“Sit. Please,” he said softly.
I used my right arm to cover my breasts as I tried to get comfortable on the edge of the bed. Jaxton crouched down and placed a hand on either side of me.
“I want nothing more than for us to be equals, Riley. I want us to learn to please each other; sexually and emotionally. I can’t have you disobeying me, understand? I wouldn’t have left you in the living room all night, but I also don’t want to have to worry that you’ll hurt yourself to get away from me every time I tie you up,” he said, brushing my hair out of my face.
“I don’t want to be here,” I responded in a shaky voice.
“I know. But you will want to be here eventually. I don’t want to ... discard you, Riley. I would like to keep you for as long as possible because you’re the one that has intrigued me the most,” he said getting to his feet.
I watched him turn on the light in his walk in closet and disappear inside. I stood up and walked quietly toward the closet. I put my hand on the back of the door before I peeked around the side. His back was to me and he was rifling through a container of sorts.
Close the door! Lock it and jump out of the window, my inner heroine yelled. It was a good enough idea to at least just try. I quickly swung the door shut and looked for a lock on it, but there was none. Instead there was the sound of a few beeps as the code pad reset itself. I heard his angry shout from inside the closet as I ran toward the window and out onto the balcony. I heard the sounds of beeping as he punched the code in.
“Riley!” he shouted racing toward me as I put my legs over the side of the balcony.
I made the mistake of looking down instead of just jumping. I had always been afraid of heights and even though this wasn’t exactly high up, it was enough to stop me for a few seconds.
Enough time for Jaxton to catch me before I could jump. Enough time to feel the unmistakable leather of a belt going around my neck and enough time to jerk me back so hard that I hit my head and lost consciousness.
Eleven
When I woke up I was in a room. A stone room that wasn’t necessarily big but not too small. I was lying naked ... Naked? Yes naked, on a bed that was sitting against the wall of the room. I sat up and immediately felt the restraints around my ankles. I glanced down and saw that there was rope tied securely around them and then again to the posts of the bed. My lower lip trembled as I glanced around the room, a feeling of absolute terror running through me.
Was this what happened to the others when they “disobeyed” Jaxton? He had mentioned about doing this before but he never said what happened to the other women.
I shifted uncomfortably on the bed and felt something under my left thigh crinkle. I lifted my leg and looked down to see a note with my name on it. I instinctively reached for it with my left hand.
“Motherfucker!” I screamed in pain. He hadn’t wrapped my arm like he said he would and the sudden movement had caused terrible pain to start radiating in my shoulder. I reached underneath my leg with my right hand and pulled the note out. I opened it and flattened it against the bed so I could read it and somewhat nurse my arm at the same time.
You have 72 hours in this room.
Enjoy your stay.
I crumpled the letter angrily in my fist before I threw it against the wall. Those three or so seconds I spent hesitating on the ledge of the balcony cost me just as many days in this room. I should’ve just jumped; I shouldn’t have doubted myself.
I didn’t know how I was going to stand being in this room alone for three days. Would he at least bring me something to eat or drink? What if I needed to use the bathroom? What the hell had I gotten myself into?
The sound of beeping on the door made me sigh unhappily. I lay back down on the bed and stared at the ceiling stoically. The door opened and I heard him walk in, followed by the sound of a chair scraping across the floor and stopping next to me. But he didn’t sit down; instead he went back into the hallway to retrieve something else that he scraped across the floor, setting it by the foot of the bed. One more trip in and out and he finally closed the door behind him.
He cleared his throat as he turned on the television and slid a disc into the DVD player. Then he sat down next to me and propped his legs up onto the bed.
I turned my head slightly so I could watch him out of the corner of my eye. He had his hands crossed behind his head as usual and he was watching the television. I watched a smile slowly spread across his lips.
It was the same as it was when I first woke up in this place. He ignored the fact that I was there while he watched TV. The only difference was there were no bowls of cereal around and he didn’t mind scraping around in here.