Because the moon was riding so high and bright in the sky, it didn't really register that the light I had parked under at the corner Stop-n-Shop was out. Besides, I was too busy thinking about a gardenia scented bath and a nice glass of merlot. I'd earned it after a double shift of dealing with semi and completely drunk assholes hitting on me and making lewd comments about whatever body part of mine took their fancy. I don't know what I was thinking, but bartending wasn't the easy gig I had hoped it would be.
With a sigh, I yanked the trunk open and unloaded the groceries into it. I was just coming around to open the driver side door when a black van wheeled up beside me. I had no chance to react or scream before a very large, very strong hand was clamped tightly over my mouth and I was dragged inside.
Instinct kicked in and my teeth clamped down on the hand covering my mouth and my feet kicked out desperately. I elbowed back as hard a I could and heard a satisfying grunt as I connected with ribs. A few seconds later I felt a pinch on my arm and a familiar voice saying, "You're taking all the fun out of this little girl." My head swam and the words were distorted but I knew that voice. It was then that I remembered the full moon and, oddly, the groceries in my the trunk of my car. Then, nothing.
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I awoke slowly from a gardenia scented dream. The unfamiliar room was dimly lit by candles and had a warm, dreamlike quality to it. I vaguely remembered the pinch to my arm before everything went black. It was when I tried to examine my arm that I realized I was handcuffed to a bed and there was someone sitting in a chair at the end of it.
"Sleeping beauty awakens." You say in a soft voice.
"You drugged me." I accuse as I desperately try to penetrate the darkness surrounding your face.
"Yeah, well I think you almost cracked a rib. You can get feisty when you set your mind to it." The low chuckle that follows this statement really pisses me off.
My heart speeds up at this comment and I'm half terrified half excited by this thought. Excited that I hurt you and got just a little payback, but terrified of what you'll do to me because of it. You rise slowly leaving the candlelight behind you and your face in the shadows. I can almost see you; almost.
You pick up something from the nightstand beside the bed and wave it in front of my face. The ever present sleep mask. You ignore my sigh as you slip it on and say, "I assume you were looking forward to a nice hot bath and a glass of merlot?"
Funny how I'm still able to be shocked by you. "Yes, how did you know that?" I answer, annoyed and a little frightened.
"I know everything about you. Don't you realize that by now? You can't hide anything from me." I feel the bed sink down as you sit beside me. You take my chin lightly in your hand and slide your thumb over my lower lip. The fire that's been banked to embers since I saw you last begins to heat up. "I know where you go, what you do and who you see every minute of every day. There is nothing I don't know."
With this disconcerting statement you lean down and kiss me lightly on the lips. Your tongue darts out to swipe the crease of my lips and they part like the red sea. My tongue meets yours as I allow myself to melt into that kiss, that connection. The embers begin to flame up.
You stroke my cheek as you end the kiss and whisper, "How 'bout that bath? You smell like the bar."
The bar, not a bar. Of course he knows where I work.
"And by the way, you could be a little faster with the beer next time." Again with the chuckle. So annoying.
Even more annoying is realizing that I probably looked right at you tonight and had no idea. I frantically searched my memory of the faces I saw tonight. Dark hair? Yes, a ton of guys with dark hair. Broad shoulders, nice physique? Yep, lots of them too. It was a popular pick-up place after all. Lots of tall guys too and hearing them talk, well it's too loud to really get a feel for a specific voice. Besides, you always do that stupid half whisper thing which I usually find sexy. But right now? Yeah, right now it's irritating.
I'd really rather ponder all this in the bathtub, so I say, "Yeah, I wouldn't want to offend you with my bar smell. A bath would be great.....and wine, wine would be a nice change."
"Change? You have wine almost every night."
"Gee, I wonder why I'm turning into an alcoholic. Maybe it's the stress from being repeatedly kidnapped, handcuffed and raped." I fume.
"You can call it what you want sweetheart, but you still love it." I can freaking FEEL you smile. I hate to admit, even to myself, that yes I love it and hate it. You have me so fucked up inside, half the time I don't know which way is up. "I meant for this. For us. A nice change." I don't know what I had hoped to accomplish with this, but you apparently don't like it at all.
I feel your breath on my face as you say, "This isn't a date sweetheart, this is you paying your debt. You owe me a fucking story and tonight I'm going to get it." You practically snarl at me. "So stop pissing me off."
I cringe and pull as far away from you as possible. "I'm sorry." I whisper hoarsely. "Please don't hurt me."
Again stroking my cheek as you softly whisper in my ear, "Then don't make me," before kissing me softly. I then hear the jingle of keys a moment before my hands are freed. You haul me up none too gently and lead me across the room by my elbow. A door opens and the smell of gardenia goes from faint to overpowering. The room is warm and steamy and my body aches to sink into that bathtub. I can't help but sigh contentedly as you help me into it.
I hear the door close before you call through it, "You can take the mask off until I tell you to put it back on. Understand?"
"K." I answer as I gratefully remove it. As my eyes adjust, I look around. The room is lit by candles and I'm sitting in an old fashioned claw foot tub. It's huge and the bottom is lined with some kind of cushion. My eyes focus on a bath tray spanning the width of the tub and zero in on a nice, full glass of crimson liquid. I take a long, luscious pull on that before leaning back to rest my head on the edge of the tub. I'm pleasantly surprised by a bath pillow similar to the cushion beneath me.
I sigh contentedly again before allowing myself to really delve into the thoughts tramping merrily through my brain. Putting aside the usual questions of 'who are you?' and 'why me?', I have some new ones. How the fuck do you know every single thing that I do? Everyone that I see? Everywhere that I go?
But the big one; the one that keeps clawing at my mind on a nearly daily basis? How did you know I was a virgin? I mean that first time you visited me, you thought I was a virgin and when I next saw you, well, let's just say you're punishment for not still being one was rough. I still haven't recovered from that; I still wake up in a cold sweat from that.