Survival Games (8 page)

After Chris and
Frank left, Ty walked into Jessica’s room. She saw him but kept dancing and
singing.

He leaned against
the wall with his arms crossed and watched her. The rage at what Frank did
settled back a notch, replaced by his desire for her.

Sighing, he wished
the heavens would open up and deliver the angels to her. He wished he met her
in another time and place, under different circumstances. He huffed. She
probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day.

She stumbled and
caught herself, the soft voice cracking and going off key for the briefest instant
and he smiled catching her attention. She stopped and looked at him and the
song began again.

“That’s a nice
smile,” she said. “It’s not mean or sadistic or sarcastic.” She pirouetted over
to him. “Lean over,” she said.

He leaned over as
she asked and she messed his hair up with her hand so his bangs fell onto his
forehead instead of slicked back. “That’s better.” She smiled and danced away.

Ty looked at
himself in the mirror, still smiling. He didn’t look so serious or threatening
with his hair tousled, he actually looked more like Chris. “Hmm,” he grunted at
his reflection and looked back at Jessica.

“Girl, you got
moves,” he said over the music and she laughed and twirled by.
No wonder why
Mike loves you
.

Jessica stopped
dead in her tracks. She turned and stared at him, her eyes dark and wide. “He’s
here?” she asked incredulously.

“Who?”

“Mike.”

Ty’s jaw dropped.
How
the hell?
He snapped his jaw shut.

Jessica walked
toward him—her eyes no longer brown, but a strange deep, dark violet and still
glossy from the drugs. “You just said, and I quote, ‘No wonder why Mike loves
you.’ Oh, and another thing, I’m not different. I’m special,” she said and
stumbled into him, passing out cold.

He caught her and
stared at her limp body.
Did she just read my mind?

“No fucking way,”
he whispered and picked her up, crossing to the mattress and laying her on it. He
covered her and left the room.

Ty went back to
the control room and replayed the video. He kept looking from the playback
screen to the live screen while he yawned. For someone who calculated
everything he did, this was something new, something he couldn’t control and as
much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to be near her. In a rare impulsive
move, he returned to her room and stretched out on the bed, wrapping his arms
around her and allowed himself to drift off.

Ty woke a few
hours later. Jessica was still in his arms. He closed his eyes and smelled her
hair; the mango shampoo scent still clung to it and begrudgingly, he slipped
his arm from under her and left the room.

He stood in the
hall with his back to the closed door and ran his hand through his thick hair.
“What the hell am I doing?”

He shook his head
and headed to the bathroom beyond the control room, showering quickly. Instead
of slicking his hair back like usual, he shook his head and just let it fall
where it wanted, achieving the same look she had achieved last night.

How the hell am
I going to make up for what Frank did?

With a clean pair
of jeans and a crisp blue button down oxford shirt that matched his eyes, he
stepped into the kitchen. Scanning the contents in the refrigerator, a slow
smile spread on his lips.

He set up a plate
of grapes and strawberries, scooping a healthy dollop of Cool Whip into a bowl
on the side. On his way through the control room, he reached into the drawer
and pulled a couple pair of handcuffs, sliding them into his back pocket.

She woke as he
entered with the tray. “May I?” She pointed to the bathroom.

He nodded and
waited for her to come back. When she did, he motioned for her to sit on the
bed.

She crossed the
room, her head cocked to the side, studying him as she sat on the mattress.
“You changed your hair.”

He put the tray
down and looked at her through his bangs. “Lie down.”

Her eyebrows rose
but she made no move to obey.

He gently took her
by the shoulders and laid her back on the bed. Jessica didn’t fight until he
pulled out the handcuffs, but he was faster, had the cuffs around her left
wrist, and attached to the anchor on the floor in a flash. He pushed her back
down and quickly flipped the handcuff around her right wrist as she swung at
him. He looked around for a place to hook it and realized there was nowhere
close by to put the other end of the handcuff.

“Shit,” Ty said
and closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly at his lack of forethought.

Jessica started to
giggle. “Quite the predicament.”

“Not really.” He
attached the other handcuff to the anchor and left the room. When he came back,
he had three long pieces of rope.

Jessica’s smile disappeared
and Ty’s got wider.

“Please don’t do
this.”

He sighed and
unhooked the handcuff holding her right hand, tying the end of the rope to it
and walked to the other side of the bed anchoring it to the floor there. He put
the remaining rope next to the tray and sat down.

Trembling, she
planted her feet firmly on the mattress, her knees bent and her arms straining
against the binds.

