I gasped. That was horrible if I f**king lost! That asshat was taller, wider, stronger – you name it!
“Are you f**king serious?” He spat blood to the rug beneath him.
“Afraid you’ll lose to a girl half your size? Eh. Maybe you should be, because that nose of yours looks pretty nasty right about now.”
“Alright, fine.” He lifted his arms to the side and took a mock bow in my general direction. “It’ll be my pleasure to teach the little bitch a lesson. And when I win, the extra time will give me plenty of time to redden her ass before giving her back.” Turning back to Zander, he said with disgust, “And I cannot believe you allow your whore call you by your real name.”
Zander sighed and shook his head, making his way back to me. Turned out I kept on walking backward until I hit the wall. “Please,” I begged him quietly. “Call it off. I can’t take him.”
He put his hands on my shoulders, possibly to steady or calm me. In a volume only we could hear, he said, “Don’t think that way. I saw you practice with your trainer once. You’ve learned enough to do some damage.”
“Zander, I’m not delusional,” I whispered harshly. “I only took those sessions to be able to get in a surprise hit and run away. Which I did already!”
“And you busted his nose,” he said proudly.
“Yeah, but now he’ll know it’s coming so he’s going to block everything I do. It’s like David and Goliath.”
“David won.”
I buried my head in frustration, shaking it out. Friggs made a living of smacking around girls. I wasn’t going to win. I was going to lose and get shoved atop that god-awful table.
“Hey,” he said, letting me stay buried. “I only offered this because there’s nothing I can do about you getting thrown into that f**ked up contraption. Yes, if you lose, you’ll spend more time in it, but if you win…nothing. You’re done, we go home and we’ll never come back.”
I sighed and dismally looked up at him. “I don’t want him to touch me like that.”
A softness overcame his features that I thought he’d only been capable of faking up till now. But given the recent predicament, it seemed truly genuine. “Neither do I. So win.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. No way in hell I was going to win.
We turned our attention back to Friggs, who was currently checking his reflection using the glass of a tall display case that held vintage erotic magazines. Catching Zander’s advancing figure, he turned and muttered, “Bitch had her little pep talk yet?”
My eyes automatically frowned. I loathed this jackass. Thank God I never fell under his ownership.
“So what exactly determines the winner here?” he asked, eyes set hard on mine. The light hit them now. They were a light brown, but the yellowish glow made them appear fiery too, but far crueler than Zander’s ever appeared. Zander was into manipulation. Friggs seemed keen on pain.
“Well, she’s a girl, so I think the stakes should be different. You should have to knock her out, but she should only have to get in three good shots.”
“Five,” he countered, and I scowled.
“Really?” Zander mocked. “You can’t knock her out before she gets three hits past you? Have you got your granny panties on underneath those pants?”
Friggs wasn’t bothered by the insult. His lips twisted callously to one side. “Nope. Going commando. Just like your little whore here.”
“Four,” Zander countered, again ignoring his derogatory remarks. Bring ‘em on. They were only fueling the fire I felt coursing through my veins. My right hand twitched, fingers awaiting the chance to smack the shit out of his face again. Maybe I could ugly him up like he’d probably done to hundreds of girls by now.
“Fine. It’s not like she’ll get in even one.”
Sadly, despite my desire to rearrange his face, I sort of had to agree with him. But I was willing to try if it meant I got the chance to kick him in the groin that was aching to rape me. “I don’t know,” I mocked rather boldly, “I got to your nose pretty easily.”
Unfortunately, that sneer didn’t get wiped off his face. It was only replaced with a wicked smile that found me entertaining. Zander took that as his cue to back out of the way. Friggs walked towards me, wagging his finger. “And no using the precious artifacts around the room. You break one of those and your cunt will belong to me until the end of days.”
Guess that only applied to me then. He sure didn’t seem to care about destroying that one piece earlier. I maneuvered around the display I was standing beside, slinking through the tight spot between it and the wall, knowing he was too big to follow.
