Dark Heir by Faye Pierce
Chapter Eight
Midnight
Of course, they won’t let me out of this room.
It was a long shot for me to ask in the first place.
I’m all dressed up for nothing. Where is Leo? The next time I see him I’m going to tell him that he simply cannot keep me trapped like this all of the damned time. I’m not a doll to keep locked up in this room until he decides that he wants to play with me.
Heat curls through me at the thought of him playing with me.
“Stop it, Midnight,” I mutter, my hands clasped together and pressed into my chest as I slowly pace in this room. At the very least he’s going to have to let me into a space where I can stretch my legs. As nice as this bedroom is, the lovely carpet is not at all conducive to any of the rehab exercises I need in order to keep me from limping so badly. I’m achy and sore all over, and he’s the reason for it. I have a million things going through my head, and all of them end in me getting out of this room and talking to Leo one way or another. Which is impossible as I can’t even be let out of this room to eat.
After I requested to have dinner with Leo in the dining room, a tray of food was brought to me, not at all what I wanted and not what I asked for. It appears that Lily got in some sort of trouble from our last interaction because she is in and out of my room so quickly I can barely blink. How many people are in this house anyway?
I’m too nervous to eat, so filled with my new resolve that I don’t think I could settle myself enough to eat.
Like last night, Leo doesn’t announce himself or knock before he enters the room. Automatically, I stop pacing. I scan his person for blood, for new wounds, for anything that might give me an indication as to what he’s been doing all day long. At least this time he’s fully dressed, and he’s not looking at me like he wants to consume me, so it’s easier to hang onto my indignation.
I fold my arms across my chest and stare at him, brow lifting in silent question.
Leo just laughs. “Hello to you too.” He closes the door behind him, rolling the sleeves of his button-down shirt up to his elbows as he walks into the room. “I hope that you’re not too sore after last night?”
Shit. Just the mention of last night and my thighs clench together. Perhaps, we can talk while he touches me. That’s a thing that people do, right? No, get a hold of yourself. I have a plan, and I need to stick to it. “If you gave a damn about how I feel you wouldn’t have left me here, locked up like some canary all damned day.”
“Canary? Of all the birds you could choose, that’s the one you pick?” Leo taunts. “Don’t be dramatic; I was working.”
“Working on what?” I attempt to sound casual, likely failing miserably.
Leo ignores my question completely, noticing the emerald green bandage dress I’ve chosen. “Is that for me? Goliath told me that you requested to have dinner with me tonight, and believe me, if it was at all possible, I would have loved to have dinner with you.” His eyes shift to the bed where my tray of food rests, untouched. “You’re not refusing to eat without me, are you?” Leo’s tongue presses against the roof of his mouth as he moves to the tray and lifts the silver covering over my plate. “I thought that I made myself perfectly clear, Midnight.”
This man is going to be the death of me.
Leo lowers the lid on the tray and turns to me in a silent demand for explanation. I fold my arms across my chest tighter, hugging my arms to myself as if that will stop the inevitable. “You have. I didn’t want to eat alone.” It sounds so convincing. Never mind that my stomach is still in knots and that my conflicting feelings won’t allow me to eat anything anyway. “I don’t want to stay locked up here, Leo. Don’t you think that you owe me a little better than that? You have to talk to me. I’m not some girl you picked up off the street.” I struggle to find the right words to say. I want to make so many more points, and I can’t tell if I’m just wasting my breath or not.
Leo starts to move toward me. “Is there something about your room that you don’t like?” He’s taunting me more, staring at me like he’s a hunter and I’m nothing more than a rabbit. Perhaps that is what we are. “If you don’t like the colors, if you want different views, I’m sure I can be accommodating…if you ask properly.”
I take a half step backward to keep the space between us, and something in his eyes sparks.
“You’re running? I thought after last night, we had an understanding, Midnight.”
My heart quickens in my chest. “I lied.”
Leo laughs, calling my bluff. “Oh no, I felt you, I felt every bit of you. You wanted me.” His blue eyes drop to my neck, then to the quick rise and fall of my chest. “Don’t worry, my intentions are totally honorable.”
I scoff. “Honorable? What would a traitor like you know about honor?”
