21
“I need a shower, change my clothes,and go to the bathroom,” I demanded to Nicolae when he arrived in the morning with breakfast. Lev wasn’t beside me when I woke, although I wished he was because a couple of hours after we had sex, he then went down on me and had another equally wonderful orgasm with my direction.
He was starting to enjoy pleasuring someone other than himself, and I enjoyed his cock filling me up after a stressful fewhours with that prick who was standing before me, wanting to hunt me down.
“Fine,” he said smoothly, hesitated as he laid the breakfast at the foot of the mattress, then stood over me, folding his arms across his chest. He wavered for a few beats as I looked over the Pop-Tarts and bowl of Honey Oats drowned in milk. “How do you have your coffee?”
“Black with cream, Jeeves,” I joked.
“It’s not black if it has cream in it,” he pointed out, ignoring the poke at calling him by a butler’s name. He hesitated before adding, “I didn’t know what you liked for breakfast, so I made you a cherry and a sugar-cinnamon Pop-Tart, and if you don’t like the cereal, there are three others you can choose from in the kitchen.”
“Thanks,” I said, gazing up at that handsome face and seeing only someone who viewed me as prey and thought I was so worthless he would make me run while he hunted me down. “This will be fine.” I poked around a bit with the cereal as he still stood there as if he had something else to get off his chest. “Are there drugs in here? Is that what you’re waiting for? Waiting for me to eat some food, so I’ll fall asleep and wake in the middle of the forest somewhere, surrounded by predatory animals. And by animals, I mean you and your brother.”
He exhaled as if he was holding on to pent-up stress, “The date has been announced for your father’s funeral. “It’s this weekend, so we’ll be taking you.”
His words fell like a lead balloon as he turned his back and walked back up the stairs. Once he was at the top, he looked back. “I’ll come back in an hour to take you to the bathroom.”
I heard him, but didn’t quite register what he was saying. My father’s funeral and life back in my hometown were pushed to the back of my mind as I focused on survival. But then a sharp cramp in my lower abdomen woke me out of my daze. “I need touse the bathroom now,” I demanded as my bladder was full and I was busting.
Last night, after Lev and I had sex, he carried me up the stairs and outside, where I slid down my underwear and did a pee in the bushes behind the Lud. But that was hours ago, and I’m not a fricken hibernating grizzly bear.
He sighed, looking annoyed, “Fine. Ez is getting clothes from your room as we speak, so he should be back soon.”
I gasped in horror, “How long are you going to keep me here? Take me back to my room in Morgana, please.”
“I’ll think about it,” he stated, stepping back down the stairs. “You called the police on me, so I don’t know if I can trust going out there alone again.”
“You kidnapped me, you fuckwit,” I hissed violently at his smug face.
“Do you want me to help you up the stairs or not?” he said in a steely, although amused tone.
“No, thank you. Just leave the door open, and I'll make my own way up,” I suggested, but he wasn’t buying it.
“Sure,” he rolled his eyes, then bent down, slid his hands under my upper thighs and back, and easily lifted me into the air. I didn’t want to touch him, but my hands had to go somewhere, so I laid one hand on his shoulder, while the other was folded across my stomach.
He paused at the door and grunted, “You’ll have to unlock the door,” he pointed out, and I did as he asked, and instead of taking me into the bush like Lev did last night, he brought me inside the Lud.
It was early, and the entire mini castle was quiet. I had no idea what the time was, but the coolness in the air and the fact that the sun hadn’t risen above the mountains yet told me that it was early, maybe 6 AM-ish.
He took me into the bathroom by a large kitchen and lay me down on the side of the bath. “You may as well bathe in here, while the boys are still asleep. I’ll get you a clean towel.”
He closed the door behind him, and I immediately grabbed the side of the bath to hoist myself up onto my feet. My ankle throbbed all night, although there was some relief from the pain when Lev seduced me. It was nice, and I enjoyed it, but one must never be fooled into believing he would ever choose me over the Warwicks.
I managed to climb up and park my backside against the side of the bath, but I accidentally pressed my swollen foot on the floor and bit my lip to keep from crying out. I hated being in this weak position, at the mercy of the worst men imaginable, but I struggled to see a way out. Nicolae took my phone from me, so I couldn't call Mila or the police again. That meant relying on college staff and classmates to notice I was absent and perhaps ask questions.
But the more I thought about it, the more downhearted I became because the only students who even knew of my existence were the Yorks, and Mila and her friends. Dean, my Finance tutor, had been concerned for my welfare, so he was my only bet now. But even then, I wasn’t confident that he could pierce through the barrier the Warwicks had me caged in.
The door flung open, and Nicolae stood there with a clean, white towel and handed it to me. “Do you need help with anything?” he asked as he reached into the shower and switched on the water, then tested the temperature.
“No,” I told him straight, then waited for him to leave before I hobbled to the door, turned the lock, and began to undress. Ezrah hadn’t returned with clean clothes, so I’ll be dressing back into my clothes, marked in dirt and sweat from the chase last night.
The window was too small to climb out of, and even if it were large, I doubt I could manage jumping down on the other side. Then, of course, I’d have to run on one foot to who knows where. It was a dismal situation, and my heart felt heavy, numb at my father's death and with his funeral this weekend.
I checked the lock on the door was secure, before I hobbled into the shower, kept one hand pressed against the wall to stop me from falling over, because even touching the floor with my swollen foot was just too painful. While the foot brace had brought some relief, I was a little shocked to find how black and blue my ankle was when I took it off. It probably looks worse than it actually is.
The warm water gently massaging my skin was like a spa for my soul, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the sensation, but as soon as I did that, emotion surged, and I dropped my face into my hands and cried as I’d never cried before. It was okay to cry because my sobs were drowned out by falling water, and eventually the tears dried up, replaced with clarity and pure rage.
It wasn’t the Warwicks I was angry at. It was my father, most of all, who enraged me for allowing this situation to occur in the first place. How could he not see Leslie for what she was? How could he be so careless with his business and investments to let her have that much say and then not have proper protections for when or if he died before his time?
