Passion's Hope (The Doms of Passion Lake Book 3) (15 page)

“No.” She sucked in her breath, staring up at Nik her eyes dark and flickering with the horror of all the things Perry Bradford had done to her…
back there
. She was terrified of a rectal examination. “I’m fine. I don’t need an exam. I—”

Putting his finger to her lips, he sank down on the edge of the bed next to her, taking one of her hands in his.

“Hush,
lapochka.
You are bleeding from the rectum. That is serious. So we
will
be taking you to the doctor, and you
will
let him examine you.” His voice had suddenly developed a slight edge, a firmness that hadn’t been there before. Not mean. Or cold. Just…firm. Like a father laying down the law to his wayward child. He turned his head and looked at his partner. “Jay, please call Luc and tell him we’re bringing her in. And you may go ahead and get dressed.”

“Okay, Papa Bear.” Jay scrambled up off the bed and gave Nik a snappy salute before turning smartly on his heel and heading off to fetch his cell phone and get dressed.

Suddenly Charlie sat bolt upright. “I can’t go to the doctor,” she cried in sudden consternation. “I literally have nothing to wear. My clothes are still in my car!” She paused. “Wait a minute.” She clutched at his shoulder. “Where
is
my car? I don’t remember driving here—”

“It’s parked right outside,” Nik assured her calmly. “I had Steve, my bar manager, and Andy, one of my bartenders, go get it earlier this morning and bring it here. Your clothes are hanging in my closet. We’re definitely going to have to take you shopping.”

“A-and my, um, dolls? And stuffed animals?” She shook her head, recoiling slightly. “I’m sorry, I don’t even know why I packed them. I had so little time. I just threw them in the suitcase. They’re probably all broken. I was—it was stupid of me.”

Nik curved his hand around the back of her head. “Your dolls and animals are safe. I arranged them on the bed in the guest room. You can either leave them there or put them anywhere else you want.”

Startled, she just stared at him. “Anywhere? Even in here?”

‘Of course.”

She looked around the supremely masculine bedroom. “You would let me put such…frilly, girly, childish things…in here?”

He gave her head a slight shake. “They’re important to you, baby girl. That makes them important to me. Besides, it’s obvious you spent a great deal of money on them. I can tell they’re collectors’ items and not just toys. They deserve to be seen and loved and admired.”

Jay walked back in wearing worn jeans, cowboy boots, and a gray T-shirt that said Property of the U.S. Navy. “Doc said he can see her in around thirty minutes. Why don’t I help Charlie while you get dressed?” he suggested, heading for the closet. When he came back out, Nik was pulling up a pair of black jeans to go with his black T-shirt. Charlie was sitting on the edge of the bed watching him. Jay laid a red cotton wrap-around sundress and a pair of low-heeled sandals on the bed next to her. Then he went to a dresser and selected a red lace bra and matching panties.

She stared at them, then lifted her head to stare up at him. “How did you know this is my favorite outfit?”

His grin was sheepish. “I didn’t. I just knew it was
my
favorite outfit.”

The sweet sincerity of Jay’s words melted her insides. Her breath hitched and her tongue came out to lick her lips.

Mesmerized by Charlie’s unintentionally sensual gesture, Jay’s eyes darkened. Unable to help himself, he bent his head toward her, pausing with his mouth a fraction of an inch above hers.

Without even realizing she was doing it, she pushed her fists down into the mattress on either side of her hips, lifting her face just enough to close the tiny distance between Jay’s lips and hers. The instant their lips touched, fire consumed her, making her moan. He took over, sliding his hands under her arms and pulling her up against him, claiming her mouth in a rapturous kiss. A kiss filled with passion and promise and leashed power. A kiss that stole the breath from her lungs and ravished her senses. What was it about these two men that released such wild hunger within her?

Too soon Jay lifted his head, looking down at her with a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes and sent hot cream gushing out between her legs. “C’mon, baby,” he said, lifting a hand and brushing her hair back off her face. “Let’s get you to the doc so you can start gettin’ better.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

Jay released her and turned her toward Nik, who held out his hands toward her. She placed hers in them.

“Come,
myshka
. We have one more little chore to do before we leave for the doctor’s office. We don’t want to keep Lucas waiting.” He turned to Jay. “Go to the living room and bend over the arm of the couch, please,
malchik
, bare ass up.”