“I’m not going to
hurt you,” he said and reached over to the tray, plucking a grape off the vine
and popped it in her mouth. Her eyebrows arched and she ate the grape, warily
watching him. He repeated this until they were all gone. Then he dipped a
strawberry in the whipped cream and held the strawberry to her lips. She
hesitated; her eyebrows still scrunched together and then took the strawberry
in her mouth, careful not to bite his fingers.

An act as simple
as eating a strawberry moved him and Ty took a deep breath, tossing the top of
the strawberry back on the tray. He repeated with another strawberry. When he
picked up the third strawberry, his hand shook and he changed tactics, dipping
the strawberry in the whipped cream and dragging it from her neckline to
between her breasts leaving a trail of cream. He popped the sweet strawberry in
his mouth, dropping the top on the tray. Without a word, he leaned down and licked
the whipped cream off her.

Jessica closed her
eyes, arching into his touch.

He sat up slowly
and took another strawberry, dipped it and slid it down the side of her neck
and put it to her lips, leaving a hint of whipped cream on them. He ate the
strawberry and leaned over to kiss the cream off her lips, hesitating when she
turned her head away. Instead of licking the cream off her lips, he ran his
tongue along the line on her neck, her skin quivering with his touch.

He smiled as he
sat up, meeting her pained gaze. “Tell me you want me.”

A tear slipped
down her cheek. “I don’t.”

Ty tilted his head
a little, running his fingers back and forth along the neckline of her dress,
pushing it farther open with each pass. “That so?” He slid his hand under the
edge of the dress and cupped her breast, gently running his thumb over her
nipple.

“I don’t want
you.” Her husky voice and hardening nipples belied her words.

Ty took a deep
breath and closed his eyes, gaining control again. He dipped his finger in the
whipped cream and pulled her breast free. He rubbed the cream on her nipple,
leaned over and gently sucked it off. He sat up and reached for the whipped
cream again.

Jessica lifted her
legs and kicked, her feet connecting with his ribcage, knocking the wind out of
him and sending him sailing off the mattress.

He stood up,
flexed his hands into fists and she looked at him smugly, raising one eyebrow
in a silent challenge.

He turned his back
to her and took a few deep breaths, needing the admission, needing to feel her
skin against his, her breath in his ear, her heart pounding against his. He
needed her to say the words. He ran his hands through his hair and turned
around again more determined than before.

He walked over to
the tray and picked up the rope, tying a slipknot in each strand before
grabbing her kicking ankles and anchoring her legs. He knelt between the spread
he created and grabbed her dress, tearing it open. Silently, he picked up the Cool
Whip and traced her breasts with the sweet confection. Her eyes held both
ecstasy and apprehension and he leaned down, sucking the cream off, rolling his
tongue around each nipple. They hardened under his mouth. He smiled and sat up
again.

“Tell me you want
me,” he said again, his voice smooth and low. He dipped his finger in the whipped
cream again, trailing a line along her stomach.

“No.” Her voice
wavered with passion.

Ty continued his
slow seduction with the whipped cream. He lined the inside of her thigh from
her knee to just shy of her pubic hair and licked it slowly off, he repeated
with the other.

Her breath came in
thready bursts and sweat shined on her skin.

“Tell me you want
me,” he said looking straight down in her eyes, his arms holding him above her
without touching her. He fought for control, fought the urge to peel his clothing
off and make love to her.

She still had
cream on her lip and without waiting for an answer, he leaned down and sucked
it off and then pulled away with his eyes closed. Slowly he opened them.

“I can’t,” Jessica
said with a voice barely audible. She closed her eyes for a second and then
looked up into his eyes. “I can’t,” she repeated.

He closed his eyes
and hung his head, consumed with so many different emotions at that moment that
he didn’t dare move. Lust, anger, and futility combined to dangerous levels
within him. He opened his eyes, took a deep breath and kneeled back.

Again, he dipped
his finger in the cream, traced a line from her belly button to her hairline,
and licked it slowly and deliberately downward. He looked up at her again as he
gently slid his finger in her. She was wet and for a brief instant, he forgot
to breathe.

“Say you want me,”
he insisted and lapped her belly button, rolling his tongue slowly around and
ending with a wet kiss. Ty moved his hand out from between her legs and kissed
the inside of her thighs, her stomach, her breasts, her neck and her lips as
Jessica trembled beneath him. His whole body ached and he pulled inches away
from her, staring into her eyes, still fully dressed and breathing hard. He
leaned down and kissed her again tenderly.

Jessica sobbed and
kissed back parting her lips, allowing his tongue to explore her mouth.

