Chapter Sixty

Raleigh

“B—Brady,” I stutter out, my entire body trembling as fear takes over as what he’s said fully hits me. 
Terrified doesn’t even begin to cover it, as thoughts swirl around and around in my mind of what might happen if I tell him no. 
*Is he going to force himself on me again?* 
*Is he going to beat me until he gets what he wants?*
He runs his hands along my body, from my shoulders, down along my arms until he reaches my fingertips, then using the tips of his fingers, he makes his way back up my sides until he reaches my collarbones, his thumbs tracing along the protrusions as his hands cup my breasts, the action causing my breath to hitch. 
“Is that what you want, Raleigh baby?” Brady asks, his voice low and husky and filled with desire. “Do you want me to make you cum?” 
Using his thumb and forefinger, he pinches my nipple while his lips and tongue tease my neck. I pinch my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down, but a whimper still makes its way past my lips.
We’re so close to one another that I can feel his hard cock straining against my belly, desperate for some attention. I try to suppress a gasping cry, hating myself for being in this position. Hating myself for not seeing a way out that doesn’t involve giving my body over to the one man who will literally destroy Lincoln for me to be with. Hating that I’m so weak because if I had been able to fight off my attacker in the first place, I wouldn’t even be in this position.
My knees nearly buckle when I feel Brady’s hand slip between my thighs, cupping my mound as he tries to shove his fingers inside of me through the fabric of my panties, but unfortunately for me, Brady has his other arm locked around my waist and is able to hold me up.
“Fuck, you’re so wet for me,” he says with a groan of appreciation. Shoving my panties to the side, he slides his fingers through my wetness a few times before thrusting them inside of me, curling them so that he hits me right in that spot that I know from experience with Lincoln will get me off in no time at all, no matter how much, in this particular case, I *don’t* want this.
“*Fuck*...” I whimper, my forehead falling to his broad shoulder, not wanting to look at him as he gets me off. 
*If I imagine it’s Lincoln, is it still considered cheating?* 
“That’s it, ride my fingers,” he demands, as he adds a second finger, his statement making me realize that I’d started rocking my hips, my body begging for the pleasure that he was evoking from it.
Knowing it’s the only way I’m going to be able to survive this with even a semi-clear conscience, I pinch my eyes tighter closed and let my mind wander back to one of the many times that I’ve been with Lincoln like this, with his hand buried deep between my thighs. “Fuck, L—baby, don’t stop,” I beg, already on the verge of release. 
“Wish you were riding my cock instead of my fingers right now,” he tells me, lowering my hand to his hard, cloth-covered length. He begins rocking his hips against my hand as he says, “You feel what you do to me? How badly you make me want you?”
Instead of answering him, I bury my face deeper into the crook of his neck and ride his hand harder, more desperate to find my release before he decides that he doesn’t want to wait any longer to shove his cock inside of me too.
I’m so close, I’m right on the edge all I need is…
…Brady presses his thumb against my clit and that’s what sends me rocketing over the edge and has me seeing stars, just as he’d promised.
“Oh, fuck!” I cry, biting into the flesh of his neck to keep myself from crying out too loudly.
“Raleigh, baby, FUCK!” Brady growls, and then his pants, where apparently *I’m* still stroking *him*, become wet as he too finds his release.
After a few moments, he chuckles, his cheeks and the tips of his ears a bit reddened in embarrassment as he takes a step back, biting his bottom lip as he looks anywhere but at me. “Umm…shit,” he mutters and then chuckles to himself before saying, “*That* is embarrassing and hasn’t happened since I was like fifteen and first had sex with Amie Bradley in the back of her mom’s Station Wagon.”
Taking another step back to put some more distance between us, I raise an eyebrow at the guy that I’d thought I knew so well, shaking my head slightly. “There is so much to unpack in that one sentence alone…but first off…you were *how old when you started having sex?*” I ask, shocked, because, surely I heard him wrong.
He smirks at that, no longer embarrassed but proud as he says, “Fifteen.”
“You were just a baby,” I mutter, knowing he can hear me. *It’s no wonder you’re so fucked up when it comes to sex,* I think, but obviously don’t say the last part out loud.
“I sure don’t seem to hear you complaining, now do I?” he asks with a raised eyebrow, that cocky smirk still in place. 
Choosing to ignore that jab, because if I let myself go there, I know that I’d end up a complete and total mess thinking about how much I will no doubt have hurt Lincoln, and it’s not something that I can handle right now.
Survival first, consequences later.
“And Amie Bradley? Really?” I ask, surprised. Amie was a Senior when we were freshmen. She was captain of the cheer team and voted prom queen for both her Junior and Senior proms, she was beautiful with her tan skin, blonde hair, thin waist, and long legs and she was definitely at the top of every guy's list of girls they wanted to date. 
