Chase You To The Sun (18 page)

Bruce cornered her and slipped his enormous hands around her upper arms. He then pushed her against the door, his grip like a vise. Strangely enough, he didn’t say anything – his eyes just scanned her distraught face in silence. Under his quiet gaze, she slowly felt hot anger at what he’d done to her safe and familiar world flare up.

“Let go of me,” she hissed violently.

He surprised her by actually releasing her arms and taking a step back. “I’m coming in to talk,” he said calmly.

“Well, you’re not welcome.” On top of destroying the special bond she’d always felt with her father, this man had also fucked her without even bothering to stick around for a few minutes afterwards. She didn’t want him anywhere near her.

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see about that,” he said, pushing the door open and forcibly shoving her inside before stepping in himself.

Lana looked up at him, her heart in her throat as he closed the door and then stared down at her, towering over her tiny frame like a looming, dark, avenging angel.

“I have nothing to say to you,” she insisted, despite the terror lancing through her body and a faint, little voice nagging at her brain that she wasn’t being fair to this man.

His face darkened. “Really?”

“Yes. Really.”

Slowly, he stepped closer, driving her back against the wall. “Well,” he said at last. “Maybe you have something to give to me, then.” He sounded so predatory all of a sudden that it made her stomach twist with fear.

“No,” she whispered. “Please. It has to stop.”

Bruce raised his hand and cupped her cheek in his large, warm palm. “It’s not your call.”

Lana swallowed hard. “I told you to leave me alone,” she wavered, her voice rising anxiously in her throat.

He barked out a harsh laugh. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Not in
my
house. Not after that stunt you pulled this afternoon. If you were any of the men downstairs, you’d be in the hospital right now.” She shivered with fear when Bruce slipped an arm around her waist, drawing her so close to him she could feel the heat radiating off his skin. “So if you refuse to talk to me about what happened today, I can think of something else you can do for me, blossom.”

“Let go of me,” she pleaded, trying to push him off. “I changed my mind. You – you're not respecting my wishes.”

He scoffed. “Look, Lana, I've been a good boy so far. You think this is me being disrespectful? I could show you some
real
disrespect, little girl.”

Lana’s heart skipped a beat. “What – what do you mean?” she squeaked.

His mouth twitched with scorn. “Meaning, I could have had my way with you the minute I made you a prisoner in my house. Every way I wanted. Any time I wanted.”

“Then why didn’t you?” The words were out before she could stop them.

He hesitated for a second, a hint of sadness flickering in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I want you now, and I’ll take what I want.”

Lana felt her knees give way. “Please don't,” she whispered.

A contemptuous smile pulled at his mouth. “Oh, come on now,” he said, moving in so close that Lana stopped breathing, staring up at him with eyes full of terror. She trembled when his warm breath brushed the side of her face and his fingers traced patterns across the sensitive skin of her lower back. Even though his words had made it clear he wouldn’t take no for an answer, his hands were still trying to tempt her into saying yes. Lana blushed hotly, cursing her treacherous body for responding to his nearness like this.

Bruce smiled down on her, his face inches away from hers. He knew what this was doing to her. Lana gasped when his hand gently rubbed her abdomen before hitching up the short skirt she was wearing today. He trailed down to the warm spot between her legs. Bruce's fingers lightly touched her pussy through her underwear, making her quiver with need. “Are you creaming yourself yet?” he whispered, his breath quickening. “Or do you need some help?”

Before she could utter a word, his index finger slipped behind the lace of her thong, dipping into the warm, wet cleft of her cunt. Bruce chuckled darkly. “Changed your mind, huh?” he said sarcastically.

“Please don’t force me,” she stammered, genuinely shocked. “You're not like that.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I
am
like that. Stop thinking of me as a good guy who is a bit rough around the edges. I'm not a nice guy.
Everybody
knows that. I really don't know why you insist on being late to the party.”

When Bruce grabbed her wrists, Lana tried to resist, but he was so strong that she might as well not have protested. He dragged her across the room and flung her down on the bed. She desperately tried to scramble away, but Bruce immediately pinned her to the mattress with his heavy, muscular body. “You're not going anywhere,” he said evenly, the look on his face so intimidating that Lana felt a surge of panic rising in her chest.