Charlie’s mouth went bone dry as, without question, Jay left the room. By the time they joined him in the living room, his jeans were down around his ankles and he was bent over the overstuffed arm, wiggling his bare ass high in the air. He spread his legs and settled into the cushiony leather, his scrotum dangling down like a piece of ripe fruit.

Holy crap!
These two men were so comfortable with their sexuality, nudity didn’t seem to faze them in the slightest. Not even
her
nudity! She’d never met anyone like them before. In a way it was refreshing. Freeing, even. Yet, in so many other ways it was…scary. If she did wind up staying here, would they expect her to be naked all the time?

Nik went to the long, narrow lamp table behind the sofa and opened the center drawer. He withdrew a shiny silver butt plug, similar to the plugs Perry Bradford had forced into her, and a small tube, which he uncapped, squirting what looked to be a clear gel onto the first two fingertips of his right hand.

“Jay,
malchik moy
, reach behind you and part your ass cheeks/”

Jay’s big hands reached back and grabbed his ass cheeks, pulling them apart to reveal his puckered anus. Mesmerized, Charlie watched his muscles twitch,

Rimming Jay’s ass hole with the side of his index finger, Nik pressed his nail sideways against the puckered sphincter and slid inside the clenching muscle, slowly pushing his finger forward while twirling it at the same time in a windmilling motion, spreading the slippery lube all around Jay’s back channel. He pulled it back out, nearly all the way, then, adding a twisting motion, he penetrated Jay’s ass with both fingers and began thrusting them in and out.

Jay’s breath was coming in a series of harsh groans and cries at the pleasure spearing through him from Nik’s fingers in his ass, thrusting, scissoring, and twisting.

Charlie gnawed on her lip, unable to tear her eyes away from the carnal sight of those wet, glistening fingers driving in and out of Jay’s dark, wrinkled hole. Or the sight of Jay pushing his ass back against those pleasuring fingers, actively seeking their touch. As if it felt…
good! No, not good,
wonderful!
As though anal penetration were not something painful and horrible and humiliating, but something to be investigated and explored, perhaps even enjoyed. Could that even be possible?

The thought was staggering in its implications.

Nik picked up the butt plug. It was sleek and very smooth, with a narrow tip that flared gradually, then narrowed abruptly into sort of a stem with a flat, narrow, rectangular end. Nik squirted a few lines of the clear lube all around it, spreading it around with his already wet finger.

“Jay will be wearing this plug today,” he explained to Charlie. He might have been talking about the shoes Jay was going to be wearing. Or the T-shirt. He turned and positioned the rounded tip of the stainless steel plug against Jay’s anus and pushed, wrenching a groan from Jay. “Relax,
moy daragohy.
This plug is small. After your body adjusts, you probably won’t even feel it. We’ll start with this and work up to a much larger one.” His grin was wicked. “I guarantee you will feel that one.”

Charlie watched, her attention riveted to the slow, steady widening of Jay’s ass hole, and the slow, steady entry of the silver plug into that hole until the widest part had breached the opening and Jay’s sphincter closed swiftly around the short stem. The clenching of his internal muscles made the plug bob slightly up and down.

Jeez.

“Now get dressed,
malchik
. We need to leave.”

Slightly breathless, Jay pushed himself up off the couch, reached down and pulled up his jeans, carefully tucking his still-erect cock back inside before pulling up the zipper and fastening the button.

“You’re going to walk around with that…
thing
in you?” Charlie asked.

“Sure, baby. People do it all the time.”

“But doesn’t it hurt?” Charlie was still unable to believe that something inside the anal canal could be anything but painful.

“No, baby.” Jay bent his head and kissed her cheek. “It just makes me feel kinda…full. But in a really…
really
nice way.”

“Come, my darlings,” Nik said. “We really must be going.”

He herded them through a set of French doors out onto a concrete and brick patio with a large pool that was designed to look like a natural grotto, with a waterfall cascading into one end. Strategically placed rocks with flowers and grasses tucked into the nooks and crannies formed the pool boundaries. Beyond the pool, instead of being enclosed by just a plain, ordinary wall, the entire area was contained by a terraced garden. On the left end was an outdoor kitchen and living space covered with a pergola ornamented by hanging baskets full of flowers.

“This is beautiful,” Charlie murmured as they led her through a gate at the right end of the patio and out into a private parking area.

“We’ll give you the grand tour as soon as we get back from the clinic,” Jay said. He led her to the passenger side of a black Humvee, opened the door and handed her into the seat before leaning across her and fastening her seat belt.

