Trust (8 page)

I resume
d stroking him. As the sensations of his fingers stroking me flowed through me, my need to please him intensified. Tightening my grasp on his cock, I began to stroke him harder, faster. Removing his fingers from me, his fingers began to tease my clit, pinching and rolling it between his fingertips and making me cry out as my need built.

I writhe
d on the bed, my hand dropping from his penis as I fisted the blanket under me with both hands. He didn’t seem to notice or care. His head dipped and circled my left nipple, turning it into a tight nub and nipping lightly, sending jolts of pleasure through me, intensifying the need between my legs.

As he lift
ed his lips from my nipple I arched my back, while bucking against his hand. Thought was beginning to quickly leave me and all that remained was the pleasure. His lips latched onto the second nipple, biting a little harder than the first, as he dipped his fingers back inside of me.

I cr
ied out, releasing the blanket and grabbing onto him, pulling him down onto me, my nails digging into his back. My body needed him, needed the relief he could grant me.

His lips drift
ed up the side of my neck and nipped at my earlobe “Is this what you wanted? You’re so fucking wet. Jesus Gwen.”

“
Yesssss.” The word came out as a hiss as his fingers stroked my inner wall, taking me to my point of no return. I was hovering, ready. I was drowning and only he could save me. “God, yes!” His rock hard cock rubbed against my thigh and I craved it in me, needed it. My body became a coil on the verge of breaking, and just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore I screamed out as my body exploded under him – for him.

I
was panting hard, tremors rocking through my body and when his lips found mine, I was in heaven and he was my guardian angel. Parting my lips, I welcomed his tongue to dance with mine. My hand sought out his cock, needing to give him the pleasure he gave me. The urge to please him was so strong I doubt he could have stopped me if he tried.

Slipping my hands to his chest, I push
ed him back, ending the kiss. He gave me a bewildered gaze, but as I slipped from the bed and fell to my knees eagerly taking his cock into my mouth a low groan erupted from him. His hands immediately moved to my head, threading his fingers into my hair and gently fisting the golden strands.

“You d
on’t have to do this,” he groaned out, but even if I had second thoughts the heat and anxiety in his voice as he attempted to dissuade me only urged me on.

Grasping
his balls in my hand, I gently caressed him as my mouth moved up and down on him, my tongue circling the circumference and teasing the tip with each upward movement. Each time my tongue flicked the slit at the head, a low groan would emerge from him. As the tension in his body increased and his balls tightened he began to move with me, his hips swaying in time with my up-and-down movements on him.

“Holy fuck, that’s good, baby.” He utter
ed another groan and an incoherent curse.

As he c
ame closer to climax, I felt the fire within me ignite again and begin to burn within. I could feel his body preparing. He was so close and I was anxious to taste him. Slipping my hands to his ass I worked him faster, taking as much as possible of his length.

“I’m going to come. God. Yes!”
He thrust into my mouth so hard I gagged, but I held on and attempted to keep up, swallowing his seed as a stream of his cum filled my mouth. A couple smaller squirts followed the first and it wasn’t until he began to deflate between my lips that I released him.

He drop
ped to his knees before me and pulled me into his arms, tucking my head under his chin and stroking my hair. I let go. I was a mess, I was a fucking mess as sobs escaped me and my body jerked and heaved with the sobs against him. I cried so hard I thought I might puke.

“It’s goi
ng to be okay, Gwen,” he whispered, brushing his lips across the top of my head.

“
Liar! It’s not. It’s not going to be okay.”

He held me patiently
, waiting for me to gather myself. Once I was done crying he reached behind him, grabbed his t-shirt and wiped the tears from my cheeks and then my nose.

“I’m going to get your t-shirt all snotty,” I grumble
d, but I smiled despite it all.

He chuckled. “I think I can handle a snotty t-shirt. I’m not worried about the shirt.”

Slowly he rose to his feet, tossing the shirt to the floor. Bending down he picked me up and pulled me into his arms. He carried me a couple of feet and gently laid me onto the bed, slipping in beside me and pulling me into his strong, reassuring embrace.

“
Now, please tell me what’s wrong, Gwen? Besides the apparent.”

I snuggle
d tight to him, laying my head on his chest and begin tracing the outline of muscle. God, I loved touching him. The knowledge that in a few days’ time I’d be shipped off somewhere attempted to creep into my consciousness. I refused to let it. “Brandon was on the news. Did you know that?”

He didn’t reply, but didn’t need to
; the sudden tension in his body told me he knew.

