Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

ANI

I adjust my weight to relieve the pressure on my knees. The small movement is not a good idea, however. Phoenix, who now has a handful of my hair in his grasp, jerks me up to a standing position. The sting on my scalp has me crying out, but I don’t resist in any way.

“First rule,” he says between clenched teeth. “You do nothing without my permission. Nothing at all. I don’t care if you’re uncomfortable, in pain, or just in the mood to do something of your own free will. You won’t do anything without my direct order, or you will suffer the consequences. Liars, deceivers, and Parker girls get punished, and you will soon see just how severely.”

He pauses and waits for some type of response from me. I can’t talk. I’m so terrified I can only stare and nod. What type of consequences?

“Let me explain in more detail why you’re still here,” he begins. “I have graciously decided to grant you mercy. Of sorts. I believe in paying for your crimes, and that a girl like you can repent rather than just being shot between the eyes as any other Godwin would want me to do.”

“I didn’t mean to lie to you,” I begin as Phoenix still grips my hair by the roots. “It was a secret. One I didn’t feel you needed to know. It’s my darkness. I don’t have to share that.”

“Well you are about to see my darkness. And what happens when I’m betrayed.”

“Why are you being so mean?” I somehow get the courage to ask .

“Mean? Mean?” He pulls harder on my hair. “I was nice. I was so fucking nice. And look what that got me. A liar. It got me a fucking liar.”

“Are you going to kill me? Is that it? I told you I wouldn’t tell a soul. Not one.”

“A death sentence is not off the table, but you have a chance to remove it by being a good girl rather than a bad girl,” Phoenix says. “I’m not a man to say no to. Regardless of what your heart is screaming right now, your intelligent mind has already accepted the fact that you will have to pay a price. But life doesn’t have to be difficult here. It can be quite comfortable if you earn the comfort.”

“How do I earn the comfort?” I feel the first spark of hope since Phoenix learned of the murder.

Still holding my hair, Phoenix leads me to the stairs. “You have two choices every single day. To be a good girl or to be a bad girl. So, the choice really is up to you. Just as the choice of whether you would lie and deceive me was up to you. You clearly chose wrong, but hopefully when I’m done with you, you’ll never make that mistake again. And you are going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice.”

“What’s that?”

“Your body,” he states. “Your sister trapped my brother by becoming pregnant with his child. She’s bringing another Godwin into the world. He can’t act against her now. None of us truly can. So, as payback”—he locks gazes with me—“you are now going to be trapped with my baby.”

“What?” There is no way I heard that correctly.

“Tit for tat,” he says. “Your sister trapped my brother, and I’m going to counter the move by doing the same to her flesh and blood.”

“I don’t want to have your baby. Please. There has to be another way.” I try to turn my head to look at Phoenix in desperation but am rewarded with a sharp yank on my hair as he leads me up the stairs. “I’ll do anything else you want. I’ll go to the police and take the fall. I’ll claim that I did it and leave Apollo’s name out of the story completely. Anything. You don’t really want me to have your baby, do you? Or I’ll leave and disappear if you want. I swear that I’ll never betray your family. Please just tell me what I can do. Let me pay for what happened in some other way.” I stumble up the stairs to try to keep up with his stride.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Phoenix smirk. “Oh, you will pay. You will definitely pay.”

When we reach the landing, I try not to focus on the way my ears ring and my vision fades in and out as we go down the long, expansive hallway. My head spins as I try to process what he’s telling me. He was wanting to have sex with me for a different reason than just lust and attraction, and I’m to have his baby. This all seems so normal to him.

Simple.

A sentence issued for my crime.

“You will soon be the mother of my child. But before that day comes, you’ll need guidance, structure, and a firm hand to teach you right from wrong. I don’t want you to be the untrustworthy liar that you are.” Phoenix opens the guest bedroom door and shoves me across the threshold as he follows close behind. “Every single day, I will ask you the same question. Have you been a good girl or a bad girl? I hope you answer correctly.”

