My first instinct was to smile from one side of my mouth. “I’m not going to be here until Tuesday.”
Knox’s fingers twisted my nipple hard enough to make me gasp, arching my back away from the mattress. “Oh, Hallie,” he groaned, his voice laced with pity. The shift in his tone set off alarm bells in my mind. “Sweet, naïve, little Hallie. God, are you really that stupid? You think I’m still playing?”
Dread coiled in my stomach, but a stubborn part of me still believed he’d never actually hurt me. I lay still, awaiting his next move. Knox’s hand clamped around my jaw, his thumb forcing my mouth open. The pressure of his fingers on my skin was so intense I worried they’d leave lasting marks. Didn’t he remember the boundaries I’d set?
Or… did they not matter to him anymore?
“Please—” I began, but it was the only word that managed to slip out before Knox wedged something round and rubbery between my lips. A fucking ball gag. I wriggled and turned my head as he tried to force it in, only for him to grab a fistful of my hair and give it a hard tug.
“You’re going to take this gag, you fucking brat,” he snarled. “The last thing I need is for my neighbors to hear your screams.”
I sucked in a deep breath, preparing to let out the loudest scream I could manage, but he was too quick. He gave the ball gag a firm push past my teeth until it settled on my tongue. He ignored my desperate whimper, bringing his mouth to my earlobe again. “Let’s hear what it sounds like when you try to say that safe word.”
I tried. Really, I did. But the sound that came out around the ball gag was a pathetic, muffled, “Errrrgg.” Drool was already pooling at the corners of my mouth, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Perfect.” Knox let out another sinister laugh, one that made my stomach turn. Was this still part of the game? Was he just testing how far he could push me until I’d break? Or was I really his captive prey, too trusting of the man who’d been pretending to be someone he wasn’t all these years?
“Hmmm,” Knox hummed as his mouth closed around my nipple. His tongue traced slow circles before his lips sealed around it, sucking hard enough to make it ache. He released my nipple with apop, the sting lingering long after his mouth pulled away. “What is it they always say to young women when they warn them about being abducted?”
I couldn’t even answer if I wanted.
“‘Never let them take you to a second location,’ right? My god, Hallie. It barely took you any coaxing at all. I actually convinced you to trust me, even after torturing you and admitting I’ve been stalking you. That didn’t set off any red flags?”
Tears welled in my eyes, the blindfold hiding them from Knox’s view. I’d never felt so ashamed. So stupid. I willed myself not to cry aloud, but I knew he could see my chest heaving and shaking. Insteadof stopping or showing me a little softness, my fear only made him let out that same, low, wicked laugh that had excited me before.
Before I knew he was someone I should be terrified of.
Fourteen
Hallie
Knox’s fingers twisted mynipple harder this time, sending a white-hot spike of pain straight through me. I arched against the straps, a choked sound trapped behind the gag. He released it only to pinch the other one, rolling it slowly between his thumb and forefinger until the blindfold was wet with my tears. My body didn’t know whether to recoil or lean into it.
I felt him shift lower, cool air filling the space where his body had been. I heard him fumble with something next to me on the nightstand, followed by the sound of a thick squirting sound.Fuck, I thought. Lube.
One of his hands slid under my thigh, and I felt a cool, slick object against my back entrance. My breath hitched. I tried to clench, to resist, but Knox was relentless. The butt plug slid in slowly, stretching me open with steady pressure until it was fully inside of me, the flared base nestled tight against my skin.
“There we go,” he murmured like he was satisfied. “You took that better than I thought. Next time it’ll be my cock. But you’re going to be here a long time, so we won’t be doing that tonight.” His palm smoothed over my hip, almost in gentle appreciation. “There are so many things I want to do to you. So many ways I want to break you and use your body. This is just the beginning.”
I held my breath.A long time. Not hours. Not just one night. My mind flashed to the apartment above my parents’ garage, my half-unpacked boxes, the wildflowers growing along the side of the building. All of it felt impossibly far away now.
Had he always planned to keep me here? Was itevera game?
How would this end?
He shifted down my body again, his mouth descended between my legs without warning. His tongue dragged up my slit in one long, slow stroke, tasting everything the plug and the fear had already drawn out of me. I jerked against the restraints, trying to twist away, but the cuffs held me there, helpless. He licked again, firmer, circling my clit with the tip of his tongue.
“Fuck,” he whispered. “I knew you’d taste this good. I waited to long to do this.”
His lips sealed over my clit, sucking it and circling his tongue around it until I was dizzy from pleasure. I tried to fight it, every muscle straining as my head thrashed from side to side, my muffled protests vibrating against the gag. But my body betrayed me. My hips lifted toward his mouth on instinct, chasing the pleasure even as tears streamed down my temples. With one hand pushing down hard on my lower belly, he sucked my clit harder between his lips, and something inside me snapped.
I came hard, sobbing into the gag, my back lifting off the mattress. My pussy clenched around nothing, pulsing against his tongue while he drank every tremor from me like it was all he’d ever wanted.
Good girl,” he said, his voice rough as he stroked my thigh. “Look at you. Coming all over my tongue when you know I’m a fucking psychopath. What does that make you, Hallie?”
I couldn’t have answered him, even if I wanted.
He lifted off of me, and I heard the sound of his clothes hitting the floor and the metallic clink of his belt buckle. The mattress dipped below his weight again when he returned. The butt plug shifted inside of me with the small movement, reminding me he’d claimed that part of me, too.
