He’s sitting in a chair, legs spread wide, hands on his jean-clad thighs. His posture looks relaxed, but his eyes look amused. He’s got that fucking baseball hat on backward that makes my stomach do flips, and he wears a white T-shirt that pulls against his hard chest and broad shoulders. He looks like a god, and I’m a chained pet.
Sitting up, he reaches out to push my wild hair from my face, but I pull back from his touch.
He pauses with his hand still inches from my face, and he smirks. “I brought you something.” Leaning down, he picks up a water bottle that sits by his feet, and my already dry mouth becomes the Sahara Desert as I look at the condensation on the plastic.
“Thirsty?” he asks, his eyes on mine.
I nod.
Lifting it in front of me, he gives it a little tilt, and it splashes on the drain that separates us. “Hai-dyn!” I shriek, and my voice cracks.
He rights it and arches a brow at me. “I asked you a question, Charlotte.” His voice is now a growl, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Yes.” I nod again, my arms pulling on the restraints. Those angry tears I try to hold back blur my vision. “I’m thirsty.” Taking in a calming breath, I ask, “May I please have a drink?”
TWENTY-NINE
HAIDYN
She hasn’t been out for long. Four hours. To her, it probably feels like days. I stand from the chair and step onto the drain. I use one hand to move her hair from her face, and the other holds the tip of the water bottle to her cracked lips.
Her head is tilted back, her eyes up on mine, and she greedily swallows the water while some falls down her chin and runs over her naked body to splash on the floor between her legs.
I pull it away, and she’s gasping. “Take it easy. Nice and slow, doll face. Don’t want you to get sick.”
The sedative wasn’t a high dosage, but I can’t predict how her body will react.
She shakes her head at my words, and I hold the bottle to her lips again. She’s like a baby bird begging to be fed. She has no use of her arms, and soon, I’ll limit her even more. I’m not sure if I’ll need to use the cuffs around her ankles or not. That will depend on her.
She slowly sips on it, and I run my free hand over her matted hair. “That’s it. Good girl. Nice and easy.”
Pulling away, she takes another deep breath. Sitting back in the chair, I order, “Stand up.”
She slowly gets to her shaking legs and stands before me naked, but her head is high and her shoulders back. Fuck, I underestimated her. She would come into Carnage, and her cheeks would redden when I spoke dirty to her, but I could tell by the look in her eyes she’d be into most of the shit I thought of doing to her. She’s just another woman deprived of what her body wants and too afraid to ask for it.
“Turn around for me, doll face. I want to see you.”
She holds her arms out as far as the connecting chains will allow and slowly gives me her back. The warm room fills with her heavy breathing, and my eyes drop to her bubble ass and run up the curve of her spine. Her hair sticks to her back and shoulders, and I want to put it up for her but refrain. My hands will be in it soon enough.
Turning back to face me, she meets my eyes as her chest heaves. I stand from the chair, and she arches her neck to keep her eyes on me. I’m not going to pounce on her. I was telling her the truth when I said she’d beg me from her knees.
Walking up to her, I cup her face, and her lips part. “Why…why can’t I have the use of my hands?” She stumbles over her words, sounding out of breath.
“Because you don’t need them,” I say honestly.
She pulls on them as if to reassure herself they’re secured to her thighs. I didn’t buckle them tight enough to cut off circulation, but they aren’t coming off unless I unlock them.
She bares her perfect white teeth up at me. “Do you think I’m going to attack you?”
I laugh at that. “No.” I run my knuckles down her water-covered chest, and she doesn’t flinch. She’s becoming accustomed to my touch already. Sooner than I had hoped. “It’s also because it turns you on.”
She tenses at my words, but we both know they’re true. “I think a part of you wants to be forced to be my whore.” I lowermy face down to hers. Our lips are so close that if I pucker them, I’d kiss her. “Tell me I’m wrong,Annabelle.”
Her dilated eyes search mine, but she doesn’t say anything. She takes a step back, and my hand drops to my side.
“No,” she whispers, shaking her head.
“No,” I repeat, pulling my cell from my pocket. I pull up an app, and the small TV hanging in the corner of the room turns on.
