, even the parts she held sacred. And yet she'd still played his games! Did she have any decency- any backbone atall?
Thomas refused to let her loose, calmly holding her wrists together and simply letting her bat furiously at his chest until she was tired. Lauren's struggle wasn't a long one- the goddamned contraption she was locked into cutting off any vigorous rebellion. And when she was finished, he simply sighed and moved his long arms around her heaving body to hold her. "I have you, Lauren. Go ahead and be angry, or sad. it's all right to hate me." These kind words, of course, had the opposite effect, and his infuriated and exhausted bride began crying as if her heart was breaking, arms wrapping around his neck and hot tears staining his shirt. And the terrifying Number Two of Jaguar Holdings simply held Lauren as she cried, rocking her calmly. Though part of him wondered if there would be a time she would stop... crying. He knew why she cried. It was understandable. But there'd been quite a bit of tears in the short week they'd been married, and his cold heart was cracking around the edges.
And this would never do.
Finally feeling Lauren's sobs reduce in volume and frequency, he stirred and gently readjusted her again, trying to keep her away from the inevitable swelling of his cock. Really, Thomas thought crossly, it was as if he had no self-control at all, anymore. "Would you like me to take this corset off you now, little one?" She couldn't talk yet, but he could feel her head nod against his shoulder. Pulling the tiny key out of his trouser pocket, he swiftly freed the tiny padlocks from the corset and began to unlace her as elegantly as he'd bound his wife in the first place. Enjoying the little groans of relief as her ribs were freed and breath restored to his wife, Williams hummed a bit against the delicate skin where her neck met her shoulder. He could feel the warmth of blood rushing back into her torso, enjoying the pretty flush of her skin.
"Lovely..." he crooned against her back, gently massaging her constricted flesh, hearing Lauren actually groan in pleasure as he finally finished unlacing her and freed her from the confining garment. "I do wish you could see how beautiful you are, sweetness. The lovely line of your spine to the narrow curve of your waist. I could span it, you know," and Thomas broke off his carnal appreciation to wrap his hands around the still-tight confines of his wife's waist, enjoying how his thumbs met together. "How your sweet curves shape to align in such an exquisite way." Chuckling against the soft skin of her back, Williams began placing slow, sucking kisses against it, feeling her breath catch. "Let me take care of you." He could feel his reluctant bride's body give a full shudder against the potency of his beautiful voice. "Let me make this good for you, pleasurable. Your Sir..." Thomas's lids fluttered closed abruptly as he felt her whimper, "...can give you so many things, darling, that you never thought possible." He watched as her long fingers clenched against the fluffy bath mat, knowing his clever captive was battling her hurt and fury at being trapped against how very good her new husband could make her feel. Rough hands sliding up again to cup her breasts, Williams grinned as Lauren stiffened against his hold but didn't try to break free. Restlessly trying to shift his hips and his uncomfortably erect cock away from her, he drew in a deep breath.
"I have you," he purred, and this was the sentence that began slicing through her defenses, he could feel it with the sag of her tense spine against him. "You are mine, baby. But as your Sir, I will show you such delicious, dirty things. Experiences that will make you come screaming on my cock. Places you could never imagine. And you will love them all. Accept our life."
Lauren's spine stiffened again; he was breaking her. She could feel it.
"Accept what I can give you." There was something that changed in Thomas's deep, and persuasively sonorous tone then, and his long fingers began stroking and pulling at her nipples. "Marriages, unions, have begun on less, darling. Think if I were the husband your parents promised you to- a King, perhaps..."
Nonononono!she groaned internally;I will not let him do this again! Not the Voice.But it was too late, and Lauren knew it. It wasn't just hearing his beautiful, measured speech, it was feeling it vibrate against her spine, tickle along her skin and make her shiver. And worse, she could picture it. Every word.
