Against Her Will (Dragon's Lair) (10 page)

Standing in the doorway was a large, muscled man with a neat brown mustache
and beady brown eyes. Flanked by two muscled men, he boomed in the loud voice of a military man accustomed to instant obedience, “Give me the girl!”

“I beg your pardon!” Julia answered back, and never had a beg for pardon been delivered with such icy disapproval.

Sarah shrieked in dismay, forgetting her nurse’s rules about
not covering up without permission. She tugged the girlish dress down over her buttocks, cowering next to Julia. Unlike the doctor, who had frightened her with threats of awful medical treatments but proceeded in a calm, logical manner, this new man stormed in like a conqueror.

The man
dragged Sarah from the bed by her hair. She shrieked, and Julia threw a heavy glass pitcher at his back. The man uttered oaths, and Sarah flinched as a jagged piece of glass grazed her arm. She fell to her knees as the Neanderthal shoved her to the ground, and he began unbuckling his pants. Julia gasped in dismay as she saw the blood welling up on Sarah’s arm, and she grabbed the top sheet from Sarah’s bed. She tried to throw it around Sarah from behind, but the man motioned to his right henchman who gripped Julia around the neck with both of his hands. Julia jammed two of her fingers at the base of his throat, zeroing on his trachea. He gasped for breath, and she put both hands together to throw her entire body weight behind her elbow as she punched him aside.

“Why isn’t she in her diaper?”
the intruding man boomed, and Sarah found room, even amidst her terror, to find shame that he mentioned her worst moment so far. “Never mind,” he answered himself. “We’ll get you in one later, and for now it suits me to have you naked. Take off your clothes, wench.”

Julia bark
ed orders into the intercom. When the security guards did not appear as ordered, she buzzed someone else. “Richard, we need you now!” She strode back toward Sarah, but this time the intruder’s henchmen restrained her in a synchronized tackle. She kicked and spat, bringing down the force of the Lair onto their vile heads.

Sarah’s teeth chattered together, but painful experiences over the past few days taught her to remain
on her knees as instructed. When the man unfastened his zipper and took out the most engorged member Sarah had ever seen, he laughed. “Say hello to your new Master,” he crowed. “Let’s see if your Nurse taught you how to please a man properly.”

Sarah took a deep breath. Dare
she risk a beating for refusing? They had subjected her to untold horrors and humiliations already; was this really any different? She opened her mouth reluctantly, closing her eyes. However, her eyes flew open as a new person crashed into the room and knocked the man onto the floor with a well-placed blow to the stomach. Five heavily armed guards followed close behind. One pinned the intruder to the floor, and the others immobilized the henchmen. Julia got to her feet and rushed to Sarah.

“Are you insane?” Her rescuer stood over the prostrate man. “She’s not yours yet, and if I have any
say she never will.”

Now that the moment of danger was over, Sarah collapsed into tears. Julia came behind her, wrapping comforting arms around her shoulders and whispering in her ear. “It’s all right, my pet.
The Commandant will take care of you.”

“I am Major Jeffrey Sanders and you will unhand me at once!”
the tackled man bellowed, but a guard whacked his back with the butt of a rifle.

“You may have paid off the other guards, but these men answer to me. Take him out of my si
ght and lock him up until Master Dragon can question him. Confine all of the other security guards until we can do a thorough investigation. Who knows how far the Major’s bribery has reached into the Lair? Trust no one for now.”

The guards hustled the Major out, ignoring his epithets. Julia released Sarah to follow the guards and call for extra sec
urity. Richard — if that was his name — knelt next to Sarah and offered her a handkerchief. Touched at the old-fashioned gesture, she mopped her eyes and gasped. Her arm streamed with blood where the glass pitcher fragment had cut the skin, and her entire body and dress were stained with blood. She hadn’t noticed the pain until now, but she winced

“
Are you okay? Not going to faint?” he asked her, and she managed to nod. The most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on, except the doctor, and she would force herself to be all right somehow. “I’m going to take care of you, little girl,” he said. She closed her eyes as his words became truth.

