Page 18 of Ruthless Prince
I took a deep breath and reminded myself that it was all a lie. I didn’t love it, and I wasn’t turned on or willing. Not in the slightest. It was just a natural biological response to the threat of rape. If my body prepared itself by becoming wet, it would help to prevent lasting physical damage when my assailant inevitably and mercilessly shoved himself inside me. It didn’t mean anything beyondthat.
The man dropped the knife on the carpet and moved behind me again. He ran his fingers between my legs this time, probing them right between my silky lips, and he laughed softly as I let out an unintentional moan through my nose from the warm, pleasant sensation. I kept waiting for him to unzip and thrust himself inside me; kept waiting for the raw, agonizing invasion, but it didn’thappen.
“Sorry, princess,” he said, pulling away again. He went back to my front and stood over me. “As much as you obviously want it, I’m not going to fuckyou.”
Rape,I silently replied.You wouldn’t be fucking me. It would berape.
The full extent of his words hit me a split-second later. If he wasn’t going to rape me, then what the hell was he going to doinstead?
Every serial killer movie I’d ever seen flashed before my eyes. Cascades of blood, sawn-off limbs, gouged-out eyes, images of knives and icepicks. I wondered exactly how much suffering the masked man could inflict on me before one of the agents stationed outside finally heard something and rushed in to stop thenightmare.
Maybe they’d never hear. Maybe they’d come to check on me in the morning and find my body in twenty separate pieces, neatly wrapped in butcher’s paper and arranged in a mocking smiley face pattern on the carpet. Twenty years from now, some Hollywood douchebag might even make a trashy horror movie based on my murder with a tasteless title like FirstSlaughter.
My mind kept torturing me with all the terrible possibilities as the masked man stood over me. Then I saw it in his right hand—a small hypodermic needle. That meant he was going to take me somewhere else. Somewhere he could do whatever he wanted without fear of beingcaught.
I might never befound.
The man crouched down again, holding the needle perilously close to my neck. I shook my head and moaned again, and he closed his free hand over my nose, cutting off the sound along with mybreath.
“Goodbye, princess,” he muttered. His words hung in the air, slicing into me with petrifying possibility. Then he jabbed the needle intome.
My neck throbbed and burned as a great weariness washed over me. Soon I couldn’t feel my body at all, and the room seemed to spin all around me, making me sick and dizzy. Saliva dripped from my mouth, soaking through the tie, and my head lolled around as I desperately tried to keep my eyes fromclosing.
The last thing I saw was the skull mask floating somewhere in front of me before the void finally sucked me in, spinning me in a stomach-turningfrenzy.
Then I slipped into thedark.
5
Willow
Iwokewith pain radiating up my arms and legs. My abdomen felt tender, and my head throbbed with an unrelenting ache. On top of that, my mind was jumbled and foggy, and it took me several seconds to recall something as basic as my ownname.
I had absolutely no idea why I felt so awful. Had I been in some sort of accident, or was I just massively hungover from some sort of party? Had I even been to a partyrecently?
Right now, I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t even know what day itwas.
As my sticky eyes opened, the confusing fog in my head finally gave way to proper consciousness. With that came the horrifying realization of what had happened to me. My heart skipped a beat and my muscles went rigid with terror as the memories flooded backin.
I gulped down a deep breath and whipped my head around.I was lying in a bed with white sheets and a pale green knitted blanket, and the room surrounding me was small and lit by fluorescent downlights. An LED heart monitor sat on my left, along with an IV stand. Only then did I realize there was a drip stuck in myhand.
Wincing, I sat up. My captor must’ve transported me to some sort of medical facility. But why? What the hell was hisgame?
“Quinn, she’s awake! Oh, thankgod.”
My father appeared at my right side, forehead lined with worry. A few seconds later, my mother showed uptoo.
I let out a groan. “What’s happening? Where amI?”
“You’re at George Washington University Hospital,” Dad said, squeezing my arm. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’re going to be justfine.”
Now I was confused all over again. Everything I thought I remembered… was it all a dream? If not, how did I end uphere?
“What happened?” Icroaked.
My mother handed me a plastic cup of water. “Jared went to get you this morning. Apparently you two had plans to go bowling. When you didn’t answer your door, your Secret Service detail grew concerned and entered your room. They found you…” She trailed off and drew her mouth into a straightline.
“Naked and hogtied?” I said in a shakyvoice.
