Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
There wasn’t a mirror in the bathroom, only a pedestal sink, a toilet, and a shower. Perhaps I should have been thankful—he could have left me in a cage with a bucket, but that didn’t seem his style. He’d gone to enormous lengths during the month he’d held my sister captive, pretending he was her loving fiancé.
As far as I could tell, there weren’t any cameras in either room, so . . . at least there was that. But I had the terrible feeling this space was a tool.
When I shuffled out of the bathroom, I jerked to a halt.
Juric waited for me. The clothes I’d pushed on the floor were back on the bed beside him, folded neatly. “These are for you.”
My mouth went dry. “I like what I have on.”
“Hmm, me too, but you can’t stay in that dress forever.” I took a step back when he rose. “It looks like it ripped when you fell.”
Sure enough, the side of the dress by my hip had a shredded hole ripped in it. “You mean when I fell down the stairs you didn’t mention?”
“You said no to me. Don’t do it again.” His cold, merciless gaze drilled into me. “How about from now on we be completely honest with each other?”
Perhaps ignorance was bliss, but I was too confused to consider it. “Are you going to kill me?”
He took a moment. “Not tonight.”
It wasn’t really an answer. “Why not?”
“Are you anxious to die?”
“Of course not. But I won’t let you use me to get to her.”
His face hardened. “You’ll do exactly what I tell you to do.”
I let a sneering smile spread across my face. He could try to control me, but he would fail. I was excellent at controlling my mind and body when necessary. There was a thin line between pleasure and pain, so it stood to reason I could stay quiet when he hurt me.
Not if, but when.
His tone was calm, controlled. “Take off your dress.”
“Not a chance.”
He reached into his suit pocket. It wasn’t for the gun, as I had assumed it would be.
“Are you aware,” I said, my gaze fixed on the blade as he flicked it open, “I killed the last man who came at me with a knife?”
I stood my ground when he approached, muting the screams inside that were just below the surface of my cool facade.
“The one in your apartment?” He grinned. “That was you?”
Oh, God. Juric had been the one to get the body from my place?
“He wasn’t actually dead when I got there, but I finished the job. Did that son of a bitch give you this?”
His fingers skimmed the side of my neck where the faint pink line remained, the reminder from the knife ten days ago, and his fingertips on my skin made me lurch away. I’d rather have the knife than his too familiar, intimate touch.
“Why were you at my place?” Tension squeezed my body.
“I wanted to meet you. We’ve a lot in common.”
I was going to throw up. “We have nothing in common.”
He gave me a plain look. “Don’t argue with me. Now, we’ll try this again. Take off your dress.”
“No.”
Whatever pleasantness was on his face vanished. “Was I unclear? You don’t get to say that word.”
“Get used to it.” I didn’t flinch when he set the flat side of the blade on my skin right below where the man had cut me.
Air left me rapidly when he grabbed one of the straps of my dress and cut it, then the other, and the destroyed fabric peeled down my body.
It exposed what I’d worn for Shawn, the other set of expensive lingerie he’d unknowingly bought for me. When I had first picked it out, I had hoped he’d never get to see it. Now I was pissed he wouldn’t. It added to the fire already raging in my belly.
“God, you’re beautiful.” Juric said it like it was unexpected. He used his free hand to grab the chain of my handcuffs and pull me close, keeping a tight hold on it. “Would you like to get dressed?” He dragged the knife lightly down my collarbone, down between my breasts, to below my bra. “All you have to do is follow my command.”
My heart slammed inside my chest, and it was so loud I wondered if he could hear it. It didn’t matter. I pushed everything I felt to the side except for my anger and leaned forward so my face was by his ear.
“Go to hell.”
Disappointment washed over his face. “You don’t breathe unless I say so. If you disobey, you’ll be punished,” he said. “Now take a breath and hold it.”
I started to laugh, but the sharp side of the blade pressed up against the flesh covering my ribs, quickly making me serious.
“Don’t say no to me. Hold your breath.”