Short Stories - Romance

#14 - A Naked Sacrifice

"Rise and shine!"

"Go away." I hissed at whoever that was. They were just too loud for the heaviness going on in my head. Couldn't people wait until someone was fully awake before making demands on them?

"No can't do, sweetheart."

Sweetheart? The odd whispered endearment sent my eyes shooting open against the very loud protests in my head and the familiar dark romantic setting of the room left my heart hammering in my chest.

Oh God, this was not happening. I recoiled as I frantically struggled to find my bearings and remember how the hell I'd gotten here.

"You won't escape me so easily this time, little flower." I froze when those words hit me, making me blink so fast, searching the dark room and only then did I notice that I was in nothing but my underwear, lying on an unfamiliar bed, with a pair of hungry eyes staring at me. "You?" I frantically searched for something, anything to cover up.

"We meet again." Gerald's sinister smile sent more than shivers down my spine.

"Stay away from me!" I flew off the bed only to be yanked back by something. What the hell?! The sight of black handcuffs with its neon green signature mark made my blood run cold even as realization that this was no random attack registered. I'd been thrust back into the world I thought I had long escaped.

"Let me go." I demanded. I was in no position to demand anything. Not with anyone belonging to the Opulent Temptress Troupe and definitely not when I sat here like a naked sacrifice, but I'd been taught long ago never to show fear. Because then I'd give them power. Those wretched vultures as my mother used to call them.

"Ooh, Chad was right, you are your mother's daughter. So feisty." Gerald cooed, making the dread I felt soar. The mention of Chad's name sent my heart racing too, poking holes in my fearless facade. I could understand how Gerald knew my mother, but my ex?

"Chad? What has he got to do with anything?" Even as I spoke, I dreaded the answer to my own question, a lump forming in my throat at what this could all mean. Chad was a cheating bastard, but he couldn't possibly be involved in all this could he? Was my decision-making so pathetic that I'd ended up with him? In the very world I was trying to escape? The thought sent a chill down my spine, intertwining with all the fear I felt.

"Oh, he never told you?" Something dropped in my stomach at the Gerald's amused look.

"Tell me what?"

"Aww, your ever present guardian angel." Gerald threw Chad's phrase in my face as he rose to his feet, sending me shrinking into the bed's headboard. "You have him to thank for your momentary freedom which you'd have enjoyed a lot longer if you had only stayed in love with him."

Momentary freedom? He'd brought me back? "What are you saying, Chad would never-"

"What? Belong to our pretty little organization? Bring you back where you truly belong? You are right he wouldn't. But that was when he thought you loved him."

"I was in the neighbourhood. Right on time again? Told you I was forever your guardian angel." Chad's words. I paled as realization that I'd fallen right into his trap again. And this time walking away was not an option.

"So what, is this some kind of revenge?" The idea of it was absurd. He'd been the one to cheat on me.

"Yes, you could call it that," Gerald replied with a chilling smile, his tone hinting at a deeper meaning behind his words. "But as much as as I would like to peel the feathers off your guardian angel just so you can see him for the devil he is, I have more important matters to attend to. Like getting my long-awaited taste of you." Gerald crawled onto the bed, and even if I did not believe in greater powers, I prayed then, even as I thrashed to keep the creep from reaching me.

"Oh, don't be shy sweetheart. What happened to the feisty Linda that was cheering with all her heart?" Gerald's voice oozed with manipulation as he spoke, making my skin crawl. "Give me that and I promise we'll have a great time."

"Get away from me!" I growled. "And I'm not your sweetheart!"

"But you could be. Your mother-"

"I am nothing like my mother!" I swore, the words escaping my lips as if the mere comparison and being in this place had the power to transform me into my mother. Did the dead turn in their graves? Because I was sure as hell my mother just did at that.

"Of course you aren't," The creep said, his gaze undressing me with a hunger that sent shivers down my spine. "She was more...willing, whereas you are more...fuller, sexier and...

"Get away from her!"

Ethan? I had never been more happy to hear that voice. He stood in the doorway I'd not noticed until now, flanked by Craig and another burly guy in a suit. I had always thought Craig was the dangerous one, but staring at Ethan as he stalked into the room, it was oh so clear who the beast was! And boy was I glad he was on my side. How in God's name did he even find me?

"You have to wait your turn Easton-" A punch landed, and another, wiping the smirk off the creep's face. "Bloody hell! You broke my nose!"

"I'll break more than that if you so much as breathe her way!" Ethan growled, a murderous look in his eyes that left my heart floored and me forgetting about everything else... except him. No one had ever fought for me so fearlessly.

"This is not Easton Corp." I was jolted out of my thoughts by Gerald's sneer, making me realize that he knew Ethan too. "And she is not your employee or some lucrative business deal to win. She's mine. She owes me-"

"Like hell she is!" Ethan growled, his tone darker than Gerald's, but the creep remained unfazed while he nursed his bloody nose.

"She'll always be Luxuria Enchantress!" Gerald said in a mocking tone, while I cringed at the name that was forced on me. "The glorified p.rostitute. It's in her blood!"

"What is he talking about?" Ethan held up a bloody hand as his eyes landed on me, and I'd never been more ashamed of my past as I felt under his furious gaze.