Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)(47)

I’d been chasing a car when it skidded off a bridge into a lake and crashed through the ice. I had to go in after the driver. Not to save him… well, I’d saved him. But after getting the info I needed, I killed him. Bastard was dirty as they came and he was the type of man I took great joy in ending his life.

“Come here,” I said without looking over at her.

She stood beside me and there was a twinge of guilt when she started trembling.

“You know why?”

She nodded. “I broke a rule.”

“Yes. And why do you think I have that rule?” This would be a hard one for her to wrap her head around. She probably had no idea why, but I expected an answer and wanted to hear what she came up with.

I watched her swallow and I swear I could hear her heart rate pick up. Good. A reaction. “You don’t like me on my knees?”

“True. Why else?”

Her eyes darted to me, wide and scared. Come on, London. Be defiant. Say it. But when her shoulders sagged I knew I wasn’t getting the answer I wanted.

“I don’t know why.”

I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me, fingers digging harshly into her skin. “Because you never submit to anyone. Never. You can play. Pretend with someone you trust, but you don’t trust me and we’re not playing. Did you trust him? Was it all a game with Alfonzo and Jacob?”

Her eyes widened with horror. “No. I… I had to.”

She had to. I knew she did. She probably fought like hell at first, that stubbornness causing a lot more pain than most of those girls would endure.

“Yes. But you also submitted to everything.” I lightened my hold and stroked my thumb back and forth over the reddened skin. “Submit your body when you have no choice, but protect your mind, London. Never let them have it and right now, they have it.”

Tears filled the rims of her eyes, but I didn’t want the tears. I wanted the flash of anger.

“In.” I nodded to the tub.

She hesitated and I let her. Fuck, I wanted her to hesitate. I would’ve been ecstatic if she told me to go f*ck myself and hit me.

She didn’t and I sighed as she undressed then stepped into the tub. I heard her gasp and her gaze went to mine as I leaned back against the bathroom counter and watched.

Hoping. False hope. Something I knew better than to have.

She was too f*ckin’ skinny. I could see her hip bones and her ribs, and her breasts were smaller. When my eyes finished roaming the length of her body and met with hers again, I almost… almost told her to get the f*ck out.

But that was up to her. She may know little about me, but she had been intimate with me. She knew enough that all she had to do was tell me. I taught her that lesson and I wanted her to search her mind and remember. Find those words and tell me she didn’t want to do this.

That was all it took.

Her lips parted and she inhaled. I swore she was going to say the words, but instead, she lowered into the frigid water. I dropped my head forward and closed my eyes.

Fuck.

She started hyperventilating, breathing fast and uncontrollably. A body’s shock reaction to the sudden cold. I anticipated this and within minutes, it would go away and she’d be able to withstand the temperature for ten to twenty minutes before hypothermia set in. When her muscles weakened, that was when I’d have to get her out of there.

But what I wanted was her to break before then.

My skin crawled and the tension in my chest was so tight breathing became painful. Because watching her was painful. Listening to the ice clink against the sides of the tub was painful. I’d never had this reaction before. Immune to hearing the screams, witnessing torture, death, blood.

But it took everything I had to remain where I was and not drag her the f*ck out of there.

She had her legs scrunched up to her chest, arms wrapped around them, her chin resting on her knees that were above the water level. Her nipples were erect, or at least the one I could see, as the waterline sloshed lightly against her breasts as I’d only filled the tub halfway.

Her teeth chattered and she tried to stop the shivering but couldn’t, which made the water slosh back and forth more.

“What did they do to you, Raven?” I didn’t need to know, but she needed to tell me.

She raised her head and looked at me. “Everything.”

Yeah, I had a pretty good idea. “Specifics, please.”

Oh, she didn’t like that by the way her back stiffened and I inwardly smiled.

“Alfonzo liked sex.”

I tensed, knowing what I’d hear, prepared for it. At least, I thought I was. “Did you like it?”

She gasped and her lips pursed together. “No.”

“But you let him anyway.” I crossed my arms and raised my brows. “You had no choice?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Why?”

“I was tied up.”

That was info I’d use later. “Are you tied up now?”

“Umm.” I scowled at the word and there was a flicker of something in her eyes. She remembered. I knew she did. That day I told her that umm didn’t suit her. “No.”

“So, you enjoy the cold water?”

That pissed her off as her spine straightened and despite her chattering teeth, she raised her voice. “You told me to get in the tub.”