Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Artair

"Oh my god! Oh! Look!"

We were standing on a cliff overlooking Dunnottar Castle, and admittedly, it was a majestic site. The castle had resisted Edward the Longshanks and a myriad of other invasions from the English. It was said that being a POW in the bowels of the castle was hell itself and from this vantage point, I could see why.

The castle was surrounded on three sides by the frothing Atlantic Ocean, and the salt water and wind would have howled through the prison level. "Poor bastards," I muttered.

A storm had passed through the night Luna confessed the conditions surrounding her sudden departure from Canada, putting a dent in our plans for several days. Luckily, we'd been safely nestled in my castle for the storm's duration, giving me ample opportunity to offer her an indoor tour.

Of course I couldn't help ravaging her along the way. With fifty rooms to choose from, there were plenty of opportunities to lift her skirt and shove my cock between those silky folds. The fact a tour group might suddenly come upon us just seemed to add to the forbidden excitement for both of us.

Except, I would never allow anyone to suddenly come upon us. No one was seeing my girl naked; that was for my eyes alone. Luna had quickly become my drug of choice and dousing myself in her essence, my favorite activity.

When the worst of the weather conditions passed, she'd insisted on seeing Dunnottar. Ironically, I'd never stopped to take a good look at it myself. Everything about my homeland screamed of a history steeped in mystery and unfortunate affairs. From an outsider's perspective, I easily saw the charm that drew tourists here in droves. Including Luna, whose eyes were bright and shiny as she took in the site. She moved closer to the roped-off area, taking photos with all the other tourists.

About fifty feet from where I stood, an elderly couple took a tumble on the slick mud of the path and I rushed over to offer my assistance. The path was narrow and forced me to help them, one at a time, to a bench by the area marked for cars to park. By the time I returned, Luna was nowhere to be found. "Luna!" I called, as loudly as I could.

Panic set in when I caught up to the group of tourists and she wasn't with them. I knew she wasn't in the parking area as I'd just been there. I ran along the cliffside looking for her. I was almost to the war monument on the promontory overlooking Dunnottar when I heard her voice in the wind. I raced along the deer path that ran straight up the side instead of taking the path that wound its way around to the top. I froze when I heard a man's voice, and not a Scottish one.

"I knew you'd be hiding here," the voice accused.

"What do you want from me? I told you, I'm not giving you anything."

"You will, or I'll make sure the world knows who you really are."

What the hell? I reached the top in time to see a man holding onto Luna's arms and shaking her violently.

"Hey! Get your hands off her!" I shouted.

The man was so startled, he immediately dropped his hands, and raced off in the opposite direction. As much as I wished to go after him and beat him to a pulp, Luna was my first concern. When I reached her, she was shaking, with tears staining her cheeks. I took her in my arms and held her until the trembling subsided. "Are you all right, lass? Did he hurt you?"

She pressed her face into my chest, her arms curled in front of her and pinned between our bodies. "No. I think I'm okay. Can we go home?"

That she thought of my place as home warmed my heart but was also a warning to me that things were progressing at a rate even I felt no control over. Regardless, I wanted to take her home and put her in my bed and keep her there.

I wanted to feed her and fuck her and never let her go. That thought brought me up short. This thing between us was growing, and rapidly, but where would it all end up? I needed some time to think about my next moves.

"Aye. Let's go home." I kept my arm around her as we walked the slippery slope back down and toward the lot where I'd parked my car. She was quiet on the way back, her eyes set straight ahead. She was obviously lost in her own thoughts and no doubt stuck on what had just occurred.

I had my suspicions, but a stalker following her to Scotland seemed farfetched, unless the stalker was one of what I called ‘the crazies who wanted to get their way no matter the price'. But if that were the case, then why Luna? She wasn't rich, or famous.

Once we reached the parking lot, he was nowhere in sight, but that wasn't a surprise. I would use my local connections and find the guy, but for now, taking Luna home and seeing to her needs were my priority. She was shivering, but I doubted it was from the rain. The encounter had left her shaken and I needed to help her rebalance. Pulling out onto the freeway, I headed toward home. It was a good hour from where we were, barring any traffic. If Graeme had been driving us, I was sure we'd be home quicker, as he knew every back road in Scotland, but at Luna's insistence, he'd been given the day off.

"Did you know that man who accosted you?"

