Insurmountable (Serpentine #1) (3 page)

“Two years.”

“Before that?”

Why
? “Here. There. Everywhere.” I’d traveled so much during the years before that, it was hard to tell where I’d ended up. “The last thing I really remember is Paris. Four fucking years of Paris.

“With Milo.”

Out of nowhere, a bittersweet laugh rose out of my chest.
Milo
.
That damn bastard
. “If you don’t kill me, he will.” I finally lifted my eyes to his face. “Or your boss, one of the others. No point in keeping around a worthless girl.”

“The guy last night had no right to say that or to lay a hand on you.”

“No, he just has a right to fuck me.” The overwhelming hopelessness had turned off my filter. “Just like the hundreds of other men. Only difference is he managed to see through me before he had the chance to take off his pants.”

“Do you want to die?”

I dropped my head, shaking it subtly. “But I’m too tired to pretend.”

He took my hand again and pulled away the bloodied rag. Most of the bleeding had stopped. And to be honest, the pain didn’t even register. I’d endured more on a daily basis in some cases.

Miles took another alcohol pad and started at my fingers, wiping away all the dried blood, working closer and closer to the cut. “This will sting.” He reached for a new pad and dabbed it over the cut.

“It doesn’t look like it needs stitches.” He pressed a gauze pad over it, then wrapped my hand with gauze, and secured it with tape.

“Why are you fixing me?” I whispered. If my eyes closed for more than an instant, I feared I’d pass out. My body had surpassed exhausted and this time, it wasn’t letting me fight back, even if it meant life or death.

“Because I want to,” Miles said. When he was done with my hand, he lifted my chin again. His hands were so large, enormous, and warm. “What if I keep you here?”

I shrugged, not really sure what he meant.

“What if I protect you?”

Protect? Against my better judgment, I lifted my gaze and stared into his eyes. I had too many questions to know where to start, and too many fears to risk it anyway.

“I’ll keep you here,” he continued, “In my apartment. You’ll be mine.”

“Why?” New tears burned at my eyes. I couldn’t understand. I didn’t trust him. What if he was far worse than any of the others?

If that was the case, why wasn’t he punishing me now?

“Like I said, I want to.” He lifted my arms up over his shoulders, then wrapped his large muscular arms around me. We were complete juxtapositions. His skin and hair so dark, and mine so pale. His large muscular body and my tiny, skin and bones figure. His strength, my weakness. His confidence, my fear. “I like you, Little Dove. It’d be a pity to let you slip away and go to waste.”

Empty promises and lies. “He won’t let you.”

“I can make a damn good argument when I want to.”

“He wants me to work tonight.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Unable to fight it anymore, I dropped my cheek against his chest. So warm. Just like that bath I was currently missing.

I didn’t want to leave Alley alone again, but I had to make an appearance at dinner. I also had to figure out a way to explain her new injuries. Unless I could somehow manage to keep her hidden until she healed. Damn it.

As I buttoned my shirt, memories flooded in that I left long buried. I had been ten years old when I found my own mother dead in the tub. This was too close. Much too close of a call and much too close to history repeating itself.

Every day we saw the toll this place took on the girls. We had girls slip through the cracks or fall to pieces. I tried to make sure it didn’t happen—it was the main reason I stayed—but with everything we demanded of them, sometimes the psyche just doesn’t hold up. Too many others didn’t care. If they did, we wouldn’t stay in business.

It was a shitty logic, but the only way I had to explain my existence.

Alley’s eyes were closed by the time I finished dressing, but I couldn’t leave without one more thing.

“Alley,” I traced my finger along her jawline.

It took her a moment to wrestle with her heavy eyelids.

“I need you to promise that if I let you stay here, you won’t try to hurt yourself again.”

She nodded.

“Say it.”

“I promise,” she whispered. “I won’t hurt myself.”

I kissed her delicate forehead, and when I stepped away, she looked on the verge of tears again.

“I’ll be back soon,” I said, patting her foot through the blanket.

* * *

“Miles, where is she?” Ross growled, taking me by the collar as soon as I entered the Overlook. He was smaller than me. Shorter, less muscular. With only a bit of effort, I could physically out throw him in an instant. But he was my boss.

My superior in title alone.

The thought made me laugh every time. As if I walked some moral high ground simply because I kept the girls fed and healthy.

“She isn’t ready.”

“That’s not your decision. I gave you an order.”

