Unwilling Pawn by Measha Stone
Chapter 8
Amelia
A steady drum beat in my skull as I sat on the massive bed in the room I’d been locked into. I had no more tears left to cry, and my throat burned from all the screaming I did when I’d first been locked away like a prisoner.
It had been a stupid idea. Maggie had told me it wouldn’t work, but I hadn’t listened. When I woke up that morning and recalled my encounter with Christian, the urge to run overwhelmed me. My father was no help; he insisted marrying Christian was best and I would have to deal with it.
The same way my mother had.
I packed one bag, transferred all the cash I kept in my bank account to a secret account my father didn’t control, and waited for my father to leave for the gym. Maggie warned me a man like Christian would probably have eyes on me, but I didn’t see anyone.
I’d been an idiot.
The second I’d stepped onto the Amtrak platform, ready to board the train for Milwaukee, a heavy arm had closed around my waist. No amount of fighting or screaming had done any good. There were several men, and the security officer was already being taken care of by one of them. I’d been tossed over a shoulder and shoved into the back of a town car.
And once we were at Christian’s estate, I’d been lugged up to this damn room and the door locked from the outside. My hands still ached from pounding on the door. Kicking it had hurt my toes. The thin leather ballet flats weren’t exactly the right shoe for kicking doors down.
After an hour, maybe more, I’d given up. No one cared about the noise I made. I climbed up onto the bed and let my frustration carry me away. I’d cried myself to sleep, like a damn baby.
Now that I was awake, and more alert, I needed to push all that away and think of something new. Obviously, Christian had found out I was trying to leave town. By now he would have talked to my father, and I doubt I was going to be let back home.
Even if Christian sent me home, my father would have no choice but to make my prison even more secluded until the wedding.
So, I sat in the darkened room, my knees pulled up to my chin and tried to find a way out of my mess.
The door swung open, startling me and blinding me as the light from the hallway hit my face. I blinked several times before he came into view.
Christian.
I couldn’t make out his face with the light behind him, but I could tell it was him. He swallowed up all the space in the room when he was near. My body came alive, almost like an alarm. Danger ahead!
He reached to the side, flicking the light switch. Several lamps around the room burst into life, scattering soft yellow light across the room. I narrowed my eyes until they adjusted to the brightness.
He took the time to step into the room fully and close the door. The resounding sound of the lock sliding into place sent a tremor through me. Even with him here, I was to be locked in.
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” He asked still standing by the door. The sleeves of his light gray button-down shirt were rolled up to his elbows, exposing the heavy, black tattoos covering his forearms. Without his tie and suit jacket, he looked almost human. Less of a demon anyway. But when I brought my eyes up to his, the same fierceness shone back at me.
“I was thinking.” I released my knees and flattened them to the mattress, folding my hands in my lap.
“Oh? About what?” His brow rose with his curiosity.
“Nothing you need to know,” I snapped. He’d had me snatched right from the train platform hours ago and left me locked away in this damn room. Did he really think I wanted to have a conversation with him?
“See, that’s where you’re wrong, Amelia. Everything you do, everything you think, everything you are, I need to know. There isn’t a part of you that isn’t my business.” He strode to the bed as he spoke.
Sensing the danger he brought, I scrambled to the edge of the bed and got to my feet. I was no closer to the door, but at least the bed worked as a barrier between us.
“What were you thinking about sitting up here in the dark? Were you playing last night in your mind? Wondering if tonight would be worse? Would I let you off with a little spanking again or would there be more consequences for your bad behavior?”
My spine straightened at the underlying threat. “Bad behavior?” I swallowed back the frustrated scream begging to be unleashed. “You didn’t even bother finding out what I was doing. You just had your thugs grab me from the station.”
His lips quirked on the right. “Are you trying to tell me you weren’t running away?”
“I’m telling you that you had no idea what I was doing.” I stood straighter. I had a point. Not a great one, but it was something I could stand on.
He seemed to think it over for a minute, then nodded. “So, you could have just been going away for the night? A weekend getaway by yourself?” The words formed a question, but his eyes were just as focused, just as all-knowing as before. “Let’s see then.” He walked to the dresser and grabbed my bag that had been tossed into the room with me. Bringing it to the bed, he slung it up on top and unzipped the case.
“No. Don’t.” I hurried around the bed, reaching for the lid as he flicked it up, but he blocked my hand with his arm.
“Panties, panties, panties.” He pulled out each item and dropped them into a pile beside the suitcase. “Shirt, jeans, shorts, more jeans.” He picked up a makeup bag and unzipped it, exposing the bills inside. “Now, why would you need this much cash for a day trip?” he asked, tossing the bag back inside. He came to another small bag and unzipped it. My face burned, and again I tried to grab it from him and failed again.
“What’s this?” he asked, reaching inside the bag and pulling out my slim vibrator.
