Page 39 of Cruel Proposal
Fuck.
Begging to come, I could handle. Begging for mercy, not so much.
He doesn't want me for just sex. There's a hard glimmer in his eyes as he pulls out a thin knife, running the blade up the inside of my calf before I have the chance to react.
Blood pools on the cut and the blade as he keeps holding the knife to my skin, a subtle reminder that he's the one in charge here.
He could end my life with a single cut if he really wanted to. He could slip that knife straight into the vein in my thigh, leaving me bleeding out.
"You're going to call me Master, understood?"
"Yes."
He digs the tip of the knife into the side of my leg.
I bite back a scream, my teeth sinking into my cheeks as I glare at him. The last thing he's going to get from me is the satisfaction of hurting me.
I'm going to hold out for as long as I can.
Or I'm going to take the thrill of killing me out of his hands.
"Yes, who?" he says, his words slow and drawn out like he's speaking to a child. "Get it right, Summer. I don't want to waste my time training you when you already know how you should behave."
"Yes, Master." I stare straight into his eyes, flinching only when he digs the knife into me a little harder.
He pulls back, picking at dirt beneath his nails with the blade. "Once I'm done with you, I'm going to let my men have a turn with you. It's been a while since either of them got to have some fun with a sub."
The men behind him shift, their eyes dragging up and down my body, the look in them predatory.
Like hell those men are going to get their hands on me.
It's not going to happen. I'll make sure they don't, even if it takes throwing myself out of a window.
I swallow hard, the weight in my chest making it hard to breathe. I'm not ready to die yet, but it looks like I'm not going to get a choice.
There's a part of me that hates Aiden, hates my dad, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, all the men in my family line who keep making the same choices and dragging us deeper into this shit.
He leans forward, the flat of the blade tapping against the side of my knee. "We're going to go home. I'm going to chain you to my bed, and then I'm going to make you bleed."
Fuck.
He looks over his shoulder at the men behind him. "Leave us for a minute."
The men file out of the room without another word.
"Now," he says, his attention back on me. "You're a problem for me, but you're going to be useful. I'm going to have to take pictures of everything I do to you, of course. Your family needs to know what they couldn't save you from."
"You don't have to do that. They'd pay you a good amount of money to get me back. Or I could arrange for them to align with you."
I don't know who he is, but getting my family to work with him might just be the promise I need to get out of here.
His eyes light up for just a moment before he shakes his head. "That's not going to be good enough. Your family is starting to fall, and only someone out of their mind wouldn't take their chance now."
"You don't know what you're doing."
He grabs my leg, his thumb pressing into the cut hard.
I scream, head tipping back, wrists straining against the cuffs that bind me. My chest heaves, and a foul taste rises in the back of my mouth.