“Come on,” he taunted, altering his course to come in from the other side. “I thought you wanted to fight.”
I figured out a little too late it hadn’t been the best decision. I was kind of pinned in at the moment, with the only real path leading straight to him. He was already grinning – he knew the layout of this room perfectly, knew that I’d basically just trapped myself. I felt no shame in running though, even if to prolong being shoved over that table. And since retreating the way I came wouldn’t get me away from him, I ducked and crawled under the case to my left. I was almost through when he snatched my foot and yanked me back.
I yelped and kicked at his hand with my other, knowing full well I was completely exposing myself without a goddamn pair of underwear. Probably wouldn’t have mattered though. The dress was riding up my body the farther I got dragged. My leg was released and hands slapped against my upper arms and yanked me up carelessly. One arm wrapped around my neck and latched onto my shoulder, the other tightly around my waist, pinning both of my arms down.
“So tell me, Princess. How do you want me to knock you out? Eh?” I stomped on his foot, but my bare feet did nothing against his shoes. If only I had kept my heels on. “Should I choke you slowly unconscious or just slam your head against the wall?”
Not wanting to find out, I did the only thing I could think to do. I chomped down on his arm as hard as I could, my tongue tasting blood before he jerked it free, loosening the grip he had on my body.
“Ow! The bitch bit me!”
Not waiting another second, I twisted, swinging my elbow up with the momentum. He was looking downward at the teeth impressions marked along his forearm, and I nailed the underside of his nose again perfectly. He made an oomph sound. As his head came back down again, it dipped forward in pain. Both of my hands swung down on the back of his head at same time my right knee went up into the air. His chin met my knee in the middle and his whole body fell backwards onto his ass.
I gasped and grabbed my knee, fire raging where I’d hit. My elbow hurt some too, numb yet tingly, like I’d struck my funny bone. He growled and quickly kicked the calf of my leg, successfully knocking my foot out from beneath me. It was the one that was supporting all my weight at the moment, so I went tumbling to the ground, too.
“Technically, you didn’t ask to eliminate that,” Zander said about my bite. “Two points to Natalie for the nose and chin.”
Friggs growled and stumbled after me as I crab-crawled backwards out the only path, both of us scooting along the floor instead of getting up. He kept lunging, trying to grab my feet. On the third try, he caught me, gripping tightly around my ankle. One more lunge and he was on top of me, his body weight crushing down as he sat on my abdomen, his folded legs pressing against my sides, making it difficult to breathe. I swiped and swung, catching my nails on bits of skin here and there, but it was all too easy for him snatch my wrists. Once he had them, he forced the back of my hands to each side of his hardened dick. “Feel that baby? Get ready to spread wide.”
He released both wrists, but before I could decide what to do with my newfound freedom, he slapped the shit out of my face. And it wasn’t like the love pats Zander gave me last night. It stunned me so hard I couldn’t move, the intense pain taking a moment before really kicking in. Then he grabbed my head and popped it back against the floor.
When I came to again, my head felt like it had been chopped off and stitched back on again like a damn scarecrow. Even my neck ached something fierce. I groaned. Wanting to soothe the bruise on my crown, I tried to pull back on my arm but couldn’t. I inhaled a sharp breath and lifted my head, desperately yanking with both arms now. I was on the f**king table! My arms were shoved through the holes and my wrists bound by metal manacles beneath the wood, which were too big to pull through the openings. I was f**king trapped! I pulled my arms as high as they would go, my elbows barely breaking free to rest against the top. In front of me, Friggs’ head rose above the table, his eyes leveling out with mine, staring me down.
“Don’t be a sore loser. One would think you’d want to get this over with quickly, so stop pulling on the damn chains already.” He disappeared again and I heard a metal ratchet cranking back and forth. Soon after, I began to feel a tug against my arms and no matter how hard I fought against it, I couldn’t keep my arms from sinking farther into the holes. Friggs secured them so tightly that my shoulders were jammed against the opening, too big to go through. “There we go,” he said, peeking up with an evil smile. “Comfy?”
