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I let him carry me to his car.
“I’m sorry,” I tried, and he shook his head. Carefully, he opened the door to the backseat and placed me inside. To his credit, he was gentle even as I read the signs of anger written all over his face. Without a word, he climbed into the driver’s seat and placed the folder beside him in the front seat.
Tears dripped down my face as he drove away. For some reason, it felt like my whole world had come crashing down in an instant.
I just hoped I wouldn’t lose the man I loved, too.
CHAPTER9
KELSEY
“Liam?” The word escaped my lips, a fragile whisper that lingered in the air all around me. His body remained tense and he didn’t answer. Instead, he kept driving, his face locked on the road in front of him. The silence between us reigned as he parked behind the coffee shop, and it continued still as he carried me through the back entrance all the way up into his apartment.
It wasn’t until he tossed me on his bed that he said anything at all.
“The story you told me about your ex isn’t true then, is it?”
“No,” I breathed, wilting under his scrutiny. His gaze bore into mine, harsh for a single moment before it softened with something I could only identify as sorrow, and I hated it in an instant.
“Is Kelsey your real name?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He cocked his head, suspicion etching lines on his features. His eyes bore into mine with a renewed intensity. As I met his gaze, I braced myself for whatever was to come.
“Yes daddy,” I tried, and a flash of desire crossed his face. It was gone in an instant. After another moment, his jawline set, and a nervous rumble reverberated deep in my belly. I opened my mouth, my tongue so dry it felt like I’d eaten a pack of saltines without even a sip of water.
He approached the side of the bed, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a knife. I stiffened, my eyes widening with fear, but with my wrists and ankles still bound, there was nothing I could do.
When he reached for me, a soft whimper escaped my throat.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Kelsey,” he said softly, and I chewed at the inside of my cheek.
“Are you going to spank me?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” he answered, his voice darkly contemplative. With a hard shiver, I watched as he sawed through the ropes at my ankles first. I could hear the sound of the threads slowly fraying as he cut through, and when the ropes finally pulled apart, I breathed a sigh of relief at the partial freedom.
“Thank you,” I whispered, stretching my legs out a little and turning so he could get my wrists too. With a gentle touch, he slashed through the bonds at my wrist, and I rolled away the soreness in my shoulders.
I didn’t remain free for long.
The light touch of his hand went from soft to hard in an instant. His fingers wound around my right ankle, and he yanked me towards the right corner of the bed. Before I even realized what was happening, he’d snapped a leather cuff around my ankle, the sound echoing through the room in the encroaching silence.
He grabbed my left ankle next, and I finally remembered myself. Crunching myself upwards, I tried to bat his hands away, but the cuff still found itself wrapped around my ankle all the same. Then, he grabbed both wrists with one hand and pushed my back down to the bed with the other.
I fought as hard as I could, but he overpowered me with incredible ease. Using all my upper body strength, I tried to roll him off of me. It was like I hadn’t even moved. Fear and panic warred within me, but I told myself that Liam wouldn’t hurt me.
I knew that deep in my heart.
The cuffs closed around one wrist and then it was far too easy for him to bind the other to the far corner, leaving me spread eagled on the bed before him. There was no stopping the words that came next.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“I’d never hurt you, little girl,” he confirmed. My heart hammered in my chest, yet I could hear the sincerity in his words, “But that doesn’t mean daddy isn’t going to punish you for lying to him.”
Deliberately, he leaned over me and angled the knife against my throat. I tensed immediately, but he dragged it downwards, scraping the edge against my skin but not cutting me. Holding my breath, I waited as he dragged it down to my t-shirt.
“You’re wearing for too many clothes for what comes next, though,” he mused, and I stiffened as he began to slice through the fabric. I didn’t move a muscle as he slowly cut through my shirt one strip at a time. He tossed the fabric to the side, gradually revealing more and more of my bare flesh until there was nothing left but my bra.
