a word Baron says. He could just be saying that to make me do his bidding. But what is the alternative? The door is locked. Even if I don’t play his twisted game, I can’t get out of here. And an innocent man will lose his life because of me.
“Fine,” I say. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to take your clothes off.” His voice is like a rough caress, and I swear I feel it work its way over my skin. “Andrei, turn your back.”
Of all the ways I suspected this would go, this was the direction I feared the most.
“Please, Baron. Please don’t make me, I swear—”
“Ah ah. Remember what I said about begging, my sweet girl. There is only one person in this room allowed to beg, and you are not him.” He nods in the direction of the man sitting in the chair, and my eyes follow.
The man doesn’t have to beg. His eyes are wide with fear, and he is shaking.
“Please, miss,” the man chokes out. “Just do as he says.”
Just do as he says.
As if it were that simple.
It sounds simple enough. He has seen me naked before, and no doubt will see me naked again. But it’s not the thought of his eyes on my naked flesh that have me shaking in fear.
It’s what comes after that.
“Take the two front ones,” Baron says to Andrei with a nod of his head.
The man starts shouting and thrashing as Andrei goes to the wall and fetches a pair of pliers.
“Wait,” I say, my fingers sliding down my dress and hooking under the hem. I lift the dress over my head and let it fall to the floor in a heap.
Baron’s whole body stiffens as his head moves from my feet to my head. “Did I, or did I not, say naked?”
I am practically naked. There was no underwear in my pile of clothes, save for the pair of stockings and a belt to hold them up. I bend down and unclip them before rolling each one down my leg. The belt comes last and lands in the pile with everything else.
The room is silent while I stand there and try to remember how to breathe. It’s only my body—that’s what I repeat in my head. It’s just my body—not my mind.
“And now you’re going to dance for me. On me,” he adds. “Right here.” He slaps a hand down on his parted thigh and leans back in the chair.
Ice trickles slowly down my spine, and my body freezes over. I feel the man’s eyes on me and glance over at him. He’s pleading with his eyes for me to do it.
“Andrei!”
Andrei grabs a hold of his head and forces it back at a horrible angle. The man screams, literally screams. “Please,” he calls. “I have children. Don’t do this.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Baron bursts out laughing. “Children? And where are they now? Tell us all, what did I do to those precious children?”
Whatever the man was going to say gets caught in his pained sobs. I’m thankful for it. I have absolutely no desire to know what Baron did to his children. Just the thought of it has my stomach churning.
I inch toward Baron and slowly climb on top of him, threading my legs through the holes in the chair created by the wooden arms. The man is still screaming as I stare down at him, but Baron isn’t looking at my face. Even with the mask, I can feel his eyes devouring the rest of me.
The hand without the gun takes a hold of my hip and forces me down lower until my exposed parts connect with the rough fabric of his jeans and my thigh touches something hard.
“Stop this,” I beg him. “I’m doing what you asked.”
“What I asked, was for you to dance,” he snaps back. “Currently you are sitting on my cock like it’s your own personal throne.”
How can I dance?
The man terrifies me.
The other man is screaming, probably having his teeth pulled out.
Baron leans in, and I shiver as the cold metal face connects with my flushed cheek. “I know you can dance, Sapphire. You can dance for your own life when the situation calls for it.”
“Stop and I’ll dance,” I say quickly, shrinking away from him.
Baron tilts his head to the side, and I get the sense he is looking me in the eye even if I can’t see it.
“Andrei, enough,” he orders quietly.
I’m surprised it can be