Page 187 of Merciless Desires

I scanned the doorframe looking for some other explanation for the door refusing to open. Though it was old, it was in good condition. There was no sign of warping or sticking. I bent down and peered through the gap. A large solid bolt connected the door to its frame.

Feeling the urge to hyperventilate, I stood and focused on my breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. In, out. In, out. My fingers pressed against my temples and I scoured the room for a telephone or call button. There had to be an innocent explanation. He wouldn’t have left me in a strange room, in a strange house, on a strange island, with no phone, no passport and no access to anyone. My heart pounded, no matter how hard I tried to remain calm. I ran my hands along every surface searching for phone sockets or buzzers, but there was nothing.

I ran to the windows but they were all bolted shut. I became suddenly aware of the need for air. Very quickly, panic set in and my heart raced. I gripped a wall and slid down it, my eyes wide with fear. I pressed my hands into the carpet and closed my eyes. In, out. In, out.

An hour or so later – at least, that’s what it felt like since I had no means of telling the time – I was sitting on the large bed previously occupied by Dalziel Thorn, staring out of the window at the never-ending nothingness.

I was a million miles away when the lock turned. I leapt to my feet and raced to the door. The second it opened, I yanked it towards me and heard a male voice shout from the other side. There was a clatter of crockery, and a tray of hot food slid to the floor. I stepped over it and pushed past the man, briefly noticing his butler outfit as I made for the stairs.

I was so focused on where I put my feet, I didn’t see the two giant security guards barrelling towards me until a thick arm wrapped around my neck and my feet were swept off the top step. My scream echoed around the tower before a large hand muffled my mouth, half blocking my airways. Back inside the suite I was dropped to the floor. I twisted to get a look at the two men. One had already left, while the other stood over me, scowling.

“Looks like you won’t having any dinner tonight, Miss Hemingway,” he said, with a tone of utter boredom.

“You can’t keep me locked in here. It’s imprisonment,” I rushed out.

He turned his back to me and walked through the door.

“It’s illegal!” I scrambled to my feet. “I want to leave. Now.”

I ran the three paces to the door only to feel a whoosh of air as it slammed shut. I launched for the handle but just as it turned, so did the key in the lock.

“This is AGAINST THE LAW,” I yelled. “It’s kidnapping.”

A low voice fed itself round the edge of the door. “Not on this island it isn’t.”

I staggered backwards until I felt the edge of a glass coffee table at the back of my knees. Then, fuelled with absolute rage, I spun around, lifted it off its three legs and hurled it at the wall.

Chapter Four

Dax

It took everything in me to not slam the door so hard it shattered the eighteenth century frame. Rage levitated me and sorrow dragged me down. I clung to the banister winding round the staircase and clawed my way up two floors to the tower – to the room I had insisted I move to after the countless surgeries had failed to restore my face. I couldn’t bear to see the pity in peoples’ eyes, the questioning looks and the shocked intakes of breath. I didn’t want to be reminded that my whole future had melted in seconds, just like everything south of my hairline. I needed to be as far away from people as I could get.

I did slam the door to my own room and stormed straight to the window. With my fists pounded into the wall on either side, I let out a thunderous curse, one so loud the glass shivered. I knew no one would’ve heard me. Father had installed state-of-the-art sound-proofing shortly after I moved into this room, to shield my mother from the heart-splitting cries I couldn’t hold in. These outbursts had grown few and far between, but in moments like this, they simply couldn’t be contained.

The second she’d appeared in the doorway, my entire being lit up. My gut softened, assuring me the photograph she’d posted online was not only genuine, it had done her very little justice. In the flesh she was… perfect.

She was demure in stature, yet bold in character – she would have to be to sell her virginity to a total stranger. Her hair shone gold with a strawberry hue and it fell over one shoulder just as I’d imagined it would. Her petite nose and delicate chin were eclipsed by almond eyes that expressed everything in one glance. And that’s what reached into my ribcage and squeezed a little bit of the life out of me.

There was no mistaking the desire beneath the flutter of her lashes as she first took me in. When I turned my whole face towards her, she couldn’t stand to look anymore. She averted her eyes and stared down at her hands. It was a reaction I’d almost got used to but, the fool that I was, I’d dreamed of something different with this woman. Ever since I’d found her online, I hadn’t been able to get her out of my head. The second I laid eyes on the photo in her profile, my heart was taken.

I meant what I said. I didn’t want to take her virginity if her heart wasn’t in it. I wanted her to want it. I needed her to want it. Genuine desire was the one thing money couldn’t buy. Yet, the sound of her sharp inhalation when I delivered my condition would haunt me forever, because nothing about it said she would ever willingly give herself to me. At least, not for less than a hundred thousand pounds.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the key. It was large, brass, and like everything oppressive in this house, highly polished.

I would bend her to me.

She would submit to my will.

And I felt serene confidence in this, because she wouldn’t be going anywhere until she did.

Chapter Five

Rose

I stared blankly at the door, my stomach growling despite the fact I didn’t want to eat a thing this place tried to serve me. I assumed it was mid-morning. The dawn chorus woke me from a chequered sleep and I drifted off again for what felt like a couple of hours. I was so high up in the tower, and so far from any other part of the Hall, there were no other sounds to be heard. No trays rattling, no voices chattering, no engines running outside on the drive.

What was it he’d said? I had to want it. That was his condition.

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