He
lifted her under her knees and back, holding her aloft as if she were a doll. She cried out, unused to anyone but Julia taking charge of her body, and relaxed as he soothed her with soft words. Unreasonably, she noticed the ripples of his well-defined pectoral muscles and his rock-hard chest. She leaned her head on his shoulder, shaking all over in the aftermath of the intrusion.

Richard carried Sarah to the bathtub and deposited her in it, lifting off her dress. His breath caught at the sight of her delicious full breasts, oddly incongruous with her little-girl hairstyle and frightened, meek demeanor. His loins stirred with the
strongest desire he had ever known, and he focused on turning on the water taps.
Not now
, he told himself angrily. Was he a monster, taking advantage of a girl who had been attacked and nearly raped? He took a washcloth and wet it, rinsing frequently to wash away the dried blood. He scrubbed her all over. Tenderly, longingly, with as much care as he would give a newborn baby. “I’m sorry,” he wanted to tell her. “This was all my fault. I never should have let you come to harm.” Instead, he soaped her hair free of the crusted blood.

“That feels nice,” Sarah murmured, forgetting she wasn’t supposed to speak. He bathed her as well as Julia did, but there was something more to his touch. There was
a shyness, almost. “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do,” he said roughly, and she looked up, startled, to see him blinking away a tear. Her mouth opened in shock, but no words came out. “I should be fired,” he admitted. It was foolish to tell her,
but the shame overwhelmed him. She was the most beautiful, talented girl he had ever met, and his negligence had nearly ruined her.

Sarah reached up to brush away the tear from his cheek.
More woman than little girl, she offered him comfort he did not deserve. “I’m okay, she said.” It was clearly a lie, but he admired her all the more for telling it.

“How can I make it up to you?” he asked.

“To me?” Sarah blinked as if she had not heard him correctly.

“Yes, to you. It’s my job to keep you safe. I should have noticed when the Major started getting too chummy with security. He wanted to buy you, and I thought…” Richard hoped he weren’t blushing. He was telling her too much, burdening her with his own issues. She gave him a startling trust, and he felt compelled to explain why he didn’t deserve it. “I thought I was upset he wanted to be your Master, because I wanted…”

Sarah gazed at him, sweet confusion in her eyes. “Because you knew I wanted to stay with Julia? That was thoughtful.”

Richard gave himself an angry shake. He was Commandant, not a silly teenage boy asking a
popular girl to prom. Given the near-tragedy that had occurred tonight, there was no harm in telling her the truth. “Because I wanted you for myself.”

Sarah stared at him.
Realizing she was naked in front of a man who desired her, pink crept into her cheeks. She covered her breasts with her arms.

“Don’t do that,” he said, but his tone was gentle.
“I mean, they’re beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

Slowly, she dropped her arms to her sides. “I am?”

Had the girl never looked at herself in the mirror before? “I’m sorry. I have no right. I….”

She put her finger on his lips. “Why not?”

He had to remind himself that he was second-in-command. Men and women fell onto their knees in terror when he determined their fates, but this slip of a girl bewitched him with a single touch. “You must be cold,” he said, awkwardly rinsing off her body.

“What if I wanted you to?” Sarah lowered her lashes, tilting her head away to show off her creamy, luscious neck.

“I’m a jerk,” he said. “I…”

Sarah reached up and hooked her arms around his neck, stopping his movements. He

As he poured the water over her, he wished he could replace the washcloth with his hands. Sarah, well-trained by Julia’s ministrations, allowed Richard to part her pouting lower lips and wash them clean. If a finger or two strayed into forbidden territory, and if her breath quickened with excitement, neither of them mentioned it.

“Does that hurt?” Richard rinsed her hair, careful not to get any suds in her eyes. She sighed in contentment, wishing he would continue to wash her forever.