“And you gave me the job of looking out for the girls. She’s hurt. You fuck with her tonight, and she’ll be useless tomorrow.”

“Fucking is what they’re here for.” He poked me in the chest as if it made his point more valid. “Don’t go soft because one little girl actually gives you a boner.”

“You want me to protect the bottom line or not? We have plenty of girls to go around—more than that. Protecting the long-term is more important than proving whatever point you’re shooting for.”

Ross huffed, whispered something to one of the girls serving drinks, then returned to his seat at the head of the table.

It worked for tonight, but I’d have to think of something much better to get him to agree to my long-term plan. Not that I’d be the first to claim one of the girls as my own personal slave, but Ross liked to keep them all in rotation. A concession that wouldn’t be viable at the moment—if ever.

For all I knew she might be beyond saving.

I took my seat opposite Ross at the large glass table in the center of the room. The Overlook is where Ross liked to gather with all of his influential friends, clients, and sometimes key staff—usually me. With glass walls overlooking the rest of the twelfth-floor club layout and glass tiles in the floor that revealed specialized “play rooms” on the floor below, it was the only place to be if you wanted to watch every show—and every girl—in the house.

I truly wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if one day he came up with the idea to add monitors to the ceilings connected with the guest rooms on the lower floors.

Nothing here was hidden, sacred, or truly safe.

Gabe sat at my left side with Kat, the new spunky red-head at his feet. Kat had the opposite problem of Alley—she couldn’t keep her mouth shut and she enjoyed it all far too much.

Ross chatted away with the other two men who were seated at my right—each with a pair of slaves of their own for the evening—while two girls in pigtails and schoolgirl outfits served our dinner. Ross’s VIP guests for the night were both rich real-estate tycoons like Ross’s parents. I wondered if they knew what their only son had used their wealth and influence for, but as far as I knew, they were perfectly happy once Ross’s wife popped out a couple of kids. A boy and a girl. On the outside, they seemed like the perfect family, but I only hoped that neither of his kids ever found out why he was never home.

Another of the slaves, Gabby, an olive-skinned girl with curly dark-brown hair, entered the room, circled the table, then dropped at my feet.

Bloody hell
. I realize what Ross had been whispering about.

He raised his glass to me and winked, so I gave him a tight smile in return.

Perfect.
Sometimes I had to perform as much as the girls.

Gabby nuzzled at the inside of my thigh and I picked up my fork. Whoever decided to combine sex and dinner was the true sadist of history. I cut off a piece of steak and fed it to her under the table. I didn’t have an appetite. What I did have was too much Alley on my mind and a crabby mood to boot.

I could never stand having a problem that I couldn’t fix immediately—looking it square in the eye and then walking away to let it set until I had time to return to it. Alley was that problem on steroids, multiplied by a thousand.

“I heard you had an incident here last night,” Zeke said. He was the older of the two VIPs, probably by about ten years, and although he never wore his wedding ring at the Retreat, the tan line was quite obvious during the summer months.

I glared across the table at Ross. These were his friends and no doubt he was the one who’d brought it up. He didn’t like problems, but he loved mentioning when he thought someone else screwed up.

“They were at my private party last night,” Ross said. “I’m sure my hurried departure was hard to miss.”

I raised an eyebrow. If only that situation had been as twisted and perverted as what I imagined. “Sorry about that. As you can imagine, folks around here get rather
excited
when we bring in new girls.”

Ross was one of the biggest offenders.

Zeke gave me a sly smile and nodded his head. As he cleared the last bites off his plate, he adjusted in his seat pushing a girl’s head between his legs.

During those moments, I wished the table wasn’t glass.

Gabby nudged at me again, and with my plate nearly empty as well, my excuses to ignore her would run dry shortly.

I didn’t usually have this problem, but with every clack of a fork against a plate, and every grunt and moan around me, my crabby mood grew even more. All I could think of were the increasing number of screw-ups and breeches. The tighter I pulled the reigns, the more belligerent the security team grew, and if I even considered cutting them some slack, they were even worse than corralling a group of Kindergartners.

Their dismissive attitudes were due in large part to Gabe. He’d only been working at this location for two years, but he’d been with the organization for over a decade. Experience he used to throw his weight around, but the bad habits he’d learned along the way created a shining example for the other men to goof off. And the fact that he was sitting next to me, balls deep in Kat’s mouth added a hint of bitterness to the mix.

