Page 95

“There’s no way to soften the blow of this, so I’m going to step fully into the light. Don’t be afraid of me; I’ve already told you that I won’t hurt you.”

“Okay,” I reply shakily. I close my eyes. I don’t know why, but the child in me doesn’t want to see anymore monsters tonight, even though the woman in me knows that I have no say in the matter.

“It’s okay to look at me,” he says in a gentle tone. He sounds almost kind, as if he wants to make this easier on me than him. As if he’s accepted his fate and is trying to help me accept mine, but I refuse to be just another chained beast kept hidden from the world until I’m ready to be put to use.

“You haven’t told me your name yet.” The chain rattles quietly as he gathers it in his hand; metal upon metal made to hold this man in place until his master deems him worthy to be free.

“Cessi,” I reply quietly, my eyes still closed tightly. I don’t feel that I have to lie to him and hide behind the façade that’s Burgundy when he’s so willing to expose himself to me.

Body and soul.

“Cessi,” he echoes softly. “I like it. It’s as pretty as you are. You can open your eyes now, Cessi; I’m in the light.”

I take a few, quick deep breaths, terrified of what I might see as I slowly begin to open my eyes. I make sure to keep my eyes as level as they were before I closed them so now, at the very least, I’ll be looking at his chest when I finally find the courage to open them completely.

“Take your time. I’m not going anywhere,” he jokes with a soft laugh.

I return his laugh in spite of myself, because it’s the truth; neither of us are going anywhere. Not until we die first or Lowell decides we can, and considering I’m not a gambling type of gal, I know better than to hold my breath for the latter.

I sigh and begin to open my eyes deciding that the worse of the two torments I’m facing right now is plunging myself back into voluntary darkness.

The first thing I see is the marks on his bare chest. They’re angry; vicious, almost like he’s been clawed, and it’s enough to make me weak in the knees. Not the way he probably would have hoped, but in the manner that I know is befitting of the situation we’ve found ourselves in.

“Look up at my face first; it’ll be easier that way,” Stone says softly.

I can see that he’s breathing a little harder as I do what I’m commanded and let my eyes trail up to his neck. That’s the source of the chain; a thick collar sits around the flesh of his throat and it holds him in the place where Lowell has set him to rot and die.

The left side of his face is majestic and strong, but now that I can see him completely, I can’t help but take a step back in fear.

“I told you; he likes to mutilate beautiful things,” Stone reminds me with a soft chuckle and a shrug.

The right side of his face—it looks like he’s the victim of an unwanted acid bath. His skin is shriveled and his eye isn’t as blue as the other, it almost looks white. He watches my face carefully with his dead eye and smiles slightly.

“I wish I could say that’s the worst of it,” he begins quietly, “but I need you to look at my hands now—and when you’re ready, I’ll move them away.”

In this moment, I can say that I finally understand the power of subliminal messages. He’s hiding something behind his hands, something more horrendous than his face, and it’s causing me to wring mine viciously. I have to make myself stop because I’m twisting my hands so violently, that I’ll break the bones if I don’t stop soon. But I know that what he’s protecting so valiantly right now is meant to shock me and potentially scare me out of a hell of a lot of money. I won’t give in as easily as Lowell wants me to—not with my simple dreams sitting so close at hand.

I need this money and I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to get it.

I use the back of my hand to wipe away the perspiration from my mouth and nod. “I’m ready.”

He hesitates for a moment, and I can sense his embarrassment before he slowly begins to move his hands away. My eyes aren’t focused, so it doesn’t dawn on me right away what he’s been hiding until he takes a step closer to me.

The light illuminates his body almost completely now and I take a deep breath, biting down my tongue, careful not to react in a boorish way.

“This is why he calls me an animal,” Stone says quietly as he crosses his arms tightly over his chest, “and why he treats me like one.”

“Does it… does it hurt?” I finally ask in a hushed tone.

“Not anymore.”

I nod and turn my face away as Stone steps back into the darkness. He makes his way back toward the window and fixes the makeshift curtain back into place. The small hope of escape, the slight glimmer of light we had, is gone now as his chains rattle again and he lowers his body in a huff back to the ground.

“So, if you’d rather lie to him now, I understand,” he says with an amused laugh.

I close my eyes tightly praying for the void to swallow me whole, but I can still see it. It’s clearer to me now that I’m trying to shake it from my mind and I can’t help but feel some pity for the man being held prisoner.

His dick—or what used to be his dick—has been viciously disfigured. Most of it is