Page 197 of Hunting Pretty

“The High Lord won’t be happy with that,” he said,eyeing what was surely a throbbing red welt on my cheek. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

When he kneeled on the edge of the mattress in front of me, he placed his palms together, thumbs tucked under his chin.

“Don’t worry, I won’t fuck you too hard,” he whispered, cocking his head manically to the side. “Do you think I can still make you come without leaving bruises?”

I couldn’t help the sob that tore from my mouth. There was no convincing him. He wasn’t going to let me go. Cormac was going to hurt me.

His one remaining eye shined feverishly, burning with hatred. “Or maybe I’ll fuck your ass. Leave your pussy for the High Lord.”

Cormac tore roughly at my blouse and the buttons popped free, rolling wildly across the wet stone floor.

He pushed my blouse from my shoulders, leaving me completely naked from the waist up. He grabbed my breasts as I bucked.

“Don’t fucking touch me!”

I screamed when Cormac pinched my nipples and twisted them savagely until my nipples were an angry red against my pale skin.

Cormac palmed himself through his designer tweed.

“My boyfriend is coming for me,” I hissed, looking at him through tear-stained eyelashes. “And he’s going to rip out more than just your eye.”

Cormac sneered. “Let him come. He’s no match for them. They’ll catch him, too. Maybe they’ll givehimto me as a reward for handing you over. Yeah, I’d love to cuthiseyes out with a butter knife.”

I spit at Cormac and it landed on his cheek.

He just laughed. Using two fingers, he wiped it from his skin. He held them up, the tips shimmering, before as he slipped his hand under my skirt and pushed aside my lace thong.

“No,” I said, thrashing, my shoulders screaming against the pain. “No!”

He circled my spit around my clit and I gritted my teeth against the wave of bile rising up the back of my throat.

Cormac’s teeth found my earlobe.

“They have something special planned for you, Ava,” he whispered, his breath foul with cheap nicotine. “But I don’t know why you’re so fucking precious to the High Lord. Maybe we should find out, huh?”

He began to choke me. Pain ripped through me as he roughly thrust his fingers inside me, invading me, my body tense as it tried to reject him, his fingernails scraping my delicate walls.

Black spots played in my vision as Cormac’s jaw tensed and he squeezed even tighter.

“You snobby little bitch,” he snarled. “I’m going to imagineyourface when they give me my first orphan girl. I’ll name her Ava.”

I tried to fight, to thrash against my bindings. But all I did was strain my shoulders. It was no use. I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t stop him from hurting me. From doing whatever he wanted to me.

“You’re going to be dead and gone and I’mstillgoing to be defiling you. Owning you. Coming all over your fucking grave.”

I gasped for breath as hot tears streamed down my cheeks, but my windpipe was crushed.

His fingers stabbed at me as my body began to buck, desperate for air. He was losing control of himself.

He was going to kill me.

Tires crushed over gravel and a yellow light filled the cellar from the high small windows.

Cormac turned his head and his fingers stilled.

I heard an engine switch off, and then we were plunged back into the dim light of the single overhead lightbulb of the cellar.

---