Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
“They all look at you and see that innocence,” she told me, leaning down close to my face, her pretty face twisted in a vicious snarl. “The innocence they took from me themselves… And it’ll be gone before they know it. They’ve already started using you, and it will only get worse.”
She must have noticed the terrified expression in my eyes, and she laughed at me.
“You scared, little one?” she asked mockingly, using the pet name Ellis had for me. “You think you’ll get out of here, don’t you? Well, let me tell you something. I’ve spent over ten years trying to run away, and I was never fast enough for them. And just so you know…”
She came dangerously close to me, her lips lingering an inch away from mine.
“If they catch you running,” she went on softly. “They won’t be gentle. They weren’t with me, either.”
She lifted her pretty blouse and I gasped at what she looked like underneath. Her skin was a mess of scars and faded bruises.
“You like them?” she asked me proudly. “They gave me the scars, the bruises I gave myself. I need them now, you see. That’s what they want to do to you as well. Break you until you crave violence just as much as they do. Break you until you’ll break for them willingly. Until you hurt yourself just to bring them pleasure. Oh, you’re so innocent now… But not for long.”
She shoved her blouse back into her skirt almost violently, giving me a look of pure contempt, muttering something under her breath in another language, then heading for the door. She slammed it behind her, and I heard her locking it with the card, but I was grateful. At least now I would be alone with my thoughts, without her madness or Ellis’s lust.
It still made me wonder.
What was going on here? Who were these men who Pia kept talking about? So far I’d only seen Ellis and some guards, but she made me believe there was someone else there, someone in a position of power over both her and Ellis. I wondered if I would ever find out who that person was.
10
Harlow
1 week later
“You are going to be fucked,” he told me plainly, and the color drained out of my face as he approached me with slow, measured steps. “You are going to be beaten. I won’t be gentle, and the others will be rougher than I ever was. So you should be thankful I’m the one introducing you to this. Someone else might not show you the same kindness.”
It had been a week since I’d last seen Ellis. But here he was, ready to jump straight back into it after his unexplained absence, after he’d cornered me in that dark room.
I glared at him, my eyes blazing with fire as he drew nearer. I was helpless. Tied to the chair like a plaything, ready for him to do anything he wanted to me. And I knew he would. His gaze spoke of the unthinkable things he wanted to do to my body, and I feared him. At the same time, my body was eager to respond. I tried to deny the ache between my legs, the wetness rubbing my thighs together and making my breath hitch. I knew he would find out soon enough though, and I clamped my legs closed again, desperate to hide my body’s helpless reaction from his prying gaze.
“Tell me you don’t want it,” he prompted me. “Come on, little one, it’ll only make me harder.”
My mouth opened in an effort to give him what he wanted, but not a single word came out. He stared at me for a second, as if entranced by my sudden inability to speak. And then he threw his head back and laughed at my misfortune, just like he had when I woke up in that beautiful room and realized I was still as trapped as ever. My surroundings may have changed – I was no longer being punished, but I was still a prisoner. And I would fight the invisible shackles around my ankles and wrists until the day I died.
“You can’t,” he said mockingly. “You can’t even say it, can you?”
“I…” I whispered, my voice hoarse and broken.
But there wasn’t a single other word left. I didn’t know what to say. The shame of my reality threatened to swallow me up whole. I wanted to disappear. I didn’t want to exist anymore. Anything, so I wouldn’t have to face my own perverted dreams. They’d truly broken me. They’d truly made me want this. Pia, with her heartbreakingly stunning face. Ellis, with his threatening voice that promised delightful, dark pleasures. Even the other girls, the other men whom I’d barely interacted with. They made me want this.
“They didn’t,” Ellis said darkly, and I realized I’d spoken out loud. “You really think of us like that? Like we’re fucking monsters?”