Page 10 of Merciless Wager
He smirked. “You have no idea.”
“Duh! It’s why I am asking you,” I retorted, then clamped my mouth shut as he raised a brow.
It drew attention to his eyes once more. His gaze was magnetic, and no matter how many times I tried to look away, I was drawn back to it. An involuntary shiver wracked my small frame. He caught it, and that smirk widened. If the circumstances were different, I might look at him and even be enamored with how handsome he was, despite the obvious hardness to him.
But, I’d been kidnapped and was now being held by this maniac, so all I could do was try to figure a way out of this situation. “May I at least know who you are?”
“My name isn’t important.”
“But you know mine. Isn’t it only fair that I?—”
My words were cut off the moment he wrapped his hand around my throat and yanked me toward him. “Nothing about life is fair, especially yours as you will now come to know it. Either accept it or don’t. It makes no difference to me. Just know there is only one way out of your destiny, and it’s not one I’ll allow you to take.”
“B-but I...”
I stopped myself as I stared into his face. He was close enough to me now that I could feel his warm breath as it tickled my chin and jaw. My bottom lip quivered ever so slightly, which caught his attention. His roving gaze didn’t stop there. I followed his eyes with my own as they dropped to my chest, which was rapidly rising and falling with every ragged breath I took.
I stiffened the moment he brought his free hand to one of my breasts, then roughly squeezed it. The breath I’d been trying to control caught in my throat as I held it. He was now focused entirely on my breasts, alternating between one and the other.
To my own mortification, the moment he twisted one of the hard buds, it tightened painfully. A slow grin spread across thatsinful mouth of his. It was only when I realized I was openly allowing him to fondle me that I smacked at his hands, then his chest, until he finally let me go.
“Don’t touch me,” I seethed at him.
He chuckled, then turned and headed to the door. Just before he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder at me. “It’s adorable that you think you have any control over what happens to you from this point on. You don’t call the shots about anything, least of all your own will.”
“You fucking asshole,” I said to him. “You’re going to pay for this one day, and I can’t wait to watch it.” He stood frozen for a moment, which made me swallow the lump forming in my throat. Feeding off the small bit of confidence I possessed right now, I quickly added. “Touch me again and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
What happened next was a complete blur as I could do nothing more than blink once or twice before he was on me once more. Only this time, he had my neck back in his grip as he pulled me completely off the bed.
The hard brick of the accent wall knocked the breath temporarily out of me as he slammed me against it roughly. It was in that moment that I knew I had fucked up. Those eyes that had seemed lifeless before were now alive and burning bright like an inferno. His mouth was drawn tight in a thin line, and his grip was ruthless.
“I’m not heartless enough not to understand that you’re frightened in this moment. I’m truly not, but don’t mistake my restraint for anything more than it is. You’re not in control now, nor will you ever be when with me. I’ll touch you any time that I want, and in any way that I want. And once I do, I’ll break you. I’ll shatter you into fucking pieces so there will be next to nothing left for the next guy.”
I gasped loudly. As I searched his eyes, I could see he truly believed what he was saying. What was worse was that I did as well. My body trembled, and my defiant nature urged me to fight back, but I found myself going limp against him instead as deflation filled me.
This stranger mentioned restraint, and seeing as he’d manhandled and taken undue liberties with me already, I didn’t want to see what else he could do. My friends and I used to joke around about being kidnapped and how we would react. Brae and I used to even say that our abductor would likely grow sick of our defiance and return us. It had been fun until you actually found yourself in that situation. I had tried to let my mouth get me out of this mess, but I had only managed to anger this man instead. While I could not care less about his feelings, he did have the upper hand.
“Now, unless you want me to back up every word I just said, I expect you to calm the fuck down. Am I understood?”
I stared at him for several long seconds as I fought to control my rebellious side. Finally, I sighed the best that I could with his hand wrapped tightly around my throat, and nodded about the same.
It had to have been good enough for him because he released my throat, and I nearly tumbled forward at the same time I sucked heaving breaths of air back into my lungs.
He caught me with his large hands, then led me back over to the bed, where I quickly sat down on the edge of it. “Can’t I please at least have your name?” I asked him.
“It’s Zarren,” he said before heading back toward the door.
This time, I didn’t say anything else as I turned his words over and over in my head. Zarren. I had never heard his name before. Was he possibly a friend of Drake’s? I shook my head as I couldn’t recall him ever muttering it to or around me before. There had to be a connection to him, though.
How else would you have known I was going to be in the parking garage?
It was a question I wanted to ask, but as the door slammed closed behind him, I flinched and decided I’d figure this out on my own. Drake had sounded weird when he’d texted me about a surprise trip.
Had it all been a ruse?
Had he played me?
I shook my head. I was acting as if my unsuspecting boyfriend would plan some elaborate kidnapping attempt. When I’d gotten his message and spoken to him, it had definitely been him, even if he had been stressed.