Since he didn’t answer I continued,
“He was going to propose. He wanted to get married before I was taken and I wanted to break up. Now I’m gone and he’s hurting. My parents are hurting, everyone is hurting because of me.”

He ran his hand up and down my side. “It wasn’t your fault
, Gwen. You weren’t taken because you wanted to be.”

I look
ed up into his eyes. “Why did you take me? Of all the people, why me?”

He took a deep breath in and slowly released it
, his jaw clenching as he gathered his thoughts. “Tanner noticed you on the news one night. Your cheer team won the state championships or something, I’m not sure. I don’t get involved in selection. He felt you would be an easy sale and my father authorized the abduction.”

“And you’ve been following the news about my abduction?”

He fingered a lock of my hair, twirling it around his index finger and releasing it. “Yeah, I have.”

“How are they?”

“About what you’d expect.”

A knock sounded at the door and without thinking I gripped tighter to Lance. I was just starting to calm down, I couldn’t go back yet.

“It’s okay
, baby. Give me a minute.” He slipped out of bed and walked across the room, unconcerned that he was naked.

I dove under the blankets, pulling them up to my chin, as if the blanket could be my barrier against the evil on the other side of the door.

“Yeah! What do you want?” Lance pulled the door open, but not far enough so the person on the other end could see me. I silently thanked him for blocking me from the others setting eyes on me and seeing just how vulnerable I really was. Even worse they’d see my growing affection for Lance and demand he give me up before my time there was done.

“I need this room.” It was Jazz. I cringe
d at the sound of his voice. I wasn’t sure who scared me more, Jazz, Tanner or Connor.

“And you can go fuck yourself, because I’m using it.” Lance’s body stiffened
as if preparing for a fight. “What are you doing bringing her here tonight anyhow? Has The Doc even seen her yet?”

“No. He’s not back until tomorrow.”

“You know you can’t do fuck all to her until she sees the doc. Put her back in her cell until tomorrow.”

“She’s a disrespectful bitch, she needs training now. She spit on Tanner and fucking bit me.”

I had to bite down on my lower lip to keep from giggling at the vision in my mind’s eye of Jenny taking a chunk out of Jazz. The fucker deserved more than being bit. I heard murmuring coming from the hallway and a frantic shuffling. Did he gag Jenny?

“
And I don’t care. My father is away on business, which means I’m in charge right now. So what I say goes and I say, put her back until tomorrow. You weren’t even assigned to her so unless you want The Boss’s boot up your ass you’ll do as I tell you.”

There was silence on the other side of the door then eventually
fine
grumbled out.

“And when I return my slave to her cell I had better not see a mark on the new one.
So unless the compound is on fire or the captives have all escaped don’t come knocking on this door again. I hope we’re clear.”

“Crystal.” I could hear the contempt in the other man’s voice. It made me wonder how much abuse Lance was able to prevent just by being there. He was certainly protecting me from a world of hurt, and part of me felt guilty over that. The other poor girls weren’t so lucky.
I huffed at myself, hardly believing I referred to myself as lucky all things considered. However, ultimately, the women all had the same fate, myself included – sold or dead.

Chapter 8

“Did he hurt her?” Keeping the blanket up to
my chin, I watched as Lance made his way across the room and back to me. I found myself grateful for Lance. What would have happened if he’d called my bluff and he’d let me go to Connor or Tanner? I shuddered just thinking of the possibilities.

“Not yet.”

My blue eyes widened. “What do you mean by not yet?”

“Just what I said
, Gwen. The situation is controlled for now, but when The Boss gets back I can’t protect her. He decides and he won’t tolerate the men being spit on or bit.”

I sat
up in the bed, enraged. It almost sounded like Lance was defending those beasts. “But they’re allowed to beat on us and rape us!”

He stopped a few feet from the bed and crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a warning stare. “I’m not justifying, I’m stating a fact
, Gwen. And there’s no point in getting angry with me over it; I don’t make the rules.”

“But you enforce them,” I counter
ed, glaring back at him. A warning alarm began to sound in the back of my head. I needed to slow down, hell, back it up even before this got too out of hand.

He pointed to the cuffs hanging from chains in the ceiling. “If I fucking enforced th
em so well your ass would have been strapped to those suspension chains and I would have flogged you until you nearly passed out yesterday. Don’t fucking tell me what I do or don’t do when you have no idea what you’re talking about!”

I balked as if he’d slapped me. The anger in his voice and in his eyes scared me.

Turing his back to me he laced his fingers behind his neck and rolled his head from side to side. His body was coiled with tension as he began to pace, not even looking in my direction as he marched back and forth.

