The Devil's Due (19 page)

“You should sleep,” I whispered. “It’s almost dawn,”

She closed her eyes. My touch seemed to startle, then relax her. A soft sigh escaped her lips.

“What?” I asked, worried that I had crossed a line.

She chuckled. “I was thinking when the last time someone touched me like that was. And I couldn’t remember.”

“Like this?” I smoothed my fingers across her brow again. A faint memory stirred in me, of my mother doing this to help me sleep. Before Darryl came into our lives and ruined everything. When it was just the two of us against the world.

I brushed along Pauline’s forehead, and then trailed my fingers down her cheek.

Her tense shoulders moved down from her ears as she exhaled. I smoothed my hand across her eyes, closing them lightly under my fingertips.

“Shh,” I whispered. “It’s okay, Pauline. It’s okay.”

I fell into a rhythm, chanting the words so they were almost a little song. Her breathing grew heavier and heavier. I was absorbed with studying her face, watching her relax minute, by minute. I was transfixed to the point where the sound of my own voice sounded as if it were coming from outside of me.

“Shh... it’s okay...”

She was nearly asleep when a shadow fell across the bed.

“That was heartwarming.”

His hard voice made us both jump. Pauline gasped a little shriek.

How much had he heard? How much did he know? Adrenaline coursed through my body to see his dull, black eyes wash over the two of us in bed together. The tip of his blood-red tongue poked ominously from the corner of his mouth.

“I see you two have met,” he declared.

I pressed my lips together and sought Pauline’s hand underneath the covers and folded it into my own. Her huge eyes were even wider with fright.

“My two favorites,” he continued, walking around to stand over Pauline’s side. She shrank closer to me. “I was going to introduce you, but I see you’re already well-acquainted enough to share a bed.”

I swallowed. I didn’t like where this was going.

“You do look so lovely all nuzzled up like this,” Moloch murmured. “Pauline, why don’t you give Lainey a little kiss?”

I watched her face change instantly. The fire, the bitter humor that she had showed as we talked—it all drained away as quickly as if he had pulled a drain plug. She blinked, and her wide eyes went just as dull and flat as his.

He nodded. “That’s right, there’s a good girl. Just lean over and kiss her right on her pretty little mouth. It’ll be nice.”

She turned to me blankly. All traces of the woman I had been confiding in were gone. She looked hollowed out now. She was a shell; a puppet with Pauline’s face.

And when her mouth moved automatically to mine, I shrank away from this sudden stranger at my side.

“Now, now, Lainey. You remember how good it feels to give in?”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Beads of sweat prickled at my hairline. I swallowed hard, remembering the cycling mix of pain and pleasure he had dealt me. I tried to hold on to the shards of my will, but they slipped through my fingers as Pauline’s lips brushed against mine.

I closed my eyes. The taste of her was sweet in spite of her tears. Her lips were soft, much softer than any man’s. My own mouth responded in curiosity to the unfamiliar lack of bristles against my skin.

She brushed them down, and caught my lower lip lightly between her teeth. When she sucked in gently, a soft moan escaped from my mouth before I could catch hold of it. I remembered Livvy at the strip club; remembered her smooth olive skin and ripe, full mouth.

It had never crossed my mind to kiss a woman before. I was enjoying it more than I realized I could.

I was enjoying it more than I wanted to. Even as Pauline’s tongue danced around mine, I could feel Moloch’s flat eyes on us. He was watching us perform for him. He was toying with us, toying with me, and yet once again, I hadn’t the strength to resist him.

“Pauline, my sweet. Lainey has lovely breasts, don’t you think?”

Like an eager dog quick to please its master, Pauline moved her mouth from mine. She slid her soft hand up my side to cup it around my breast.

I sucked in as her fingers brushed against my bruised and stretched nipple. The pain intensified the little jolts of pleasure she coaxed with her fingertips. She was touching me so gently. With all I had been through in the past couple of days at the hands of men, the soft touch of a woman came as a welcome respite.

But it wasn’t real. She was brainwashed, only going through the motions with me. I reached out to her face.

“Hey,” I whispered. Her eyes were unfocused, staring blankly. “Hey!” I repeated, brushing my hand across her forehead.

She shook her head, and for a moment, the light came back into her eyes. And in them I saw fear.

Quickly, she rolled on top of me and cupped my face in her hands. Her breasts brushed against mine through her tank top. She bent her head to my neck and pressed her lips close to my ear.

“Don’t fight him,” she breathed. Then she kissed me just up under the ear, sighing audibly so Moloch could hear her. “Just go with it. Please.”

And just as quickly, she was gone again. The sparkle left her eyes and her movements became automatic. She had been down this road before. I wondered how badly he had hurt her for disobeying in the past. The last thing I wanted was to cause her more pain.

Shifting in the bed, I stretched out my neck to accommodate her kisses more easily. If that meant I had to perform as well, I would.

“Lainey, don’t just lie there. She’s doing all the work.” Moloch’s normally emotionless voice was strained. I saw his hand dart to his groin and grab it hungrily. He was getting off on this. He was enjoying this even more than he enjoyed forcing me to hurt myself.

I turned my head away from him in disgust. Directing us like a twisted puppet master was his real turn-on.

I swallowed. Pauline’s lips were on my tender, bruised nipple. She was rolling the hard bead around in her lips. When I didn’t react, she took it lightly in her teeth.

“Ah!” I squeaked and arched upwards automatically.

“That’s right.” Moloch’s voice came from above, below and all around. It filled my ears until there was nothing left to do but give in. “Now, show her how you want to be touched.”

I lifted Pauline’s tiny tank top to expose her small breasts. Her nipples hardened in the cool air, but her eyes were still unfocused.
Good,
I thought.
It’s better if she goes away for this.