Luna had her gaze fixed on the landscape outside the passenger window. Her shoulders rose with my question. "Yes and no."

"So he isn't an ex-lover?" I asked, trying not to sound like a jealous boyfriend.

Her shoulders hunched deeper. "I don't want to talk about it. I think I should leave."

The hair rose on my arms. Leave Scotland? I must have misheard. "You mean, leave Scotland, or just me?"

She turned to me, looking ravaged by the inner war she was clearly fighting. "I mean all of it."

"Luna, what are you saying exactly?"

"No one can keep me safe, so I should just give up."

Safe from what exactly, or whom? I could , and would, keep her safe. I just needed her to tell me about the nature of who and what she needed safety from. At first I'd thought maybe it was a family issue, but she'd been vague regarding having met the person before today, so that was highly unlikely.

She didn't confirm or deny if the man who accosted her was an ex-boyfriend. I didn't understand it myself, but I had plenty of friends with online girlfriends or boyfriends. Their entire relationship lived out on the internet. Personally, I found the whole thing strange.

Tonight, after a bath and a meal, I'd do some digging and get her to confess as to what was going on. Whatever that man said to her, it scared her enough to make her think she had no choices and that just wouldn't do.

When we arrived at the castle, I ran a bath for her with all the fixings: bubbles, flower petals, oils, candles and I even set a glass of red wine on the tub's edge.

"You are so good to me, Artair. Thank you."

"I'll have dinner set up in the solar room in one hour. I'll see you then." I left her in peace and went to my office to see if I could find out anything about my errant Little lass. It didn't take long to find a restraining order against a student on campus. Not long after the order was signed, a court-ordered weekend for evaluation had been ordered after a failed suicide attempt. Suicide? What had happened to my girl to have her try something so dark? I couldn't access her medical files as they were encrypted, but a good hacker could probably access her case file. What was I saying? There was no way in hell I would break into her private records. But I would encourage her to share with me what was going on.

I looked into the guy she had a restraining order against. He had a criminal record brimming with misdemeanors. I began to piece together what had most likely happened and found myself wanting to find the asshole stalking her and beat his ass.

I glanced at the time and realized dinner had been served ten minutes ago. I pushed back from my desk and made my way to the suite, my mind busy sorting through all I'd learned.

"Sorry I'm late," I said, entering the suite. "Luna?" The meal was set up, but she was missing. A frisson of fear moved through me. "Luna?" I called loudly, but the silence was deafening. I ran to the ensuite to see if she'd fallen asleep, but the tub was empty, so was the wine. I hurried through the main living quarters asking servants as I passed if they'd seen my guest, but no one had seen Luna leave the castle.

I'd given Graeme the day off so he wouldn't have seen her leave. Is that why she'd insisted on him having the day off? Maybe she'd been planning to run this entire time. But with that monster lurking around, she was in danger and there was no way I'd let him have her.

I should have known when I closed the bathroom door she was a flight risk, but my need to understand what was happening absorbed all my attention, and now she was gone. She'd left everything I'd bought her behind, and only took what she'd been carrying on her back to Scotland.

I should have stayed with her and made her tell me what went down. There was no point in beating myself up as it wouldn't help her. I called the local taxi company and asked if they'd had a pickup from my address, but no luck. Uber only operated in the city limits and wouldn't have come here. The rail! She must have walked to the train station. If that were the case, I may be able to catch her.

Grabbing my keys, I hustled back out into the rain and pulled my Land Rover out. I kept my eye on the roads as I drove to make sure I didn't miss her, but no one was walking along the shoulder. It was sleepy out, being the last train was about to pass through, and there wasn't much to do in the outskirts of the city after dark.

When I pulled into the station, there were only a few cars parked. I hustled past the ticket booth to the sounds of the ticket agent yelling at me as I raced for platform B which headed toward Glasgow.

There she was, standing in the dim lighting, her head down, wearing a crestfallen expression on her beautiful face. She wasn't under cover but stood directly in the drizzle and was already soaked through. I could see the train approaching from the opposite direction.

"Luna!"

Her head snapped up, her eyes rounding when she saw me. If I wanted to get to her, I would have to go back down the steps and use the overpass, all before the train arrived. Even from here I could see she surmised the same thing. We both took off running, me for the other side and arriving just in time to see her disappear down the ramp and into the bushes that ran between the tracks and the river.

