Page 68 of Keep Me Safe
“No.”
Whatever pleasantness was on his face vanished. “Was I unclear? You don’t get to say that word.”
“Get used to it.” I didn’t flinch when he set the flat side of the blade on my skin right below where the man had cut me.
Air left me rapidly when he grabbed one of the straps of my dress and cut it, then the other, and the destroyed fabric peeled down my body.
It exposed what I’d worn for Shawn, the other set of expensive lingerie he’d unknowingly bought for me. When I had first picked it out, I had hoped he’d never get to see it. Now I was pissed he wouldn’t. It added to the fire already raging in my belly.
“God, you’re beautiful.” Juric said it like it was unexpected. He used his free hand to grab the chain of my handcuffs and pull me close, keeping a tight hold on it. “Would you like to get dressed?” He dragged the knife lightly down my collarbone, down between my breasts, to below my bra. “All you have to do is follow my command.”
My heart slammed inside my chest, and it was so loud I wondered if he could hear it. It didn’t matter. I pushed everything I felt to the side except for my anger and leaned forward so my face was by his ear.
“Go to hell.”
Disappointment washed over his face. “You don’t breathe unless I say so. If you disobey, you’ll be punished,” he said. “Now take a breath and hold it.”
I started to laugh, but the sharp side of the blade pressed up against the flesh covering my ribs, quickly making me serious.
“Don’t say no to me. Hold your breath.”
There was no other answer. “No.”
He cut me.
I silenced the scream and maintained an iron grip on my control. I would not give any to him. He looked confused when there was hardly a reaction from me and scrambled to regroup.
“I don’t want to, but I’ll cut you deeper next time. Don’t make me do this. What I’m asking you to do is not hard.”
Was his hand shaking?
He focused intently on me and the ebb and flow of my breathing.
I took a deep breath and then exhaled it in his face, making a show out of my defiance. He stayed true to his word, and this time it hurt too much to not make a sound. When a tiny whimper escaped my lips, he looked stricken. Warm blood dripped down over my waist and the curve of my hip.
“Shit, I might have to stitch that one closed.” The knife was abruptly gone. I was trembling, almost naked before him, bleeding. But I’d done it, I’d won.
Only this round. Not the entire fight,my mind corrected.
Yet there was uncertainty clinging to the edges of his eyes, like he was realizing he might have underestimated me.
But maybe that wasn’t what was going on in his head after all, because the knife was under my bra strap as if ready to cut it off. The idea of being topless in front of him was scary enough, but more than that, I worried about Shawn’s business card hiding there. He’d certainly take it from me, and it was all I had.
And there was a chance the Osterhägen logo might send him over the edge.
“Okay, stop,” I said, quickly.
His voice was stern. “Do as I said.”
I took a deep breath, filled my lungs with as much air as possible . . . and held it.
His gaze was intense and impossible to look away from. My chest was tight and immediately uncomfortable, and I wantedto let the breath out, but he didn’t move. He waited for me to disobey.
He wanted to break me.
It was a lifetime before he spoke. “Good job,” he said. “You can breathe.”
I blew it out, sucking new air into my body. But I hadn’t recovered when he commanded I do it again.