“Watch your tongue. I came up here to check on you, and you’re attacking me? That doesn’t seem very honorable either.”
“Cut the shit, Leo. I’m clearly more than just some bargaining chip to you!”
Leo stops in his tracks and nods. “Yes, you’re right. You’re much more than a bargaining chip.”
“Then you have to talk to me. Please, you cannot keep me here.”
“On the contrary, you belong to me, remember? I can do absolutely anything with you that I like.”
My back hits the wall beside the door, and Leo closes the space between us. I’m trapped.
“You seem to misunderstand your position here, Midnight. If I want to keep you, fuck you over and over until you can’t stand, then I will. I can do absolutely anything I want to you, baby. You swore yourself to me, and I’m never going to let you go.” Leo’s finger curls around a lock of my chestnut hair, lifting the strand to breathe in my shampoo. “If I want to marry you,” he breathes, “then that’s what will happen.”
“What?” I stammer as Leo’s knee pushes between mine. His eyes lift to mine, freezing me in place.
“Things are simple. You saved yourself for me, and I took your virginity. The only honorable thing for me to do is to marry you. That’s how it works. I intend to make an honest woman out of you, Midnight.”
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. “That’s not how a proposal works!” He’s not on one knee. He didn’t even ask. That isn’t a question.
Marriage is no joke. My parents weren’t exactly an ideal version of marital bliss, but Caspian and Valeria are amazing together. I’ve imagined calling Leo my husband so many times, fantasized about the life we might have led. Double dates with my brother...things that will never happen. “I’m not going to fucking marry you, Leo. I don’t even know who you really are!”
“You know enough.” Leo drops one hand to his pocket and fishes around for a moment until he produces a ring box covered in emerald velvet. “Marry me, Midnight. Be my wife, and I will be able to give you the answers that you want.”
“No. Absolutely fucking not. You’re a liar...and an asshole...and-and…” Words are short-circuiting. He’s going to turn me certifiably insane. I’m having emotional whiplash, and my brain simply cannot work with him standing so damned close to me. “Get the fuck off of me, and talk to me! Whatever Caspian’s done, we can work this out. Please, Leo—hey!”
I shriek in surprise as he steps back and grabs me to throw me over his shoulder. “No.” Leo mocks. “I don’t think I gave you a choice. You’re going to be my wife, whether you like it or not, little girl.”
To my shock, Leo carries me over to the door, and I squirm. I might never get another chance at freedom, but his grip is so fucking strong. His damned arms hold me too easily. I kick my feet and try to hit him, and it does nothing. “What’s wrong, I thought you wanted out of the room?” Leo mocks, and we turn down the hall. “Keep kicking, really, give me a reason to punish you.”
I shouldn’t hesitate at his words, but I do.
He opens another door only two down from my own. The room is darker, furnished in dark colors, but it isn’t cold. It doesn’t have a sinister edge like I might think would come with dark furniture. There’s little in the way of decoration, and the focal point is the large bed in the center of the room. There are no doors leading off to his bathroom or closet, but arched doors to give the room an open feel. There’s not a single mirror, something I make a note to question him about, but my thoughts come up short as he throws me down onto the bed.
Instantly I turn to my side, attempting to get free of him, but he climbs over me, pinning my thigh down as he straddles me. He grabs my wrists easily and holds them in one hand while leaning over me and reaching for something beside his pillow. What is he? Oh...oh no.
Leo stretches my arm upward and secures my wrist in a leather cuff and then does the other side. He slides down my body and grasps my ankle to fasten a third larger cuff around it and then he latches a fourth on the other side, and I’m strapped, helpless and immobile, on his bed. Leo sits back to admire the way I’m stretched and at his total mercy. Kneeling between my spread legs, his hands hover just on the outsides of my thighs. “Fuck, look at you.” It's like he can’t tell where to focus his attention first.
Leo reaches into his pocket again, pulling out the ring box and a knife. He sets the ring box gently on the bed by my head. “Incentive,” he explains. He opens his pocket knife and grabs the hem of my dress, slicing up the expensive fabric like it is nothing. He pushes the scraps off to the side of me slowly, like it’s a moment he wants to savor, and puts the knife back in his pocket.
