Now that I was able to roam, I had a betteridea of the staff who helped manage the estate. I discovered therewere, at least,five guards whoroamed the inside of the house and three who guarded the outside.They never spoke to me, but I knew they were watching me, reportingmy daily activities to Darren. I was careful not to draw too muchattention to myself as I was still plotting my escape. I had madeit through phase one; now, I just had to be able to make itoutside.
The rest of the staff was quick to ignoreme. There were a few maids here and there along with gardeners andpeople who tended to the grounds. Once I thought one of thegardeners had recognized me. I had been watching the birds throughthe windows and caught him staring at me as if he was trying toplace my face. I had glanced at him for only a second, but theglimmer in his eyes told me he suddenly knew who I was. A twinge ofpanic had filled my stomach then as I wondered if he would act onit, and then I sighed to myself hoping he wouldn’t because he wouldjust get himself in trouble. I left the window then, hoping hewould forget about me. I was still lonely, butat least,I had so much more to do with my time.I welcomed the distractions, but with more privileges came moreresponsibilities.
When Darren came home, he enjoyed hunting medown and fucking me, no matter where I was or what I was doing.Some days, he would throw me over his shoulder and carry me up tohis bedroom, and other days, he would call ahead to one of theguards, telling them to inform me to be waiting for him at the dooror in his bed the second he came home. I had to admit the smile onhis face when he first walked through the front door did make mefeel pretty special. I hated that I felt that way, but mysubconscious was clinging to any feeling that made me feel good, nomatter who or what it came from.
How I ever got past the disgust of him beinginside me, I’ll never know. I had somehow trained myself to forgetand pretend it was consensual, but the more I pretended, the more Icame to realize a disturbing change in my body. The oddest thing tocome out of my conditioning was the horrifying surprise of how wetI became when I found myself terrified in Darren’s presence. Ididn’t know why my body responded that way, but every threat hemade, every warning he gave, made something dark and hot blossominside me. I couldn’t explain it, but the more time I spent withhim, the more frequent it became. I felt twisted and confused, andeven more embarrassed when Darren acted on his threats anddiscovered my misplaced arousal. The smugness on his face wouldlast for days, further adding to my mortification.
Some dayswereeasier to forget when he was gentle and loving, butit was rare. Most of the time, he fucked me like some kind ofcrazed animal, marking his territory, reminding me I was his and noone else’s. What was worse was that I found myself craving it. Ihated the man so much, my need for revenge and blood neverwavering, but when my body was under his, I somehow became adifferent person. And I didn’t like her. I allowed that to happen …because I knew it had to happen. I had to give myself over to hisdemands if he was ever going to trust me. So I had to make it real,but that didn’t make it any easier.
Accepting his ownership was still difficultfor me. He drilled it into my head every day, kissing my wristswhere his name permanently adorned my skin. It was hard to hide myrevulsion at first, but eventually, I grew to ignore it. He couldbelieve whatever he wanted. It didn’t make it true. But then again,the scale was about to tip, and I wasn’t sure which way it wouldfavor.
Oneafternoon, I had been roaming the house, bored, wishing Icould go outside, but it had been cloudy all day. I headed down tothe living room to find the rain clouds had finally claimed the skyabove the house as tiny droplets came splashing down on thepavement of the back patio. Plopping my ass on the cold leathercouch, I perched and stared out the window. Darren would be homesoon, and I needed to decide where I wanted to be fucked when hefound me. I supposed the couch would be fine.
I randomly glanced around the room until myeyes caught the attention of the big black flat-screen TV thatstared right at me in the corner of the room. I knew I could watchmovies in the theater, but I wondered if Darren would permit me towatch cable. I decided to find out. I grabbed the remote from theTV stand and turned the screen on. Within seconds, thesoundbegan to roll from the speakers as thetelevision came tolife.
I sat back down and surfed through thechannels randomly, not really looking for anything to watch untilsomething very familiar caught my eye and stopped my heart dead inits tracks.
It was me. A giant photo of myself wasplastered on the big screen as a nationalnews stationread details about my sudden violentdisappearance. Photos of the parking garage and my shot-to-shit carappeared on the screen and I was immediately reminded of that awfulfucked up day. And then there was an interview with my family. Mymother sat between my two younger brothers while she cried andbegged for my safe return. But then I forgot how to breathe when Ifinally saw Jason’s face.
I stood on shaky legs as I stepped closer tothe screen. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks—red circlesaround his eyes and dark stubble shadowing his jaw and chin. Helooked like he’d lost weight, too. His usual sexy muscular body hadlost some of itstoneas if hehadn’t eaten much or kept up his usual workout routine. I couldn’tblamehim,though. I’d be the sameway.
His voice was hoarse and tired as he spokeabout trying to remain hopeful as he continued his pursuit withlocal search parties to find me. He wasn’t giving up. Luckily forhim, neither was I.
Atthatmoment, I wanted to scream. I wanted to destroy everything in mypath until there was nothing left but ashes and rubble. Pure rageboiled up inside me as I watched my family suffer in my absencebecause of my absence. Darren had hurt my family; whether he meantto or not, he had done them wrong and they didn’t deserve that.Theyat leastdeserved to know Iwas alive.
I continued to stare at the picture of myfamily for several minutes, tears slowly falling down my face untilthe TV randomly shut off.
“I think that’s enough TV for today,” said adark voice behind me.
I turned with enough fury on my face topractically light Darren on fire.
“You think?!” I shouted at him and turned tothrow the remote control as hard as I could at the TV. It crashedinto the screen shattering the entirethingwhile the remote slammed back onto the floor.Satisfied with my destruction, I marched toward the door to thepatio.
“Jaden, don’t youdarewalk away fromme like that!” Darren shouted at me with so much anger in his voiceit actually rattled me. But only for a second.
“Or what, Darren? You’re gonna hurt me,again? Put me in my place? Show me how much of a big, strong manyou are? Go ahead … because I officially don’t care anymore.”
And with that, I walked right out the doorinto the now pouring rain. I didn’t know where I was going, but Ididn’t care. I just wanted to get out of that house and away fromhim. But I honestly didn’t even know what I was thinking because Ididn’t make it two feet out the door before I heard his footstepsthundering behind me.
He grabbed the back of my arm and spun mearound, but as he did, I immediately brought my hand up to punchhim in the face. He saw it coming and grabbed my wrist, twisting itaround painfully, causing me to gasp out loud.
“Just who the fuck do you think you’retalking to, huh? Obviously, you do need another reminder of yourplace since you forget it so easily!” he roared as rain drippeddown his face.
“Fuck you, Darren! You’re nothing but acoward who only needs to dominate me to make yourself feel betterabout your pathetic existence.”
“A coward? Really, Jaden? That’s the bestyou can come up with?”
I glared at him withhellfirein my eyes as I imagined him bursting intoflames right then and there.
“You know what I’m beginning to think?” hesaid as rain dripped down his face. “I’m beginning to think youlike pissing me off … because you like what comes next, don’t you?”He swung me around and shoved me up against the side of the house.The rough brick scratched my back, and I cried out from thecontact. Darren moved in then, trapping me between his body and thehouse, leaving me with nowhere to go. “You like it when I’m roughwith you. When I hurt you. When Imakeyou scream. In fact … I think you want more ofit.”
“You don’t know shit,” I retorteddefiantly.
“Are you sure about that? I bet if I reachedbetween those legs right now, I’d find a soaking wet pussy with myname on it,” he seethed.
“You’d be wrong,” I bit out.
“Let’s find out then,” he challenged andpractically ripped open the bottom of my dress.
