Page 20 of CHASE: Captive to the Dark

Surely he’d lost his mind.

“Fine.” I kept my mouth closed until he freed me of the cuffs. The moment he did, I rushed far away from the St. Andrews cross to stand in the middle of the room. “Stop calling me a little girl. I assure you I’m far from little.”

He took one look at my breasts and smiled. I didn’t hesitate to try to cover them.

“Well, you’re definitely not little everywhere, but you are young enough for me to call you that. Still a…young one.”

“So, if I’m young, what are you? An old man?”

Chase stiffened and I smiled at the surprise that shone on his face.

“I’m the perfect age. Far from old. I’m experienced.”

“So am I. I’m a lot more mature than my years, I assure you.”

Strands slapped against Chase’s leg as he swung the flogger in a light sway. “Virgin?”

“I beg your pardon?” I burst out. “That is none of your business.”

“Well, I think it kind of is,” he said, moving in closer. The action had me stepping back. “Are you refusing to answer one of my questions?”

The flogger rose and I felt my cheeks burn from the mixture of embarrassment and anger.

“Virgin or not, that doesn’t rate my maturity.”

“True, but how can you say you know life if you’ve barely lived it?”

I gripped my biceps tighter as I hugged my body. “I have been through more than you’d ever believe.”

Chase’s head tilted the smallest amount and I suddenly knew he’d been goading me. He wanted my secrets and I’d just opened myself up for him to inquire even more into who I was.

“Please, enlighten me. What have you had to endure that has caused you to grow wise to the world, little one?

My teeth slammed shut at his tone. He’d never sounded more the priest than he did in that moment. Chase seemed to catch it, too. He swallowed hard and tightened his grip on the flogger.

“I, ah…” Fuck, he was starting to look mad again, but I didn’t want to tell him the bad things I’d lived through. “I…”

“Go on.”

He moved closer and I could feel sweat beginning to cover my body. My foot was throbbing, distracting me from trying to come up with a response that would appease him enough to cover my ass. If my foot didn’t hurt so badly, I’d try running. I wanted to run; I was good at that.

“Like I said, we moved around a lot. I’ve met all kinds of people. A lot of them couldn’t be trusted.”

“You said your brother had the cops in his pocket. Why? What was he doing that he needed protection?”

My shoulders caved and I wished a million times over I could take back my words. In my panic upon meeting him, I’d slipped up and now it was coming back to haunt me.

“Rory used to gamble. He took bets and stuff. Nothing major. Some of the cops liked that too, so they never busted him. It was high school stuff. No big deal.”

“No big deal?” Chase’s lids narrowed and his hand rose, pointing to the bed in the far corner. As I took in the hanging cuffs in the center of it, my head involuntarily shook. I’d been looking at them for days. Dreaming. Fantasizing.

“Go,” he ground out. “You can barely stand. I’ll let you lean over the edge instead of holding onto the wall. Unless you have something else in mind.”

Still, my head moved back and forth. I couldn’t do any of it. Let him view my ass as I was bent over. It was bad enough he’d already seen my breasts. To expose myself that way, panties or not, I couldn’t submit. Not when I wanted this. And that alone brought fear—for more reasons than I wanted to admit.

Quietly, he stood, waiting. His patience stretched out and it only made me antsier.

“I was telling the truth.”

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