Save Riley (7 page)

I nodded and leaned my head back against the wall. I found myself suddenly anticipating what he wanted to show me. Maybe it was the way he was building it up or maybe it was the way that he was building
me
up; either way I wanted to watch now. More than I ever had before, I wanted to watch.

Jax pressed the play button on the remote control and set it down on his lap. I stared at the television curiously.

So far, it was just an empty bed. I tilted my head to the right. There was something familiar about that bed.
Isn’t that his bed? It has to be; I’ve never seen one that big before.
Now that I knew that he had a camera hidden in his bedroom somewhere, it made me wonder where the other ones were in this prison.

“Yes, they are everywhere and no, you’ll never find them,” he said with a chuckle.

I glanced at him for a moment. The smile on his face as he watched the screen was so happy that I glanced away as quickly as I could. Not because it scared me, but because I felt a smile starting to cross my lips as well.

Get a grip, Riley. Remember that he’s your captor, not your best friend. No matter how nice he is to you most of the time, he’ll never let you leave. Not alive.

I let out a shaky breath as I continued to watch his room with the empty bed. In the background I heard the door beeping open as the code was punched. I leaned forward and squinted as I saw the back of Jax’s body as he carried someone to the bed. Because there were no lights on in the room, I couldn’t see who he had laid there. It was obviously a female though; that much you could tell from her small frame. He disappeared out of the range of the camera and I heard the door close. Moments later he was back and standing at the foot of the bed. I watched him take her legs and straighten them out, keeping them slightly apart. Then I watched him pull his shirt over his head, fold it, and lay it on the ground.

“What is this?” I asked, watching him remove his pants on the screen and then his boxers.
His body is fucking perfect,
I thought looking at his nakedness. There was not one slight birth mark on him, not a single scar, and his ass ... I had never been attracted to an ass before in my life, but his was absolutely immaculate.

“Just watch,” he whispered back.

A few more seconds of him standing at the foot of the bed, before he climbed on top of the girl and began to kiss her neck. I assumed it was her neck he was kissing, since he had taken the time to move her long, brown hair out of the way.  I watched him as he slid his hands underneath her shirt and pulled it over her head, tossing it to the ground.
Impressive; he didn’t fold it.
He began to lower himself on her body, kissing her skin while keeping his hands tightly gripped on her bare breasts.

I leaned forward a little more and noticed something really weird. She wasn’t responding to what he was doing. How could someone not respond to being kissed and groped that way? Jax let go of her breasts long enough to pull her pants and panties off, tossing those to the side as well.

I inhaled sharply when he pushed her legs further apart, before settling on top of her, not yet pushing into her, but instead staring lovingly at her. My lower lip started to tremble as he reached over to the lamp on the side of the bed and pressed the button.

“You’re so beautiful, Ms. Riley,” he said to the girl on the bed.

The unconscious girl.

The girl that didn’t know she was about to be abused; pillaged. That she was going to lose her virginity to a deranged stranger.

The girl that I had been watching this entire time; being touched and kissed and caressed, and finally being fucked so gently and lovingly on the beautiful bed in the beautiful room was me.

T
he video lasted three hours. Every time I would look away or try to cover my eyes, he would reach over and squeeze my shoulder and the sharp pain would make me cry out. Jaxton told me it was important for me to watch so that I wouldn’t miss a moment of my first time.

How could that even qualify? I wasn’t awake for it; any of it. I didn’t feel anything when he was ... I took a deep breath and bit my lower lip to keep from crying. I wouldn’t let him have the satisfaction of my tears. Not for this and not ever again.

When it was finally over, he got to his feet and turned off the TV and DVD player. He pushed everything out of the room again and came back for his chair, which he carried out as well. He sat on the edge of the bed and put a hand on either side of me, looking at me with adoring eyes.

“Did you enjoy watching us, Riley? Together like we should be?” he asked softly.

