Page 43 of Diamond Kisses

“Nope. Not tonight. You no longer get a choice.” Victor snapped his fingers. “Blind him. Gag him. Deafen him. Let’s see how he behaves after a night of no senses.”

A guard stepped forward with a black bag dangling in his hands. Marching up the stage steps, he clamped a pair of noise cancelling headphones over Henri’s ears, shoved a ball gag between his teeth and buckled it into place, then wrenched a black hood over Henri’s head.

The last thing I saw was a flash of panic in his gorgeous grey eyes before the hood hung down to his shoulders, and Victor swept out of the ballroom in a huff.

* * * * *

That night was the longest of my life.

The Masters left with their jewels. Dirty dishes were cleared away. The lights were turned off. And the sliding doors were left wide open, allowing an icy breeze to kick through the tablecloths and soak into our frozen limbs.

One a.m., two a.m., three…

No one came to unchain us.

No one offered us food or comfort.

Peter shifted from standing to sitting to lying on the wooden floor.

I followed.

I huddled in a tiny silver-clad ball, shuddering and twitching with bone-deep cold.

My teeth chattered, and I longed for the dirty, scratchy blanket from the dungeon. At least down there, we had each other. We had facilities when our bladders grew too full and a sense of safety when panic became too thick.

Somehow, the richly decorated ballroom became an even worse cell than the dew-dripping, rat-infested caves below.

We didn’t talk.

What could we say?

Henri couldn’t hear us.

He couldn’t speak.

Couldn’t see.

By four a.m., I tripped in and out of desperate, despairing sleep. I woke to a slicing pain deep in my middle from hunger or horror—I could no longer tell the difference.

I glanced at Henri.

His knees had buckled, his arms stretched high and holding him upright.

I hoped he slept.

I hoped he’d passed out from the pain and claustrophobia of being so shackled.

A trickle of saliva ran down his naked chest, catching the moonlight outside. I cried myself back to sleep, imagining the agony of his jaw with the ball gag locked between his teeth. The way he wouldn’t be able to stop drooling. The absolute panic he must feel being so vulnerable and bound while blindfolded, gagged, and deafened.

I’m here.I opened my heart and sent him all the love I had left. I’m here. You’re not alone.

He groaned and sagged against the pole.

Peter shivered quietly in the dark.

And I begged the sun to rise before we froze.

* * * * *

---