The Deception series boxset: FaCade, Cadence, Beneath Innocence (4 page)

I could smell a slight masculine aroma, not too strong but faintly heady and citrusy. I was mesmerized by how receptive my hearing was when each tiny breath of my companion filtered into my head, each inhalation sounding thunderous in the still silence of the room.

I frowned to myself when after a while, although the faint breathing still told me of his presence, nothing else did. He hadn’t spoken, moved an inch or made any other sound.

Curiosity won over and I turned slowly. If I’d had the energy to widen my eyes then I would have. Something flashed in my mind but as quickly as it came, it disappeared. He was tall, his firm body covered in muscles that caused me to stare. His thick, dark hair was cut short but not harsh, a slight length to the top. But it was his eyes that caused my breath to exit in short little spurts. They were so familiar yet so foreign. A shiver glided up my spine, tricking my brain into a false sense of home. I blinked at him when an intense coldness reflected back from them.

“Hello, Star.”

Star?
I didn’t reply. He continued to stare at me from his position across the room. He leaned back against the wall, his thick arms crossed over his chest, watching me with a slight tilt to his head.

“Is…” The words stuck in my dry throat when he quirked a brow at me. Fear trickled through my veins and my chest heaved as the use of my voice box triggered a tickle in my scratchy throat, causing me to cough and splutter. He didn’t assist me, just watched as I coughed and hacked at the dryness.

“Maybe if you stopped being so stubborn and had a drink, then you wouldn’t have that problem.”

I frowned at him. He huffed and rolled his eyes as he pushed away from the wall. His slow walk across the room towards me saw me inching across the bed until the wall stopped me from moving any further. He leaned over me, grabbing hold of my wrists.

“Don’t hurt me,” I whimpered, although the pain from my raw wrists under his heated palms and the bite of the cuffs already hurt so much. I wanted to scream for him to release me and dip them in ice to cool the sting throbbing beneath the torn skin, matching the thud from my heart rampantly beating in my chest.

He shook his head and fiddled with my cuffs until they snapped open. He rubbed at my skin furiously as I sank further back from him, my eyes wide and frightened as I froze in fear.

He eventually moved back and held out a bottle of water. “Drink.”

I blinked. I hadn’t seen it in his hand before but then I realized it had probably been tucked under his arm. I lowered my gaze to the bottle and eyed it warily.

“It’s only water.”

Knowing but not caring that it was probably laced with poison, I snatched it from his hand and unscrewed the cap before taking long, greedy pulls of water.

“Sip it.”

I lifted my eyes to him, still guzzling at the bottle ravenously. The cool water felt like honey coating my throat, appearing to have healing properties as it soothed the abrasion lining my esophagus and quenched the unbelievable dryness in my mouth; however when it reached my stomach it was made of liquid fire. Cramp and spasms immediately caused me to double over and clench at the pain searing through me.

The man sighed and shook his head. “Always were the defiant one.”

I looked up at him when my belly eased its rebellion. “You… Do I know you?” My own voice sounded foreign to my ears but I swallowed back the loneliness it created inside.

He smirked but didn’t answer. Watching him carefully, he winked then turned around. “Eat,” he ordered before opening the door and slipping through, quietly pulling it closed behind him, the tell-tale click of the lock once more notifying me of my solitude.

What the hell had just happened? I was suddenly so angry. How dare they treat me like this? I didn’t deserve this. Although I had no idea what I deserved or not, I knew in my soul that I wasn’t a bad person. I couldn’t actually remember being nice, or if I had been happy but I distinguished the goodness inside me. I knew wrong from right, even though I didn’t have a clue what kind of personality I had.

The emptiness inside my head brought the furious release of tears until I sat hugging my knees on the bed, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea of what would happen to me, never mind what… what anything. Damn it! It was all a jumbled heap of nothing in my head, a deep chasm filled with swirls that wanted me to grab onto them but I couldn’t reach. Each memory was a spitting flash inside my mind that fizzled out when I thought I had grasped it.

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?” I screamed as I launched the bottle across the room, and it bounced off the steel door, rolling across the floor and coming to a stop at the base of the bed. “CAN YOU HEAR ME? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?”

My throat squealed at the sudden violence after the period of inactivity but I didn’t care, it was just another pain on top of all the other ones, all of them blending together until all I felt was one solid mass of agony. “LET ME OUT, GOD DAMN YOU! LET ME GO!!”

I shot up off the bed, my legs giving way. The fury racing through me gave me the strength to clamber back up and stumble towards the door. “LET ME OUT!”

I fisted the door, not caring that the steel was impenetrable or that bruising and grazes were breaking out over the paleness of the soft skin on my hands. I didn’t care that my throat blazed with pain, or that snot streamed down my face with the torrent of my tears. I didn’t care that my bladder gave up and emptied itself on the floor around me. I didn’t care that my forehead hit the door with a heavy thud when I slid down it, collapsing on a heap on the floor.