He acted like a jackass and got rewarded at every turn while I got the blame for his screw ups. He’d been the one in charge of managing background checks on patrons. Even if he delegated the duties, it was his responsibility to make sure it was done right. But, he’d never give a damn.

I shifted in my seat to relax my back, forgetting all about the slave at my feet until she had her fingers at my zipper tugging it open. She’d misread my movement as an order, and if I pushed her away, Ross would have a fucking field day. So, I let her go, letting nature take its course while my mind worked a thousand miles away.

“You seem preoccupied,” Ross said, yanking my thoughts back into the room.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind this week.” I had wanted to tackle the obvious personnel issue again, but I couldn’t go into any detail with VIPs in the room.

“Maybe,” Gabe said between grunts. “You should relax,” he grunted again, “have some fun, and get some sleep, instead of playing Mr. Invincible and working around the clock.”

Gabby pulled at my dick and I stiffened.

Once again, all I could think of was Alley, particularly how I would have preferred her touch and her lips to this.

“You are a workaholic,” Ross added.

“Thank you all.” I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to reset my brain and return to the frame of mind that I needed to get through these nights. I concentrated on the adrenaline, the rush of arousal.

I felt the table shift and opened my eyes. Dessert had arrived, in the form of two girls coated in whipped cream, caramel, and chocolate sauce.

Delightful,
I thought sarcastically.

They situated themselves in the middle of the table and began licking the sweet concoctions off of each other. Every man around the table came to attention—except for me. I’d seen it all too many times to really care and not even this little treat was enough to snap the sour out of my mood.

My muscles tightened as Gabby sucked harder, taking me deeper into my mouth, but then, Gabe stood and leaned over the table to lap up his share of dessert, and not even the physical sensations could save me.

* * *

Alley was still laying where I left her when I returned after dinner. I touched her neck and she stirred.

“I don’t want to get up,” she whispered without opening her eyes.

“You don’t have to. I’m going to take a shower. Sleep.” I wanted to make sure she was still okay, but I couldn’t handle crawling into bed until I was clean.

After I showered, I slid beneath the covers next to her and gave into exhaustion.

Three days passed and Miles still hadn’t asked me for anything. He gave me my peace and quiet, but aside for dinner when he went up to the Overlook, he stayed close by, gave me more food for a single meal than I was used to seeing in a day, changed my bandages, and checked to make sure everything was healing properly.

I couldn’t get used to that kind of attention. I was used to gawking, grabbing, slapping, orders, and threats.

But the worst was the way he looked at me. The way it kindled the fallacy that I might still be somebody.

I curled up on the couch after lunch. He usually watched the news, then flipped the TV over to the sports channel. At least it gave me something else to pay attention to.

Miles’s phone pinged, and he scowled when he looked down. “Ross wants to see us.”

Time for the end.
I always knew it was coming. I tugged at the hem of Miles’s dress shirt that I wore. It was huge and soft, and comfortable, and best of all it came nearly down to my knees and covered my arms. It was the most covered I had been in years.

“Should I change, Sir?”

He stood, pulling me to my feet as well. Then, he tilted my chin up, in an attempt to force me to face him.

To face my fate.

“What do you
want
Little Dove?”

Want
? That was such a dangerous word in my world. Freedom. I couldn’t have that. Home. I could never go there again. My family was of the strict, one-way variety. They’d never accept what I’d done to survive. They’d only see that it was my fault.

“Alley?” he whispered in my ear and brushed his lips against my neck.

My thoughts—my wants—faded.
Always give them what they want.
“Whatever you want, Sir.”

“No. I asked what you want.” He kissed again, his lips on my neck, his hands on my waist.

It’s not real
. But if I could pretend, I could live in this illusion. “I want to stay here, Sir.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear.” He pushed me into the wall and hoisted my legs up around his hips. He was so much larger than me that I couldn’t even wrap my legs completely around him, but he easily held me, pinned there between his hot body and the cool wall.

His mouth captured mine, hot, demanding, insisting, but gentle.

Fuck
, I had to concentrate. I couldn’t lose it. I wiggled against him, squeezing his hips with my legs and pulling him closer.
Give him what he wants. Make it fast. Do your job
.

But every breath of his smell took my rationing away.

This never happened. Never.

It can’t be happening.