The heat from his arm brushing against her breasts peaked her nipples and made her achingly aware of them. And, God help her, all she could think about was two hot, wet mouths closing over both breasts at the same time and suckling them. She closed her eyes, squirming slightly as if she could already feel them there.
Holy shit, you have got to stop thinking like this!

Less than ten minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot at the Passion Lake Clinic. It was located on Main Street in a restored Queen Anne house painted a pale cream with black shutters and white trim. They were greeted by a nurse who introduced herself as Alice. She weighed Charlie and measured her height and had her fill out a form detailing her medical history. Then she ushered Charlie right into an examination room. Jay and Nik were about to go in with her, but she put her foot down. It was going to embarrassing enough to have Luc poking around in her bare ass without having Nik and Jay in there rubbernecking.

Alice took Charlie’s blood pressure and looked at her ears, nose and throat. Then she left, telling Charlie to remove her clothes and put on the hospital gown provided for her. The doctor would be in shortly. With her entire backside flapping in the breeze, Charlie pulled the sides of the gown together and sat on the end of the exam table, ankles crossed, swinging her legs.

Lucas McKay entered, smiling, and shook her hand. Alice entered right behind him, gave Charlie a smile, and stood beside the exam table. Lucas took his time explaining the procedure, taking Charlie through it step by step, even showing her the speculum he was going to use. But it wasn’t until he stood and patted the table and told her to crouch on top with her hips in the air that Charlie suddenly had trouble breathing. And moving. And doing anything, really, except sitting there engulfed in panic. When Luc noticed the pulse hammering frantically at the base of her throat and the look of utter terror in her eyes, he rolled his metal stool right up to her and took her hands in his.

“Look at me, Charlie.” It was an order, gently spoken, but an order nevertheless, and one she found herself instinctively obeying. “Tell me what Bradford did to you.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

For a long moment she just stared at him, stiff with resistance.

He squeezed her hand gently. “Please, Charlie. I need to know. More importantly, Nik and Jay need to know. You haven’t told them, have you?”

She shook her head.

“They’re good men, Charlie. They deserve truth and honesty from you.”

Swept by guilt, she felt her body sag. “You’re right,” she said, unable to stop the sob that tore from her throat.

For a long moment, Luc just stared down at the top of her bent head, rubbing his thumbs rhythmically back and forth across the backs of her hands. “All right.” He heaved a sigh. “I’m going to go get them and you’re going to tell us everything. Clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Sir made him smile. She was definitely a submissive. He got up and walked over to the door.

Before Charlie even realized they were there, Jay was standing in front of her, pushing the retractable stand in with his foot so he could get close enough to her to close his arms around her. He just held her, his large hand pressing her head against his shoulder, rocking her gently back and forth. Nik moved to her side and stroked his hand up and down her back, murmuring softly in Russian until her sobs finally quieted and she was able to speak. Haltingly at first, but with gathering strength, she told them what had happened to her.

“The first night I was there, he… he strapped me to an exam table just like this one”—she patted the surface she was sitting on—“with my legs splayed high and wide. And he rammed himself inside me without any preparation or warning or anything. It-it hurt so bad. And when I screamed and begged him to stop, he just laughed and said, ‘Pretty soon you’ll be
begging
me to fuck you this way.’ Her voice broke on a sob.

“After he fucked me, he forced me to have an enema. He filled me with cold, soapy water and wouldn’t let me evacuate. He put a plug in me and left me lying there for what seemed like hours, tied to the table, screaming in agony.” Her voice faltered and she took a deep breath before continuing in a low, halting voice.

“He kept me prisoner in his house for almost three weeks. Every day, he bent me over the back of a chair and tied me to it so he could rape me whenever he walked by, five, six, seven times a day. When he was finished, he’d just leave me there with his cum dripping out of whatever hole he’d just used. Between rapes he would crop me or paddle me or beat me with his belt. It didn’t matter how much I cried or begged or pleaded with him to stop. He didn’t. And I soon learned that the more I begged, the harder and longer my p-punishments would be. He got off on that. Said it gave him a powerful rush to be in total control of another human being.”

Jay’s arms tightened briefly as he continued to hold her and rock her gently. Nik stepped away from her, turning away so she wouldn’t see the murderous rage in his eyes. Hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, he worked his jaw so hard it was a miracle his teeth didn’t shatter. When he turned back to look at her, she was staring at him in dismay.

