Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 126564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126564 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
I knew I was getting myself into trouble. Worse still, I knew I was getting Max into hot water, too. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on me. But I’d wanted to see what Ransom was up to when he wasn’t at the house.
Passing by an alleyway full of industrial trashcans, I heard a noise.
“Aww.”
I stopped in my tracks, my ears perking, straining to hear more.
The muffled moans—like a small child crying—grew louder and more desperate. They were coming from the passageway.
When I was in college (for one semester, mind you), the sorority house director once told us if we found ourselves getting physically harassed or attacked, to scream “fire” instead of “rape”. Because fire was a collective problem, and people were more likely to rush to help you, while rape was something people didn’t want to witness or get involved in. And now hearing these voices…I couldn’t just turn around and risk the chance of not helping someone in need.
Well, I wasn’t one of those people.
I opened my small clutch, taking out the taser Keller got me for Christmas, and stepped deeper into the alleyway.
Immediately, two darkened silhouettes came into view. The woman was pressed against a red-bricked wall. Her cocktail dress was pushed up, her panties shoved down haphazardly to her knees. Her face glistened with tears. The man behind her pounded into her mercilessly. His fingers were shoved deep into her mouth, making her gag. His form was big, strong, wired with muscles.
I clutched the taser in my hand, getting ready to aim it at him as I gingerly stepped closer.
“Don’t try to fight it, sweetheart. You’ll just make it worse for yourself,” he taunted viciously into her ear.
My legs froze.
Ransom.
It was Ransom.
I’d recognize that deep, callous voice anywhere.
“What the fuck!” I was shaking so bad I almost dropped the damn taser I aimed at him.
Both Ransom and his victim! turned their heads toward me. The bastard had the decency to remove his hand from her mouth and wipe it over her dress. The woman looked more shocked than relieved to see me, but I couldn’t exactly blame her, considering the circumstances.
“I cannot believe you!” I felt tears, hot and fat, streaming freely down my cheeks. My mouth was coated with sour bile. “I cannot believe what you just did.”
“What’re you doing here?” His voice was inscrutable. Void of emotions. Well, of course it was. He was a goddamn psychopath. “Where the hell is Max?”
That’s the conversation he wanted to be having right now? Desperate gaslighting if I ever saw it.
“I’m calling the police.” I fished for my phone out of my clutch, before remembering the bastard confiscated it.
“Please don’t!” the woman next to him cried out. She stepped into the light, under a lamppost, tugging her dress down. She appeared to be in her early forties. “Don’t ruin this.”
Cocking my head to the side, I waited for an explanation for her bizarre request. “Honey…what?”
“Because we’re role-playing.” Ransom stepped beside her protectively. She looked sideways at him, giving him an I-cannot-believe-this-is-happening look. I wanted to bury myself in the ground.
A role play?
Like… rape fantasy?
I’d been exposed to a lot of different kinds of porn online, but not this. What kind of people did that?
It was sick. No, worse than sick, it was degrading and harmful.
You shouldn’t be shaming people for their sexual preferences, a voice inside me countered.
“Just…don’t say anything,” the woman warned, her tone implying it wasn’t the first time she’d fired orders at people. “Please. Please, I have two kids at home and an ex-husband who respects me.”
“She’s not gonna say a word,” Ransom soothed. “I give you my word.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Ransom, putting a hand over his chest. “I think I’ll head home.”
He nodded curtly. “My apologies for the disruption. I’ll take care of this.”
“You sure?” She grimaced.
“Positive.”
He sounded sincere and polite and…almost warm. The first time I’d seen him exhibiting this kind of behavior.
She gave him a brief kiss on the cheek and wiggled past me, rushing off into the night.
I was so confused I thought my head was about to blow up.
Standing rooted to the ground, I stared at him. He tucked his shirt in, and looked presentable enough, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around anything.
He’d been…
Or at least, he’d been pretending to…
Was there even a difference, if she was in distress? Yes, for fuck’s sake, there was a difference when she had chosen that situation, made it happen because she wanted it. Universes apart difference. And she’d chosen Ransom to be the one to give her such a shocking experience?
And…oh, no. Why did it feel like my thighs were sticking together? I couldn’t be turned on by this. I couldn’t. No. After all these years, this is what turns me on? I mean, really?
“I’m…uh…” I glanced around me.