Insurmountable (Serpentine #1) (7 page)

I stood and popped my back, then walked over to stand behind Alley at the table. She’d already drawn on a couple of fairly believable eyebrows and had begun filling in the rest of her makeup. I pulled the collar of the robe down slightly to reveal her neck and pressed my lips against her warm skin.

“You’re making this difficult,” she said, wiggling away.

“That’s the plan.” I pulled her back and kissed her again.

“Oh, I thought the plan was for me to get ready for
work
.”

The bench creaked when I sat down next to her, still toying with the edge of her robe. “Yes, but I currently need a distraction.”

“Ah, so my purpose here is revealed.” I could feel her trying to maintain the distance, so I pushed harder.

I brushed my fingers through her soft hair, watching it fall back into place. “What do you need?”

“To finish my makeup so I don’t look like crap.” She slammed her hand against the table.

“Impossible.” I plucked the brush from her hand.

“Master, please.”

She was flustered. So much so that the tips of her ears flushed. It made me want to nibble on her even more. “Tell me what you need.”

Staring at our reflection in the mirror, she blinked repeatedly. “I
need
to not do this right now.”

Seeing the tears well up in her eyes, I relented and rubbed her lower back, hoping that would calm her down. Then, I handed the eye shadow brush back.

“You’re going to ruin me,” she said, relaxing again and leaning over the table.

“Well then, just tell me one thing.” I scooted closer, pulling her against me. “Is it worth it?”

“Being ruined?”

I squeezed the base of her neck and she dropped her head, moaning as I rubbed the tense muscles. “Yes, Master.”

The ruining was more than okay if he could make me forget reality for even a second. And I’ll be damned if he didn’t manage to do it with the slightest movements or the fewest words. How? I could never understand, but it comforted me and at the same time worried me.

His arms came around me, holding me against his chest. Exactly what I needed—and
feared.
I wanted to relax. To enjoy every second of a warm embrace, but my anxiety never rested. Hounding me like a hyperactive kid on a trampoline banging a pair of cymbals over his head.

I needed something to take it away. Just a momentary respite. God, I just wanted to get rid of the perpetual crawling sensation beneath my skin. The voices in my head that told me how dirty, useless, and hopeless I really was. The knowledge that I had no future. The fear that all of this would end as quickly as it began.

I took a deep breath and clenched my hands. “I need to finish getting ready.”

I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t afford to mess up my makeup. It’d only set about a chain of mood swings that I’d never get under control.

I wanted to lose it. To scream and shout and tear through the apartment breaking everything in sight until the negativity was purged from my soul.

What if it had gone too deep?

What if the infection that brewed in me would never die?

“Look at me, Little Dove.”

I opened my eyes—I hadn’t even realized that I’d squeezed them tightly closed.

“Whatever happens, remember you’re
mine.
You’ll come home with me, and I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

And just like that, everything broke and the world went blurry. “Why? I’m nothing. I can’t do this.”

“Alley I—.”

“You’re just like all the others.” I stood, pushing him away and stumbling across the room. “Why should I believe you?”

He didn’t respond in anger, instead, he took my hands and pulled me to the bed, where he took a seat in front of me. “I don’t have an answer for that.”

“What’d you tell all the other girls?” I was certain there’d been others. That he’d done all of this before. I refused to let go of my suspicions, if I did I’d fall too hard, too fast.

“All the other girls? What other girls?”

“Don’t tell me I’m the first you’ve brought back here.”

“Okay, you’re not. I’ve easily fucked more women than you have men, but you are the first girl I’ve moved in here.”

“Aren’t you a Casanova?”
Stop, Alley. He’s going to explode eventually and you’ll regret it.
But I couldn’t stop the words. I couldn’t stop the hate or the tears.

“How old were you when they brought you in?” he asked.

I didn’t want to answer that. I didn’t want to remember and I sure as this was hell didn’t want to talk about it. I looked away. “Sixteen.”

“Auctioned off?”

I wanted to double over and scream as the tears fell faster. I nodded.

“A virgin—”

“Please,” I barely squeaked out the word, pulling away. Off the bed. Away from him. Away from the pain. Was he determined to break me?

“Milo took you.”

“Please.” I shook my head. “Please, Miles.”

God, I used his name.
My knees buckled, but he caught me and pulled me to the bed.

“How did you end up at the auction?”

My chest shook so violently I could barely inhale. “This guy, Aaron. I met him at a party. My friends had dragged me there because we all had a crush on the guy who threw the party. They ended up taking off with him, and I met Aaron. We… started hanging out after that. Getting high,” I scoffed at my own stupidity. The tears had stopped with all of my emotion drained. “I must’ve passed out. I woke up in this tiny room. They kept me drugged until the auction.”

“Milo’s an asshole.”

He said it so suddenly I had to laugh, even though it sounded more like a sob. “It’s been eight years. I don’t have anything left,” I said.

“If I count back to the day one of the guards trapped me in the bathroom of the Commons during a big party, I still have thirteen years up on you.”

Does he mean?
I froze, unsure of what to say.

“Milo lost his shit when he finally found out, but I eventually got back at all them.”

“How?”

“By being smarter. I listened. Learned the languages, whatever I had to do until I had something to offer. It wasn’t pretty and certainly never pleasant, but I eventually had enough to make Milo see I was more valuable as an employee than a slave.”

“Noble.” I scoffed. Deep down, I knew there was more to it, but I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to feel for him.

“No.” He lifted my chin. Still gentle with every motion. How was it that he wasn’t beyond pissed at me? Beyond tired of my falling apart? “It’s Survival.”

“I’m tired of surviving.”

“I’m offering you something more,” he whispered, pressing his forehead to mine.

