Like any animal, though, I would not give up. I lunged again, and he caught my upper arm where the bandages covered my cuts. Pain shot up to my shoulder and I let out a cry. He squeezed, and the world exploded white with agony. Still I held on and twisted to get out of his grasp. He pulled me around and held me against his chest. I kicked, I screamed, I tried to reach behind me with the razor to cut him again. All the while, I knew that I had failed.
Failed again.
“Drop it,” he hissed in my ear. I whipped my head back to try and hit him in the face, but he only leaned back to avoid the blow. I sobbed, the razor biting into my own fingers from where I was holding it so tightly.
“No!” I moaned. It was over. I could feel the blood from his cut soaking into the back of my dress. Still I held on.
“Drop the razor, kitten,” he said, “or I’ll use it to cut your pretty little heart out.”
I choked my sob back. That was it. I was done. It took every single ounce of effort to open my fingers, to let the razor fall from my hand. It made no sound as it landed on the carpet.
Gav
“You don’t think you can trick me that easily, do you, kitten?”
She moaned in my arms. Beautiful, she was. Beautiful and cunning. I threw her down onto my bed with a force that surprised even me. She had threatened my life, and now she would have to pay.
The rope was nylon, thick and red. She screamed as I tied her wrists with the thick loops. She kicked as I did the same with her ankles. Stronger than she looked, but not as strong as me. I secured the knots tightly to the bedposts. I’d practiced them for a long while, and the more she struggled, the tighter the rope would pull.
Her arms and legs were spread apart, each one tied to its own bedpost. Like the man in DaVinci’s drawing, a perfect specimen of humankind. Her body arched against the bed as she twisted to try and escape, sobbing all the while.
Would it be surprising to know that her cunning made me want her even more? Such a smart girl. Such a beautiful woman. She had brains under that soft delicious body, and I smiled as I stripped off my shirt, stanched the blood coming from my chest, and put on a bandage. When I came back to the bedroom, she had stopped struggling, her limbs stretched out tightly.
“Please, no,” she said. “Please. Gavriel.”
“You’ve been very naughty, kitten,” I said. It stung me that she had tried to kill me, stung me more than the time she’d tried to escape.
“Please. I’ll do anything. Don’t hurt me. Don’t kill me. I promise I won’t try anything else. I promise I won’t try to escape. Please—”
“You lied to me, kitten,” I said, sitting on the bed next to her. Her dress was torn at the top, exposing the black bra where she’d hidden the razor. I slid my hands over the fabric to make sure that she had no other surprises waiting for me. She bit her lip as my hands touched her body, cringing back from me.
“I won’t—”
“You tried to kill me. Tsk, tsk.”
“Don’t kill me,” she sobbed. Fear brightened her eyes. It was good; the shadow was nowhere to be found. “Please. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I’ll be good. We can do a trade. I’ll—”
“No more trades,” I said. I took hold of her dress and ripped it down the middle, tearing it off of her. Under the green fabric, her body was pale and beautiful as I had seen it before.
“No more trades. No more begging. You tried to take what you wanted. Now I will take what I want.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kat
He stared down at my body, and I could see the reflection of myself in his eyes. They had gone dark gray, but there was no anger in them, only a horrible, terrifying calm. Blood was smeared across his bare chest where I had cut him with the razor.
I was going to die.
It had taken one second, one bad decision, one moment’s hesitation, and that was it. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to scream. Maybe he would end it quickly. The ropes bit into my wrists and ankles and my arm screamed with pain from where he had squeezed it.
“Kitten,” he said. “Kitten, look at me.”
I felt his weight shift on the bed, leaning over me. Terror seized me and I opened my eyes. He was there, hovering just above me, his eyes matched with mine.
“Are you scared to die now?” he asked.
“Please don’t—” I started, but he brought his finger to my lips and stopped my begging.
“Do you want to live?”
Another game? Or was this a real chance that he was giving me? I nodded yes, slowly.
“Then I will let you live,” he said. “See? I am not quite the monster you thought I was.”