Page 65 of Survival

“Darren, what the fuck?” I almost yelled, holding up mychained limbs for him to see.

“Now, is thatany wayto speak to me, Jaden?” He narrowed his eyes atme.

I let a slowbreath out through my nose in an attempt to calm myself. “I’msorry,” I said calmly. “But could you please tell me why I’mchained to the bed?”

“Because I wanted you to be. That’s all you need toknow.”

I released anotherannoyed sigh. I wanted to argue so bad, but my still sore andburning ass disagreed with me. My head was still pounding and Ifelt like total shit. Yep, hangover – check. I sat back against mylegs, my ass still stinging, but I ignored it as I watched him walkover to me. He sat down next to me, his eyes never leaving mine ashis hand reached up and gently took my chin between his twofingers. I tried not to tense up as he brought his lips to mine,planting a slow and gentle kiss on my mouth. I felt the warmthflare up again as his kiss somehow ignited me. Maybe it was becausehewas beinggentle andIwas, therefore,safesomehow.

“Maybe if you’re a good girl,” he said, releasing my lips, butnot my chin, “I’ll let you go and we can go downstairs, havedinner, and watch some baseball.” He almostsmiled.

I leaned away fromhim and looked him over peculiarly.

“Baseball?”

“Mmhmm, the Yankee’s are playing the Tiger’stonight.”

Oh, how carefullyhe studied me then, watching and waiting for my reaction at themention of the Detroit Tigers, my state’s home baseball team. Ialmost let my poker face slip, but a blank stare was surprisinglyeasy to pull off.

“Unless you’d rather not,” he said, eying meintently.

I shook my headseriously. “No, I’d love to watch the Tiger’s kick the shit out ofthe Yankees.”

“Language,” he warned,tappinghis indexfingeronthe side of my facebefore pointing it at me. I almost pouted. “And we’ll see,”hesaidand pulled out asmall key from his pants pocket. I turned my wrists over so he hadbetter access to the locks, but he stopped and looked at me withthat same possessive look I always hated. “Who do you belong to,Jaden?”

Again with thisbullshit? I was getting really tired of the repetitiveness of thisquestion, but I knew he was trying to drill it into my head that heowned me and there was no other way around it.

I leaned towardhim, my eyes locking on to his like a target. “You,” I said withabsolute conviction. Fuck it; make him believe what he wants. Itwas dulling me out anyway.

“Good girl.” Hesmiled smugly and released me from my chains.

I stood from thebed as he did, wrapping my arms around myself as the goosebumpstook over. I suddenly realized the only item of clothing I had inthis room was the wet bathing suit Darren had tossed somewhere onthe bathroom floor. I highly doubted Darren wanted me walkingaround the house naked with security personnel on thegrounds.

“Clothes?” Iasked, hopeful he’d let me go to my room to change. “I’d like toclean myself up as well if you don’t mind.”

“You can clean upin my bathroom,” he said. “I’ll get you something to wear.” He hadthat twinkle in his eye again that I knew meant trouble.Great.

I walked away andheaded toward his bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind mehoping he’d give me just a little privacy to take care of business.I used the toilet and ran a warm wet rag between my legs, cleaningoff the earlier mess Darren made all over me. I then looked at myhair, which was now a tousled mess thanks to it being damp andbeing fucked. I flipped my hair over, ran my fingers through myroots, and shook it out. Flipping my locks back over, I teased itwith my fingers in places and made it look a hell of a lot better.I could rock that.

Stepping from thebathroom, I found Darren leaning against the doorway of his walk-incloset. He held a shirt out for me.

“Here,” he said,and I took it from him. “That should besufficient.”

Unraveling theshirt in my hand, it turned out to be one of his dress shirts.Bluishgraywith pearly whitebuttons. As I lifted it up, I almost laughed. I would swim in this.Slipping my arms through the sleeves, which fell eight inches pastmyfingertips, I buttonedthe shirt up to the last two buttons and tugged it down as low asit would go. It went all the way down just above my knees. I wasn’tjust swimming—I was drowning in this.

Darren stared downat measthe most satisfiedgrin I had ever seen on him slid across his face. “That,” hebeamed, “is the most adorable thing I’ve everseen.”

I looked down atthe dress shirt and looked back up at him, raising an eyebrow.“Seriously?” I said.

“Hmm ... I may have to make some changes in your wardrobe. Ithink I like you in my clothes.”

To be honest,I washappy to be wearing something that wasn't a dress even though itpractically fit like one. Despite all that, I had sleeves and I waswarm.

“I still need underwear. I’ll justgoto my room and grab some realquick.”

“Nope,” he said, grabbing my arm as I tried to walk past him.“I think you’re just fine as is.”

“What if someone sees?” I asked, a littleshocked.