“Nik—” She pushed against Jay’s chest and he released her, stepping back away from the exam table. She lifted her hand toward Nik, but he was too far away to touch. “Do-did I—disgust you?” she asked, hardly daring to breathe, terrified of his answer.

At the look of despair on her face, the big Russian simply…
cratered
, Fuck. What was there about this particular woman that had him on the verge of
crying
, for fuck’s sake? He could feel the tears stinging his eyes. But he made no move to hide them or swipe them away. His chest constricted, making breathing difficult.

Fuck!
What the fuck was wrong with him? He’d never felt emotion this powerful before. And he’d certainly never cried before! Not even as a child, suffering indescribable deprivation no human being should ever have to suffer. “No, little one. What could possibly make you think that?”

“You—you turned away from me, a-and you look so angry, I-I thought—”Both her voice and her gaze faltered.

A look of utter pain crossed Nik’s face as he moved into place between her legs at the foot of the exam table, the spot that Jay had just vacated. He bent and placed a tender kiss against Charlie’s mouth. “Oh, my precious, precious girl.” He kissed her again, this time with a little more passion before once again raising his head. “You’re right. I turned away from you because I was angry—so fucking angry I didn’t want to frighten you. But I wasn’t angry at you,
lapochka.
” Another kiss, one that parted her lips and sought out her tongue in a brief duel before pulling reluctantly away. “Never at you, my love. At that asshole, Perry Bradford. If he were standing here right now, I would kill him without a second’s hesitation. I’d wring his scrawny neck until he was dead. It’s as simple as that. Then I’d hide his body where he could never be found. Not that anyone would care enough to come looking for him,” he amended hastily. He straightened, the sheer rigidity of his body easing only slightly.

Charie’s gaze flew to Jay, who just shrugged.

“Yeah. What he said.”

“Come,
myshka.
” Nik gave her his hand. “The sooner you get into position, the sooner this unpleasantness will be over.”

She let out a resigned sigh, but let him help her up onto the exam table and crouch there with her bare ass up in the air. Jay pulled the sides of the hospital gown up to cover her. She turned her head to look at him and he leaned down to place his forehead against her temple.

“Okay, baby girl, we’ll see you when you’re done.”

As he and Nik were leaving, Alice came back in. Lucas conducted the exam, explaining everything he was going to do before he did it. When he was done, he yanked off his gloves with a snap and discarded them in the can marked Bio-Hazardous Material. “Okay, Charlie, you can sit back up.’

When she was once again sitting on the table, tugging at the open ends of the drafty hospital gown in an attempt to cover herself up, Lucas smiled down at her. “Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” she agreed. “Just…undignified and embarrassing and humiliating as all hell.”

“But necessary.” He smiled. “Go ahead get dressed. Alice will be right back to get you.”

Charlie had just finished sliding her feet into her sandals when Alice returned to escort her into Luc’s office.

All three men looked up at her and smiled. Since Nik and Jay were sitting in the only two chairs, she half expected Jay to just give her a sly grin and pat his lap, expecting her to sit there. She would certainly have refused, although she had to admit that there was a part of her that longed to do just that. Sit in his lap, lean against his broad, sculpted chest, let his powerful arms close around her, and bask in the warmth and comfort of his hard, male body surrounding her, protecting her, loving her—
holy crap! You’ve got to quit thinking like this!

She’d been dating for more than half her life, starting with losing her virginity at age fourteen to the eighteen-year-old son of her then-foster parents. He’d been a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, studying pre-med. She’d had a crush on him the size of Wisconsin. A crush that had morphed instantly into an icy fury two days later when he’d brought his college girlfriend home to dinner. There had been others, too, over the ensuing fifteen years. More than she wanted to think about.

But she’d never met anyone like Nik Rostov and Jay Gillespie.

Nik Rostov. What a contradiction he was. A Russian in the United States Navy? How on earth did
that
happen? On one hand he was powerful, authoritative, and imposing, one could even say menacing. He was intensely sexy, with his panther-like prowl and his raw, smoldering sensuality. There was a controlled savagery about him that made him extremely dangerous to anyone who crossed him. He was, without a doubt the most alpha, macho man she’d ever known. And so. Fucking. Gorgeous!

Yet, there was another side to Nik Rostov. A side she doubted many people ever got to see. A gentle, caring, even nurturing side that made her want to bask in the warmth of his affection. The contrast between the two sides was, at times, almost dizzying.

