Another book in the Pleasure House world, and a “Brian scene”
(This is release week for BLOWING THINGS UP… book 2 in BRIAN AND MINA’s HOLIDAY HITS, for the info on that, go here)
SURRENDER Teaser Scene: (Note: all the books in the Pleasure House World can be read as Standalones)
Brian laughed, a crazy maniacal sound that filled up the space of the cell. The laugh bounced off the walls in a chaotic rip of noise that felt as though it could tear her head off if it were to make direct contact with her.
“Oh, that’s rich. Gabe is your master. I’ve seen no indication of that. You two don’t even talk anymore. But clearly you know that’s the only real protection from me. A collar around that pretty little throat that doesn’t have my name on it. It’s really the only deterrent I’ll listen to. But you knew that. That’s why you avoid me and try to stay in groups. It was a hell of a thing finding you alone with no witnesses around.” He smiled. “Gabe is your master. That’s adorable.”
He picked up a gleaming metal clamp and slowly, calmly, started to unbutton her blouse. Somewhere in her head, she’d thought simply saying Gabe was her master would work like a magic incantation, that it would stun Brian so she could escape–despite how obviously untrue it was.
Anyone in the house could see they were avoiding each other. Gabe probably hated her by now. Every indication she could see said as much. She used every ounce of energy to stop her endlessly swirling thoughts. She had to focus and find a way out of this.
“Please! Please! Gabe is my master. I swear it.” Her voice came out shrill as the tears began to slide down her cheeks.
Brian still looked amused, but he put down the clamp. “All right. Let’s find out. You better pray he confirms your side of things. If he doesn’t, nothing will stop me from the sadistic nightmare I will rain down upon you. And it will only be worse for this lie insulting my intelligence. Given these facts, do you want to alter your story?” He said all this in a normal tone with a smile on his face as if he were ordering a burger and fries at the drive thru.
Julie shook her head. Staying down here with Brian for a supposedly lesser form of horror wasn’t an option. Gabe had to get her out of this. He would, right?
Brian pulled a phone from his pocket and dialed a number from the contact list. “Gabe!” he said, “It’s your friendly resident psychopath.”
Julie couldn’t hear what was said on the other end, but whatever it was made Brian laugh. “Tell me, is Julie yours?”
More speech she couldn’t hear. Though she took Brian’s advice. She was praying, praying that Gabe didn’t contradict her story, praying that he’d go along with it this one time. Even if he hated her now, he couldn’t hate her this much could he? If any part of him had ever cared a tiny bit about her, he had to just confirm the story. If he got her out of this chair, she would be even more careful to avoid Brian from now on.
“You know what I mean,” Brian said. “Is she your slave? She tells me you’re her master. She’s begging and pleading and swearing to it so I won’t hurt her. And I wanted to know if… okay, very well.”
Brian clicked the phone off and set it on the metal table before sitting back in his own chair and pinning her with a glare. “He’s coming down.”
Julie let out a long, slow, shuddering breath. She wasn’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot, but he was coming at least.
Less than five minutes later, Gabe’s large, intimidating presence filled the doorway. He wasn’t fucking crazy like Brian. Or if he was, it was a different brand of crazy. But he still scared the shit out of her sometimes.
His arms were crossed over his chest, a hard look in his eyes. But that look was directed at her, not Brian. Oh shit. Could he be the kind of man who would let someone like Brian hurt her simply for saying no? If he would, he was as big a monster as any she’d encountered at Dmitri’s house, and everything he’d tried to portray to her about himself was nothing more than a carefully crafted lie.
The tears started to flow down her cheeks in earnest now because this betrayal hurt more than anything else. She’d really believed she could trust him, so why the f**k was he mad at her? What happened to that conversation the first night in the car when he’d told her he would never force himself on her and that she had a choice? Obviously he only cared about the imaginary movie playing in his mind where he got to pick her reactions to everything, instead of her. She was just supposed to follow his script. At the moment, seeing the other alternative… Brian… she was willing to follow that script to get away. However much she might later resent Gabe, he was—as always—the lesser evil.
“Well, Gabe? Is she yours?” Brian asked, growing ever more amused by the scene in front of him. Brian knew. He knew this wasn’t true. He knew it was a desperate ploy. He was playing with her. Would he let her go if Gabe confirmed the story? Wouldn’t he have to? Would Gabe be willing to fight him to protect her?
She tried not to think about all the money he’d spent to free her from Dmitri. The debt that loomed over her every time she looked into his eyes, every time she avoided giving him all the things he wanted from her. It didn’t matter how much he’d denied she owed him a debt. She did owe him a debt, and the only way she could process payment was with her body. It was the only currency she had, and she knew it was the only one he wanted.
Gabe didn’t break eye contact with her to spare Brian a glance. But the expression in his eyes changed. It went from a hard inscrutable stare to… a question? An expectation?
Waiting.
“Okay, well, until somebody learns how to use their words, I’m going to play,” Brian said.
Her shirt had been half unbuttoned, but now he unbuttoned it the rest of the way. He took a small knife from the table. It gleamed off the lights recessed in the ceiling, and she started to panic and struggle again. Oh god, what was he going to do with that knife?
“Please,” Julie whimpered. But her plea was directed at Gabe, not Brian.
But Brian didn’t cut her. He instead used the knife to cut open the front of her bra. He put the instrument back on the table and picked up the clamp again. “Do you know how I know you aren’t really his? I’ve known Gabe for a while now. If you were his, he never would have allowed you underwear.”
Gabe looked at her for another second, and then turned away. He was leaving her? How could he leave her? If he walked out that door, Brian was going to hurt her, badly.
“Master, please don’t leave me with him!”
He stopped in the doorway, the muscles of his back rigid, straining so hard, she thought he might burst apart from the tension. Or she would.
He turned slowly back around. “Brian, release my property.”
Brian put the clamp back down on the table and sighed. “If she’s your property, where’s her collar? How am I to know who is protected if they don’t have a collar?”
“It’s being made.”
“If it’s not around her throat by the end of the week she’s fair game.”
“It will be.”
“If she’s your slave, why doesn’t she act like it? Why don’t I see any signs of it?”
“It’s new.”
Yeah, five seconds new. Julie shivered from the heated possessive look he gave her. She was no longer sure this could qualify as rescue.
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