“No, but it still feels soapy here.” She lied, raising her hand to pat behind her ear.

Richard washed away the nonexistent soap, and he patted her
hair to make sure it was clean. Then, before he could think, his tongue was in her ear and time grew still. Instead of pulling away, she froze until she thought her heart had stopped beating. Gently, sweetly, she turned her face to accept his kiss with her lips.

Richard’s
cock swelled so fast he thought he would come right then and there. He wanted to be in her, and as soon as possible. He would have stripped off his clothes and joined her in the bathtub, but those doe-like eyes closed with such sweet trust that he attempted to restrain himself. Plus, what was he thinking? He would lose his job, if he were lucky enough not to lose his life. Who knew what would happen to the Major, patronage or not. His enormous donations would probably save his life, but that was all.

“I have to go now,” Richard stammered, and she dropped her head like a flower broken on its
stalk. He backed away, not at all sure he could keep up with his self-restraint. The Major might not get her, but some other lucky man would. If Richard took her best selling point, his days would be numbered.

She didn’t look at him as he left, and he cursed himself as he exited the door. “She’s all yours,” he said to Julia.

“I want a trauma counselor for her by the end of the day,” she snapped. “I told you a million times to let me train my girls in self-defense. It’s foolish to think they will never be in dangerous situations. And no security guard gets assigned here unless I sign off.”

Richard would have reprimanded her for speaking like that in front of the girl, but he didn’t have the heart. “
You were right, okay?” he said. “We were all idiots, but mostly me. When I think what that Neanderthal might have done to her…we promise to protect these girls, and look what happens. I’ll go make my report to Master Dragon now.”

Julia’s eyes darkene
d in fear, and he hastened to reassure her. Master Dragon exacted harsh penalties on employees who displeased him, and Nurses took the fall when anything happened to their charges. “I’ll tell him it wasn’t your fault. I take full responsibility. I never should have let him continue with his purchase request. Keep her comfortable, okay?”

Julia nodded, moving toward the bathtub and picking up a wh
ite towel. She helped Sarah step out, holding the girl as she shook with sobs. Richard disappeared out the door, wanting to kick himself for his indiscretion. Better to focus on the new recruit. He should keep his mind off impossible temptations.

Tenderness, after such an ordeal, was like heaven to Sarah. She melted into her Nurse’s embrace and closed her eyes, her heart glad.

*
              *              *

Becky woke with a sudden gasp, the terrors of fevered sleep tightening her chest. Disoriented, she gazed around the stark cell, unsure if she had really awoken. Her head throbbed. She tried to cough but didn’t have enough saliva to make it happen. The door creaked open, and a tall, good-looking man stood in the doorway. He stood, making her feel even smaller lying on the floor.

“Will you cooperate, or do we need to keep you restrained?”

Becky tried to clear her head, but she couldn’t think. Sarah, that was it. She got into this mess because she wanted to find out what happened to her. “Yo
u said you’d tell me if Sarah was okay,” she croaked. “The rest of this wasn’t necessary.”

The man smiled. “Oh yes it was, my dear. And you haven’t answered my question.” He motioned to a guard who rolled Becky
onto her knees and rapped her backside with a thick rubber baton. She howled. Never in her life had she been subjected to such indignity. “Will you cooperate, or do you need to remain in restraints?”

“Let me go,” Becky pleade
d. “All I want is to know if Sarah’s okay, and I’ll go. Ow! Son of a…” The baton whacked again, and she reeled.

“Sarah, as you call her, is fine. You will see her soon.”

“Really?” Becky could have cried in relief. “Why couldn’t you have just told me that?”

“You’ll see,” the man smiled. “Some things can’t be told indirectly. If I tell my men to take off your clamps, do you promise not to try to run away or attack anyone?”

Becky laughed. Attack a mosquito, maybe, but not men who could probably lift her with one little finger. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Just let me see Sarah, and I’ll be on my way.”

*              *              *