All I cared about, all I wanted, was to get out. I wanted to go home, wherever home was. I wanted a mother’s love, or the strong embrace of a lover, if I even had one. I wanted the security of knowing who the hell I was. I prayed to get through this alive. But most of all, I wanted to die because the unknown was a silent death of a soul. They had stripped me of everything; I felt violated beyond anything they could do to my body. They had raped my mind. How? Why? “WHY?” I choked, my voice box refusing me any sound so it was just a silent scream.

EVEN IN HER CONDITION SHE still had a hint of cherry blossom scent from her lotion. Her now unruly hair still had a commercial shine one could only achieve from expensive products. She was still the most beautiful woman I had ever laid my eyes on and I hated it with so much fucking passion it fueled the anger simmering under the surface. I let the rage burn in my veins, fueling me for what was to come next.

“Malik,” I barked into the phone. “Shower time.”

I stood outside the door as Malik gathered Star from the ground, her naked trim body in the same position she had collapsed in after her bladder finally failed her. She had held out longer than I thought. His fist encompassed her upper arm as he half guided, half dragged her body. Her eyes didn’t lift to look at me as she moved past me. She was defeated. The smile gracing my lips should have been bigger but I wanted more from her before I would let the power of victory settle inside me.

I followed them to the shower room I had installed especially for this retribution: A fifteen foot square room, tiled from floor to ceiling with a row of powerful jets against one wall offering hot water to rain down, the other end a hose attached to a cold tap offering an icy awakening.

I watched with mirth as her steps faltered. Her head rose to take in the other female in front of her, naked under the hot spray of the shower. I came up behind her, making her startle when I whispered in her ear, “This is Maria.”

Malik released his hold, causing her to stagger. I grasped her in my grip, pulling her back against my front before continuing my taunt. “She drank her water and ate the food kindly given as a gift to her. She also held her bladder and didn’t piss herself like a fucking rodent,” I snarled, forcing her body away from mine with a shove. Her body gave out, stumbling forward, falling and colliding with the tiled wall.

Malik was already aiming the hose in her direction. I turned my gaze to him and gave him a firm nod. A screech retched from her lungs, the shrill echo ricocheting off the walls, before turning into shocked pants. The chilled mist coated my face as the ice torrent blasted over her naked form. She curled into herself as she tried to protect her body from the bitter assault. I relished in her broken stuttering voice begging for it to stop, her lips turning a deep mauve signalling the temperature of her shower matched the liquid ice in my heart.

“Enough!” I ordered. The shower and hose ceased, the only sound echoing in the room coming from Star’s teeth violently knocking together, her soft whimpers muffled from the vibration of her shivers.

“Will you be more grateful, Star, and enjoy the gifts I grant you?” I mocked. Her eyes slashed to me, betraying her thoughts forming images of my death in her mind. My deep chuckle rang out into the room.

Theo appeared beside me with her bowl, the bread inside now stale and hard. I took it from him and placed it down in front of her, her body shaking with such intensity she looked like one of those hula dolls stupid fucks put on their dashboards. I watched the battle in her eyes as she stared down at the bread. Her jittering hand reached out and snatched at it. She huddled further into the wall, bringing the bread to her lips, her nibbling reminding me of a pet hamster called Ginger my parents had bought me as a child ; the little fur ball had fascinated me and switched on my curiosity with science.

Star’s actions brought my attention back to her. Pain flashed across her eyes, making her brow furrow. Her hand wrap around her stomach which rebelled against the intrusion of sustenance after being starved. Eyes lowering, she continued to nibble at it regardless.

Twenty minutes later she finally finished. Her body tensed as she forced the final swallow down.

“Good girl, now take a shower.” She solidified, her head swiveling to the hose abandoned on the floor. My answering grin had her body scooting away. “Calm down, Belle.” I enunciated the words, letting her know it was a command more than a suggestion. “You will learn quickly that what I reward you with is a gift and should be accepted as such and appreciated. My leniency to ungrateful, stubborn bitches is minute.”

I stepped forward, clasping my hands around her cold, damp arms and lifted her with little effort, bringing her body to mine. It betrayed her mind, seeking out the heat my body offered, pressing into me and making me hold back a groan. My body was also a traitorous bastard and wanted inside her more than it wanted to see her cry …Well maybe inside her while she cried.

“Go warm your skin under the shower, Belle. You feel like a corpse and necrophilia is not a fetish I favor.”

My cock stiffened at her intake of breath, her head tipping up to find my face, jade irises being swallowed by her pupils. She diverted her gaze from mine as quickly as it found purchase. Tugging free from my hold and timidly taking steps to the shower it was then I noticed Maria was still in the room, as were Theo and Malik.

“Maria,” I barked. Her eyes lowered, her head bowing towards the floor as she took tentative steps to stand at my side. I reached up to cup her face, rewarding her obedience with a smile. “Theo has a gift for you.”