His hand moved a little higher and stopped just below the apex of my thighs. My body screamed for him to move that extra inch, to touch me where it ached and pulsed with need, but my mind cursed him, hated him, willed him not to touch. If he did, he would feel the soaking proof of my depravity. There would be no more hiding from him. My body would divulge all the secret, perverted desires I’d been hiding for so long—something he would use against me in his sordid quest to destroy me.
But the slightest movement of his thumb, barely touching yet sending the most powerful wave of shameless lust crashing against my core, made me whimper. I hated my body, hated the way my insides coiled because of the way he touched me.
There was a hard jerk, the sound of fabric being torn, pulling me back from wherever the fuck I was, somewhere between here and a place in Hell where I was being seduced by the devil.
I looked down as he tore a piece off the already tattered rag I was wearing.
“That little bucket of water isn’t going to be enough to wash away your filth.” He grabbed my elbow and spun me around, pushing his knee between my thighs, forcing my legs apart. The ache between my legs intensified, twisting my stomach into knots of misplaced lust and desire. How could I like this?What kind of twisted freak was I for wanting him as fear and need ran through my veins in equal measure?
He pushed his body against my back, forcing me harder against the cold wall. And then I felt it—the length of his hard desire pressing against my back. Oh God, this was so damn wrong.
“You’re one dirty little mouse, aren’t you, Tatum?”
I couldn’t answer him. There was no way I could open my mouth since I had no guarantee what would come out of it. Currently, there was a raging war between my body and my head, and with his warmth sweeping through me, feeling the evidence of his desire against my back, I was ninety-nine percent sure my body was busy winning.
“Lucky, or unlucky for you, I prefer you dirty.” He grabbed my wrists and forced them behind my back before tying my hands together with the piece of fabric he had torn from my already shredded rag.
“Which is why we’ll forgo the bath…for now.”
I glanced over my shoulder as panic surged through my heated body. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to meet the rest of my family.”
Oh God.
For the first time since I got here, I didn’t want to leave the room. For the first time, these four walls represented a safety I never felt before now. Out there, beyond these walls, lay the unknown, and right now the unknown was my worst enemy.
I struggled against the ties, trying to free my wrists, but it was too tight. It felt like the fabric was slicing through my flesh.
“Please—”
He tore off another piece of the rag, and before I could finish my sentence, he placed it over my eyes.
“Stop, please.” My voice shook, my body quivered, and everything inside me burned with the need to escape, to get away.
With a hard tug, he tied the blindfold behind my head. “Shhh, little mouse.” Softly, he placed his hands on my shoulders before leaning closer to my ear, pressing his hard body against mine, letting his heat sweep through my spine. “This is all part of the fun.”
“Castello, please—”
He grabbed my hair and yanked it back, the force stinging my scalp. “I told you to address me as sir, or have you forgotten?”
Soft whimpers rolled over my lips, and I was secretly thankful for the blindfold hiding the threatening tears.
“Come on, the show’s about to start.” He turned me around. “And you’re the main attraction.”
Gripping my elbow to a point where I was certain it would bruise, he started to drag me out of the room while I struggled against his hold.
“Where are you taking me?” I tried to push my heels into the ground to stop him from dragging me. With every bit of strength I had, I tried to rip my arm from his hold, but he was too strong, twisting his grip around my skin.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“It’s already done.”
As he dragged me to wherever we were going, I tripped and stumbled a few times along the way, but he had no mercy, no compassion. Every time I fell over my own two feet, he just jerked me up without slowing down. My strength had left me, once again leaving the weak, crying Tatum to endure whatever lay ahead. Every step he forced me to take, I felt more and more like a lamb on its way to the slaughterhouse.
The hunger pangs that plagued my body earlier were now replaced with the urge to vomit, to get rid of the bile that was churning in the pit of my stomach. Fear filled the emptiness in my belly now.