“What? You say that like you don’t believe me,” Brady says, sounding irritated.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just that…well, I mean, we were just freshmen when she was a senior…” I say, not really sure of what to say.
“They don’t call freshman *fresh meat* for nothing,” he says with a waggle of his brows, which causes me to cringe. With a roll of his eyes, he says, “Don’t act so high and mighty.” 
I just huff and fold my arms across my chest. It’s only then that I realize that I hadn’t had the cuffs on when I’d woken up. “You uncuffed me?” I ask, looking up at him in surprise.
“Yeah,” he says with a sigh. “Look, I fucked up. I know that and like I said, I want a chance to make things right between us.” He closes the distance between us and cups my cheek, his eyes looking into mine so earnestly that I desperately want to believe him. *He seems sincere, but I just don’t know if I can believe him…* “Raleigh, baby, I don’t want there to be any more lies or secrets between us. Nothing but one hundred percent complete honesty.”
“So what does that mean, exactly?” I wonder, looking at him skeptically. “Am I still your prisoner? Still going to be holed up in this room and locked to the bed every night like some kind of invalid?”
“No!” he growls, then shakes his head, his thumb grazing my cheek as he tries again, more gently this time. “No, you aren’t my prisoner, at least, not exactly. You won’t be coffed to the bed again, unless you want to be,” as he says this, he gets a naughty grin on his face and waggles his brows at me. Then continues, “You have free roam of the house and the property, trying to run won’t do you any good because there isn't another person close by miles. You’re free to watch the TV and have full access to the library, there aren’t any phones or computers, and your cell was crushed when you had your accident.”
*The accident that you caused,* I couldn’t help but think but didn’t want to say because he’s actually *finally* giving me some freedom and treating me like a human being.
“Julia is here all day, every day for whatever you may need. I will be coming and going, so if there is anything you would like me to pick up for you, just let me know and I can grab it and bring it when I come back.” He says all of this like it’s all so normal, holding me here against my will, like he’s done this before. Hell, maybe he has…or not him specifically, but his family. Maybe this kind of thing is something that is *normal* in his family.
He leads me out of the door and down a hallway. I follow behind him, taking in my surroundings, recognizing the area from the time that they hauled me through here after I tried to escape.
“What about school?” I ask as I gaze around. *I’ve got to be so far behind already that it’s going to be a bitch to try to catch up, but if I get started now, I think I could do it.*
“No school!” he snaps, the shift in his tone so startling that I snap my attention back to him, confused. 
“But why? I’m already so far behind and if I don’t get caught up I won’t be able to graduate with everyone else.” I know that my voice sounds whiny as I say this, but graduating is something that’s important to me.
“Raleigh, baby, no one else knows that you’re here,” he says gently. Then, after a moment, he says, “Or that *I* have you.”
“What?” 
I’m so taken aback by his revelation that the reason doesn’t dawn on me until he says, “You’re considered a missing person, Raleigh. If people figured out that I’ve had you this whole time, I’d be put in jail and we can’t have that now, can we? How would we be able to work on this thing between us then?” he asks as if it really is that simple, but in all reality it *should* be as simple as that.
*I don’t want to work on this thing between us,* I can’t help but think. *I want him to just turn himself in so that everything in my life can just go back to the way it was before. Then, I could go back to school. I’d get to go back to cheering on the cheer team. I’d get to see Serenity again. I’d get to see my brothers. I’d get to be with Lincoln…*
“Oh…” I murmur, an ache of longing building in my chest as we descend the stairs. We turn to our left and stop in a living room that is so big that it could easily fit two of mine at home inside of it and probably still have room.
Brady picks up a remote and hands it to me, “TV isn’t anything special, there isn’t satellite or anything but it will help with boredom. There’s some DVD’s in the case to the left right there,” he says pointing to a built-in case in the wall and then points to a gaming divide in the TV stand. “You can just put it in the Xbox and use the controller to start it.”
“You aren’t staying?”I question as I make my way over to the case full of movies.
“No, I’m needed at home but I’ll try to be back as soon as I can.” I just nod and keep pursuing my options. I hear him closing the distance before I feel him, so it shouldn’t come as a shock to me when grasps ahold of my shoulder and turns me towards him but for just a moment I freeze, the sound of my heart beating in my ears drowning out everything he’s saying.
Then, he pulls me into his body, wraps his arms around me, and lowers his lips to mine, kissing me in a way that, if I weren’t afraid of him, would have me falling for him.
Then he pulls away and leaves without another word or backward glance in my direction.