Picking her up and carrying her to the drawing-room, Thomas diabolically refused to stop the story he'd spun for her, putting her down on the wide and comfortable suede couch. "On the wedding night, so uncomfortable, not knowing what to feel?" After removing the infernal corset, his sweet bride was left only in her undies, and he pulled them down her thighs, kissing the thin skin there appreciatively. "But I would still treat you with the same care, darling. I would not force you. But that bride- in whatever time or place- would know the reality of her new life." He could feel Lauren stiffen, but he kissed her persuasively, sweetly, enjoying the hitch in her breath when his tongue slipped between her lips. "That Lauren- that wife- would know what she could fight against, and what to accept..." A stifled sob broke from her throat, and Thomas enjoyed kissing along her heaving chest, stroking her sides until she calmed and allowed him to kiss her again. "Why not be that Lauren, my lovely girl? Why fight what I can give you?"
She was trying to gather her senses, gritting her teeth against the delicious alchemy of her husband's voice, the terribly persuasive tone that made everything he said seem so reasonable- so logical. But then Lauren made the mistake of opening her eyes and seeing his beautiful face hovering over hers, a tender smile gracing his mouth and the gentle feel of his hands on her. There was something so filthily dominant of being laid out naked under his fully-dressed body, bare and open for him. "You..." Lauren swallowed, trying to form her words into something that made sense. "You terrify me."
Her husband’s ministrations paused then, and he rose over her, blocking the light behind him in the room, face darkened in shadow and pale eyes making him look even more like the fallen angel she already pictured him to be. "I know," he said honestly, knowing the truth could be even more devastating, more compelling, "but that doesn't mean everything I've said here isn't true." Watching the sweep of emotion across his wife's lovely, mobile features, Thomas was suddenly struck with a desperate need to be inside her - to stop all this silly indecision and turmoil. If he could just force his sweet wife to accept it - all the pleasurable, filthy, delicious things he'd been planning could be put into play. He could show her how very good life as Mrs. Thomas Williams could be. "Let me comfort you, Lauren," he soothed, "let me show you." Her eyes were huge, he noted, that pretty lavender that made his bride look even more innocent.
Slowly, her fingers slid into his hair, and Williams bit back a triumphant chuckle. He could imagine a thousand ways to debauch that innocence from her.
It was some time later- and Lauren was barely coming back to an understanding of where she was as she felt the heat of Thomas spurt inside her, warming her stiff pelvis and loosening the tight tendons of her legs gripping around his waist. Her scary new husband had swiftly bound her wrists with his belt and somehow lifted her onto a hook she'd never seen near the doorway of his hallway. He'd enjoyed watching the girl teeter on tiptoe as he'd toyed with her wet and silky pussy, sliding those damnably long and knowing fingers inside her, slicking along her tender, swelling lips and embarrassingly stiff clitoris. First throwing her thighs over his suited shoulders and gleefully eating her out until she came, he'd started again until he felt her tell-tale stiffening, then leisurely pulled back to remove his clothing- the expensive jacket, then trousers, watching her desperate gaze travel over each part of new skin bared to her. His belt was already binding her wrists, and Thomas grinned in a filthy, terrifying way as he pulled his tie free to wrap over her eyes, blocking her view as he finished stripping and enjoying her frustrated little whine at being denied the view of his lovely, hard body and sculpted musculature. He'd bitten her then, harder than she liked and he knew that because her body would jolt and she'd moan softly, but Lauren didn't pull away, especially when he settled her on his cock and moved smoothly along her channel, strumming her oversensitive clit and whispering the devil's promises in her ear- how beautiful his sweet girl was, how very good she was for her Sir. How good he would make her feel and how much he wanted to fuck up inside her until she couldn't think of anything but the weight of him inside her. And when Thomas paused just long enough for his innocent bride to make confused, anxious noises and arch against his stilled cock- he chuckled into her ear and promised she would never have come as hard as this. And she did. Limp against the leather bond holding her to the hook and the grip of his fingers hard on her thighs around his waist, Lauren moaned and shuddered and came again as he groaned against her and came hard, just as he'd promised.
"Your Sir is so very proud of you. I will give you everything, my sweet Lauren."
Dimly feeling him loosen the belt and free her from the hook, all she could think in the middle of the tremors from her pussy and the slack, helpless feeling of her body, was that he could. Thomas could give her everything.