“I – no, Bruce. Please let’s talk about this,” she beseeched him. “I'm sorry, okay? I am.”

He slightly loosened his grip on her wrists, narrowing his eyes at her. “Oh, so
now
you want to talk?” he sneered.

She tried to blink away her tears. “Yes. Please listen. I was out of line. I was upset with you for telling me the truth, and that’s not fair. You're – right. I couldn’t take it. I still can’t.”

He watched her silently as she broke down into quiet sobs.

“I know I'm a coward,” Lana sniffed. “I just – I don’t know what to do.” She stared up at the man holding her down, her lower lip trembling and her breathing too fast.

Bruce observed her intensely, his eyes softening. “Are you serious?” he said hoarsely.

“Yes.” She gulped down the lump in her throat. “So please stop punishing me like this. I don't want it to be like this.”

Bruce held perfectly still. The only part of his body still moving was his chest, rising and falling with deep breaths. When he finally moved again, he released one of her wrists and trailed his warm hand down her side, hooking his fingers in the waistband of her skirt. “Take off your panties,” he mumbled slowly.

Even though he didn’t stop, the atmosphere had changed between them. He was no longer really forcing her. Somehow, she'd succeeded in making him listen to her.

Lana let out a shaky sigh as she lifted her bum and obediently pulled down her thong with one hand. He assisted her, pulling it over her knees and dumping it by the side of the bed. Since he was only wearing pajama bottoms, it took him all but two seconds to take out his cock, maneuvering it against her slick hole. “Spread for me,” he whispered in her ear. “Wide.”

Lana stifled a cry when he pushed into her, so hot and hard that it still somehow felt like punishment. Bruce groaned as he buried himself inside her, his balls already tight against her wetness. “God, you feel good,” he moaned. “I could devour you.” She could feel how he stretched her and filled her up, slickly grinding into her taut hole in a fast and pounding rhythm.

He clearly wasn’t holding back this time. Lana cried out in pain when he grabbed her knee and lifted up her leg all the way, resting her calf on his shoulder while slamming into her. “Slow down,” she panted. “Please.”

Bruce shot her a roguish grin. “Want me to last longer?”

Lana bit her lip. “You’re hurting me,” she whispered.

“Don’t like it rough, do you?” His movements slowed.

“I don’t think you do either,” she defied him. “You’re just angry. You want to dominate me.”

His slate-gray eyes ran dark. “Oh, yes. Very much.”

“Why?” she whispered. “So you won’t have to feel vulnerable yourself?”

For a moment, he stopped moving. “Shut up,” he breathed.

“Is that why you always run out of here after fucking me?”

“Shut
up
,” he groaned, more insistently.

“Why are you trying so hard not to like me?” She didn’t know why all her questions were pouring out now, but she couldn’t keep them in anymore.

This time, her words made him stop completely. Bruce stared down at her, his jaw working and his eyebrows knitting together in a frown.

“Talk to me.” Lana’s hand trembled as she reached out, hesitantly touching his face.

The silence seemed to stretch on forever. Bruce looked lost in thought, struggling with whatever was going on in his mind. “Because I can’t trust you,” he finally mumbled.

Lana stared at him wordlessly.

“What happened this afternoon makes it clear who you are. I thought you could take the truth – I thought that maybe we could...”

“Work together?” she finished when he didn’t go on.

With a sigh, Bruce rolled off her, all the heat and rage gone from his loins. Lana held her breath, half-expecting him to get up and leave, or grab her again to finish what he started, or hit her and tell her to shut up. He did none of those things. Instead, he lay staring up at the ceiling, his breath slowing down, his hands pulling up his flannel pants to cover up.

“Yes,” he finally admitted.

“Like you wanted my mom to work with you?”

“I killed your mother, remember?” he said bitterly.

Lana cringed. “No, you didn’t. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Bruce looked aside, gauging her intentions with his eyes.

“I’m sorry I broke your trust,” she softly added. And she really meant it.

His hand slipped around hers. “I shouldn’t have broken yours, either.”

Lana stopped breathing. She couldn’t believe her ears. Was this terrifying, powerful, dangerous man
apologizing
to her?

