don’t we party together for a while?” She suggested coyly. She turned in Blake’s arms and played with the top button of his open oxford. “It could be fun. Just a few more drinks? Maybe play a little poker?”
“Strip poker?” Blake asked with hooded eyes.
“Sure, strip poker,” Ana cooed back. “Ivy loves strip poker, don’t you Ivy?”
I opened my mouth to announce how much I loved strip poker, anything was better than being alone with Taylor at this point, but he beat me to it.
“That’s alright,” Taylor said in a cold voice. “Ivy and I are ready to be alone. But you two go on and have fun now.”
Taylor stopped at the door to his room and pulled out the keycard that would open it. Blake laughed at Taylor’s brazenness and pulled Ana along to his room. She gave me an anxious, apologetic look but let him drag her along.
Then the lock clicked open and Taylor was leading me into his room. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights so as soon as the door shut behind us we were lost in complete darkness. His hands had never left me and were now holding me in place, both of them firmly on my waist.
“You, you, y-you should know that I’m actually underage,” I stammered. “I’m only sixteen!”
My voice was a desperate cry, my breath stuck in my throat.
“You better be,” he sneered, and then pushed me forward. My foot caught on something, a suitcase or desk leg or something and I stumbled forward and fell on my knees. My hands caught my fall, but then his polished shoe came down hard on my backside, propelling me forward so that I flew face first into the carpet. The rough, hotel room carpet burned against my face and I cried out in pain and fear. “I wanted someone young, Ivy. You’re exactly what I was hoping for.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
I laid there on the carpet, hands clutching the short, tough fibers, freaking out. I mean, I had a meltdown like seven months ago, but no emotions I ever felt compared to the fierce terror that momentarily froze me to stone.
He wanted somebody underage?
Nix sent me into this situation knowing that?
Oh. No.
Oh, no no no no no no.
I ordered my brain to think of an escape plan, to find a way out of this, and to do it now! But
before I could even think about moving, his hand was tangled in my hair and yanking me to my feet. I cried out again at his tight hold and the way he ripped my head back in order to get me to bend to his will.
Once I was standing again he turned me around to face him. He placed his huge palm against the curve of my face very delicately and looked into my eyes like he was a gentle person. The effect wasn’t placating or relaxing but sickening and my chin started to tremble under the intensity of his gaze. His face was bathed in the dim light from the half open curtains behind us. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the room, but all I could see were the sinister, evil lines of the man holding me in place. The same hand that was caressing my face so gently suddenly pulled back and then slapped me. Hard.
I bit my cheek as a result, the coppery taste of blood mixing with the extra saliva from the desire to vomit. Holy hell, what was going on? How did I get to this place in my life? How did I get here, where someone was beating the hell out of me for their sick entertainment?
“You can’t- I’m Nix’s. Nix wants me for himself,” I shouted out in a desperate plea. No desperate wasn’t even the right word. There wasn’t a word that could convey how badly I wanted to get out of here. How afraid I was of this man.
That threat was met with a harsh, gunshot of laughter. It pierced the dark, silent room like the very sound of it was raping the quiet. I had to get out of here. Now.
“I’m not going to have sex with you Ivy,” he taunted me, making it sound like I suggested something inhumanely vile. “Nix wants me to teach you a lesson, to discipline you. Trust me if I wanted to get off by sleeping with you, this would have gone completely different. I’m actually a fantastic date.”
His explanation caught me so off guard I