But I couldn’t let it go. Just couldn’t, but I checked my own temper
, hoping to defuse the situation. “What will they do to her?”

He stopped pacing with his back to me and let out a low groan. When he turned around to
face me, the anger was gone, but his expression remained strained.

“Right now she’s gagged and cuffed. If she continues being rebellious then they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she’s tamed.” He sat down on the bed next to me and slipped under the blankets
, pulling me to him. “My father hates seeing you girls marked because it brings down your sale value, but he also won’t put up with defiance.”

Before Jazz
showed up I’d actually relaxed for the first time since I arrived here, but the reality of the situation came crashing down on me again.  “How can your father do this?”

Lance took a deep breath in and slowly released it. “Not everyone values human life Gwen, for various reasons I have no desire to speculate on.
I’m done talking about this, please change the topic.”

And it was done. I didn’t even want to attempt to push my luck. If I pushed too hard I feared I’d be sent back to my cell and that’s the last place I wanted to be, not when I had the illusion of security right here and now.

I didn’t want to talk about me. If I talked about myself then I’d think about my family and the life I was never going to have and I’d break down in tears. Looking up I caught his gaze and he offered me a smile.

“We can talk about anything, just not about this place
and the people in it. Perhaps I would like to escape from reality for a little bit, is that too much to ask?”

I shook my head. “No it’s not. I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “Then bring on some questions.”

“What’
s your favourite take-out place?” I asked, wanting to keep things as general and easy going as possible, hoping to get back to where we were before Connor interrupted.

His smile widened. “
So, you mean, like fast food?”

I nod
ded.

“I usually don’t eat fast food.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You telling me you’ve never gone to McDonald’s?”

“Al
l right, all right.” He clucked his tongue off of the roof of his mouth. “Geez, I don’t know. Burger King.”

“Burger King?”

“Yeah, I like it when they give me one of those gold paper crowns.”

“Those are for kids. Besides, I don’t think they do that anymore.”

He shrugged. “Too bad.”

“I like Subway. They have a great Italian cold cut sandwich. With extra cheese.
No veggies, but lots of mayo. I don’t get to eat fast food much because I have to stay small for cheerleading, but I indulge sometimes.”

“Did you go to college?”
I asked.

He leaned down and brushed his lips across mine then pulled back before it became more.
“I did. Right out of high school and graduated a few years ago.”

“What did you take?”

“Psychology. I was going to continue on after my BA, but life happened.” He twirled another lock of hair around his finger, pulling lightly. I closed my eyes and savoured the tug, not sure why, but it sent a delicious shiver down my spine. I liked it.

Opening my eyes I look
ed at him. “And you wound up here?”

“Yup.”

How in the hell did he make that leap? It made no sense at all. I wished I could ask. Maybe in time… I frowned. But I was seriously running out of time. In a couple of days I’d be up for auction. I may only have a week left before the last shred of dignity was torn from me. This may be the last conversation I ever had where I felt like an equal. Despite my situation, being with Lance made me feel like an equal despite the fact all the power was in his hands. Hell, my life was his to do with as he chose, but being with him didn’t make me feel that way.  Even when I pushed and angered him, I didn’t have the fear in me that he’d hurt me, but there was an even more terrifying possibility that he wouldn’t want to see me anymore and leave me in the hands of someone else.

“I was signed up for a Human Rights course for the fall. Something a
bout it kinda draws me, ya know?”

He raised a brow at me. “What was the course?”

I huffed, once again struck by the irony of the situation. “Human Trafficking.”

“Why does that interest you? Seems a pretty intense thing to study for a cute little blonde cheerleader.” He raked his fingers through my hair and watched as the golden strands slipped through his fingers.

“Because I want to help people. And I don’t understand how some people can be so cruel. It bewilders and horrifies and fascinates me all at once. Or at least did.” I decided to change the conversation before it became awkward for both of us. “Well, why psychology?”

“Because I want to understand people.”

“And you planned on going all the way?”

“That was the plan.”

Shrugging, I placed a kiss on his shoulder. “Maybe it still can be?”

He stopped stroking my hair and ran his index finger along my jaw. “Maybe.”

I couldn’t tell whether he believed it or not – I was leaning toward not.

“My turn, if you could have any name, what would it be?”

I laughed. “Weird question.”

“But a question. I answered your fast food one.”

I huffed rolling my eyes at him. “Maybe Lillian, and people would call me Lily, Lil to my closest friends. All variations of the name is beautiful if you ask me.”

“It would suit you perfectly.”

A large and loud yawn escaped me. I was so tired. Simply drained. Sleeping on the cot with just a single, thin blanket wasn’t comfortable and didn’t provide a very good sleep. “How long do we have before I have to go back?”

