I coughed, my throat dry.
“T-Tate. Let me go,” I rasped.
He laughed softly. “Do you know how hard it was to get you alone, Bianca? How long I waited?” He grabbed a chair in the room that hadn’t been in there earlier and sat down on it and stared at me on the bed, still bound.
“P-please. The kings will kill you—”
He waved me off. “They came bursting into Hail’s last night. Raised hell. Threatened lives. Gave me this.” He gestured to his face. “As far as any of the wasted fucks know, I was still there. I hadn’t left. I used the bathroom and slipped down the fire escape. I was looking for new pussy and found you. What luck, right?”
“You piece of shit,” I shouted, but it barely squeaked out of me since my throat was so dry.
He tutted at me. “Quiet, now. I mean, you don’t really need to be quiet. No one can hear you here. We’re far from anyone and this place is soundproofed.” He smiled at me again. “Anyway, this went off perfectly. No one even knows it was me. Not the lords. Not the kings.No one.And no one will. So we have… forever, Bianca. Together. We can finally get to know one another the way it should have been in the beginning.”
A tear slid out of the corner of my eye. I winced as he climbed onto the bed and lay beside me. He leaned in and brushed the tear away.
“Do you know how long I’ve dreamed of us together?” he asked. “I’d hoped Hail would share you with us. I really think he was going to but then De Santis stole you away. I was so angry, but it’s OK because I have you back, and I don’t have to share. It worked out even better than I imagined.”
“What are you going to do to me?” I whispered.
“Love you in my very special way,” he said, brushing my hair out of my eyes. “Oh, don’t cry. I’ll make you feel good.”
“You’re hurting me, Tate. My wrists and ankles.”
“Oh, you like my ropes?” he asked brightly. “They have tiny bits of barbed wire woven through the fibers. My idea. We use it when we interrogate our enemies. Hurts, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” I choked out. “Please. I’m hurting.”
“Hurting makes everything else worth it though.”
“Please let me go,” I choked out again. “I won’t tell—”
He pushed me harder onto my back, making me cry out as the ropes dug into my skin. His hands slid up my bare thighs and beneath my Bolten skirt.
“Your skin is so soft. I didn’t get to enjoy it the way I wanted to when I brought you here since I had to get back, but fuck, you’re perfect.” He straddled me, the weight of his body making me cry out because my arms were extended painfully above me, the ropes tearing at them from the bedposts.
I squeezed my eyelids closed as he reached out and cradled my breast through my shirt, his breathing heavy.
“Tell me you want me.” He breathed out again.
“Let me go. Please, Tate. Let me go.”
He cocked his head at me. “Will you tell me you want me if I let you go?”
What choice did I have? I could say the words and maybe shove him off me and make a run for it. It was really my only option. I just had to pray that door wasn’t locked.
“Y-Yes. Just untie me.”
He studied me for a moment longer before he slid off me. He fumbled with the ropes. The moment he freed me, I kicked him square in the chest and dove off the bed, hitting the hard floor, my knees screaming at me.
Get up. Get up. GET UP!
I jumped to my feet and dashed to the door and pulled it open, hope alive and well in my heart.
It was short lived as Tate grabbed me and threw me across the room so hard, I crashed against the bed, my head smacking against the headboard. My ears rang and my vision dotted for a moment, but it was all he needed. He was on top of me again, holding me down on the mattress as I struggled weakly beneath him.
“You aren’t so strong now, are you?” he snarled. “I tried to be nice. I tried to make you understand you can love me, but you had to fucking ruin it. You ruined it! Fucking bitch!” He struck me across the face as I fought him, my fingers tearing at anything I could get.
He hit me again, knocking me senseless for a moment. In that moment, he ripped open my blouse, sending the buttons flying.