44

Sienna tried not to yawn as she sat beside Adrian, but her body was fatigued, and her mind worn. The more she tried not to yawn, concentrating with all her mind, the more her throat muscles contracted, threatening to let the subtle act of disrespect escape.

She covered her face and turned to look out of the window as it slipped out, but he caught her.

"Am I boring you, Sienna?" he asked.

"No," Sienna replied with haste. "I, erm, I'm just so exhausted."

"Slap yourself in the face," he said.

Sienna did so, not hard enough to hurt but with enough force to wake herself up. It surprised her by working... for a couple of seconds at least. Then she wanted to yawn again.

"I'm not horny," Adrian told her in a conversational tone. "But I am in the mood to see you suffer."

Sienna wasn't listening to him. She'd spotted a half-eaten sandwich on the windowsill and couldn't tear her eyes away from it. It appeared to have an egg mayonnaise filling—her favourite. Her mouth watered as she envisioned biting into the soft white bread and eggy mix.

"Are you listening to me?" Adrian asked.

"Uh-huh," Sienna mumbled, wiping the drool from her mouth.

"Pull down your pants and get on all fours," he demanded.

Once she was positioned on the bed as he'd requested, he pulled a black leather belt from a posh looking pair of trousers in his drawer.

She knew what was coming and took it quietly without making a fuss. It stung like crazy, and hurt more as he layered the hits, somehow managing to catch the exact same spot that was already sore from the previous one.

As the pain increased, she considered begging him to stop but decided there was little point. She would take the punishment with whatever dignity she could muster.

Then he turned the belt in his hands and whacked her full force with the metal buckle.

Letting out a scream that could have woken the dead, she scrambled from her position on all fours and cowered in the corner. She rubbed at the wound, trying desperately to ease the sting. When she pulled her hands away and spread her fingers, she was horrified to see they were coated with blood.

Adrian's eyes widened, and for a moment she thought he was going to apologise for taking it too far or tell her it had been a miscalculated hit.

He leaned in close, dark eyes unblinking.

"How dare you move," he scathed, almost spitting in her face as he hissed the words.

Her forehead dinged on the metal of the bed frame as he grabbed her ankle and yanked her from the bed.

"Ow," she muttered.

"Aww," he said, looking down with sarcastic sympathy. He unhooked the handcuffs from his bedpost and used them to secure her hands behind her back.

Then, picking her up as if she were a child, he dragged and dropped her by the small built-in wardrobe, opening the doors and clearing out the clothes that littered the bottom with one sweep on his foot.

It was at that moment Sienna wanted out. She was done.

"No. no. no. no," she repeated, shaking her head at him. "No. Not this. Not this. You can't do this."

"Aww, are you scared of confined spaces?" he asked.

Despite saying no multiple times, she could see on his face he still planned to continue.

"No. Adrian, please. Please not this. Please not this. Please, Adrian," she tried begging, but it was like he didn't hear her. Didn't hear or didn't care.

She began to scream as he placed her inside, no longer worried about having any kind of relationship. No longer worried about anything except getting away.

He quickly shoved a dirty balled-up sock into her mouth before closing the wardrobe. She tried to push on the doors with her shoulders, but they wouldn't budge.

A flash of hot and cold pins and needles burst through her arms and legs as she struggled to breathe, feeling her throat closing up.

'Someone please… help me!'

Nobody was going to save her, because nobody knew she was there. Noone except Adrian.

A thought flashed through her panicked mind.

'My phone!'

She lifted her bum and pushed against the side of the wall, edging it up and out of her pocket. It clattered to the ground, thankfully landing face up. She twisted her bound hands to the side of her body, but could barely swipe to unlock. She wasn't going to be able to text anyone, so would have to ring.

But who?

Who would come to her rescue?