“Maybe you should tell me what happened,” she ventured. “Why you are the way you are. If you trust me now, that is.”

Bruce cleared his throat, his gaze going back to the ceiling. “It’s not pretty.”

“I don’t expect it to be.”

Lana listened to Bruce breathing in the semi-darkness, his respiration slowly settling into a more relaxed pace. Maybe he was hesitant to tell her – or perhaps he just didn’t know where to begin. Gingerly, she rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb, because they were still holding hands.

“When I was twenty-two, my father sent me on a business trip,” he finally started. “He wanted me to strengthen the ties he had with the Russian Realm and represent the Randall family. Xander was unavailable, so he thought he’d send me in.”

“Xander?” Lana echoed.

“My brother. And best friend.”

Suddenly, Lana remembered the pictures on the memory card. The older guy looking just like Bruce – that had to be him.

“I wasn’t really interested in economics or trade, but I was thrilled my father had picked me to go to Ganymede. Xander was his favorite, because my brother had the same kind of interests. I was the awkward guy in the family who was interested in literature and poetry. I hadn’t been of much use to the Randalls up till that point.”

“So you went to Novi Moscow.”

“Yes. And while I was there lobbying for my dad, I was invited by president Kasparov himself to visit the Promethean mines.” His mouth pulled up in a bitter smile. “I can still remember how privileged I felt to be a visitor there. Little did I know what I’d find.”

“Those children,” Lana whispered.

“Yes. Those children. Well, not the same ones, of course.” Bruce closed his eyes and rubbed his face for a few seconds as if to chase away the memories. “An assistant of Ivanov Mining Companies explained to us that the kids had grown up on Amalthea, a lower-gravity colony, so they were small and skinny enough to crawl down the fissures in the Promethean rocks and manually extract the stones. They’d tried nanobots, but the technology wasn’t advanced enough, and incredibly expensive. Using heavier explosives to open up the soil tended to ruin the gemstones for trade purposes. So they used child labor, this man proudly told us.”

“My God,” Lana gasped.

Bruce opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her. “I went back home and told my dad what was happening on that moon.” He paused for a few seconds. “Turned out he’d actually known for a few years.”

“He – he wasn’t shocked?”

“Not that I could tell. My old man ribbed me for being such a sensitive soul and went on to ask me if I’d talked to any Russian representatives from the Duma on behalf of the Randalls.”

“That’s
horrible
.” She rolled on her side to caress Bruce’s chest with her hand, wanting to somehow comfort him.

“Oh, I’m not done yet.” He laughed coldly. “When I went to Xander,
he
was upset. But not upset enough to really do something about it. He had such a mind for business, my brother. After the initial shock had worn off, he patiently tried to explain to me why the Promethean gemstone export shouldn’t be disrupted. Why we should leave it alone. How our monetary system would go haywire. How everything would spiral down into chaos. And that’s when I realized I didn’t really know my best friend that well.” His voice trembled a little bit, but he still kept talking. “And so, I gave up on convincing my family and went straight to the British authorities in New London. The child slaves were from Amalthea, after all, and that moon belongs to the Brits. I couldn’t imagine they’d take abduction of their laborers by greedy Russians lightly.”

“What did they do?”

Bruce chuckled humorlessly. “Turned out
they
knew, too. It was a part of their Amalthean population control system. Keep numbers stable and sell off a few hundred kids every two years – the smallest and weakest, of course. They were never gonna grow up into good, strong laborers anyway. And tell the parents you can’t keep those Russian marauders out because they’re so goddamn sneaky.”

“Every two years?” Lana whispered.

Bruce slowly nodded. “Yes, because kids grow up. And when they get too big to go down into the mines, they’re worthless. So you need replacements.”

“How – but what happens to the...” Her voice trailed off.

“Don’t ask.”

Sick with revulsion, she sat up and pressed her hand to her mouth, afraid she was going to puke. Lana exhaled slowly as Bruce rested his hand on her back.

“After that failed expedition, I came home to discover my family had disowned me. The fact that I’d lost my rag at the British Ambassador on Mars might have had something to do with it. So I packed my stuff, took out my savings before they had the chance to close my bank accounts too, and got the hell out of there. Chester came with me, and he’s been a part of my team ever since.”