Savage Chains: Scarred (Men in Chains #1.6)(18)
Author: Caris Roane

Reyes sank down in the closest chair. He felt ill all over again. He still couldn’t pull the memory forward, but he believed that what Angelica had seen was real. It explained so much, and it also confirmed that somehow Sweet Dove was involved with Starlin. She’d been there early in the process, having checked Angelica out when she’d first been captured. So there was definitely a connection.

And Engles had taught Sweet Dove her trade on Reyes’s body.

There would be a reckoning one day.

Reyes could see that his membership in Starlin and now an offer to meet Scorpion weren’t an accident and maybe had even been planned for a long time, but to what end? Was it possible that Engles, as perverted as he was, had a sexual interest in Reyes, in bringing him into his own perverted circle of followers? Engles wouldn’t be the first man to proposition Reyes.

What Reyes didn’t know was Sweet Dove’s role. Was she also a Starlin member? He thought it unlikely, since he’d never heard even a whisper about her in all these decades.

In the end, Reyes thought it likely that Engles and Sweet Dove were playing some game. He just didn’t know what it was.

Angelica drew close, then sank to her knees beside him. “I’m so sorry, Reyes. I know this has to be yet another blow. But what I don’t understand is why you don’t have a memory of what I saw in the vision.”

His chest felt tight as he met her gaze. “Sweet Dove is an Ancestral with great power. She could have erased any memory she wanted. Engles could have as well.”

Angelica appeared to turn all this over in her mind. Finally, she asked, “Do you think it’s possible you might actually know who Scorpion is? That you might have met him before?”

Reyes grimaced. “You mean that I might have f**ked him at one of Sweet Dove’s parties?” He needed Angelica to keep focused on the truth of who he was and the sick nature of his past.

She shrugged but didn’t seem either surprised or particularly disgusted by the question. “At this point, given the level of cruelty and debauchery of this group of people, I think it’s more than likely you did.”

He shook his head, narrowing his gaze. “And this doesn’t bother you?”

“In what way?”

She was actually serious, and the chain at his neck confirmed it. But he needed to know more. “You’re not disgusted by the fact that you essentially saw me being tortured by my captor and that Engles probably got off on watching my pain and my orgasm?”

“I’m not disgusted by you,” she stated flatly. “They committed crimes against you, whether you felt pleasure or not. They had power over you, something Sweet Dove had gained because she’s an Ancestral who enslaved you when you were young. You were at their mercy and they were merciless, yet you survived.

“What’s more, I’m beginning to think that you might have an unsuspected advantage over both of them. I’m now convinced each is so lost in their enjoyment of their lifestyle that neither can imagine for even a second that you haven’t truly become a sadistic, self-absorbed slaver. Engles might taunt you by saying he has his doubts, but he’s manipulating you, trying to get you to become as vile as he is. Reyes, he doesn’t suspect you, not really. And in that way, we can continue to deceive him and therefore Scorpion.”

Reyes stared at her hard, searching her eyes for the truth as well as the chains. He concluded that she truly believed what she said. But what astonished him the most was that she saw no real connection between the young man who had been chained in Engles’s library and who Reyes was today.

He almost believed in himself because of it.

“Then you want to move forward? You’re actually willing to have sex in front of Engles and Scorpion, despite the fact they’ll both probably abuse their slaves while we’re engaged.”

He felt Angelica’s resolve as she responded, “What I’m saying is that I believe it doesn’t matter. If you’re the only one touching me and making love to me I’m not going to give these bastards the satisfaction of thinking I’m distressed because they’re watching me. These men are nothing. They’re dirt beneath my shoes and will never be anything more. The only thing I care about at this point is crushing this organization once and for all.”

The zealous light in her eye, her willingness to continue, as well as her belief in him, moved him.

He set his glass down, drew her to her feet, then took her in his arms. “You’re actually willing to go through with this.”

“Yes, I am. I want to see Engles punished for these terrible crimes, and if we can find Sweet Dove and destroy her as well, then all the better. Although I would like to see her in particular burned at the stake with a really slow fire. But there’s one thing I need from you.”

“What’s that?”

“Like I said earlier, I want you to make love to me. I want you to pretend that we shared a few drinks at the Ocean Club and that we’re on a date and that you’ve brought me here, back to your place.”

His eyes fluttered and his groin heated up.

For a moment he was back in the foyer of the club and he felt as he had then, that she was giving him something that couldn’t last, a hope, a desire for his life to be more than it was.

He had made the best of a truly horrible beginning. But he’d been a sex slave, and for the rest of his life his mind would be twisted and his heart scarred in just that way. He couldn’t change his past.

But as he stared into her eyes and felt her desire for him, the scent of her sex perfuming the air, he shunted aside what would always be a deep blight on his soul. Instead, he kissed her, slanting his lips over hers.

Her hand traveled up and over his neck, caressing him. She ran her finger along his jaw, through his scruff. She moaned against his lips. I’ve wanted this for so long, she sent.

I’ve craved you.

She drew back. “You have?”

He groaned and dragged her against him, kissing her once more. You have no idea.

He slid his tongue between her parted lips, moving in and out as his hands pulled apart her robe. She lowered her arms and the robe slipped from her shoulders.

She tugged on his towel and the next moment nothing stood between them. Her hand found his cock. She drifted her fingers slowly up and down, letting him feel her nails as well.

He whispered, “You wanted me in your apartment.”

She smiled. “In my bed. I used to have this fantasy that you’d break down my door.”