Looking around the room, it surprises me to see that it’s completely empty. There is no longer a single piece of furniture, a painting, curtains, or even a rug on the aged hardwood floor. The large, canopied bed mastering the room with lush bedding and pillows is gone. The floor-to-ceiling window draped with heavy velvet curtains is bare. Antique furniture that adorned the room and even the large oriental rug that covered most of the marred wooden floor now missing. The room was lovely, elegant, and welcoming, but no more. What I had is quite the opposite of what the reality currently is.

Bare. Completely bare.

I turn and look at the man who stands by the door watching me examine the room. “Where is the furniture?”

“I had the staff remove it all,” he says.

“Am I to stay in this room?” I’m almost too scared to ask this in fear of what I will hear.

He nods.

“But there is no furniture,” I say softly. Am I to be expected to sleep on the floor? What about my clothing and personal items?

“By doing every single thing I say without protest, you can start earning some items of comfort,” Phoenix explains. “If you argue or put up a fight, I’ll still do what I intended to do, but you will earn a consequence instead. Good girl versus bad girl.”

“What do you intend to do to me?” My voice cracks, and I think I might have to run to the bathroom and throw up.

“Have my baby. Behave,” Phoenix answers.

“And do I just stay in this room until the baby comes?”

Phoenix takes a step toward me. “Until you earn the comfort of exiting the room.” He reaches into a leather holder on his belt and pulls out a knife I haven’t seen before.

Did he bring it from the attic with the intent to use it on me?

The blade’s silver glimmers beneath the light cast by a small chandelier. “But it’s time we begin.” He takes another menacing step toward me as my heart stops. “Remove all your clothing.”

His command is accented by the heavy step of Phoenix circling to my left, as if I need a reminder of what will come if I say no.

I reach for the top button of my blouse and slowly unbutton it. “Am I to be a whore to you whenever you want?” I stare him directly in the eyes. “So, I have to fuck you at your beck and call? Is that what I’m understanding?”

Phoenix closes the distance between us and places the knife at the side of my neck, right below my earlobe. “Fucking you would give you pleasure. And the last thing I plan on doing to you right now is giving you pleasure.” He runs the knife along my collarbone and down until it reaches my fingertips holding the button of my blouse. He then forces the blade between the button and the fabric and starts plucking the buttons right off, disrobing me his way.

I remain perfectly still. The knife’s so close to my flesh that I worry the slightest move will have it slicing my skin instead of the blouse.

“I’ll put my seed in you many times. Over and over until the swell on your belly is evident,” Phoenix says as he uses the knife to cut through the thin band connecting my bra between my breasts.

He pauses and looks me directly in the eyes as the cool air kisses my now exposed nipples. Phoenix takes hold of the fabric and rips the bra off me.

Phoenix steps back. “Now, remove the rest of your clothes and stand naked before me. I will give you the first opportunity to earn an item of comfort.” When I don’t move right away, he raises one eyebrow. “You’ll be naked standing before me one way or the other. I’m giving you the opportunity to at least earn some comfort for the act. Your choice. Good girl or bad girl?” Phoenix crosses his arms against his chest, awaiting my answer.

Glancing at the knife in his hand, and then at the way his jaw clenches while he waits, I decide it best to do exactly as he wishes. At least for now. I have to regroup. Think everything through. I need time to process, but I need to be alive to do so. If all I have to do is stand naked before him, then so be it. Trying to not overthink or allow my pride to get in the way of my survival, I disrobe as fast as I can .

“Leave your panties on,” Phoenix instructs. “For now. I like the way they look on you. Delicate and sexy.”

I pause as his deep voice breaks my spell of compliance.

“Please don’t make me do this.” My voice quivers as much as my body does. Fresh tears erupt and run down my cheeks as I watch Phoenix, who maintains the cold expression he has had since the beginning.

He once again closes the distance between us and puts the knife under my chin so I have to look up into his blue eyes. He inhales deeply. “I love the way your tears smell against your cheeks.” He presses the tip of the knife into my skin, forcing a gasp to break free from my closed lips. He then darts his tongue past his lips and licks a trail up my cheek, collecting my tears for his tasting. “These will not be the last of your tears,” he nearly growls as he then lowers the knife to the edge of my panties.

“Please,” I say softly. Another sob breaks free. “I’ll do as you ask. I’m scared. Please don’t hurt me.”

