Save Riley(19)

What is he going do to me? Or make me do to him? How can I do anything with a bum shoulder? Why won’t he just let me go?

Those were the last thoughts I had as a normal, sane woman. Everything after that day changed. Every belief I ever had after that day was dead.





Thirteen


Three Months Later

“Riley? Come here please,” Jaxton called out. I had been in the hallway sitting on the staircase trying to breathe. Ever since he started “allowing” me to have clothes, I had been wrapped up in a corset. Every fucking day.

No, that’s a lie. Not “ever since”, it started the day I was curled up, chained to the foot of the bed in horrible pain. I wasn’t quite sure why I was having vicious stomach cramps like I was, but he had called someone over who he said had “extensive experience in the medical field” and had examined me. Jax had looked absolutely terrified when this person left and told me that once the pains went away, he would start dressing me in corsets. Truthfully, I was more concerned with who this person was that didn’t find it odd or strange that there was girl curled up in a ball of agony chained to someone’s bed.

I had asked Jax of course, who said that it didn’t matter. He told me a few days later, once he had calmed down and started shoving me into corsets that he was an old friend of his who used to do what Jax still does. I think mentor was the word he used, but I can’t be sure. He also told me that he gets paid well for his silence and services.

I got shakily to my feet and began to walk up the stairs. He had allowed me to be barefoot if I wished, because the first time I was set in heels, I fell down. Not once did he assume it was the damn corset stealing breaths from me, making me lightheaded, dizzy, or vulnerable; no he just assumed it was the fucking shoes and that I could stay in the corsets barefoot.

I made my way down the hallway and pushed his cracked bedroom door open. I glanced around, waiting for his permission to enter his room. Me, a full grown woman, waiting for permission.

“I’m out on the balcony. You can come join me,” he said.

I sighed deeply and walked into his room and directly out onto the balcony, where he was leaning over, arms crossed, and looking up at the sun setting in the horizon.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked without looking back at me. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful sunset than the ones in Australia.”

I stood in the doorway of his bay windows and waited for further acknowledgment. One thing I learned rather quickly was that just because Jaxton said something to me, it didn’t mean it was an invitation to do anything other than to stand or sit there and listen. Finally he glanced over his shoulder and smiled at me.

“Come stand with me. I want to watch this with you,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied quietly. I walked over and stood next to him. Jax looked at me for a moment; I didn’t have to see him do it. I could feel his eyes on me.

Clearing his throat, he moved from his spot next to me to behind me. He reached down and gently put my hands on the railing, running his hands up and down my arms slowly.

I swallowed hard. The one thing I hated was having Jax touching me the way he was, but what I hated more was not having him touch me at all. In the few months that I had been held captive here, he taught me to yearn for his touch in every way. But since he first had his way with me, he would usually only touch me like this. Gentle caresses that would make my heart race and my eyes flutter.

“Do you think it’s beautiful too?” he whispered breathlessly in my ear. I nodded laying my head back against his chest.

Almost immediately I pulled it away, “I’m sorry.”

I was nervous and absolutely terrified of the room that he would put me in when he felt I was misbehaving or what the fuck ever else went on through his mind. Jax chuckled and I felt the tips of his fingers gently grazing my neck, following the length until he reached my chin. He carefully pushed up until my head was resting against his chest again and we were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Don’t apologize for that, Riley. I enjoy that you’re beginning to finally relax around me enough to do it,” he said with a small smile. “I’ll allow something as simple as that without need for apologies.”

“Thank you,” I whispered shakily.

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a smile. “Let’s watch this now. Silently. Together. Until it’s gone. Then I’ll finally collect on my payment for letting you out of the room the first time you were in it. Is that fair?”

I nodded and turned my attention to the sun setting, willing it to get stuck in the sky. This moment, no matter how beautiful it could have been, was just tainted with the fear that he had decided to “finally collect.” Because it was Jaxton, that could be a number of any disturbing sexual acts or it could also just as easily be watching television together. I didn’t know and I was scared.