I had to be careful on how I answered him. My inner heroine was warning me to watch my words at this moment. Jaxton seemed like he had a lovesick crush on me and the wrong words would make this situation painfully worse. But I wouldn’t lie to him either; I wouldn’t tell him that I enjoyed watching something that turned my stomach.

“Um,” I said in a shaky voice. I looked into his big brown eyes that were full of expectation and wondered how to answer him without hurting his feelings.
Why would you care if his feelings were hurt? Just tell him the truth
. “I don’t like that it happened, Jaxton. I don’t like that I will never remember something that I should never be able to forget. I don’t like that I wasn’t given a choice and I don’t like that you think it was okay to do,” I said carefully.

He sighed unhappily and looked away. On what I could see of his face, he looked absolutely crushed.

“I’m not finished, Jax. Those are the things that I didn’t like. Do you want to hear what I did like?” I asked. He turned to look at me and nodded.

“That you were slow about it. That you didn’t force yourself in a brutal matter and that you cared for me after. For that much, I can say thank you,” I finished quietly.

Jax smiled, “I don’t find any pleasure in forcing a woman to do something she doesn’t want to do. I don’t mean to sound like an arrogant bastard, Riley, but I knew that eventually you would give yourself to me, and I couldn’t help myself in that moment. I didn’t want to wait and I will apologize for that. I will also tell you that it will never be like that again. Never without your permission, but you will permit me every time. Remember the dingo I told you about? I still see you in that way. A small, scared animal that needs to be broken.”

“Or you could just let me go,” I replied desperately. “Jaxton, I swear that I will never tell anyone about what’s happened here if you’ll just let me go!”

“And where would you go exactly, Riley?” he asked, moving me over on the bed. He sat next to me and stretched his legs out, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Back to Cheyenne,” I whispered.

“And how will you get there? You yourself said that you don’t have a passport,” he replied.

“I don’t need a passport to travel around the US,” I replied through grit teeth.

“You never were very good with geography were you? When I told you that Bondi Beach was one hundred miles south, you said that you’ve never heard of anything with that name near Wyoming. I told you that you weren’t in Wyoming,” he said patiently.

“Then where the fuck am I?” I exploded angrily.

“What have I told you about screaming in my home?” he asked sharply. I rolled my eyes and he cleared his throat. “Bondi Beach, it’s quite beautiful really and as I’ve said I had fond memories as a child there. I can give you a hint as to where you are, Riley. Do you know where the Tasman Sea is?”

“Near Tasmania, I would imagine,” I replied rolling my eyes again.

“Don’t do that,” he replied sharply, holding up a warning finger. “Don’t brush off what I’m saying with sarcasm. It will only serve to make me angry. I’ll ask you again; do you know where the Tasman Sea is?”

I blew out my breath impatiently. Why was I being asked a question, instead of being given an answer?

“I’m thinking. And while I’m thinking, can I at least have a shirt?” I asked glancing at him.

“No. You lost your privilege of clothes when you tried to escape. You can earn them back later,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“You know Jax, all of these privileges and rules you have and want me to learn are only going to make me hate you in the long run. I will end up despising you when this is over and never think of you again,” I said.

“I understand,” he replied quietly. I watched him as he pulled his shirt off over his head and help me pull it onto myself.

I’m starting to wonder if this is really as bad as it seems. Besides the whole being trapped here thing. Okay Riley. Think. The Tasman Sea. Um ...

“I was right with Tasmania; being the general location I mean, right?” I asked glancing at him as I settled back against the pillow. He nodded. “Okay so I know that Tasmanians get mistaken for Au –” I turned to look at him, my heart racing inside of my chest. “Australia?” I whispered.

“Correct! I knew you were smart,” he said with a grin.

He’s lying. He’s fucking lying! He has to be! How the hell would he get me here without anyone noticing the unconscious girl he would’ve been carrying?!

“Private jet,” he replied with a wink. “See, Riley, I’m not just some loony as you’ve probably been imagining. I’m quite meticulous and when I see something that I want, I will find a way to get it. And you, my precious Riley, I’ve wanted for a long time.”