Then, I remembered the message on his phone. “He’s going to be mad if we leave him waiting.” I feared Ross far more than Miles.

But, Miles didn’t stop kissing my neck or pressing his hips against me, pinning me harder against the wall.

“Pity,” he mumbled. “I’m busy and haven’t checked my messages yet. If he was in a hurry, he’d send someone down.”

He sucked on the base of my neck right where it met my shoulder and I fell deeper under his spell. His hot fingers found the straps of my thong and snapped them, holding me to the wall with just his hips. Then, just as quickly he adjusted to hold me against him with one arm while he freed his cock and slid me down onto it. He didn’t waste a second, filling me to the base of his shaft.

Impaling me to the wall. My eyes fell closed, and I pressed the back of my head into the wall as a loud moan vibrated out of my throat.

I could fuck any man they sent me to fuck. I could play my part. I could let my body go through the process—and most of the time, I did come. That was my job. But I never felt it. Before that moment with Miles, every sexual act had been purely a physical response to necessity and the right stimulation.

Every time Miles thrust inside of me, he filled me with a wave of ecstasy. In the same moment, it released me, showing me a new kind of freedom, and it confined me into a new and horrifying prison. One that existed based on hope and not fear. Hope was never grounded or reliable. He showed me a brand new pleasure, laced with the fear that I’d never experience it again.

I dug my fingers into his muscular shoulders as he pounded me into the wall.

A quickie
. Quickies were the best because often they meant an early end to the night. But this one, I didn’t want to end. I wished I could sear every detail and sensation into my brain. The electrifying surge that pulsated through my core every time he sank deep enough in me to rub his pelvic bone against my clit. The stretch of him filling me. His hands squeezing my ass tighter. His hot mouth along my neck, jaw, and collarbone. The deep pants and groans in my ear.

“Oh fuck,” the first unscripted words to fall out of my mouth in ecstasy.

He kissed me again, moaning into my mouth and plunging his tongue deep into mine until his taste overpowered my senses.

I knew only him. Only the binding force he built and stoked in my core.

“Come for me, Alley,” he whispered, knowing that his permission was all I needed to let that force surge through my body. The orgasm came like a breached levy that had stood for far too many years against the floodwaters, pounding through every muscle and searing through my nerves with exquisite force.

It wrecked me.

Miles wrecked me.

He still held me against the wall panting against the side of my head, his arms curled around me, cock still inside of me. Then, he finally let me slide down to the floor, supporting me with one hand while he straightened my shirt and my hair. When I was righted, he pulled his pants back up over his hips, fastened them, and tightened his belt.

“I guess we should get to that meeting now,” he said with an ease that said this happened all the time. Just another everyday occurrence at the Retreat.

I didn’t have even a moment to clean up before he pulled me toward the door and led me down the hallway to the elevator. I kept my head lowered as he swiped his card and pressed a button.

I had other things on my mind. Pressing my legs together in a useless attempt to stop the liquid running down my legs. There was no way it wouldn’t be visible by the time we got to wherever we were going.

Miles pressed his mouth to my ear. “When we enter the office, you kneel next to me. Knees wide.”

And that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted to show that he’d claimed me like a fucking animal.

What if he’s just using me, too
?

But if he’d agreed to keep me…. I knew that going through with this meant putting everything on the line. It meant putting myself on the line. Not like I did every other night. This was different. This made me vulnerable. It played to my emotions, especially with that dreaded hope. The hope that I might find safety with Miles. That I might find pleasure with him.

The fear that I might lose all of that just as quickly.

I followed him down the hallway to the end where he pushed open a door and led me into an elaborate office with a wall of windows behind the desk. Power. Freedom.

Keeping my head down, I sank to my knees, just as Miles had ordered, and waited for the judge to announce my sentence.

“It appears she’s healed just fine,” Ross said from behind his large, wooden, and elaborately carved desk. “Care to tell me why you haven’t mentioned putting her back to work?”

Ross approached us both, but I couldn’t look up—not only because I’d be going against my role. Even if he ordered me to look up, I’d be too embarrassed. That was a first as well. I could see the sparkling trails where the evidence of our quick tryst had run down my leg, and I wished that I could wipe it away or hide it somehow.

“And that’s definitely not approved attire for slaves here.”

Miles made a sound in his throat. “You know that bonus you brought up a couple of months ago.”

“Miles, this isn’t the time—” Ross began.