“I can have you like this, every night.” Leo nods, cementing the idea like a promise to himself. He lifts a hand to my breast, massaging the skin with a soft groan. “You’re so fucking beautiful like this. Do you like feeling helpless, Midnight? You’re not scared of me, are you?”
He knows that’s not the emotion I’m struggling with right now. I can’t close my legs. I have nothing to help me; there's no way to hide how wet I am. I gasp as his fingers pinch my nipple painfully. “I see you’ve already forgotten all of your manners, haven’t you? So, let me remind you. You’re going to speak when spoken to. You will answer my questions, and by the end of the night you’re going to beg me to marry you.” Leo’s other hand lifts to my chin, grasping my face firmly and forcing me to nod. “That’s my good girl,” he whispers, leaning over me to kiss me softly.
I want to be mad. I want to curse at him, or summon some inner super strength and liberate myself. I want to scream or threaten him; I want to do anything. But his hand softens over my breast, he kisses me again, and I’m a traitor. I’m a dirty traitor, and my lips chase his as he pulls away.
I might not be able to ask, but I want him to kiss me. And he does, his lips trailing hot down my neck and between the valley of my breasts and lower. I’m wholly unprepared for how it feels when his lips find my center, his tongue teasing along my slit and delving deeper.
He’s right, I will agree to just about anything he’s going to ask me if he keeps doing that.
I strain against my restraints; I want to see. I want to see his face between my legs. Leo’s groan of pleasure as he licks me sends ripples of sensation through me. “Say yes,” he whispers.
My blood is a stampede in my veins; I clamp my lips together as I attempt to wriggle my hips away from him. His attention is slow and deliberate. He keeps avoiding the place that would shatter my self-control, and he knows it.
I’m half insane by the time he stops, his eyes afire with lust. This is torture; he’s setting me on fire but just keeping from allowing the flames to consume me.
“Still want to be stubborn? Very well.” Leo sits up and grabs a remote from the side of the bed. A television lowers from the ceiling, and he turns on the footage. “I guess you need just a little more motivation then. You’ll see that this is security footage from the Maple Root Casino, which you know well, don’t you? I have men poised in this casino, and in just a few moments, I’m going to signal to them to make my moves. Since I’m so fucking generous, and you need this final lesson, I’ll let you choose what happens here.”
Leo sinks two fingers inside me, and I gasp. There’s too much happening at once, I don’t know where to focus. “Beg for me to marry you, Midnight. I want to hear you plead for me. I’ll give you that pleasure you’re refusing to ask for. I will give you all the pleasure you crave...but if you don’t, and you still refuse to surrender to me…”
The security footage changes. It’s so hard to think straight with Leo’s fingers curling inside of me like this. I’m so close. I’ve been teetering on that brink for so long. My hooded eyes lift to the television, and ice drops into my gut. Those are bombs. Leo has bombs at my brother’s casino. “There are people in there.”
“Yes.” Leo works a third finger inside of me. Sweat covers my chest as I pant. My body doesn’t give a damn about the repercussions of what choice is ahead of me. “Nobody will ever find the bombs, Midnight; I promise you that. Ask me. Convince me to marry you, and the casualties will be far fewer. I will blow this up. I will kill all of those innocent people. If I’m really lucky, I’ll even kill your brother.”
“No, please…” I pant, and Leo’s mouth lowers back between my legs. What is he doing to me?
“Please what?”
“I’ll marry you,” I gasp, his tongue swirling expertly over my clit in time with his fingers inside of me. “Please—I’ll marry you, don’t hurt them.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I pull at my restraints, but it’s useless. My body is teetering on the brink; I can’t let those people—Caspian—be harmed. “Please! Leo, please marry me. Please, promise me that you won’t hurt them, and I’ll do anything you want. I’ll...do...ah...anything.”
“Of course.” Leo lifts himself, and I scream in despair as he removes the friction. “All you had to do was ask, my bride.”
Leo slams into me, and stars explode behind my eyes. Everything outside of this bed ceases to exist, and I explode. My orgasm tears through me as Leo fills me. He sets a brutal pace, and all I can do is endure it. I love every single second of my damnation.