Chapter Fifteen
Honor
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THE MEN ARE WALKINGaround me, looking at me as if I’m a piece of meat procured for their delight.
All my plans to seduce Don have come to nothing. There’s no hope now. I’ll be sold off, andpoof, I will disappear. Taken away by whoever buys me. Not only will I never see my men again, or the beauty of the island, but I’ll be held captive. God, you read about this, don’t you? Some woman who manages to break free from a cellar she’s been held in for years. Sometimes they conceive children, too.
Bile rises in me, and panic threatens to take hold. That can’t be my future. It can’t.
One of the men, a dark haired, skinny individual who looks like he’s in his forties, with halitosis so bad I can smell him before he gets near, steps in close.
He reaches out a hand and weighs my breast, like it’s fruit at a market stall. His fingers are cold, his palm clammy. Then he pinches my nipple, hard enough to hurt.
I don’t think but react on instinct. My hand is moving before I can stop myself, and I slap him across the face.
The crack rings out in the room, and I freeze.
He puts his hand to his cheek as if he’s been punched by Tyson and staggers back.
He scowls at me. “Not the sort of attitude I’ll pay good money for.”
The older man speaks. “Oh, I don’t know. Isn’t breaking them in all part of the fun?” He’s the one with the pale eyes and the aura of power. He doesn’t move. He’s still sitting far back, in the corner. “If you can’t get a slip of a girl like this to bend to your will, then perhaps you aren’t worthy.”
Halitosis guy sneers but doesn’t argue back.
“You need to know how to treat her,” Don says.
He grabs me by my hair, wrapping it around his fist and yanking so my head jerks to the side. Pain spikes through my scalp, and I cry out. Tears prickle my eyes. I’m completely helpless in his grip, and he drags me across the room, toward a chair in the corner. Don sits and pulls me over his knee.
His hand smooths over my ass, making me want to vomit. “God, you’re smooth.” He chuckles. “All this lovely, perfect skin, and I’m about to turn it red. I might make you come, too. Just for shits and giggles.”
I don’t say a word. Nothing I can say right now will work. If he touches me there, I swear that’s it. I’ll lose it and fuck him up. Even if he kills me, it will be worth it. Now I know he’s going to sell me, and I will be long gone before the men can find me, I have lost all hope of surviving. I don’t care about that anymore. I just know I won’t let this bastard do what he wants with me.
A crack rings out in the room, and it takes a moment for my brain to line the sound up with the burning fire of pain in my ass cheek.Jesus,Don doesn’t mess around.
Another sharp smack to my opposite butt cheek has fresh tears stinging my eyes. A shadow falls over me, and I glance up and wish I hadn’t. One of the men is standing two feet away rubbing his crotch through his jeans as he watches.
“Can I come?” he asks.
“Don’t give a shit what you do,” Don says. “Just keep it in your pants. DNA and all that.”
Oh, my God, they are such freaks.
I try to ignore what is happening, but this is the most humiliating moment of my entire life. Don sets up a rhythm. There are now two men watching. Both of them are rubbing themselves through their pants and making grunting sounds, but I suppose the upside is that they are shielding me from the eyes of some of the others in the room.
“Do you want me to make it feel good for you?” Don asks.
His free hand starts to slide up my leg, and I tense in horror.
“She's got the most perfect skin I've ever seen,” one of the men observes.
“Wait until you see her pussy,” Don replies. “I tell you, she's worth a lot.”
How could I not have realized just how depraved this man was? I believed, still naively, that deep down perhaps he had feelings. Sick and twisted feelings, for sure, but feelings, nonetheless. Instead, Don is purely driven by greed, lust, and his insatiable ego.
As his hand trails toward the top of my thigh, I resign myself to what comes next. Don touching me, and me fighting back and getting myself killed.