Then I went home, scanned the street for Luke’s Porsche or any black Ford SUVs and finding none there I parked in my garage. I lugged my bags inside and took them upstairs. I was going to spend the night in a hotel close to the airport.

I dumped my shopping bags on the bed and rolled the suitcase beside it. Then I walked downstairs and arranged my purse and all the paperwork I’d need for my trip, including my tickets, on the dining room table. After that, I went to the kitchen to get a drink, a heavy one. I was going to call a taxi to take me to the hotel so I could get as drunk as I liked.

And I was going to get way drunk.

I was mixing it, my back to the kitchen door, when two arms closed around my waist.

Shit.

I hated it when Luke moved so quietly.

“Let me go,” I whispered and even to my ears my voice sounded broken.

“Not until I teach you a lesson.”

My body went solid.

It did this not because it was Luke who was speaking.

It did this because it was Noah Dexter who was speaking.

Fuckity, f**k, f**k, f**k.

* * * * *

I fought him.

I lost and got hurt doing it, so hurt, I lost consciousness for long enough for him to carry me downstairs to my creepy basement.

The fight had been ugly. I kicked, screamed, bit, punched, tugged and tumbled.

He mostly punched and he was better at it.

Before getting knocked out, I felt wetness on my face that I was certain was blood coming from a tear in my lip or from my nose or both.

By the time I came to, I had something over my mouth, strong and sticky and I knew it was tape. I licked it and pushed at it with my tongue but it didn’t move. He had me in the old coal room, the smallest, darkest, most cramped, most creepy part of the basement and he was taping my hands well over my head to a steel support pole.

I made a noise that was supposed to communicate “No!” but it didn’t come out as much due to the tape.

I felt sick, my head was groggy, I felt dull pain in too many parts of my body and I was scared out of my ever lovin’ mind.

I got myself together enough to try to pull my body away from him taping my hands but the tape held strong and tore at my skin. Before I could get anywhere, he moved around and pressed into me, moving from my hands and starting to tape my arms to the beam. I kept pushing against him and trying to kick at him but he just pressed deeper until my breastbone connected with the beam so hard I cried out under the tape.

“Sent some PI’s after me, didn’t you? You stupid f**k,” he hissed in my ear, his body still pressing into the back of mine, hands still wrapping the duct tape around and around my arms. “You should have left it alone. That f**kin’ redskin sniffin’ me out. Someone finds you down here before you die of thirst, you call them the f**k off. You hear me, Ava?”

I swallowed and it tasted like blood. Then I nodded.

“Christ, I had to leave a mark I’d been workin’ for months because of this f**kin’ shit.”

I closed my eyes and stopped pushing against him when he started to tape my chest to the beam. I tested the tape at my hands but it held fast.

“And you’re f**kin’ Stark. I cannot believe you’re f**kin’ Luke f**kin’ Stark, but I saw it with my own eyes.”

My body went still.

He felt it and he stopped wrapping tape around me and laughed. “Yeah, I watched you, Ava. I watched you and I jacked off while I did it.”

Oh… my… God.

Even though I really, really didn’t want him to, he explained, “I been followin’ you but you’re never f**kin’ alone. I knew you’d see Stella so I went there, hopin’ to nab you in the bathroom or somethin’. I watched Stark fight Zano for you, followed you and Stark home and broke into a place across the street. Lucky for me you guys left the lights on, I watched the whole thing. I wish I had a camera.”

I was breathing heavily through my nose. I couldn’t believe this was happening and I didn’t want to believe what he said.

“You were hot,” he whispered, pressing into my back in an entirely different way. His hand slid across my side to my breast, cupping it. “He did you against the wall. I thought you were a good girl. I knew you’d let me f**k you against the wall, I would have stayed around longer.”

Then for some reason his hand went still, his body went tight and his head came up.

He hissed in my ear. “I have a gun, you make a f**kin’ noise, I blow your brains out then I’ll shoot whoever’s up there too.”

That’s when I heard footfalls upstairs.

“Ava,” Luke’s voice called from upstairs. I closed my eyes and visions of a bloody, bullet-ridden Luke filled my head. I opened my eyes again immediately to clear the visions.

“Let’s make this interesting,” Noah muttered and then he moved away to drop the tape but he came right back and he pressed his body into mine.

I heard Luke’s footsteps going up the stairs to the top floor just as I felt Noah’s hand on my belt buckle. My body jerked but Noah hissed, “Not a sound or you’re both dead,” and I stopped my struggle before it started.

I could still hear Luke moving around the house and I stayed silent, even as Noah’s hands undid my pants and one slid inside while the other one went up my shirt to cup my breast again. I could feel his fingers (not hitting the target, by the way, he never did) pressing against me, his other fingers doing a nipple roll as I listened to Luke moving around the house.

Finally after it threatened all day, I threw up but choked it back down before it made it to my mouth.

Throughout it all, silently I was crying.

I tried to ignore what was happening to me physically by chanting in my head, don’t come down here, don’t come down here, don’t come down here.

Luke didn’t come down. Noah and I heard the front door slam and I knew Luke was gone.

I felt both terrified and relieved by this.

“Fuck, now I have a hard on,” Noah said in my ear, pressing his groin against my ass, rubbing against me and his hands kept at me. “You always did have a sweet ass,” he mumbled in my ear. “You do it doggie-style with Stark as well as against the wall?”

I had, that was one of the three positions of a few days ago.

I did not share. Not only because I couldn’t, as he had taped my mouth closed, but also because it was none of his business and he was dry humping me against a steel pole that he had taped me to, the screaming, unbelievably horrible, awful, maniac jerk!

I heard him groan into my neck (luckily, as was usual with Noah, this didn’t take very long) and he sagged against me when he was done.