I groaned and struggled. Though I had no slack in my arms, my tippy-toes were still able to reach the ground. Able to kick up the slightest bit, I could still wiggle my waist and hips, but it was exhausting just to try. Watching me do so, Friggs walked around the table and leaned over me from behind, whispering into my ear, “Bet’cha didn’t know I could do this.” His weight left my body again. No, no, no, no! Suddenly my tippy-toes were airborne and my body sank heavily into the table’s mold. As hard as I tried, I could no longer move in that f**king sinkhole.
Seconds later, a floorboard slapped the table beside me and Friggs let loose a deep chuckle. He leaned over my back again, his hands pinching my waist painfully, even though the dress offered a little extra padding. “Oh, Natalie. I am so going to enjoy this.”
I sure the f**k wasn’t. The deal might’ve given this ass**le an hour, but it sure as hell didn’t require that I be conscious for it! I did the only thing I had left in my arsenal. I snapped my head and slammed it back into his as hard as possible.
Smack!
The pain was immediate, like I had split my head in two. I felt Friggs’ weight slide down my body and heard a thump shortly after. My head felt really heavy and nausea took over my throat and stomach. I’d never felt so dizzy and lightheaded in my life. The sound of clapping reverberated through the room. The closer it got, the more my head seemed to pulse with pain.
“Nicely done. Knocked him right out.”
“Zander?” I mumbled tiredly.
He stepped up behind me and pressed in. His hands went to my h*ps and gave them an experimental shake, but my body was kept solidly in place. With great remorse, he mumbled, “Damn. You’re really stuck in there.”
I moaned my response, my head absolutely killing me. Annalise wasn’t kidding when she said headbutts were a really bad idea. But in this instance, it seemed to work in my favor.
“Natalie, as much as I love your tenacity, you really shouldn’t have done that. Friggs is already pissed you’ve gotten in three shots tonight. That made a fourth.”
“Could you please unlock me now?” Seriously, I was in the most horrible, most vulnerable position I never wanted to be in. And the guy who locked me in here was just feet away, possibly seconds away from waking up.
“I’m sorry. I can’t.” He really did sound sorry for me.
“What?” I cried, immediately regretting trying to lift my head.
“He knocked you out. He won. And when he wakes back up, I’m going to have to leave you with him like we negotiated.”
“What? No! Please! Zander! Please,” I begged one last time, tears beginning to flood my eyes. “Please don’t let him do this! I don’t want him touching me like this. Please!”
I heard mild groaning coming from the floor, and Zander softly spoke, “I’m sorry. But we struck a deal, and this time we lost.”
“Damn right you did,” Friggs grumbled from the floor. “That bitch’s ass is mine.”
Zander sighed heavily, but I was so focused on my own groaning that it took me a moment to realize he’d leaned over the lower half of my body. It almost seemed protective. Friggs struggled to his feet, seething my way once he stood erect.
“And since you seem so f**king keen on blocking it, why don’t you make yourself useful and get her wet? Since she just f**king hit me after the fact, I want her ready before my hour begins.”
I rolled my head straight down so I wouldn’t have to look at him, at the monster who was about to invade my body against my will. I was seriously contemplating banging my head again when Zander bitterly snapped, “Fine. Then you have to go get a damn drink and calm the f**k down. You’ve won your damn f**k, and you’ve got her secured in your f**king toy.”
That f**ker was going to be inside me soon, and I had the feeling that alcohol wasn’t going to make him any more kind about it. I dared a peek when he muttered, “Damn right I’m getting a drink.” He turned away then, nurturing the red splotch on his forehead. There were smears of drying blood beneath his nose and splattered all across his shirt. The area around my bite mark was pink. I might be stuck in his damn table, but I still had a smidgen of pride inside for the damage I’d done to him.
Enough time had passed for him to leave the room, but for some reason Zander whispered when he said, “This is going to pinch.”