MATEO IS STILL in the middle of a large group of people when I slowly begin to slink away. I try to appear calm and demure on the outside as I nonchalantly check out the artwork on the walls; but on the inside, I’m a nervous wreck; my heart pumping a hundred beats a second as I try not to freak out.
I eventually escape into the hallway without anyone stopping me. Glancing back, I see Mateo engrossed in conversation, not even realizing I’m gone. Watching him from afar gives me a different perspective. He’s so brutally handsome, and I can tell why everyone who talks to him is instantly captivated. He’s taller than most of the people in the room, towering over even the tallest men. Add his height with his commanding presence, and he’s one powerful man.
Giving Mateo one last look, I steel my nerves and set out to do what I promised myself I would. My heels click in the empty corridor as I find my way back to the entrance. And then I go down a new hall filled with doors. The first door I check is a half bath. The second contains a small office. I peer around the room, but there’s not much in there and definitely not a phone.
I’m walking out of the office when a deep voice says from the shadows, “Are you lost, little lamb?”
A chill runs down my spine as I turn, searching the dark hallway for a face. And when the man walks into a ray of sunshine casting in from the far end, I take in every detail of him. Tall, lean, muscular in a designer suit that probably cost thousands of dollars with an expensive watch on his wrist. His dirty blond hair is styled perfectly, not a hair out of place. He adjusts the cuff of his suit, and I stare at his manicured fingernails. At first glance, this guy is the ultimate perfectionist.
“Uh, no, just looking around. I was bored,” I tell him, the lie slipping out of my mouth easily enough. What I’m really after is a telephone, so that I can try to call my brother, but I can’t tell anyone here that.
“These types of events bore me too,” he confesses, his gaze never wavering from mine. I don’t know who this man is, but his blue eyes creep me out. They’re deep, like the ocean, but cold, giving me the feeling that I could drown in the dark water while he watched from the shore, never bothering to offer me a lifejacket.
While he looks like he belongs on the cover of a GQ magazine, there’s something off about him. The same chill from before runs up my spine, and I know that it’s time to leave. “Excuse me. I’m going to get back to the party,” I mutter before walking in the opposite direction from him back towards the main entrance.
“Have you seen the library?” he calls after me. “It’s quite exquisite.”
I stop in my tracks. The library could have a phone. I turn to look at him. “Not yet,” I answer warily.
“Oh, then you must see it,” he says, plastering a wide smile on his face, showcasing his perfectly straight, overpoweringly white teeth. God, this guy could do a toothpaste commercial.
“Come with me.” He begins walking, not even looking back to see if I’m following.
Swallowing hard, I glance back towards the party. The prospect of finding a phone or using this as my opportunity to reach out to my family or escape Mexico is too great for me not to do it. Straightening my spine, I begin to walk after him like the good, little lamb that I am, even though I’m beginning to wonder if I’m following the big, bad wolf into slaughter.
The man leads me down a series of hallways until he stops before a large door. He grips the handle and pulls it open, revealing an expansive library. I gasp at the sight. I’ve never been in a library of this size before. I turn around and around, looking at all the wooden shelves with ladders that stretch up to the ceiling. There is a reading corner by a huge bay window where I could see myself tucked away for hours at a time. I’ve been doing a lot of reading as of late. Mateo brings me lots of books to keep me busy while he’s working. I was never into books back home, always deciding early on that they were just a waste of time. But now I have newfound respect and love for them when I figured out that every book can let you escape reality and leave all your troubles behind, even if it’s only for a little while.
“It’s lovely, isn’t it?” the man asks me.
“Oh, yes,” I agree emphatically.
“I knew you’d like it,” he tells me with a grin, those teeth beaming brighter than the damn sun. “My name is Damion Tuffin, by the way. And yours is?”
“Aria,” I tell him, offering my first name only.
There’s a glint in his blue eyes when he realizes I’m not going to give him more than that. “Just Aria? Like Cher or Madonna,” he jokes.
“You could say that.”
“I see. Mysterious. And I like a little mystery,” he says with a small shrug.
Damion goes over to the mini bar and starts reading over the various labels on the bottles and decanters. “Cristóbal keeps the good shit in here. Would you like some?” he asks while popping the cork off of what looks like an expensive liquor.
“Ah, no thanks,” I tell him with an adamant shake of my head. He seems disappointed by my answer, but then he turns his back on me and begins pouring a drink.
While Damion is distracted, I find a large desk in the opposite corner of the room and start searching for a phone. There’s a laptop resting on top next to a cup full of pens, along with some papers, a paperweight and some little sticky notes. The laptop is locked with a code, so I give up right away. Finding nothing else on the desk that can help me, I carefully pull open the top drawer, searching its contents.
“Are you trying to find all of Cristóbal’s secrets?” Damion asks.
