Deceived Read online

  He hated like hell to talk about Anna as though she was nothing but a vessel for the big bastard’s seed, but that was the only kind of talk Gorn would expect or understand.

  However, it didn’t seem like the big Trollox was in the mood to be reasonable.

  “Shut your gob, pretty boy,” the left head growled. “Before I tear you fucking limb from limb! I don’t’ care that you did your job—you lost me my drewgs! If you wasn’t such a fucking fine cook I’d end you now, ‘stead of putting you in the box for the night.”

  “But—” Dark started again but the Trollox was already opening the huge black rectangle and shoving Dark, who was now completely naked, inside.

  “I’m settin’ the timer for twelve fucking standard hours, so I am,” he growled, glaring at Dark. “And thank your maker you don’t get longer than that!”

  Then he slammed the box shut and Dark heard an ominous turning of tumblers locking him in.

  “Hey! Hey!” he shouted but his only answer was the tromping tread of Gorn retreating back down the hall.

  He was locked in the box for the night and there was no way out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Anna was hiding in one of the spare rooms, hoping that he would forget about her and get busy doing something else. But Gorn found her as he always did. He slapped open the door and flipped up the bed skirts to find her cowering beneath the massive mattress.

  “You—to my room. Now!” he roared with both heads at once.

  Anna knew that when he was angry enough to get both heads working in harmony, she was in for a bad night—a really bad night. But she would only make him angrier if she resisted or tried to fight him.

  She scrambled out from under the bed as fast as she could and practically ran down the hallway to the master bed chamber with Gorn hot on her heels, his thumping footsteps echoing behind her like a giant’s in a nightmare.

  I am in a nightmare, Anna thought as she raced ahead of him, not running away but being driven to her doom. I’m like the princess being held by the ogre or the dragon in a tall tower, far away from everyone she loves. Only there’s no knight to come and rescue me—there’s only a Replicant who’s been locked away so that he can’t help me, no matter how much I scream.

  “Do you know why you’re here, girlie?” Gorn’s heads were still speaking in tandem, both glaring at her with their evil yellow and crimson eyes.

  Mutely, Anna shook her head. She was afraid to say anything—afraid to make the big Trollox even angrier than he already was.

  Gorn leaned down, pushing both of his faces into hers.

  “You’re here because I’m fucking sick of waiting for my heir!” both heads roared at once. The force of his foul breath actually blew her hair back, as though she was standing in a high wind. Anna flinched back, looking for a way to get away from him.

  “Please, Master,” she began. “I’m sorry I’m too tight! You bought me for my virginity—remember? I can’t help being tight!”

  “Well we’re going to fix your tight little cunt right now, so we are!” growled the left head. Gorn stalked over to the rack in the corner of his room and to Anna’s horror, he grabbed the largest spreader there—the one she’d hoped she wouldn’t have to worry about for weeks and weeks.

  “Master, no!” she pleaded, backing away.

  “Oh, yes, girlie—fucking yes.” Gorn came towards her, brandishing the thick metal spreader, with its cruel raised ridges and lumps. “This here is as big as my cock, girlie,” he roared, waving it at her. “We’re going to put it in you tonight, so we are! And what’s more, you’re going to leave it in all this coming week while I’m gone. That way when I come back, I can fuck you proper-like and start breeding an heir into you.”

  “Please, please…no!”

  But she was backed up against the foot of the tall bed and there was no place to go as he advanced on her. No one to help her if she cried out. She was trapped here in this hell and there was no getting out of it until Gorn had done what he wanted.

  * * * * *

  She woke some time later, lying on the floor of Gorn’s bedchamber.

  Must have blacked out—where am I? she thought fuzzily, looking around the darkened room. The chainsaw buzz of both of her captor’s heads snoring helped reorient her but she still couldn’t remember exactly what had happened.

  She was aware of a dull ache between her legs but when she moved too quickly, it turned into a sharp, knifing sensation that nearly made her scream.

  Memories she wanted desperately to forget came pouring back. Gorn growling that he would breed her when he came back from his trip, forcing the huge, heavy spreader inside her and telling her she’d better keep it there or she would be in trouble. The horrible pain and invasion, the feeling of not owning her body anymore—of being just a passenger inside her own abused flesh. And the grinding pain that went on and on and on…

  Have to leave…have to get out of here.

  She wanted to get away from her captor, wanted to get to her own room where she could be alone, away from him. What if he woke up in the middle of the night and decided he’d rather breed her before he left after all? She had to get away.

  Biting her lip against the pain between her legs, she somehow managed to get to her hands and knees. The spreader was a heavy, solid thing—it felt like a block of cold, rough granite inside her. Anna thought she could feel its raised ridges and bumps cutting into her flesh as she moved but she moved anyway. So great was her desire to be away from her tormentor, that she would have born almost any pain.

  She couldn’t walk but she could crawl.

  Slowly, laboriously, she made her way on hands and knees out of the master suite and down the hallway towards the room she had claimed as her own. The hallway had never seemed longer and the rough carpet abraded her sensitive palms and knees. The spreader grated inside her, stabbing and grinding with every movement and still she crawled.

  At last, she reached her own room. There was no way she could get up on the bed but she managed to crawl around to the small space between the bed and the wall. Tugging on the cover, she finally pulled it down on top of her.

  She wrapped it around herself and huddled in a ball. The spreader inside her was cold…so cold. It seemed to steal her heat, to chill her from the inside out like a fist made of ice lodged inside her. Even the warm blanket didn’t help very much. But it was all she had. Dark couldn’t hold her or help her tonight—he was locked in the punishment box. She was all alone with no one to comfort her.

  Hot tears welled from her eyes and she thought, I just want to go home! Mom, Brex—I miss you so much! I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to your warning. But haven’t I been punished enough now? Please, I just want to go home…

  But there was no one to take her home. No one to help her.

  Feeling more alone than she ever had in her life, Anna cried herself to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  Twelve hours after he had been shoved into the punishment box, the huge black rectangle split open, spilling Dark out onto the floor.

  A tortured sound, half groan, half gasp, came out of him and for a long moment, he could do nothing but lie there. The time he’d spent in the box had been a season in one of the Seven Hells—worse than anything Mistress Hellenix had ever done to him—worse than anything he had ever endured before…

  At first Dark had thought the dark confines of the box were only meant to make him claustrophobic. And it was extremely tight inside. The ceiling was less than a foot above his head and he didn’t even have room to turn around because his shoulders were too broad. The best he could manage was a kind of half-crouching position and there was no way to get really comfortable.

  Twelve hours in a pitch-black, tight space was going to seem like an eternity and Dark knew it. Still, he settled himself to wait—what else could he do? But soon it seemed that the inside of the box was getting hotter.

  He shifted uncomfortably, telling himself that it was just his imagination�€