The knife dips below the waistband of my panties and rests against my mound. The coolness of the steel against my intimate skin makes me gasp again as Phoenix brings his lips to my ear. “Stay still, Ani. It would be a shame to scar this pussy of yours.”

“Please…”

“You saw the nice part of me, and the one thing I’ve learned in my life, is that nice gets you nowhere. It fucking blindsides you. Godwins aren’t nice, and I have to remember that. You will remember that.”

He taps the metal of the knife against my clit, causing a surprising surge of sinful arousal. Horror at my captive situation, combined with my desire, weakens my knees. Beads of sweat form on my upper lip as I focus on not collapsing to the floor, thereby jamming the blade right through me.

“By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be the perfect partner and the perfect mother to our child. You belong to me now. I will be your master, your sir…” He pauses for a moment to examine my body from head to toe. He gives me a wicked look, clearly pleased with his thoughts of what that will mean. “I will be the man who controls every single breath you take and move you make. You were a bad, bad girl, Ani. But I can learn to be a forgiving man, and I know you will give me a beautiful baby. Another Godwin to take over the Medusa empire.”

He’s serious. This man is fucking serious .

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Ani?” Phoenix asks. “What my expectations are?”

I nod, trying to stay as still as I can while the knife resting on my pussy reminds me how precarious my situation is.

“Answer me the proper way,” Phoenix says firmly.

Not sure what he means exactly, I try to guess and reply, “Yes, sir .”

“Good girl.”

I swallow hard and with wide eyes try one last time to beg for mercy. “Please don’t do this. I swear I won’t say a single word to the police. I’ll go to jail. I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I won’t try to run away from you again. I promise you that I have learned my lesson. We don’t need to do this.”

“But we do,” Phoenix says.

“Please,” I plead as fresh tears fall. “I beg you.”

“You aren’t begging yet. Trust me. But you will. When I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for more. You’ll beg for my cock to be inside of you. You will plead with those tears in your eyes for my tongue to go lower and deeper. You will beg like a dirty girl. You will beg.” He presses the knife a little harder against my mound. “Now say it. Say yes, sir.”

“Yes, sir,” I whisper.

Who is this man? This isn’t the Phoenix Godwin I kissed not that long ago. I see my very own Jekyll and Hyde.

“Say it louder.” The knife goes even lower, rubbing my clit with the burn of seduction on its descent.

“Yes, sir!” I say louder as I tense. The sensation sets my body ablaze in arousal, but it’s so fucking wrong.

“Say it again and look me in the eyes like a good girl.”

I open my blurry, tear-filled eyes wide and stare at him. “Yes, sir.”

“Very good,” Phoenix says. “You just earned yourself a comfort item.”

Phoenix removes the knife and replaces it with the palm of his hand. Without warning, he inserts a finger into my pussy and begins pumping it in and out of me. “Look me in the eyes while I finger-fuck you,” he orders. “Get used to seeing my face when I make you come.”

I gasp as I struggle to not close my legs in an attempt to protect my virtue. Tears of indignity run down my face as I also fight the urge to grind against his hand to drive him deeper inside me.

Another finger is added to my degradation. Two fingers, but only my one tiny hole now being raided.

He spreads me wide as he claims what is now his. I want to scream, to demand for him to stop, but the only sound that escapes my lips is a deep, guttural moan.

Just as the most embarrassing orgasm nears, he pulls out his fingers as quickly as he started and chuckles.

“Too soon for pleasure,” Phoenix says.

He replaces his hand with the blade and begins rubbing the knife up and down in a slow and sensual manner. He inhales again, brings his lips to my ear, and whispers, “I smell you, dove. I can smell those naughty juices of yours. I have a feeling we are going to have great fun paying your dues.”

I begin to cry harder— this time more out of shame and humiliation than fear. My body hungers for more, and I hate myself for it.

I am his. His.

No. Wrong.

He is making me his.

There is nothing I can do. Nothing I can say. My cries grow louder and echo off the walls of the empty room. It’s a symphony of misery. A chorus of terror. And as I look at Phoenix, I realize he’ll be the man orchestrating it all.

Phoenix then leaves briefly and returns with a thin gray wool blanket. He tosses it to the floor and smiles. “Your first item of comfort.” He goes without another word.