“Did I give you permission to speak?” he growled. “You’re going to learn your place and I’m going to teach it toyou.”
She couldn’t breathe. Air. She needed air. Her head felt like it was going to explode. Frantically she slapped at his hands, tugging andfighting.
Brad lifted his free hand. A wicked, long knife with a serrated back flashed in front of her eyes, and hopeless terror took hold. She closed her eyes in resignation, bracing for thepain.
Only he didn’t shove the blade into her body. He gently brushed the hair back from her face, and pressed a feather light kiss to her lips. “I’m not going to kill you, pumpkin. I’m going to hurt you. You have to be taught a lesson, so you don’t make a mistakeagain.”
Her mind started to tingle and fade, the lack of oxygen pushing her closer to the edge offainting.
As if he had all the time in the world, Brad brushed another kiss across her lips, causing a fresh wave of nausea to roll to herstomach.
She tugged at his hands once more; her strength was slowly fading. She couldn’t fight him. And just when she thought she really was going to die, he loosened his grip on her throat. Sam sucked in a huge gulp of air, coughed hard and then sucked in another one. And another one. Breathe, she had to breathe. Hating herself, she leaned on Brad, letting him hold herup.
His arms had gone beneath hers, and he now held her like a lover, pressing her face to his shoulder as he gently stroked her hair. “That’s it, that’s my good girl.” She relaxed into his grip, fighting to gather her wits with this brief reprieve. She knew it wouldn’t be long; she needed to beready.
Her brief reprieve ended within seconds. Brad locked one arm around her waist, pressing her against him, while his other hand buried in her hair and yanked her head back painfully. She hissed in pain and then slammed her mouth shut. The last thing she wanted to do was provoke him further. She needed to get him talking, to distract him so she could figure out a way toescape.
Or at least buy enough time for Cord to realize what was going on and comeback.
“You learn fast. I always knew you were smart. Too bad your lover over there wasn’t.” A nasty smile spread across Brad’s dry, cracked lips, newly grown, scruffy blond beard shifting with themovement.
“What do youmean?”
“Don’t you worry about that. All you need to think about now is me. And making it up to me.” And then he slammed his mouth down hard on hers. Locking her in place with a tight grip on her hair, Brad shoved his tongue into hermouth.
Revulsion rushed over her and she gagged, instinctively fighting the violation. Once more she was helpless against his inhuman strength. He forced her head to the side, continuing to punish her with his lips. She beat against his arms, his neck, and his shoulders. And then in horror, she felt his hardness growing, pressing against her stomach through the roughened material of hisjeans.
“Brad, please, don’t do this.” Her mind blanked on anything else to say. She didn’t know the man holding her now—back in the city, she’d come to realize his danger, but she never thought him completelyunhinged.
“I like to hear you beg, and before I’m done you’re going to do a whole lot more of it.” Using the tip of the knife like you would a lover’s caress, he trailed it down her throat and chest. The tip pressed into her skin, just enough to be painful but not drawblood.
Her body trembling with the mixture of fear and anger, Sam tried to reason with him. “We can talk about this. It doesn’t have to be thisway.”
The blade stilled at her hip. Brad’s blue eyes brightened with an insane determination. “The time for talking isover.”
The stillness in his body was a warning, but she ignored the change and pushed on. “I’m sorry about what happened. I never intended for things to end between us that way—”with you slapping me around like a piece of trash—“but you scared me when you hit me. Ipanicked.”
“So instead of talking to me like an adult you ran three statesaway?”
His argument was so logical, it almost made sense, except for the physical abuse part. Biting her lip, she nodded, not trusting herself to say the words she needed to say, instead of what she wanted tosay.
“And you thought I was strong enough to deal with the public humiliation? Do you have any idea how many favors I had to call in to keep our breakup private?” His grip tightened in her hair, and a million pinpricks of pain spread across herscalp.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I never intended to humiliate you. I left. I didn’t tellanyone.”
His nostrils flared, her answer enraging him further. “People knew. I could see it in their eyes. You destroyed my chance to run for the Senate. No one would elect a man who can’t even control hiswoman.”
He yanked her head, forcing her back to bend to keep him from ripping her hair out. She slapped at his grip uselessly, fighting to freeherself.
“Now you’re going to make everything better by coming back home with me.” Brad jerked her forward, leading her by her hair away from the truck and away fromCord.
“Let go!” She resisted, fighting the burning pain from the inhuman grip he had on herhair.
He shook her hard. “Shutup.”
She kept fighting, pulling away. “Cord!Help!”
Brad’s fist slammed into her stomach. Stars exploded in her eyes. She gasped, but couldn’t breathe. Dropping to her knees, she curled into aball.
