He has no idea how dangerous a question he’s proposed. What I know? Nothing. If anything, he’s supplying more answers than I could ever deduce on my own. What was the word he used? A decoy.
We look alike.
“Robert knew I was coming for him,” the man growls, flexing his grip until I gasp. “You will tell me how.”
Nothing. I can’t speak as terror crashes through my entire being. Even Robert couldn’t reduce me to this state so quickly. My eyes prickle in warning before heat spills from them.
“I. Don’t. Know.”
He frowns at the pathetic syllables I manage to muster. With a shift of his weight, he mounts me fully, wedging his bulk in the narrow gap between my thighs. My feeble attempts to resist him are defeated by his knee. He uses it as a battering ram to gain enough leverage to draw his pelvis in close.
No man but Robert haseverbeen this close—and this newer creature is bigger. Crueler. Rougher.
“How?” The man recaptures my throat, caressing my windpipe. “How did he know, hmm? We were careful. Does he have a spy? An informant?”
My answering wheeze draws a chilling response: he sighs.
“Please do not test me, Little One.” His touch leaves my breast and slides between my legs.
“N-no!” My hands hammer against unyielding muscle even though it’s in vain.
I learned a long time ago that it’s futile to resist. Admittedly, I’ve gotten better at it. Robert used to savor this reaction in me. He would ease a finger inside to prepare me for fucking.
This man…
He shoves me down, rearing back on his braced knee. “How many of my men do you think you can handle, Little One? Should I go first?”
The threat is real. His eyes reveal nothing but endless darkness. He’d do it.
I feel the evidence for myself, hard against my hip.
“How did he know?” He trails his fingers from my throat to my chin, cupping it so that I’m forced to meet his gaze directly. In it, I find only darkness. “Tell me and I won’t touch you. I swear on your life.”
But I have no answer to give him. No way to save myself.
“Your choice.” The man’s nostrils flare. Then, without warning, he climbs off the bed and redoes the zipper of his pants.
I can’t help the frantic way my chest heaves, desperately seeking air. The places where he touched me burn as if scorched. I don’t know if it’s a trick of the light or if the dark strands of hair wrapped around his fingers really are mine, torn from my scalp. Still, I don’t move. I lie there, at his mercy.
I seal my fate.