“You said if I got my planned system up and running, and managed to save as much money as I had projected that I would get a bonus. Last I checked, the system is running
better
than projected.”

“Fine, but—”

“I don’t want money. I want Alley.”

“You. Want. What?” Ross sounded like he nearly choked on his own tongue and then, I wished I could have seen his face.

“I want her. I won’t be the first to have a personal slave, and right now we have plenty of girls to cover the business without her.”

“You want your own girl, then go out and get her. Alley is bought and paid for. Property of the Retreat.”

“As such, I’m forgoing the bonus you promised. I’m sure you’ll find it to be an even trade. Unless you think Gabe can do my job to the same level.”

“You’ve been here for nearly a decade, and you’re threatening to quit over a girl? You’re going soft, and that’s dangerous in this business—not only
going
soft but being perceived as such.”

“Believe me, boss, there’s nothing soft about it. And with my increased responsibilities, she’ll be a bonus around the apartment. Stress relief, cleaning, cooking—”

“You really think that whore can cook?”

I had to listen to the entire exchange without reacting. Even though Ross was correct on the cooking part. They didn’t really teach that in my line of work. I’d picked up a few things as a kid—grilled cheese, spaghetti, all the easy, mostly pre-packaged stuff—but I had only turned sixteen when Milo bought me. I had no practical life experience.

That was yet another reason I couldn’t fathom freedom or anything else beyond this life, really. Eight years as a whore does strange and fucked up things to people. And to be honest, in that world, I was rapidly reaching “retirement”. Everyone wanted young fresh girls, and that made me an old bag at twenty-four. Growing to even the ripe old age of thirty-five was beyond my comprehension.

“She can learn,” Miles said. “It’s not brain surgery. And besides, that’ll be my problem, not yours.”

Ross groaned and rocked back on his heels. Deliberating. Stalling. Thinking of a new argument. A new reason to keep his talons wedged deeply in my flesh and soul. “Seeing as we have a surplus of petite blondes at the moment, I’ll agree, but you’ll present her if ordered for any reason.”

“Deal.”

“They’re all replaceable,” Ross said in a light, lilting voice. Words I’d heard far too often. They sank to my stomach and made me sick.

“Come on, Alley,” Miles said, dismissing his own boss and taking a step back.

Ross snorted. “Isn’t that where you’re supposed to argue that they’re more expensive to replace?”

“What’s the point?”

I stood, sneaking a look at Ross’s face as I turned and followed Miles out of the office and down the hall back to the elevator. His eyes were narrowed and his mouth pressed into a line. A sudden surge of satisfaction came over me at the sight.

As the elevator doors closed, I felt a smile creep across my face. This whole situation was so unfamiliar. So strange. Miles was by far the most puzzling man I’d met in this world.

“What are you smiling at, Little Dove?”

He’d caught me. I bit my lower lip and backed away.

“Oh, no.” He pressed a button, scanned his card, and the elevator stopped. “No hiding from me. Not after I just fought my boss for you.”

He had. But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be over so easily. Ross would have a comeback. If not now, next week, next month.

Miles pressed me against the wall, pinning my hands over my head with one of his large hands. Would he change now that I was his?

His other hand slid up my shirt, caressing the sensitive skin just below my hip bone.

Focus. Remember your job.

I focused on the only rule I’d ever had and never thought I’d need—don’t fall for anyone. Falling meant eventually landing.

I pressed my hips against his, rubbing his erection through his pants.
Get him off. Get it done. Do your job. Concentrate, Alley, concentrate.

Miles’s phone dinged and he smirked as he checked the screen. Then, he put it back in his pocket and raised his middle finger toward the back corner of the elevator compartment. Releasing my hands, he started unbuttoning my shirt.

“I need to borrow this,” he whispered.

We were being watched. Not as if I wasn’t used to that. But everything felt different with Miles. I couldn’t detach. I felt it all. And it was dangerous.

Dangerous. Terrifying. And it gave me a rush.

Miles lowered the shirt over my arms, then pushed it up through a square in the ceiling, letting it hang down over the corner.

“Now then,” he whispered, grabbing my hips. He took my right breast in his mouth, sucking and rolling my nipple with his tongue and lips.

I moaned, arching my back. I wanted more. For the first time. I wanted more.

Your job. Your duty
. I kept reminding myself. I reached for the front of his pants, but once again, he grabbed my hands and pressed them against the wall.