The sweetness of
her mouth, of her tongue dancing with his sucked the air out of his lungs and
he pulled away slowly, still leaning on his hands and knees without touching
her with his body. He looked at her for a long time before leaning back on his
knees and running a shaky hand through his hair.

He untied her and
unlocked the cuffs, watching as she wrapped her arms over her belly, pulling
the remnants of the dress around her and rolled on her side, her face buried in
the pillow to silence her sobs.

He spun away,
storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. Anger welled up from
the bowels of his soul and he spiked the handcuffs on the hallway floor, pacing
back and forth, as the fury grew. His eyes landed on another door halfway down
the hall and he darted to it, yanking the door open and glared at the bastard
that brought all this on.

Mike scrambled to
his feet, his eyes narrowing in hatred and he charged.

Ty sidestepped and
swung an upper cut, catching Mike under the jaw and sending him sideways. He
grabbed Mike, slamming him into the concrete wall with his hand locked around
the bastard’s throat. “You son of a bitch, you knew!”

He threw Mike
across the room and stalked out, leaving Mike baffled on the floor.

His frame shook
with barely contained emotion and he went back to the source, entering her room
and listening to the shower. He paced, frustration brewing to unprecedented
levels within him.

Jessica lay on the
mattress and sobbed. She turned her head, her eyes landing on the tray still
holding a half-eaten bowl of strawberries. She stood and kicked it across the
room heading toward the bathroom and relief from her burning skin. Stepping
under the cold water, she yelped, arching her back from the frigid spray, but
forced herself to stay under until all hint of the heat he created disappeared.
Sobbing because he almost won today, because she wanted him almost as much as
she wanted her freedom and that could not happen, not if she wanted to see her
family again.

God help me
,
she thought, and shivered as the cold water bit at her skin, cooling her down
and letting her gain control.

Her teeth
chattered and she flipped the water off, grabbing a towel and drying the cold
droplets from her goose-pimpled skin. The room tilted, and she blinked, the
visions slamming into her consciousness hard enough for her to collapse from
the weight of them.

She knew where
she’d seen his face before, those Bedroom Eyes appeared in a dream she had long
before her children were born.

“Oh my God,” she
whispered as the dream of their first encounter in the electric chair rolled
through her mind followed by a second memory that made her shiver and sweat at
the same time.

“Oh my God,” she
repeated. She had seen those eyes looking up at her as he knelt on a snow
covered lawn, the words he uttered impossible. She looked at her reflection
with dread, drying the rest of her body and slipping on the exercise outfit
left for her, welcoming the thought of running until she dropped.

Still shivering,
she walked into the room to him pacing back and forth like a caged animal and
when his enraged gaze landed on her, she shuddered from more than the chill in
the air.

“Tell me you want
me,” he bellowed at her, his face a mask of fury.

Jessica didn’t say
anything. She continued to shake.

He shot over to
where she was standing, picked her up and pinned her to the wall so they were
face to face. “Say it,” he said through clenched teeth.

“No.” The word
came out of her throat in a low growl.

“You kissed me,”
he growled back.

“A lapse in
judgment!” The second dream flashed before her eyes again.
Impossible.

He let her slide
to the ground and stepped back, walking to the center of the room and glared at
her over his shoulder. “Do you have any idea, any idea at all, how fucking
frustrating you are?”

“No, why don’t you
tell me?” Jessica snapped. “You ripped me from my life to bring me to this
hellhole, what do you expect?” she yelled. Her fury now matched his. “You
brought me here to kill me, but first you expect me to perform in your little
sex shows. Bullshit.” She walked around to face him. “And what? You have the
audacity to think you have a shot with me? Go to hell!” She started walking
toward the treadmill.

He grabbed her arm and threw her on the mattress and
was on top of her before she could move. He grabbed her arms and slammed them
down. He held her pinned and they glared at each other. “You have no idea what
I’m capable of,” he sneered.

“No, you have no
idea of what
I
am capable of.”

“That’s because
it’s just your ass on the line. What if I pull someone else in the mix, someone
you
care about? Would you be this obstinate then?” He paused to
let this sink in. “Who is it Jess, whom would
you
beg to save?”

“Bite me,” she fumed.

He shifted,
pressing his hips into her, the fabric of his jeans restraining him from doing
exactly what he wanted to her. “I can have you any time, any way I want!”

“You will never
HAVE
me,” Jessica screamed at him.

“I promise you, I
will,” he whispered. “And next time, I won’t stop like I did earlier, that was
MY
lapse in judgment,” he breathed bitterly in her ear. He hopped to his feet,
leaving her shaking and crying on the mattress.