Page 48 of Trapped

“You know.”He grinned.“The ‘right’ side.I’m one of the good guys.”

Why did I find that so difficult to believe?

“If you’re one of the good guys, then you won’t mind untying me.”I yanked at the rope covering my left wrist.“I could really use some fresh air.”

“’Fraid not.”He smirked.“I need to keep you safe, beautiful, and the only way to do that is to keep you here with me.”

“But I really don’t feel well.”The pounding in my head was magnifying the desire to throw up.I felt awful enough without having to beg for my fucking freedom.“Please, just let me go and—”

“No.”Cutting me off, he rose from his seat and loomed over me.“That’s not how this is going to go, and you’re smart enough to know that.”

I turned my face away from his towering form, trying not to inhale while he was in such close proximity, but it was all but impossible to ignore his thrumming aroma.The smell was coming off of him in thick, indelible ways that were making it hard to get oxygen and goading at my impending nausea.

“You know how this goes.”Leaning one hand on the back of my chair, he lowered his other hand, skimming it along my chin.“Boy meets girl.Boy rescues girl.Girl opens her legs for boy.”

Tilting my head to ensure our gazes locked, I articulated the reply nice and slowly for him as my thighs slammed shut.“No.Fucking.Way.”

“Now, now.”He recoiled, feigning hurt feelings, but it was nowhere near far enough away for my liking.The other side of the planet would still have been too close.“That’s not very nice, is it?”

“I’m not nice.”

If I could only have raised one hand and eased the hammering at my temples, that would have gone some way to alleviating mysymptoms, but tied there and helpless but to endure his whims was only intensifying my biliousness.

“Rubbish.”Using both hands, he pressed at the insides of my knees and tried to prize them apart.“I know you’re a good girl.You just need a real man to remind you.A man like me who can make you his good little girl.”

His little girl?

An echo of the term of endearment Eli had used flitted through my mind.It had been strange enough permitting him to speak to me that way, but there was no way I was allowing the repugnant moron pushing his weight around to employ it.

“I’m notyour anything.”I hissed the words.“Just leave me alone, please.”

“Uh-uh.”He shook his head.“I’m sure you’ve been around the block enough times to know what happens next.I need to relax and unwind, and you’re the lucky girl who gets to help me.”

I closed my eyes at the grim thought.Even the idea of having to be closer to the odious prick than I already was threatened the rising tide of vomit swilling inside of me.Surely, he could see signs of how I was feeling?Couldn’t he tell I wasn’t joking?

“Listen, I’m sure you’re a great guy and all that…”A great guy?Who was I fucking kidding?Hawkins seemed like the worst kind of reptile; a so-called man who didn’t seem to be able to take no for an answer.“It’s just that I’m not looking for a relationship right now.”

My head fell at the lie, not because of the untruth, but because I’d felt it necessary to pursue it.I was just another one of those women making excuses to try and protect herself from a vile man.Like a hundred thousand women before me, I’d been forced to resort to feeding a man bullshit answers to justifyhisbad behavior.

How the hell has it come to this?

Only a few days earlier—before Eli had come crashing into my life—I’d been happily single.At least, that was what I’d told Chelle and anyone else who’d inquired.As it was, my world had been turned upside down by a virtual stranger, whose whereabouts would be my biggest concern had the revolting Hawkins not been so gravely invading my personal space.

“Don’t give me that!”Using more force, he pulled my knees open and pushed himself between them.I yelped as he pressed himself over me.“You were in bed with Rosen when I found you!”

“Get away from me!”Lifting one leg toward my body, I tried to get my socked foot between us to kick him away, but he shoved my leg back to the chair with a hard thud

“Listen, bitch.”Gaze narrowing, his hand rose to my throat.He didn’t apply much pressure, but the mere fact that he’d been prepared to treat me so callously told me everything I needed to know.Hawkins was dangerous.Not just odious, but a fundamental threat.“You’re going to give me what I want, so you might as well just smile and play along.”

“I’m not giving you anything!”

The instinct to flee, freeze, or fight was kicking in, but bound to his chair, there was no chance for any response.No opportunity to flee, the tightening fingers at my throat assured me.There was even less chance of adequately resisting, and freezing up, it seemed, wasn’t an option my body understood.

Panic bloomed in my chest; the type of bitter dread that stole my breath and reminded me of the icy snow we’d left behind.The nausea was still there, swimming in my stomach, but at that moment, it was being vetoed by my body’s latent demand for oxygen.

“Then I’ll just take what I want.”Pushing deeper between my thighs until his trousers grazed the wooden seat of the chair, his hand slipped north and collected a fistful of my hair.Jerking my head back as far as the chair allowed, he snarled as he went on.“After fucking him, everything will seem like a step up.”

“Fuck you!”I winced at the pressure firing at my scalp, still struggling to close my legs as my heart attempted to gallop out of my chest.

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