But her freedom, of course.
Chapter 12 – Are You Planning My Death, Darling?
In which Thomas discovers it is not as easy to manage a wife as it is terrified employees, and Lauren discovers that despite her best intentions, lust, need and hate can all co-exist.
Lauren woke as the first line of sunlight escaped between the thick curtains on the bedroom windows, and she held very still. Her mother used to tease her when she tried to hide in bed, calling it "playing possum," like the irritable white creatures from her home state of Louisiana that would pretend to be asleep or dead when confronted with a predator. Swallowing hard, the girl pushed the memory away, analyzing where she was and what she could remember. Thomas freed her from that horrible contraption. That wasneverhappening again. That fucker was a fuckingred. A hard limit red. Also, she had discovered that she could use the "F" word several times in one sentence. He'd seduced her with his voice, comforted her - though it was his fucking fault she needed comforting! - and there's the "F" word again. Flushing a bit, she remembered him angling his hard cock uncomfortably away from her as he cared for her, a move she found oddly respectful. And the weird, almost "Arabian Nights" kind of tale about arranged marriages and how she should accept theirs.
And then the sex. She'd hated him so much when she'd been writhing like a demented eel on the floor of the bathroom yesterday that there would never have been a time she could have imagined agreeing to let him tie her up and fuck her again, but she had. And, with another hot flush under her fair skin, Lauren remembered she'd come three times. And then aftercare - she knew that word now - understood that's what Thomas did when he bathed her and brought her dinner in bed and rubbed her back and feet with that almond-scented cream. That part was wonderful.
Then, Lauren's mouth tightened furiously, remembering that hellish luncheon. Letting her walk in on her own quartet, realizing she no longer belonged there? Having to wave to her own replacement? Whodoesthat? It was such a dick move! And he was so condescending, chuckling in his indulgent, stupid, condescending, stupid way.
Settling more comfortably into her pillow, the furious girl let herself dream. How to rid herself of this monstrous keeper?
One day, having realized that he has security cameras everywhere, she has secretly slipped a knife inside of her blouse sleeve while cooking and secreted it into a bedside table. That night, while he's sleeping, she cuts his throat. And that is that. She then goes to the safe, for which she has learned its combination, cleans it out, puts on her beloved jeans and hoodie, erases the security camera's feed, and exits the house through a side service door and disappears into the night.
Taking a bus or walking, she keeps to the shadows to avoid CCTV cameras and gets herself to a bus station and heads west. She gets off as soon as she's outside the greater London area. She finds a small mom and pop drugstore that won't have a security camera connected to a larger system and buys hair dye and a cheap hoodie in another color, and a different duffle bag. She finds a gas station restroom and cuts and dyes her hair. Changes into the new hoodie. Dumps her old one and the original duffle into a dumpster. Knowing that everyone will expect her to make for Europe, she heads North, traveling cheaply and unobtrusively as a student with mousy brown hair and getting brown cosmetic contact lenses (paying cash all the way), and loses herself in the Wilds of the Scottish Highlands before making her way up to Orkney and the Faroe Islands and up to Scandinavia. She could keep moving in any number of ways before ending up somewhere outside of The Corporation's power even if it is a small hut in Thailand somewhere.
And what of her father? Well... She's done what she could for him. At this point, he has to save himself. Enough is enough.
Lauren was so immersed in the intricate fantasy that she gave a huge, savage grin.
It was, unfortunately, the moment that Thomas awakened beside her, and his clear gaze watched the play of emotion over his wife's expressive features. Fury. Hurt. Hate. Spite. These were all emotions he'd seen, many times before. It twinged him somewhere internally to see them on her lovely face.
"Are you planning my death, darling?"
Lauren actually jumped and shrieked simultaneously, shocked out of her fantasy into the terrible reality of her new husband's unpleasantly knowing grin. He caught her just as she was about to flop awkwardly off the bed. Lifting her over him, Thomas settled her on his lap, the down comforter acting as a flimsy barrier between them. Lightly stroking his fingertips down her thighs, he watched her thoughtfully. "What upset you most from yesterday, sweet Lauren?"