He chuckled, tracing my lower lip with his thumb. “Tired of my company already?”

“No. quite the opposite. Just… drained.”

He pulled me closer to him. “Go to sleep
, pet. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

~*~*~*~*~

Lance

Lying on my side, I watched Gwen sleep, twirling a lock of her hair around my index finger over and over again. The dim light of the room bounced off of the golden strands beautifully and formed a golden halo around her head on the black pillow. She was an angel in this hell.

Being with her gave me a sense of normalcy. Her presence trigger
ed memories of when life was good, normal. She made my mind wonder about what life could be like outside of this world. I could see myself taking her out on a date. You wouldn’t believe how good the idea of taking her out to dinner and a movie sounded to me. I’d lavish her in romance; there would be flowers and a sweet goodnight kiss at the door, which left me longing for more and anxious for the next date.

I was surprised at how relaxed and content lying next to her made me feel. It
felt so damned good. She was like a drug to me and to my dismay I was quickly becoming addicted. She was filling my mind and causing me to make decisions I normally wouldn’t make. Damn these emotions. No matter how hard I tried not to, when I was around her I couldn’t help but
feel
. But I knew feeling for her was an exercise in futility.

I huffed at myself and my silly ideas. A life that involved dates and friends and college and doing stupid things for the sake of doing stupid things died for me when my mother’s life was
violently taken from her. My hope for the future died that day with her and was replaced with one and only one goal – vengeance.

~*~*~*~*~

Gwen

I can’t see who or what they are, but they’re there. Invisible hands are all over me. Pulling me in a million directions. Grabbing me. Touching me in places I don’t want to be touched. I scream. I scream so loud and long that my voice gives out and all that remains is a squeak.

The shadowy figures gradually come into focus. Strangers. Men, but not men
, with eyes that glow red and teeth that are more like fangs. They’re going to rip me apart. Shred my flesh until all that is left is a bone in a puddle of blood.

And then Lance comes into view and I’m relieved. He’s going to fend them off and save me. But he changes, until he’s not him anymore. All of a sudden I realize what he is, he’s one of the characters from the
Hellraiser movies and he’s going to tear my soul apart.

“Whoa, whoa. Hey!”

My eyes flew open and I screamed, a loud bloodcurdling scream as I came eye to eye with Lance. I punched at his chest, crab walking to the other side of the bed, my eyes wide in terror. I needed to get away.

“Gwen. Whoa. Calm down.” He
slipped from the bed and spread his hands out, palms up. “It’s okay. You were having a nightmare. I’m not going to hurt you.”

My
heart rate began to slow as I examined my surroundings and reality separated from the fantasy of the dream.

Sensing
that I was calming down, he slipped back onto the bed and held his arms out to me, but not approaching, treating me like I was a deer, ready to sprint at any moment – which I was. “Come here Gwen. It’s okay.”

And it hit me again. The room felt like the ai
r had been drained from it. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. The room felt like it was spinning around me and my heart felt like it was going to explode through my chest. I was dying. I had to be.

“Oh Jesus! Gwen.” He closed the distance between us in second
s, pulling me into his arms and stroking my hair. “Just breathe. It’s okay. I’m here. Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

I’m not sure how long I stayed suspended in the state of terror, but he was eventually able to pull me down from
my elevated state. My fingers dug into his back, holding myself so tight to his body that I began to tremble from the pressure. But he didn’t move, just stroked my hair whispering reassurances in my ear.

When I was calm enough to pull back from him, the concern in his expression tore at me. He
was my captor yet he was acting as though it was killing him to see me hurting.

“I’m scared,” I murmur
ed, leaning forward and placing my forehead against his shoulder.

“I know.” He brushed his lips against my temple. “I have to take you back now. I have to check on the new girl and have matters to attend to. Are you going to be okay?”

No, I’ll never be okay ever again
, I thought. However, I nodded. “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll check on you later
, if you like.”

“Okay.” My voice sounded
so small, barely audible.

As soon as we left the room, it was like Lance flipped a switch and became the distant captor I expected him to be.
All tenderness was gone. So I reverted to “good slave” status, eyes cast downward and not saying a word. The guards who usually accompanied Lance were standing in front of the dungeon door and opened it as we approached.

As we approached the cages I
couldn’t help but lift my eyes and a gasp escaped me as I saw the new girl. Her hands were cuffed and she was suspended from the ceiling by her cuffed hands, her toes grazing the floor. She was blindfolded and a black ball gag was stuffed in her mouth.