“I am not accustomed to being vilified so readily,” a voice sounded amid the soft gasps from the girls as they jumped from their spots to pool around his feet like purring felines who’d sniffed out the possibility of milk. He absently but fondly petted each on the head and then moved past them, his dark eyes feasting on me intently. They didn’t seem put out or offended that he’d left them behind, in fact, they seemed happy to watch what would happened and I was overcome by a spike of nausea that pierced my gut. My face must’ve blanched for he snapped his fingers and a heavily muscled, black man appeared as his behest.
“My newest pet is ill. Call for the physician.”
“I’m fine,” I said, not wanting anyone else to touch or look at me without my permission. “I just feel a little light-headed.”
“It is the drug,” he explained, gesturing for his man to bring a glass of water. I accepted the water reluctantly but quickly drained the glass to relieve the desert in my mouth. “I do not approve of Madame CoCo’s methods but she is efficient and her girls are good-quality. Now and again, she procures a gem…such as yourself. I was intrigued and pleased by her catalogue when I saw you on the list.”
I swallowed, not trusting myself to speak. I wanted him to be hideous but he was achingly beautiful in a cruel and determined way. His eyes were black as sin, so dark in fact, it was impossible to separate the iris from the pupil, and I found myself unable to lower my gaze. It was extreme fatigue, I reasoned with myself. The past week had been a smorgasbord of horrors; it was no wonder I was not quite myself.
“You are a student of American studies?” he asked solicitously, as if we were having a polite conversation over a coffee, making small talk around inane subjects in an attempt to test the waters of attraction. I’d played that particular social game often enough, but what we were doing had nothing in common with the usual tête-à-tête. For one, he had bought me with the intent to take my virginity; it didn’t matter how polite or attractive he was. My pointed silence made him frown. “I will forgive your rudeness this time because you’ve been through a trying ordeal. However, heed my words, pet, it would behoove you to learn manners before I am for
ced to punish you for your insolence.”
I couldn’t stop myself. “In my country, when people traffic in the sale of other human beings, they are arrested and thrown in prison for a long time.”
“It is a fortunate circumstance that we are not in your country then,” he replied smoothly. “I do not believe prison would suit my lifestyle.”
Although his bevy of beauties tittered, I did not appreciate his wry wit. “How nice that you can laugh at my expense,” I said, lifting my chin. I dared much but perhaps I wished for a quick death in my delirious state. “I doubt if the shoe were on the other foot, you would be so cavalier.”
His brow arched but he conceded my point with surprising grace. “Perhaps not.”
“Oh, so you admit being someone else’s property would not suit you?”
He smiled. “No. It would not. But then, women were meant to be in the care of a man, not the other way around.”
My lips thinned. “I do not believe men are superior to women; in fact, in some areas, women are the more accomplished species.”
“Undoubtedly so,” he agreed easily. “But where women are soft, men are hard and that is the way it should be.” He regarded me openly, feasting his eyes on wherever he chose, lingering on the pink areolas of my nipples as they hardened beneath the thin material skimming them. I gasped and tried to cover myself. He chuckled at my actions, saying, “Sweet Layla, you please me with your hot and ready tongue. I look forward to feeling it against my cock.” I shuddered and snapped my mouth shut with a mutinous glare, which he ignored. “This is your new home. If you work hard to please me, I will reward you with a life filled with everything you desire—“
“I desire my freedom,” I cut in sharply, unable to resist.
His nostrils flared at my rash interruption but he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “However, if you displease me, I will throw you to my men to use at their leisure and forget your existence.” In spite of my bravado, more tears tingled at the back of my eyeballs. The gravity of my situation crashed down around my shoulders and I struggled to breathe. No one was coming to rescue me. I was, in fact, at this man’s mercy. No one would prevent him from doing any number of depraved acts to me. My permission was not necessary. His expression gentled and his mouth tipped in a sensual smile. “Calm your fears, pet. I have no doubt you will please me. There is something about you that I find…intoxicating. I confess, I don’t normally find myself so taken with a woman.”
My gaze flicked to the women lounging together on a chaise watching us avidly and he followed my gaze. He graced them with an indulgent smile. “All my women are special to me for different reasons.” He returned to me. “But you, my pet, stir something I cannot define inside me. It is this unknown I wish to explore. However, first, business must be attended.” He gestured to the hulking man standing at the ready. “Please take the lovely Miss Layla to be fitted for her collar.”
