Page 14 of Descent
I had to be smarter.
Stronger.
Willing to sacrifice my body. It was the only way I would have a chance at escaping. It was the only way to keep my unborn child safe.
As he removed his clothing, I stepped underneath the spray. He stepped in after me, and I let him wedge my thighs apart. He took his time washing me to his satisfaction, running his soapy hands over every inch of skin, paying extra attention to my breasts and the area between my legs. The whole time, I greedily swallowed the water that cascaded down my face, quenching my thirst from my time spent down in the cellar.
The shower seemed to go on forever. I wasn’t sure if that was a blessing, or a curse, because his sickening touch left tracks on every inch of my body, making my skin crawl. Eventually, he shut off the spray, and my heart throbbed in my chest as he rubbed a towel over my damp skin.
Time was moving too fast.
Time was running out.
I knew what was coming next, and the thought of it made me sick. Literally. I barely made it to the toilet before I spewed what little food Zach had given me. After I’d purged the last of it, I dabbed my mouth with toilet paper before facing him.
His expression was an unreadable, stoic mask. “If you barf when I fuck you, I’ll fry your pretty little neck. I’m not kidding, Lex.” He bent and retrieved his jeans from the bathroom floor. “The only thing I want out of your mouth is ‘fuck me harder.’ Do you understand me?”
“Fuck you, Zach.”
A twitch of his jaw.
That’s all the warning I had before electricity streamed through my bones. My muscles locked into unbearable spasms, and I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. Unable to breathe or voice my pain, I dropped to the floor.
I wanted to beg for it to stop. Wanted to take back the epithet that had set him off in the first place.
The hot current was endless, and my soul seared because Rafe had planned to use this on me. That hurt most of all. And yet I wished he were here to hurt me all the same. I’d take this torture everyday to have him back. Just when I reached the edge of unconsciousness, the charge stopped, and I sobbed so hard my stomach cramped. I held onto my belly, terrified for the life growing there.
Zach picked me up off the floor and flung me over his shoulder. “The only one who’s getting fucked is you.”
That electric shock had sizzled the fight right out of me, leaving my limbs heavy and boneless. It was hard to breathe.
Impossible to think straight.
I could barely move, and that gave Zach the ultimate power over me. He flopped me onto the bed like his own personal fuck doll. After staying strong in that cellar, I had nothing left in this moment.
Only submission and sacrifice.
Time seemed to suspend, leaving me in a mosaic nightmare. I floated in another realm as he grabbed the straps of the restraint system from underneath the mattress. He captured my left wrist inside a cuff before doing the same with the right, then he moved to my feet.
I snapped out of it as he shoved my legs apart. “No!” My heel caught him in the nose, and he stumbled back, fingers pinching his nostrils shut.
But I hadn’t kicked him hard enough. He studied his hand, brows narrowing as if he expected to find his skin marred in crimson. A twitch of a smug smile pulled at his lips, and it was then I spied the looped belt he fisted.
Yanking at the restraints, I glared at him. “Go ahead. Hit me you sick fuck!”
“Jesus, Lex. This place is a sadist’s wet dream, and you call me the sick fuck?” With a grunt, he brought the leather strap down on my breasts.
“Ahhhh!” My spine arched, body lifting off the mattress for several agonizing seconds.
“Spread your fucking legs.” He lashed me across the thighs this time, and his knuckles whitened as he prepared to strike again. “You know I’ll make you bleed.”
When his attention drifted to my stomach, I couldn’t help but whimper. I envisioned him carving into my belly again, digging deeper and deeper until Rafe’s name was gone. Until all that remained was a bloody, mutilated canvas.
Zach’s ultimate masterpiece of raging art.
My legs parted without my permission, self-perseveration in the driver’s seat now, and he fastened the cuffs around my ankles, turning me into a spread-eagled fuck toy, unwilling and defenseless, but that didn’t bother Zach. For over half of my life, he’d taken and taken and taken some more.
This time was no different.
I wanted to believe the lie in order to cope. Wanted to ignore the fact that everything had changed. I’d changed. I wasn’t alone anymore. I had Rafe.
