Beast: A Hate Story, The Beginning

I’d never completely let my mind go.

Since the very beginning, he’d had me looking over the edge. Every time he touched me my feet were pushed closer toward the cliff. I’d nearly fallen, even dangled off the precipice, but now I wasn’t just falling, I was catapulting straight toward the jagged rocks.

My body was weeping pleasure. My mind was fracturing.

I would never be the same again. I knew that when I was put back together again, parts of me would include him.

I checked the clock. The blue glare read four in the morning. I had an hour left, an hour before I had to meet Gabby. Swinging my naked legs over the bed, tiptoes grazing the soft carpet, I stared out at the city. People had left and in their wake was trash, colorful, confetti-covered trash.

Leaning back in bed, I studied my beast. Anteros.

I could feel him inside of me; beyond the physical, he was inside of my soul. I knew it would be like that forever.

I walked over to where his pants were and wriggled into his pocket to find the square, metallic device. The bright, blue glow of the phone lit up my face. It had been a month since I’d held a phone, had access to the outside world.

I breathed and then dialed. “Yeah. You were right, it was the second one. We’re at some hotel in Times Square on the top floor.” I hung up, deleted the call log, and put the phone back. I opened the nightstand and picked up the Bible. I looked inside, swallowed, and then turned back to Anteros, still sleeping soundly.

The Bible held an item, an integral part of the plan—the official princess plan. I was to use it, get out, and run. They would be waiting for me now that I’d called them and confirmed, and so far everything had gone according to plan. Everything, that is, except one thing. I shouldn’t have let Anteros into my soul.

That didn’t change a thing, though.

At least, it didn’t change my plan.

The unofficial Frankie plan.

There was a part of me that wasn’t done yet, a part that had been waiting for this since day one. I closed the Bible, gingerly placed it back in the nightstand, and then shut the drawer slowly so it didn’t make a sound.

I climbed back on the bed and crawled across the bed slowly, like a cat, until I was on top of him. He woke instantly. Anteros was like that; it didn’t take much to wake him. I was sure he was always half awake. He studied me a moment, suspicion in his eyes, then his face settled into content.

“Can we play a game?” I purred.

“What kind of game?” Anteros grinned, brow raised. I smiled, doing my best attempt at demure. I was still the innocent girl he’d taken.

“The fun kind…” I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth.

He gently touched my chin. “Frankie…” I looked into his eyes as he pulled my chin up. They were soft, like the ocean at sunrise. In that moment, I wanted to frown, wanted to scream, wanted to push him away and run out the door.

I still wasn’t prepared for this.

I wasn’t prepared for when the Beast sheathed his claws and invited me into his lair. I wished so badly I could replace the part of me he’d stolen, the part he now owned. He’d taken it without consent, and I could feel it inside him as my own flesh. There was a part of me now that clung

to him and begged for him. It howled inside me, needing to be near him always, aching when he was gone, furious when I chose to leave him.

But I couldn’t mend or patch myself. He had taken the irreplaceable. That part of me was lost forever, stuck beating inside of him so I had to feel the painful thrums inside my chest.

So I was going to take something from him.

I leaned in and kissed him. “On your back,” I whispered against his lips. His eyes narrowed momentarily and for a second I feared he saw right through me, but then he lay down. I took a stuttering breath and climbed on top of him. Reaching down for my purse, I pulled out the first item. He immediately gripped the wrist that held it. I went still, waiting for his response. If Anteros looked any closer into my purse, he would see what I had planned.

He relaxed and asked, “Rope?” with a raised brow.

It wasn’t really rope. I didn’t have access to rope, and if I’d asked Nikolai to get me rope, then he would have been suspicious, would have wondered if I was deviating from the official plan. It was just a long, tough piece of cloth from one of my wrap outfits.

It was the best I could do, and I prayed it would hold.

I explained to him what it was and said, “Let me be on top for a while, please Boss.” I leaned in until I was just beneath his chin, close enough to practically feel the stubble. I purred the name all his peons called him. At it, his grip relaxed even more, though his cock got harder.

I tied each knot, making sure they were tight. I’d spent hours the past few days studying knots in the library, making sure there was no way to slip out of them, trying not to get caught. These weren’t the kind of things you tie a present with, folks.