head.
“I found your resistance quite endearing earlier, but I am quickly becoming bored with it,” he says, staring me down.
I try to catch my breath and flinch when the rough fabric of his trousers rubs against the wound on my inner thigh. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Were you born yesterday? Are you unaware of how the world works? Since when have your wants mattered?” His harsh tone cuts through me and stings just as much as the pain on my leg.
He is right.
I’m not special.
Believing I was for this long was foolish and naive. The sooner I get over that fact, the less it’s going to hurt. I have no answer for him, but neither will I admit he is right, so instead, I squeeze my eyes closed and turn my head away.
“Now, now,” he says, grazing my cheek with his hard forehead. He pins my wrists with one hand, and his fingers slide gently under my chin before pulling my head back toward him. “Just because no one gives a fuck about what you want, doesn’t mean you need to be so unhappy. I like deals. I’ll make a deal with you,” he says.
I open my eyes and look up at him. “What’s the deal?”
“I’ll allow you to stay here. Tonight. You can sleep in your bed and dream about your pretty dresses and your friends and your trinkets. And your virginity,” he adds with glee.
I narrow my eyes at him, instantly mistrusting. “And in return?”
He chuckles, which is eerie as fuck because the expression on the mask isn’t moving to reflect the sound. “In return, when I do come for you, we have none of this. You put your arms around my neck, you cuddle into my chest, and you act like you want me to take you.”
I don’t answer him because there are no winners in this deal. Well, no winners that aren’t him. Whether he fucks me right now or carries me out in his arms tomorrow, I’m still being taken against my will.
I’m still losing.
He leans down and presses his cold metal face into the side of my head. “The alternative is we spend the night here together. You already got the bed nice and messed up for me…”
“Deal,” I say.
His grip on my wrist relaxes, and to my astonishment, he gets up and backs away from the bed. He’s still laughing hysterically as he walks toward the exit.
I watch him as if he’s one of the starved bears they keep in the lower chambers, and my breath hitches when he turns around.
“My name is Baron, and I’m about to become your nightmare.”
6
Baron
Maxim stands to greet me when I enter the room.
“You are alone?”
I look to my left, and then to my right, and wonder how long a person needs to stay in this place before they, too, become an imbecile. “Yes. I’m alone.”
Maxim shifts nervously. “Where is Sapphire?”
I take a seat at his table and gesture for him to join me. “You know, while I understand the logic behind her name, I don’t like it. I think I shall call her Fire instead.”
He nods in agreement. “You might be right.”
I laugh, cutting him off. “I’m always right.”
“Why… why isn’t she with you?” Maxim gestures one of his men over with a bottle and pours himself a double measure. He raises an eyebrow at me, silently asking if I’d like one.
Shaking my head, I point at my face. “Too messy.” I wouldn’t take the mask off for a hundred-year-old bottle of whisky, never mind the dubious-colored homemade shit he’s pouring now. “She didn’t feel obliged to join me.”
“I can only apologize,” he says, taking a mouthful of his drink. “I’ll speak to her.”
I shake my head. “No. It’s quite all right.”
He lets his glass fall slowly to the table. “You don’t want her anymore?”
“She’s a headache,” I state. It’s not a lie, though it doesn’t mean I don’t want her. Maxim doesn’t need to know that, though. “I fail to see what is so special about her to make me pay the eye-watering amount you’re asking. Not least when I’d have to go to all the trouble of breaking her myself.”
Again, another occasion when I’m glad I don’t have to hide my expression. The thought of having to break her brings nothing but a smirk to my face.
“She is different,” he says. “She can read… I taught her myself.“
I snort. “She can read? Maxim, I have a grandmother at home quite capable of tucking