Grounded (Up in the Air, #3)(80)

James was shirtless, wearing just unbuttoned slacks. His body was ripped up and spectacular, though he was slightly thinner back then, his hair a little longer, the dirty blond strands tied back from his face.

His face was a mask of cold indifference, only his dominant persona present that I could see. He said something to her and she bowed lower. There was no audio, aside from a particularly graphic rap song about being a pimp playing in the background, courtesy of the video’s editor.

He pulled her up by the hair and led her the short distance to the bed. She kept her eyes downcast the entire time.

The bed was designed vaguely like a smaller version of the beds that James had in his homes, with a sturdy frame and a top designed for bondage. This bed had bars lining the top. James tied her arms above her head with swift motions. I couldn’t make out his words, and he didn’t speak much, but when he did, Jolene shuddered in pleasure. She reminded me of a cat in heat, with her back arched and her wiggling body responding to his every movement. I hated to watch it, but I didn’t stop. I felt compelled to finish it, some part of me having to see if he showed her even a glimmer of the tenderness he showed me in our passionate moments.

He stood behind her once she was secured. He pressed against her, and had to bend down far to say something into her ear. I thought pettily to myself that she was too short for him. The height difference looked ridiculous. She barely came to his chest.

She shuddered and he moved away. He walked out of the room without looking back, returning after a brief time with an object clutched in one hand.

It was a cat o’ nine, with long tails that were tipped with small silver balls. It looked brutal, and it wasn’t anything he’d ever used on me. He said something to her just before he began to work her over.

From the first strike, the music in the video changed to ‘Smack My Bitch Up’. Whoever had edited the video seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

He worked her over thoroughly, showing no mercy. She kept her head bent forward, her eyes downcast the entire time. She seemed like a different person than the Jolene that I’d been subjected to.

Her body writhed, her big breasts quivering with every hard strike. The flesh of her butt and thighs was crisscrossed with pink welts by the time he let up.

I felt like I was watching in slow motion as he dropped the whip and began to unbutton his pants. My hands fisted, my nails digging hard into my palms. This was going to hurt me to watch. Still, I couldn’t look away.

He pulled his thick erection free.

‘HOLY HUGE DICK!’ scrolled along the bottom of the screen.

I despised with a passion whoever had edited the thing.

I thought I might be ill as he stroked himself, standing just behind her.

He pulled a condom out of his pocket, ripping it open and rolling it on with smooth, practiced motions.

He poised himself behind her, his huge arousal looking even bigger against her petite form. I knew it was totally irrational, but God, I hated her.

My hand covered my mouth as he drove into her. I’d known before I turned it on that it would be bad for my heart to watch it, but I had the thought again.

He f*cked her so hard that it must have hurt, though I supposed that was the point. She shuddered as she came, and he pulled out of her, still hard, while those waves of pleasure still wracked her body.

He turned her, and I realized that as hard as that had been to watch, it was about to get worse.

She started to raise her eyes to him as he entered her then, but he said something and her eyes lowered again. I felt the fist around my heart loosen just a bit. There was no eye contact as he pounded into her from that angle. He f*cked her hard until he had her shuttering again, and then again.

New words scrolled along the bottom of the screen. ‘RICH, GORGEOUS, AND HE FUCKS LIKE A MACHINE. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?’

Again, I had some nasty thoughts about the editor.

He pulled out of her roughly, and I saw his cock twitching inside of that tight rubber with his own release. Unfortunately, the video was good enough that I could make out every detail, even the tip of the condom filling with cum.

At least he hadn’t come inside of her. And at least he’d worn that rubber. I knew it was ridiculous to feel possessive of a body that I hadn’t even known at the time of the video, but knowing didn’t change the feeling.

He left her tied to the bed and strode from the room. When he came back in, he was fully dressed in a suit.

It didn’t look like they said another word to each other, and she never once raised her eyes to him as he untied her and she lay down on the bed. She was curling her body around a pillow as he strode from the room. He never looked back.

My heart was pounding as the video ended. It had hurt to watch it, but I felt like I’d learned something important. It was a fact that James had been a slut before he’d met me. As much as the images in the video had bothered me, there wasn’t an instant of their interaction where he’d shared anything but his body and his cold domination with her. There had been nothing that I would have called intimacy between the two of them.

He’d told me once that sex had just been a bodily function for him before he’d met me, and I’d just seen the proof of it. I knew it was perverse, but I felt both sick and relieved at the same time.

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned to look.

James stood in the doorway.

His face was stricken—his eyes bleak, as he looked at the computer screen. I wondered how long he’d been there, but obviously it had been long enough to see what I was watching.