Dark (Beautiful Ashes #1)(45)
Keeley swallowed hard. She couldn’t blow this. Braxton was the key to it all and he wanted her. Only her. She acknowledged how dangerous that was. In E’s club she was protected, not in the underground one. She didn’t trust that Leith could keep her safe and hissed, “Let me go.”
“You like it rough. Don’t tempt me, Keeley.”
“You’re threatening me?”
“If I have to.”
“You’re a real son of a bitch, you know that?”
“Don’t you forget it either. Now stand up and play nice. We have an audience.”
Keeley let Leith lead her out of the bar, but once they were on the street, she shoved him hard. “I hate you.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I’m all you got. Unless,” he leveled a look at her, “you’d like me to tell Tarius everything that happened the other night.”
Her heart was galloping in her ears, making it almost impossible to hear anything else. “You wouldn’t.”
“Test me. I dare you,” he growled.
She spun around and marched away, flipping him off over her shoulder. Keeley was in deeper than she anticipated. She should tell Tar the whole story before it was too late. But she wouldn’t. She convinced herself on the way back to the penthouse that protecting him was best. If something happened to her, he was better off. They all were.
Mitch handed Tar a double shot of Jack Daniels as they went over the details of the investigation. Braxton was a solid lead and Mitch needed Keeley in his home. “FUCK NO!” he roared.
Tar’s response was expected. “It’s where he’ll be most forthcoming. Try to look at this from our perspective.”
“Oh, I am,” he growled. “None of you give a fuck if he kills her.”
“Hey now, not true,” Mitch protested. “I happen to like Keeley.”
Tar paced the room with both hands in his hair, pulling. “There’s got to be another way.”
“Cool your heels. It’s the objective. But he has to make the offer.”
“Right. Cross that bridge when we get to it.” Tar began to calm down some. “She’s got some good information out of him.”
“Yeah, she did.” Mitch smiled. “Hopefully he’ll continue to talk in the club.”
Tar nodded, but he knew the odds were slim to none. Experience told him Mitch was accurate. The only way they were gathering the incriminating evidence necessary was to get into the fucker’s lair. Pissed him off, but he acknowledged it really was the only way. His fist went through the wall before he really thought much about what he was doing. Didn’t help in the slightest. His job was to protect the woman he loved, not feed her to wolves. This particular wolf raised the hairs on Tar’s neck every time he thought of him near Keeley. Something about the well-to-do business man screamed D-A-N-G-E-R. He wanted to ignore it. Play this off as the jealous lover. But Tar knew his gut had never been wrong before. Why would it start now?
Chapter Nineteen
Keeley was strapped down over a whipping bench in some kind of dress taken straight from medieval times. Braxton was playing out a scene and also dressed for the part. Every strike of the whip ripped through the cloth protecting her skin. She absently wondered how the hell they would cover those marks. Fate smiled down on her as he switched to a belt once he reached bare skin. Provided he never tore her flesh; she could spin a tale around the welts. He struck along her sex and Keeley could not fight how wet it made her. But no matter how hard he tried, she wouldn’t let herself orgasm. He didn’t have to tell her that was his goal. Braxton’s body gave him away. He leaned over her, speaking in her ear. “I want to rip open your skin and come all over every cut I make.” He ground into her ass with his hard cock. “While you writhe from the searing pain, I want to fuck you.”
Keeley was breathing hard. What he was saying went beyond her comfort zone. He actually terrified her. His hand went down the front of the dress, twisting her nipple until she yelped. Leith’s voice came over the intercom. “Enough.”
Braxton growled, “She didn’t use her safeword.”
Keeley wanted to jerk away from the man she knew would rape her eventually. Instead, she forced out, “Red.”
Braxton was sweating and panting when Keeley was released. He was wiping his face with a towel as a robe was wrapped around her shoulders. The look he gave her sealed what she already knew, he was going to have her with or without her consent, or anyone else’s.
She took a step back until instinct kicked in. The more fear Braxton saw in her, the more he would act on it. Keeley recognized she needed to play the game. Pretend she wanted him. That sent her back to the time spent with the senator and her captivity. She’d been willing to have sex with him. Could she do it again with Braxton? Difference, she wasn’t in love with Tar then and she did it to survive. Problem it led to, now she craved the high pain brought her. Shit. Even in death, Senator Caleb Reynolds had a hold on her.