“Just give it to me.” I put my hand out, not daring to look up at him. He was probably laughing at me.
“I will, don’t worry.” He pocketed the vibe into his front pocket and continued going through my bag. “So, enough clothes for at least a week. A few thousand dollars, a new cell phone—untraceable, I’m sure, for when you got to where you were going, which was—” He pulled my train ticket from his back pocket. “Milwaukee. But that wasn’t your actual destination.” He dropped the ticket into the suitcase and piled the rest of my items back inside with it. “You purchased a plane ticket from Milwaukee to Miami.” He slowly closed the suitcase, the sound of the zipper solidifying my imprisonment.
“It doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to be back for the—” My words dropped when he brought his gaze to mine.
“Don’t make things worse with your lies.” He picked up the bag and brought it back to where he’d found it.
“You don’t have to keep me here. I can stay at my father’s house. He won’t let me leave. I won’t try to leave town again,” I assured him. The darkness surrounding his tone left me with little option but to make promises that I wasn’t sure I could actually keep. The idea of belonging to this man, to truly being his, made my flight instinct gear up for another run.
“You’ll be staying here until the wedding.” He moved to the bed, then around the footboard until he was closing in on me. I took a step back, but there was nowhere for me to go. The back of my knees hit the night table, and to my right I had maybe two feet before I hit the wall. Not enough room to get around him and to the door.
I would have to get him to listen to reason.
“Christian, you need to listen to me. I don’t want this.” With my left hand, I pushed my hair behind my ear. “I don’t want any of this. Just let me go.”
He tilted his head slightly to the left, examining me in thick silence. “You’ve said that already. And I’ve told you we’re getting married.”
With his eyes fixated on me, he pulled my vibrator from his pocket. “I have to admit, I’m glad that you brought this with you.” He held it with his left hand and twisted the bottom of the bullet-shaped vibe with his right, spurring it to life.
Heat crept up over my throat and over my face.
“Did you use it last night when I dropped you off at home?” he asked, keeping his eyes on mine. When I tried to look away, he invaded the last bit of space I had and jerked my chin up until I was back to staring into his eyes. “Answer me.”
There was no way in hell or heaven I would ever admit to what I did when I got home the night before. He would never know how wet my pussy had been, or how easily I’d come with my fingers just from replaying the scene in my mind. It was wrong, and shame had crashed over me once the waves of pleasure subsided.
He chuckled, turning my face away from him. He leaned down, brushing his lips across my jaw until he got to my ear. “You don’t have to answer. You aren’t very good at hiding your feelings. They play right across your face.”
I tried to jerk away from his touch, but he gripped my chin harder. “Did you come hard reliving the spanking I gave you?”
I was going to melt into a puddle right at his feet if my face grew any hotter.
“We’ll see if you have the same reaction tonight.” He twisted the vibrator off and pocketed it. “Take off your pants and get on the bed, ass up in the air for me.” He moved away from me, as though he just expected me to concede the moment to him.
“I won’t let you do it again.” I fisted my hands. “I’m not some little girl you can punish when you don’t like what I do.”
He was on me within a breath. His hand fisted my hair, yanking my head back.
“When little girls run away, they’re punished. You may be all grown up, Amelia, but you’ve acted very badly. It cost me a lot of money to keep those security officers quiet. And my men had to waste all that time getting you here.”
He outlined my jaw with the tip of his finger, his other hand twisted in my hair. “Now. Do as I said, or I’ll go against my own rules and fuck your ass before I have your vows said.”
I froze beneath his grip. My mind clung to his last words.
His lips curled at the edges. “Vows or not, you’re mine, Amelia. I can be unkind if you push me.” He took a step, dragging me with him. “I suggest you don’t push me any further tonight.” He pushed me down onto the bed, my face smashed into the bedding. “Now, take off your pants and get on your hands and knees. Ass up so I have a clear target for my belt.”
My ass still felt tender from the night before, and now I would have to endure more lashes.
“Okay, okay!” I cried out, tapping his wrist. Slowly, he uncurled his fingers from my hair and let me go. After hearing him move away from the bed, I slowly stood back up and shoved off my leggings, leaving them in a heap on the floor. I’d lost my ballet flats while I slept.
He shifted to the foot of the bed, his hands moving to his belt buckle. For the second time, I heard the jangle of the metal, the swish of the leather against his pant loops. And again, my pussy clenched while my heart jumped up into my throat.
“Over.” He pointed to the bed with the belt already folded over into a loop.
I climbed back onto the bed, positioning my hands and knees, backing up to the foot of the bed. I grabbed a pillow and put it front of me. I wouldn’t scream, but just in case I broke my own rule I would make sure no one in the house could hear me. They wouldn’t come running to my rescue anyway, they’d only have the knowledge that Christian had whipped me.
