Page 13 of Redemption

He obliges me, and my stomach dips as I drop.

The soft mattress cushions my fall, and I immediately try to scramble away from him.

The monster is on me before I move an inch. His long fingers encircle my wrists, shackling them above my head. His other hand curves around my neck, threatening to squeeze if I continue to defy him. The weight of his body pins mine, and I squirm uselessly in his restraining hold.

“I can’t let you go, Abigail.” It’s a calm statement of fact.

His perfect features might as well be carved from ice: frigid and unfeeling. If it weren’t for the way his emerald eyes blaze, I’d think he was completely devoid of human emotion.

Blood trickles down his cheek from a small cut at his brow. I managed to inflict some damage when I struck him with the lamp, but it wasn’t enough to save me.

“I won’t go to the cops,” I promise desperately. “I won’t tell anyone what you did to me. Just let me go home.”

His jaw ticks, and his eyes flare with a dark possessiveness that I recognize all too well.

“I can’t let you go,” he repeats, and it holds the solemn ring of a life sentence.

He’s insane. The man I thought I loved is absolutely insane.

“Get your hands off me, psycho!”

He flinches, but his fingers firm around my neck, choking off my ability to hurl insults at him.

“I never claimed to be sane. I’ve let you see exactly what I am, and you begged for more.”

My lips part on shallow breaths that barely squeeze through my constricted windpipe.

“Please…” I barely manage to whisper the plea.

“You like this, Abigail.” The words are a dagger to my thrumming heart. “You want me. The real me.”

“I don’t know the real you,” I gasp.

I don’t want this monster who’s holding me captive. He’s not the fiercely protective man I fell for.

“Liar,” he accuses coolly.

He releases my throat, and oxygen floods my system.

Horror hollows out my chest when his touch trails lower. One strong hand keeps my wrists above my head, and the other deftly palms my breasts in the way I like best—just hard enough to threaten bruising pain.

My nipples peak against the inside of my bra, and a sickening pulse starts up between my legs.

“No,” I moan in pure revulsion.

He knows my body. I told him my darkest secrets. He lured me into trusting him, and now he confidently manipulates pleasure from my deepest shame.

He’s going to wield it against me like a weapon. It’s far more devastating than the helplessness inflicted by the drugs.

“You do want me.” It’s a command, an edict. “You want it to be this way between us.”

A drop of his blood drips from his tight jaw and sears my cheek. It mingles with my hot tears, and despair swallows me whole.

4

DANE

Three months ago