He got to his feet and stretched. I watched the muscles in his back ripple again and wondered how it was possible to be so attracted to someone who was keeping me a prisoner,
a sexual prisoner
, in their home?

“So, unless you plan on swimming back home, which I would never allow of course, then you should probably resign yourself to the fact that for the time being Newcastle is your home,” he said heading toward the door.

“Until when Jaxton?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“Until you’re my equal, I’m satisfied, or one of us is dead,” he replied with a shrug. “I do hate to leave you in this room though Riley. I’ve been thinking about it and I know that you were only going with your instinct because we’re behind on our lessons. I would like to remove you from this room, but there’s something I would like in return.”

I looked down at my ankles. The ropes were starting to burn because of all of the movement and I probably had hideous marks on them. Eventually they would become raw and the burn would become pain. I wanted out. No matter the cost.

“Okay,” I replied quietly.

“Don’t you want to know what it is that I want first?” he asked curiously.

I shook my head. The truth was that if I heard his proposition first, I’d probably be left to rot and die in this room for the rest of my life.

He stared at me for a moment, before he nodded and approached my legs. I sat there patiently while he undid the ropes and then came over to lift me off of the bed. I winced as my shoulder settled into his chest. Jax shifted me in his arms so that I wouldn’t feel the sting and walked toward the room.

“First I’ll finally wrap that shoulder, then you can properly thank me for letting you out of here ahead of schedule,” he said, using his foot to close the door behind us.

“Okay,” I repeated.

What is he going do to me? Or make me do to him? How can I do anything with a bum shoulder? Why won’t he just let me go?

Those were the last thoughts I had as a normal, sane woman. Everything after that day changed. Every belief I ever had after that day was dead.

Three Months Later

“R
iley? Come here please,” Jaxton called out. I had been in the hallway sitting on the staircase trying to breathe. Ever since he started “allowing” me to have clothes, I had been wrapped up in a corset. Every fucking day.

No, that’s a lie. Not “ever since”, it started the day I was curled up, chained to the foot of the bed in horrible pain. I wasn’t quite sure why I was having vicious stomach cramps like I was, but he had called someone over who he said had “extensive experience in the medical field” and had examined me. Jax had looked absolutely terrified when this person left and told me that once the pains went away, he would start dressing me in corsets. Truthfully, I was more concerned with who this person was that didn’t find it odd or strange that there was girl curled up in a ball of agony chained to someone’s bed.

I had asked Jax of course, who said that it didn’t matter. He told me a few days later, once he had calmed down and started shoving me into corsets that he was an old friend of his who used to do what Jax still does. I think mentor was the word he used, but I can’t be sure. He also told me that he gets paid well for his silence and services. 

I got shakily to my feet and began to walk up the stairs. He had allowed me to be barefoot if I wished, because the first time I was set in heels, I fell down. Not once did he assume it was the damn corset stealing breaths from me, making me lightheaded, dizzy, or vulnerable; no he just assumed it was the fucking shoes and that I could stay in the corsets barefoot.

I made my way down the hallway and pushed his cracked bedroom door open. I glanced around, waiting for his permission to enter his room. Me, a full grown woman, waiting for permission.

“I’m out on the balcony. You can come join me,” he said.

I sighed deeply and walked into his room and directly out onto the balcony, where he was leaning over, arms crossed, and looking up at the sun setting in the horizon.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked without looking back at me. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful sunset than the ones in Australia.”

I stood in the doorway of his bay windows and waited for further acknowledgment. One thing I learned rather quickly was that just because Jaxton said something to me, it didn’t mean it was an invitation to do anything other than to stand or sit there and listen. Finally he glanced over his shoulder and smiled at me.

“Come stand with me. I want to watch this with you,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied quietly. I walked over and stood next to him. Jax looked at me for a  moment; I didn’t have to see him do it. I could
feel
his eyes on me.