I balked. “I’m not going to wear a collar.”
“You will do whatever I demand. You belong to me. And all my pretty pets wear beautiful jeweled collars befitting their station.” He paused and crooked his finger at the women. They eagerly popped from their positions and sank to their knees before him, their heads bowed. He tapped Belinda on the crown and she gazed up at him with total adoration. It was then I realized what I’d assumed were ornate chokers were actually collars and I shrank against the headboard, shaking my head. I couldn’t do that — couldn’t be collared like an animal. Please no! Omar caressed Belinda’s jaw and smiled down at her with warmth, then returned to me, his eyes hard, and said to the woman at his feet, “Belinda, my sweet…show my newest pet how I like my cock sucked.”
Without hesitation, Belinda undid the belt encircling his waist and gently released his erect member. It sprang free, bold and hard, stabbing toward Belinda’s open mouth. I watched in shock as Omar threaded his fingers through her dark tresses and jammed his cock into her mouth until it surely banged the back of her throat. My cheeks heated at the obscene display but I couldn’t look away. She slid her plump lips over the crown of his erection, sucking hard and groaning as if it gave her just as much pleasure as him to suck him off. She wrapped her hand around his shaft and worked him until his hips began to flex against her, pumping into her mouth as if he were plunging his cock into her folds. “That’s it, sweet pet,” he murmured in a sultry tone, obviously enjoying the view of his cock sliding in and out of her mouth covered in her saliva. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and block out what I was seeing but a slow, pervasive warmth had begun to steal into my bones, starting at the pit of my stomach and spreading south. My breathing became shallow and I was caught between two divergent desires: one to make it stop and another wanting more. I was horrified by my reaction to this degradation, sickened to the morrow of my bones that I would suffer even a flicker of desire at such a display. Omar’s moan sent tendrils of something I couldn’t define twisting through me, dragging me closer to that part of myself that I didn’t want to acknowledge. Lord save me, I was becoming aroused! I forced my eyes shut, to deny myself this sick pleasure, but the carnal sound of sucking and Omar’s grunts popped my eyes once again just in time to watch Omar cum down Belinda’s throat.
“That’s it, my lovely! Take it all! Take my seed, my beautiful little whore,” Omar demanded in a harsh cry. “Yessss!”
Belinda’s throat worked to swallow what he’d poured into her mouth and then when she’d finished every drop, she lovingly and gently cleaned his cock with her tongue before rocking back on her heels and lowering her head once more. Omar, a small satisfied smile on his face, tucked his cock away and turned to me. “You see, Belinda has learned her place in life. And she is rewarded for her good and obedient behavior with treats and beautiful baubles.” He glanced at his man. “See to it Belinda receives her choice in jewels from my vault.”
“It will be done,” the man responded in a deep, gravely voice that boomed from his barrel chest.
I swallowed, unable to look at him after what I’d seen. Belinda, Cassie, Scarlet…they were nothing more than sex slaves he kept in a gilded cage and he expected me to join them? I’d rather die. “I don’t want trinkets,” I whispered. “I want to go home.”
“This is your home now.”
“No. This is a cage and you’re a monster,” I shot back hotly. Maybe he would twist my head from my shoulders and this nightmare would end. One could hope. “And you can go fuck yourself if you think I’m wearing a collar like some animal.”
My declaration sucked wild gasps of horror from the girls as they watched me self-destruct right before their eyes. Unlike me, they remained silent. Tears welled behind my lids and I ground them out with a look of open defiance. I was lost in a strange land, captive to a frighteningly handsome stranger — I would cling to my dignity with my fingernails. If he thought he’d purchased a docile girl who would scrape and bow at his beck and call, or suck his dick when he snapped his fingers, he was going to suffer buyer’s remorse because I’d rather slit my own wrists than live like some mindless sexbot.
Omar’s gaze narrowed as he considered my stance, noting with that sharp stare my tilted, stubborn jaw and eyes that flashed a promise of murder or suicide — whichever seemed the best course of action — and a slow, feral smile tipped his lips that caused a shiver to rock my spine, only I wasn’t entirely sure if the motion was prompted by fear or something else far more insidious.
“Tonight, you will wear my collar. It will be heavy with crusted jewels so that with each movement you will feel the weight of my power over you. It will be tight, reminding you that I hold your life in my hands and if it pleases me, I could squeeze the air from your throat. And, you will wear nothing but my collar until it pleases me otherwise.”