And then there was Jay. Equally handsome, macho and authoritative, he was also fun-loving, easy-going, and as openly affectionate, caring and nurturing as Nik. Together they were a lethal combination of sexy swagger and bad-ass dominance.

These two men were somehow making a place for themselves in her life. And, if she wasn’t careful, they would make a place in her heart as well. The very thought terrified her, even as she walked toward Nik and sat in the chair he’d just vacated. He went around to stand behind her, letting his hands rest on her shoulders.

“Charlie,” Dr. McKay said. “You have what’s known as anal fissures, or tears in your anal canal, some of which are fairly fresh, some of which are older, but still healing. They are obviously the result of the trauma inflicted upon you by Perry Bradford. I do hope you’re seriously considering pressing charges against him, because if you don’t, he’ll continue abusing women until one of them winds up dead.”

Her stomach dropped and her blood froze at the awful thought that
she
could have been the one who’d wound up dead at Perry’s hands. Paralyzed by mind-numbing fear, all she could do was just stare at him. He was right, of course. She
was
going to have to press charges. It was the only way to give some sort of meaning to this sordid chapter in her life. Perry Bradford was a dangerous predator who deserved to be in prison. And he needed to be there ASAP, before he killed someone. She certainly didn’t want
that
on her conscience.

She squared her shoulders. “Yes, I will be pressing charges.”

“Excellent.” Luc began scribbling on a prescription pad. “Okay, I’m prescribing a cream that will have to be applied topically twice a day.”

“Um…topically?”
Okay, topically means
—

“Directly to the skin.”

She blinked.

“And, since you can’t penetrate yourself with your own fingers as deeply as you need to in order for it to be effective”…Luc paused dramatically...“it will have to be applied by either Nik or Jay.”

She squirmed, wincing slightly.
Holy shit! That meant they’d be poking around in her most private place of all. That secret, sacrosanct place that had been desecrated and defiled over and over by Perry Bradford. How could she possibly…
“Um…”

“It’s okay, baby,” Jay leaned toward her and murmured in her ear. “If you trust us with your care, we will honor that trust. We will treasure every part of you, including those parts you’re not so fond of yourself, and we’ll never hurt you, I promise. Let us help you heal, baby, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.”

Charlie drew a deep, steadying breath, fighting back tears.
C’mon, Charlie, stop being such a wuss. You can do this
. She squared her shoulders. “Okay.” Her smile was a bit watery.

Jay just lifted her hand to his lips. “Thank you, sweet thing. You won’t regret it, I swear.”

“Good.” Luc was smiling, too. “Sit in a warm bath for thirty minutes before each application. That’ll help you relax. I’m also prescribing a stool softener to help prevent re-injury during the healing process. I want you back here in a week so I can check on your progress. Now, regarding your bite mark. It’s finally clearing up. You’ve been getting a pretty powerful full-spectrum antibiotic in your IV line over the past three days, so I expect that will have taken care of it. I know it’s still painful, and soon it will start to itch, but don’t scratch it. You still need to take all the caplets in your Z-pack.” He gave her a smile. “Are you taking any form of birth control?”

“Yes, the pill. Perry insisted that I start as soon as we met because he didn’t intend to use condoms. He took me to a friend of his who also gave me a full physical exam to make sure I didn’t have any diseases. Perry didn’t even touch me until after he’d gotten the results of the exam. And to make sure I took my pill every day, he gave it to me himself. Said he didn’t want any little ‘complications’”—she air quoted with her fingers—“popping up demanding child support.”

“When was your last period?”

“It ended two days after I escaped from Perry. Last Monday.”

“And you haven’t taken a pill since?”

“No. I haven’t even thought about them.”

“All right.” Lucas smiled at her. “What brand were you taking? I’m going to write a prescription for those also. Start taking them this morning. He handed three prescription slips to Jay, then leaned forward and reached into a fishbowl full of lollipops on the corner of his desk, pulling out a purple one and handing it to Charlie. “For you, Charlotte. Because you were such a good little girl today.” He smiled when she took it. “Anything you want to ask me?”

She shook her head. “No, it all seems pretty straightforward.”

Luc’s expression softened. “I know you’re scared, sweetie,” he said. “But truly, there’s nothing to be scared of. These two men may be giants, but they are the gentlest giants I know, and they’ll take very good care of you. You’re in good hands.” He leaned forward. “Perry Bradford can’t hurt you anymore.”

“No, but he could easily hurt a lot of others.”