His voice makes me jump almost out of my skin, and I whirl around to face him. I had no idea he was right behind me. “N-no,” I stammer.
He grins. “Here you go. It will help calm your nerves,” he tells me before shoving a small glass full of dark liquor into my hands. When I go to refuse, he holds up a finger and tuts at me. “Now, now, this is the most expensive scotch in the world. The least you can do is try a sip or two,” he says, watching me closely.
I stare down at the glass, wrinkling my nose at it. I don’t want to drink it, but I have a feeling this guy isn’t used to women telling him no, and I’m scared of what will happen if I’m the first. A sip won’t hurt, I tell myself as I bring the glass to my lips. I take a very small sip, the liquid warm and burning my mouth and throat as I swallow it down quickly. It’s strong with an extremely bitter aftertaste. If that’s what the most expensive scotch in the world tastes like, I can’t imagine what the cheap stuff tastes like. Putting the glass down on the desk beside me, I return my eyes to him, letting him know that I’ve tried it and I’m done.
“What did you think?” he asks with curiosity in his eyes.
“I think it sucks.”
That earns me a bark of laughter. “My, my, beautiful and funny. Quite the combination. You know, Mateo is a very lucky man.”
My eyes narrow on him. He knows who I came here with, and he still lured me into the library, knowing what will happen if Mateo finds out. Red flags are flying all over the place, and I realize I need to get the hell out of here. “I wonder if dinner is going to be served soon? I better get back,” I tell him as I take a few steps towards the door.
“But we’re just getting started,” the man says before grabbing my arm in a vice grip.
“Let me go,” I seethe at him, trying to shake off his grasp.
“There’s that fight! There’s that anger I saw on stage at The Island,” he says with a maniacal laugh.
I jerk and suck in a harsh breath as my eyes search his, my brain going into overdrive.
He brings me in closer and whispers, “I told you I’d be seeing you soon, little lamb. And I never break a promise.”
That voice. I don’t know how I didn’t recognize him earlier when he called me by that strange nickname. He had kept his tone just above a whisper on The Island, and so it never clicked until right now.
“I wanted you that night. And I never let go of something that I want,” he tells me through gritted teeth. “I eventually let Mateo outbid me, because I knew I’d get my chance to get you for free.” His hold tightens on my arm, no doubt leaving finger-shaped bruises behind. “Let me ask you this, little lamb,” he whispers before forcing me against his body and putting his mouth to my ear. “Are you still a virgin, or did Mateo pop your little cherry?”
Disgusted, I muster all the strength I possibly can to finally pull away from him. I stumble backwards, falling into a nearby shelf. Books go tumbling to the ground around me as I try to regain my balance. The room spins violently around me, and I clutch my stomach as I lay there, sick and vulnerable.
A dark chuckle escapes his lips, but it sounds like it’s on repeat as I try to get up. “It’s okay, little lamb. You only had a sip, unfortunately, so you should get over the side effects rather quickly.”
“You…you drugged me,” I say, my vision clouding over as my mouth tries to cooperate with my brain.
“Usually, I take my time breaking my new acquisitions down over an extended period of time, but, you see, my time with you here, unfortunately, is very limited. I needed to make sure that you were broken quickly before I take everything from you, little lamb. And believe me when I say, I want everything you have to give.”
I search the large room for something I can use as a weapon, but my limbs are getting heavier by the second. I doubt if I’ll be able to move fast enough in time to get away from him or fight him off if it comes down to that. I’m quickly running out of options.
Mateo’s face flashes in my mind, and so I do the only thing I can do at this point. I scream out my captor’s name because I know deep down he’s my protector and he wouldn’t let anything bad like this happen to me. “Mateo!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
My scream echoes through the room, and I watch in horror as Damion’s face immediately morphs from calm to enraged.
“Stupid little lamb,” he says before eating up the distance between us in a few strides. He bends down and grabs my face, squeezing my jaw until I cry out in pain. “If you were mine, I would have cut out your tongue on the first night,” he snarls, suddenly transforming from a man into some kind of savage animal.
He releases my jaw and pushes me to the ground. I watch in horror as he unzips his pants and takes out his semi-hard cock. He strokes it a few times while looking down at me. “I’m going to show you how a real man fucks,” he tells me before he tackles me to the floor.
I struggle against him as he manhandles me, my dress ripping in the process. His knee forces its way between my legs, and I cry out in anguish, desperately trying to keep my thighs clenched together. If he wants to take something from me, he’s going to have to fight me for it.
“I knew you would be fun. That’s why I wanted to win you at the auction,” he seethes, wrestling my hands down to my sides.
“No! Stop!” I cry out, tears blurring my vision.
I manage to get one of my hands free, and I reach up, scoring his cheek. Streaks of red form on his skin as he rears back, hollering in pain. He touches his cheek, and when his fingertips come back crimson, he glares at me and says, “You’re going to regret that, little lamb.”
