Hands gripped my waist and lowered me to the ground. The man, all-powerful in front of me, gave me a slight shove until I fell back into the waiting chair. My eyes locked onto his. My immediate reaction was to stand, to try and bolt again, but the way his eyes watched me had me believing I wouldn’t get more than two feet. I had caught him off guard by throwing the chair, I wouldn’t get that lucky again.
“Where the hell have you been anyway? You can’t just leave someone locked in a bedroom, hostage or not!”
“Just sit. Please. I promise, I checked on you when I got home last night and you were out like a light. How was I to know that you’d wake up at the crack of dawn and proceed to spend hours driving yourself to the brink of insanity.” Whether I liked it or not, and I did not, his words shut me up.
“We haven’t been properly introduced yet,” he said as he pulled up a seat opposite me. I sat silently, staring with narrowed eyes. I was not happy. But I was still weighing my options. Seeing he wasn’t getting a response, he muttered a disgruntled, “Fine.”
At my defiance, his hand slammed a cuff on my wrist, enclosing it and attaching it to the arm of the chair. I huffed out half a shocked laugh, fuming, as I stared at my new silver accessory.
“I’m Nikolai.”
After no response from me, his lips continued to move and I couldn’t help following their movements. I stared at him, really taking him in as he sat on the armchair in front of me. He was big, his muscular frame almost overflowing from the constraints of the chair.
Nikolai.
What a fitting name.
He definitely looked like a Nikolai. Strong, masculine, fucking scary… and completely gorgeous. I liked it. But I certainly would not let him see what effect his allure had on me. I needed to be as hard to penetrate as the Great Wall of China.
“Are the restraints really necessary?” I grumbled as I pulled against the cuff and sat up a little straighter in my chair.
“For now. But then again, they might prove useful in the future.” I watched, transfixed as his eyes slipped down my neck. Instead of rolling down my body, like I had expected, they ran down my arm to where my wrist was encased in the silver bracelet.
“How about we just talk for now?”
“I don’t know if I have much to say to you.” I chewed on my cheek as I watched his lip quirk up.
“Ah. Well maybe not, but I’m sure you’re at least curious to know why you’re here.”
“Because my father owed you money.” Which I think is fucking ridiculous. Who takes a person as payment? That’s not even legal. But just by looking at this guy, I know he doesn’t care what’s legal and what’s not. But he threatened my aunt...what could I have said to that?
“Simply put, yes. But, there’s more to it. Your father had a substantial debt to not only my brother but also to a lot of other people. Dangerous people. That’s not why you’re here though. Anton paid me to stay away from you.” That caught my attention. I knew all about my fathers’ debts but this was new. I scanned his face for any indicators of deceit, but there weren’t any. Which begged the question, what in the hell was he talking about? I schooled my expression as best as I could but it wasn’t enough to hide my piqued curiosity.
“Now that he’s dead, no one can stop me from taking what I want. And that, my dear Anastasia, is why you’re here.”
“He paid you...to stay away from me.” His words made sense but not his reasoning.
What the fuck.
What the fuck would he want with me?
My eyes nearly rolled out of my sockets as my stomach churned painfully. It had clicked. I didn’t know what made me feel sicker, the idea that this guy thought I was now his property or the fact that my father had gone along with this was ludicrous.
“I love seeing you tied up like that. With no way of getting away from me…” His eyes ran the length of my body, tracing a slow and deliberate path, making his intentions clear. He knew he could do whatever he wanted in this moment and that there would be no way I could stop him. Even if I got free, I wouldn’t have been able to overpower him. He was making that known, rubbing it in my face that there was nowhere for me to run, nowhere to hide.
The man in front of me wasn’t one I recognized, his persona suddenly very different from what I had glimpsed previously. Was this the real him, or was this just a lust-driven state?
He wanted me. And I’d decided that I hated him for it.
I understood now why I was in restraints. Fiery anger burned through my veins, my whole body being eaten by the flames. My fists clenched as I tried with all my might to pull at the handcuff, jumping up to lash at him. I couldn’t reach. The metal didn’t budge a centimeter. The hard edge of the cuff bit into my wrist. Against all odds, the pain shocked me. I was trapped here. Trapped. I was chained, physically because of the cuffs, and emotionally because of Aunt Carol.
His face twisted at the sight of my anger, my humiliation. The sinister smirk that graced his lips laughed at me. He may have had me chained up like an animal for now, but this was only temporary. When I got free, eventually, he’d have to deal with the very real kind of fucking animal I would be.
Then it was gone, my anger had turned from a raging inferno to a steely simmer. His lust passed without a trace. Nikolai looked at me anew.
“You must be hungry,” He began. “I’m going to release you, we’ll go down to the kitchen and you’ll eat. Understand?” He made no move of getting up but instead fiddled with the keys in his hand.
I hadn’t outright seen the movement that caught my eyes but a glimpse of silver at his other side had me hypnotized. A gun, upon further inspection. I nodded to answer his question. I had been hungry but my appetite had quickly run off, along with my ability to speak.
“You do anything I don’t like again and you’ll be punished. Understood?” I scanned his eyes for any sign that he was bluffing. I couldn’t see any. He stood and took the handcuffs into his hands. With the gun so close, I tried to catch a whiff of, well, anything - anything that might indicate that the gun had been fired recently.
I got nothing. Maybe he was bluffing after all.
Was that a risk I was willing to take? No.
So, I kept my mouth shut and my guard high.
I turned to check on Anastasia when her footsteps stopped. The sight nearly had me breaking my stony facade, her back was pressed flat against the wall and eyes wide as she stared across the room. “What the fuck is that?”
I followed her gaze to where Achilles was harmlessly lounging on his bed. As I answered her, I swung back around and continued on into the kitchen.“‘That’ is a he.”
“A he? I wasn’t asking for its gender, rather why you have a freaking bear in your living room!” she squawked, all the while pointing at my three-year-old American Akita, Achilles.
“He’s not a bear, Achilles is just a dog. And don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.” I said offhandedly, from behind the kitchen counter.
Without asking what she’d like, I began preparing ingredients for lunch. Maybe pasta would be a good idea. Not exactly showing off my cooking skills but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Because really, who didn’t like pasta?