But I still didn’t buy it. I couldn’t.
Wouldn’t.
“Why me and not one of the hundreds of others who’ve passed through your bed?”

“You’re not one of the hundreds of others.”

“So, what? Save me and earn redemption?”

“No,” he said, squeezing my hands. “I’m not deluded enough. I’m not long past redemption. In this case, I don’t have all the answers. I was drawn to you from the moment I saw you. Then, I happened to walk into the empty security room and saw that man beating you. I carried you to the infirmary. I saw that distant look in your eyes and it struck something in me. I can’t promise you the world. No sandy beaches, white gowns, or happily ever after’s. But I’ll give you my bed and my protection, and I’ll try my damnedest to make you forget everything else.”

When he laid it all out like that, I felt my walls tumble so suddenly that my head spun. I closed my eyes and fell against his chest, letting his broad arms come around me and lift me to his lap. “How’s my makeup?” I asked with a sniffle as I wiped away a fresh set of tears.

“Well,” he looked me over, “I think the eyebrows are salvageable.”

I laughed. “Great.”

Even if he could just make me laugh every once in a while, I thought it might be worth it.

He wiped the smeared makeup and tears from under my eyes. “Luckily, we do still have about twenty minutes.”

I sighed. I wasn’t ready for the Overlook. For Ross, the other girls and whoever the hell else might be there.

“I’d try to get us out of it, but I need on Ross’s good side.”

“What will I have to do?”

“Likely, sit at my feet and look pretty.” He kissed my temple.

“It cannot be that simple.” I knew it, and when I thought of the possibilities, I wanted to vomit.

“Okay, then, while you’re sitting there, come up with a plan to get the other slaves off your back while you’re at it.”

“Yes, Master,” I mumbled, sliding off his lap. I rolled my eyes as soon as he couldn’t see my face. He’d added yet another impossibility for me to worry about.

* * *

If only I could have imagined how right Miles had been. I followed him up to the Overlook, trying to keep my head down as we walked through the club-like atmosphere of the surrounding twelfth floor. Music pounded, colorful lights decorated the walls and floor, and crowds of men walked with drinks in hand and women at their sides or feet.

This was a place where almost anything went. No inhibitions and very few rules.

The Overlook stood at the center, a daunting structure of glass that, just as the name suggested, looked out over the entire club. The perfect place for a boss to spend his evening.

Miles didn’t stop or even hesitate once as we navigated the floor and entered the glass room. He took the seat at the end of a long glass table, and I obediently knelt at his feet and kept my head down as the room filled behind me. Chairs scraped the floor, feet shuffled, and high heels clicked until the door closed and the room quieted.

I raised my eyes, hoping no one else saw my movement except Miles. He reached down and traced my jaw with his thumb, assuring me without words that he’d keep his word.

“Good of you to finally grace us with Alley’s presence, Miles,” Ross said.

And it begins
.

Miles will protect you
. I kept repeating to myself. I knew I could get through it. I’d done it before, but with emotions running so high the last few weeks, I found it more difficult than ever to compose myself.

Above me, the men continued to talk, Ross, Miles, and four voices I didn’t recognize, and as the conversation drifted far away from me, my mind drifted as well. Throughout dinner, Miles slipped me little bites of food, and as they wrapped up the meal, the familiar sounds of sex rose up behind me. I looked up to Miles, waiting for his order, his cue, but he slid his chair away from the table and pulled me up into his lap. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the sounds were coming from above the table, where three other slaves, on their knees, had replaced the dinner settings and were now putting on a show of kissing, sucking, and licking each other.

Miles kissed my neck, drawing me closer as his hot breath hit my ear. “Up for a show of our own?” His words were only for me. I bit my lip and nodded.

He resituated me so that I straddled his legs, and I unzipped his black dress pants, freeing his thick cock. With my back to the rest of the crowd, I ran my fingers down his growing erection and squeezed the head. His hands tightened on my ass, keeping me steady while his mouth explored my neck and the tops of my breasts.

I kept my eyes on him, my mind focused on every sensation until the rest of the club faded. It was a trick I’d perfected over the years. A way of shutting down the world so I could get the job done. But this time, I was shutting the world out of my pleasure.

Miles pushed the material of my shorts aside and guided his engorged dick into me. When I’d taken all of him inside me, he held me there, slipping my left breast from my top and sucking at it until I arched and squirmed with need. My hips rocked as much as his tight hold on me would allow as he bit down on the tip of my nipple, sending a rush through me.

His hands moved to my hips, and he guided me along his cock a couple of times to set the rhythm and motion. I held his shoulders to ground myself as I took over, matching his rhythm at first until endorphins clouded my mind. I could feel his eyes on my small breasts as they jiggled from the motions, so I arched my back, pushing them into his face. He took my hands, twisting them behind my back and holding them in one palm while his other hand moved between us, pressing against my clit until I cried out in ecstasy and slammed into him.

I rocked my hips harder. I wanted him deeper. Faster. He growled against my neck, and I felt my core begin to shake.

“Come with me,” he hissed, and I let the growing tension in my core erupt into an internal firework show. My eyes were closed, shutting out the club, but I had my own lights show.

I caught a glimpse of half the table when Miles drew me against his shoulder. All eyes seemed to have been on us, rather than the scene Ross had organized, and I didn’t give a damn.

* * *

After Miles and I had showered, we curled up on the couch together, and he turned on some crazy police movie that did everything except calm my mind so I could sleep. I closed my eyes anyway, too exhausted to even try and make sense of the plot.

“I need stuff to make cookies,” I said.

“Cookies? What kind?”

“Chocolate, for the other girls,” I mumbled. “Chocolate makes everything better.”

“So, you’re going to bribe them,” he chuckled, kissing the top of my head.

“Not a bribe. A peace offering.”