He lashed the whip across my legs.
He hit me again, then again and again, and the pain became a single, perfect note, vibrating through my body.
Finally, he stopped, panting.
He walked over, picked me up by the arm, and dragged me to the chair.
"You want to play games? I'll play."
He twisted my arms behind my back and used the cuffs to lock my wrists in place. Then he shoved my face into the armrest, spat on the back of my head, and stepped away.
I heard sounds of a belt coming off, pants dropping.
I tensed every muscle, bracing for what came next. I couldn't see anything. My vision was blurry and my head spun.
Blue balloon is tired.
Blue balloon is tired.
Blue balloon is tired.
Whatever he'd do next… I somehow didn't care. It'd be recorded, if not video, then audio. And soon it'd be in the media, and the rapist would get what he deserved.
The sound of the door opening broke through my thoughts.
Silence ensued around me.
I forced myself to look up, despite the pain in my body.
There were two silhouettes in the doorway—a woman in a green dress and a man in a black tux.
The woman gasped, one hand at her mouth.
The man's face remained neutral, except for a sudden frown between his eyebrows.
Valmont recoiled, pulling up his pants in a panic.
"What the hell is going on, Caius?" the woman asked.
"Why are you here?" he spoke in a strange, almost scared tone. "And who is this douchebag?"
There was more, but I couldn't make it out. I was falling into the abyss of pain.
The last thing I remembered was the man in the tux crossing the room toward me. The handcuffs fell off.
Then I was up in the air, carried out of the room bridal style. I floateddown the dark corridor. As I tried to make out his features in the haze of double vision and muted light, I saw the gray eyes and a tiny scar in the corner of the upper lip.
"Seven?" I muttered through the bloody agony in my mouth.
"Don't talk," he said, and it was that same voice I'd heard so many times before.
HewasSeven. And he was so beautiful. Even the ache in my body couldn't dull the strange dark excitement that swirled through me from the thought he didn't care to hide his face with me.
"I'm getting you out of here, Ponytail."
"Hey?" I called again.
"You really shouldn't be spe?—"