I squeezed the left one tentatively, feeling the difference between her breast and my own. It felt good in my hand; the weight and roundness were satisfying in some inexplicable way. I squeezed a little harder, running my thumb over the tip of the diamond-hard nipple. When she sucked in her breath, I bent my mouth to it and flicked my tongue over the tip.

Her soft moan egged me on. If I had to do this—if we had to perform for this madman—the least I could do was to make sure she enjoyed it. I thought back to what made me feel best.

I pressed my thighs together at the memory of Cade’s worship of my breasts. I remembered how much time he had spent there, lavishing attention on one and then the other. How he brought me to the brink of orgasm without even moving from my chest.

With that delicious memory in mind, I pressed my hand firmly against her chest. “Lie back,” I whispered.

She obediently lay back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. I tried not to think about the dark shadow that Moloch cast over the bed. Instead, I helped Pauline lift the tank top over her head completely and let it fall off the side.

What I saw there made my stomach turn. Her stomach was crisscrossed in shiny pink scars, some new, some faded, all terrifying. Burns. He had burned her. His fiery scent filled my nostrils once more, and this time, there was an explanation.

I squeezed back the tears that had jumped up unbidden. I couldn’t let him see me react.

I moved over her and lowered my head to brush my lips against hers. As I probed the soft heat of her mouth, I let my hand travel down the smooth silk of her skin to run my fingers lightly up the side of her breast. They were bigger than mine, and heavier, with darker areolas and tips that pointed to the ceiling.

The differences fascinated me as I let my exploring fingers play. I was relaxing into the kiss, enjoying the soft sweetness of her warm body under mine, forgetting the terror of her scars, when the voice sounded above me.

“Suck her tit, Lainey.” His voice was harsh and strained. “Stop fucking around.”

I grimaced, but moved my lips away from hers. Curling my tongue around the rock hard tip, I could hear Moloch’s breath coming in ragged gasps and hoped he was nearing his climax.

But when Pauline moved slowly underneath me, I tore my attention away from him and brought it back to her. She pressed her hips upward into me. Sliding her hands across the bed sheets, she grasped and twisted them as she moved in the rhythm of my mouth on her breast.

The feeling inflamed me, and I pressed my lips to her scarred tummy. Trailing kisses down the center, I flicked my tongue in and out of her belly button before pausing at the top of her pajama pants.

“Take them off,” he whispered.

Way ahead of you
, I retorted in my head.

I hooked my fingers over the top of them and took a deep breath. She lifted her hips obligingly and I slid them down to reveal the soft mass of curls that obscured her sex.

I hesitated. This was way beyond just kissing her. I looked up at her face and saw that her eyes were closed in something that looked much like bliss. The sight emboldened me, and I bent my lips to kiss the crease where her leg met her groin.

I smelled her heady fragrance that seemed familiar, yet distinct. Everything about her was just like me, so much so that I knew exactly what to do.

Extending my tongue, I gently licked the nub of her clit, tasting the sweetness of a woman for the first time. Her juices flowed over my tongue like nectar. I lapped again and was rewarded with a soft sigh. She pressed herself downward, and I knew that meant I had found the place she wanted me to be.

Slowly, I lapped and licked, concentrating right on that nub. I wanted her to reach her climax quickly, before Moloch could step in. I pressed my face deeply into her, my nose pressed into her jutting pelvic bone, my mouth enveloping the whole of her sex. I was moving quickly, expertly even. Her breath was coming faster now, and the shuddering rise and fall of her hips let me know I was succeeding.

Faster and faster I moved, desperate to give her release. I was rewarded with a flood of juices across my chin and I smiled in spite of myself. She sucked her breath in and raised her hips into the air, forcing me to stay right in the place she wanted me the most. I saw her fling out her arms to grasp the sheets and her whole body went rigid.

Then she gasped. I pulled back and pressed my thumb into her clit. I wanted to see her face as she came.

Her mouth opened soundlessly. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly just before the explosion came.

Her breath came in rapid squeaks and she flushed bright pink from the top of her angled cheekbones right to the tips of her ears. I felt an answering rush of my own and covered her lips with my mouth. She panted against me, hot and yielding, her tongue tasting her juices on my lips. I opened my eyes to see hers staring into mine, shocked and grateful all at once.

“Very nice.” Moloch’s voice was relaxed again. I darted my head to look at him and shuddered with revulsion to see the pearly white globs staining the white coverlet. I hoped he was done now and would leave us alone.

But my hopes were unfounded.

“Pauline, you greedy little slut. Get down there and thank Lainey for doing a good job!”

“Leave her alone,” I begged. “She doesn’t have to. You got what you wanted.”

His face contorted in rage, his flat affect gone entirely. “Fuckin’ slut!” he spat in a high, hysterical voice. He sounded like a child on the verge of a tantrum. Startled, I laughed out loud.

The blow cracked across my face, knocking me into a heap on the bed. I lay there, stunned, and reached my fingers up to my cheek. He had hit me right in my healing bruise. The same place Darryl had struck me in what now felt like another life entirely.

Rage boiled up from deep inside of me. I clenched my fists, ready to leap at him.

I
would have jumped on him right there, naked and vulnerable, and probably would have gotten myself killed in the process.

My salvation came in the form of the sound of motorcycles in the road. The roar of the engines pierced the early morning quiet and shouts of alarm began to ring through the mansion.

I froze. Moloch swore and ran full speed from the room. Heavy footfalls were pounding through the halls and I heard the sound of breaking glass.

“Pauline!” I shouted. To my horror, I saw that Moloch’s blow had rendered her catatonic again. She probably hadn’t even heard the bikes. “Pauline, snap out of it!”

Her dazed expression didn’t change. Three bangs rang out in quick succession and I heard a shout.