“Dude, this is seriously fucked up.”
He already was like a little yappy dog.
“Water when the pants come off,” I repeated. “The temperature goes up when you lose the undies. Actually… I think it’s a little too warm in here right now.” I crossed over to the thermostat, adjusting it until even the blanket wouldn’t be much of a help.
He let out a choked sound, and I could see it on his face. He wasn’t that desperate yet, no matter how cold he was.
He’d be begging for water soon enough, though. The drugs would’ve left him with a horrible case of dry mouth, and with the way he wouldn’t stop talking…
“You’re going to get very familiar with the routine,” I told him. “Refusing to do something then eventually giving in… You could make this a lot easier on yourself.”
He sneered at me, the expression twisting his face into something a lot uglier than my scars. “Fuck you. You don’t get to win that easily. You want my clothes off? You’re gonna have to work for it.”
I arched a brow. “You’re half-naked in a cell in my basement with no food and water, while it steadily gets colder,” I summarized, “and you’re telling me that I’m the one who’ll have to do the work? Did you hit your head too?”
He scowled, pulling the blanket over his head until just his face was visible. “Just go away.”
There was no sense in staying downstairs. Itwascolddown there. It was only a matter of time until he surrendered, but I didn’t have to be uncomfortable while I waited for him to give in.
“Your wish is my command,” I mocked him. “Just bark when you’re thirsty.”
Then he’d be in for another treat, something else for him to balk at. I almost felt bad for him.
Almost.
3
Ryder
He was going to win.
That was the worst part about all of this shit. He was going to win, and I knew it, and it was just a matter of time. There wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do from behind these bars, and as long as he held my life in his oversized hands, I was going to keep yielding.
Again, and again, until there was nothing left of me.
But I still wasn’t going to make it easy. If he wanted me to play out some fucked-up game for his twisted desires, fucking fine. He was going to have to earn every step of the way, and messing with the thermostat wasn’t going to be enough.
The water, though… that was just cold. How fucked-up did you really have to be to deny someone something so basic, something they needed to survive? Even food wasn’t as important, but pretty soon, my dry mouth would turn into something more befitting of a desert.
Fucking drugs.
Fucking asshole.
He already knew what he was doing, and that was thepart that terrified me. Had he done this before? How many times?
What did he do when he got tired of the boys he took down into his sex dungeon?
What would he do if he got tired of me?
They were chilling thoughts, thoughts I didn’t want to have, but they kept stirring in my mind all the same. It wasn’t like I had much else to think about, other than whether I’d be rescued. I had to hold out hope that I would be. It couldn’t be that easy to make someone disappear without a trace.
I wasn’t some prostitute on the streets. I was a good student with friends and a life, with parents who fucking cared for me. They’d never give up looking for me, and that meant this asshole’s days were numbered.
That, or I’d just die down here.
Would he just bury me in the backyard?
Jesus Fucking Christ, Ryder. Stop with the dramatic bullshit.