"Luna. Stop running this instant!" I yelled into the darkened brush and listened for clues as to which direction she'd taken. Cracking ahead and to the right alerted me. She sounded awfully close to the water, and I feared she might fall in. I rushed deeper in and to the right and broke through a dense area in time to see her slide down the riverbank. Lunging, I was able to grab ahold of the collar of her jacket and haul her back up before she slipped into the freezing inky darkness.

She fought me as soon as she was on her feet. Despite the frigid air, I dropped to sit on a log and held her captive over my lap until she ran out of energy to fight me.

"Let me up, Artair!"

I brought my hand down on her damp pants, and hoped her ass stung as much as my palm.

"Ouch!"

That was what I was looking for. "What did he say to you?" I spanked her bottom several times to get her attention, but she was like a wildcat, kicking and clawing whatever she could reach.

I tugged her pants down and smacked my hand against her cool backside. Luna screeched and stopped fighting.

"I'm not telling!"

The little… I spanked her again with more force. My skin on hers reverberated through the air like a crack of thunder. I kept at it until she hung limply over my lap, sobbing. Then, I sat her up and tugged her cold body into mine for warmth. "Luna, tell Daddy what's upsetting you."

She sobbed louder and buried her face into my chest. She was really worked up about whatever had been said. I rubbed her back in soothing circles until her sobs became only the occasional hiccup and the river of tears stopped.

"I have a confession." She gazed up with a fearful gaze. "That person is a stalker I thought I'd lost when I dropped out of school." She gulped. "He is friends with another guy who used to be my best client."

Client?

"What do you mean by ‘client'?"

She gulped and dropped her gaze. "I sell online pictures of my feet and do private videos to pay for my education," she said, speaking so quietly her words were almost lost in the steady sounds of rushing water from the river. She dropped her face back to my chest and her arms, which had encircled me like bands of iron, dropped and hung loosely at her sides.

"If he shares my information publicly, which he is threatening to do, I can only imagine this would be really bad for you. I thought I should go as you don't deserve to have your world fall apart because of me."

All of this drama was over an asshole wanting to out her and her wanting to protect me— adorable.

"What did he want in order to not go public?"

She squirmed on my lap. "Do I have to say? It's embarrassing."

"Luna. Let's get one thing clear right now." I rearranged her to face me. "There is an old saying that if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. In this case, confessing to what happened is everything, and don't worry, I won't judge you. Everyone does things they don't like to share, but I'm on your side and will help you make this right."

She sighed in resignation but told me the entire story of her accounts and how the first one had been compromised. As she spoke, a plan was forming in my mind on how to bring down her stalker, once and for all.

"When is your deadline for the video?"

"By midnight tomorrow, or he'll do an exposé on me to the world. It's not like I have a lot to hide, but I did that for money and it's only my feet. But I'm betting he'll say I did a lot more, despite not having any proof. You know how these things go; everyone believes everything that is spoon-fed to them these days."

I couldn't have agreed more.

"I do understand. Now, I want you to not worry." I slid my hand along her jaw, gently grabbing her chin between my finger and thumb. "I've got this. Do you trust me?"

Her eyes searched mine before she answered, "I do."

"Good girl. Now, let's get you in a hot bath and get you fed. It's been a long day."

Later, after Luna was sound asleep, I researched the guy who was threatening her. He was easy to find, having an amateur podcast. I scrolled through the content and quickly realized the sleazebucket made his money from outing large account holders on multiple platforms.

I had no doubt the moment he had the video he asked her for, he'd use it to bring her down. Although her balletfeetO8 account no longer existed, the videos still did, and going through them, I confirmed Luna had nothing to be afraid of. Her videos were sexy, but innocent for the most part. This guy probably picked her because he could tell she was young and most likely hoped she was also easy to manipulate. That being said, as it was only her feet, how hard would it be to create a false narrative by mixing those videos with others that were not her, doing more pornographic things? Probably not hard, I surmised, which meant this needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

I placed a call to my legal secretary and had her draw up an injunction charge against Reg Reggie's podcast and him personally. Alfred Jelly, a citizen of the U.K. How perfect! He couldn't have made it any easier for me.

I hoped that by the time Luna awoke, the piece of garbage would be in jail awaiting his trial which I planned on extending for as long as possible. He'd been frightening my girl for months; it was time he paid for that.