“These won’t do.” Before I could stop him, he grabbed the elastic band of my panties and ripped them down the middle. They were a flimsy pair of cotton panties and wouldn’t have provided any sort of protection. But now I had none. And he’d completely ripped them from my body.
I curled my toes, burying my face into the pillow.
“Explain to me, Amelia, why you’re in this position,” he said as he trailed his fingers over my ass cheeks.
“I tried to run away.” I sounded pathetic, like some humbled little girl.
“And what happens to girls who run away?” He dug his nails into my asscheeks and dragged them across both my cheeks. I curled inward, bowing my back, hissing along with the sting.
“They get punished.” Tears sprang to my eyes.
“Two punishments in two days,” he said, his voice terse. “Let’s hope you learn from this one and you don’t end up here again so soon.”
My throat closed around my scream as the thick leather struck. A line of white-hot fire ignited across my naked backside. He gave me no chance to recover before the next lash landed, sharper than the first. Again, and again, the belt came down over me. Sometimes he struck lower, hitting the curve of my cheeks, and even went lower still across my thighs.
I flexed my feet, fisted my hands and yelled into the pillow, but nothing could help lessen the searing pain his belt brought with each blow.
“Please!” I begged, wishing I had the courage to scramble off the bed. But if I did that, if I ran from him, Christian would find me.
“Christian!” I cried when the belt struck the sensitive curve of my ass where it met my thighs. “I’m sorry!”
But I’d said those words before.
“This isn’t about being sorry,” he said, bringing the belt down again. “It’s about learning. Have you learned, Amelia?”
“Yes!” I cried out, waiting for the next lash, but nothing came.
“What did you learn?” he asked, not even sounding winded while my lungs could barely keep up with the demand for air.
“If I run, you’ll find me. You’ll punish me.” I rubbed my cheek across the pillow, wiping away the tears that rolled down.
“I will, Amelia.” His fingertips touched my tailbone, just above where my asscheeks parted. “I will punish you severely every time you do something so reckless. You know Sebastian Gorecki isn’t a good man and he’s not going to take the news of losing you easily. Until we’re married, you’re not safe.”
His fingers slipped between my cheeks, brushing over my tight back hole. “Has anyone fucked you here?” he asked.
My mind whirled with the change in subject. Why would Sebastian put me in danger?
He tapped my asshole with his middle finger. “Have you been fucked in the ass, Amelia?” he asked again.
My entire body clenched. “No.” I shook my head, keeping my face buried in the pillow.
He moved his hand lower and lower until he came to my wet pussy. I squeezed my eyes closed, willing my body to stay loyal to me, not to expose my want to him.
“Such a wet pussy,” he said casually, sliding his fingers through my folds until he reached my clit. With one touch, my body trembled with relief. I ached with pain, and I ached with need. All because of him.
“It’s just a reaction.” I muttered, trying hopelessly to defend myself.
He chuckled. “It’s a good reaction.” He pushed his middle finger into my passage, and I had to fist the bedding to keep from moaning with the pleasure of his intrusion. “Will you come if I keep this up?” he asked, thrusting his finger in and out of me.
I nodded into the pillow, sliding my knees apart a little more. My need was so great, I no longer cared about the burn in my ass, or the soreness of my throat, or the desperation of my situation. I only knew his touch could put out the inferno in my belly.
“Then I have to stop.” He pulled his finger out and leaned over my body, shoving his finger against my lips. “Clean the mess you made.”
I parted my lips, and it only took that little act of obedience for him to shove his finger into my mouth. I licked my juices from his thick finger, wanting to beg him to touch me again.
When his finger was clean, he climbed back off the bed. I pulled my knees up to my chest as he tucked his belt back into the loops.
“I’ll keep your vibrator for now,” he said, patting his pocket. “Keep your hands off that pussy tonight. You don’t get any pleasure until I give it to you. Do you understand?” He put his hands on his hips, glaring down at me. The fierceness of earlier had softened, but his strict demeanor remained. This wasn’t a man to cross.
“I understand.” I climbed down from the bed, grabbing my leggings. As much as the fabric would irritate my raw bottom, I was not going to let him see me walk around half naked.
“I’m going to be gone most of the day tomorrow. When you’re ready for breakfast just go down to the kitchen.”
“You’re letting me out?” I asked surprised.
“I have men at every entrance. You’re safe and sound, all tucked inside.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and that’s when I noticed the long, hard length of his cock outlined against his trousers. He was as affected as I was.
“Maggie is going to worry. I should call her.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll get word to her that you’re all right. You can talk to her tomorrow.” And with that he grabbed the prepaid cell from where he’d left it on the bed and headed for the door. “Good night, Amelia,” he said softly as he closed the door behind him.
I stood there, in the large bedroom of a house I didn’t know. My ass ached from his belt, but worse was the ache between my legs.
And something told me if I tried to cure my ache, he’d be back, and his belt would be the least of my problems.