Absolution

Chapter ten

Rhiannon felt his fingers curl around her hand. Had he just told her he was SAS? She wanted to believe it – needed to believe it. She would have liked to turn to look at him but she realised that he would give nothing away – their lives depended on it. He was playing a part and so must she. Pulling her hand free she lifted it back above the table and struck him hard across the face.

“Mr Kendal, would you kindly keep your hands to yourself.”

Sebastian Cortez laughed.

“Do you still want her to sweeten the deal, Senor Kendal?”

He rubbed his hand over his smarting cheek.

“More than ever – it will be fun taming her.”

“Then you may have her for the night.”

Rhiannon sat shaking with rage.

“So now you are going to add rape to your list of crimes?”

“Rape… sweetheart? I’ve never had to force a woman in my life. You’ll come to my bed willingly.”

Cortez laughed again.

“Perhaps, Senorita, you’d better have a little cognac – for courage.”

He pushed a glass towards her.

“Perhaps I should.” She raised the glass towards her lips but instead of taking a sip she threw the contents in James Kendal’s face.

He moved so fast that she never even saw him. One minute she was sat smiling smugly and the next she was across his knee.

“May I?” he asked Cortez.

Cortez nodded, pleased that the man realised he needed to ask permission to punish the woman.

Rhiannon braced herself for the smack she knew had to be coming and watched him raise his hand. It hurt like nothing had before. He administered ten hard smacks to her bottom and when he’d finished he pulled her roughly up.

“And now, sweetheart, a kiss to make it better,” he said darkly.

His mouth was on hers before she could react. He plundered, took and devoured and, God knows, it was wonderful. In some recess of her mind she knew she should be fighting him but it was as if her bones had melted. It ended as quickly as it had begun.

“You see, gentlemen, I’ve never had to force a woman.”

********

He dragged her kicking and screaming to her room. At the door he said goodnight to Cortez and the man called Becker, who laughed when her fighting turned to begging.

“Please, don’t let him do this. I beg you.” 

“I have made a deal, Senorita.  I can’t go back on it.”

She turned to the American.

“Please, don’t let him do this.”

“It will be easier if you accept the inevitable – less painful,” Becker told her.

Kendal opened the door.

“Goodnight, gentlemen. It has been a pleasure doing business with you.”

Once they were inside the room he pinned her against the wall and once again lowered his mouth to hers. Rhiannon panicked. Had she been wrong? Was he not here to rescue her? She began to fight him, pushing against his shoulders, kicking at his shins.

His mouth moved to her neck and he trailed kisses towards her ear. She screamed then.

“Keep screaming,” he whispered against her ear, “but, trust me.”

She tensed slightly but screamed again.

“Cameras,” he whispered before he plundered her mouth again.

She struggled against his assault. She should get an Oscar. How she stopped herself from responding was a mystery.

Suddenly, as quickly as the assault had begun, it ended. Kendal pulled back slightly and softly touched her cheek.

“I’m sorry, Rhiannon. You understood my message?”

“Yes. You’re SAS?”

“That’s right. I’m going to get you out of here but not until tomorrow.” He glanced at his watch. “We have nine minutes to go over some basic stuff.”

“Nine minutes? I don’t understand.”

“That’s how long we have until Cortez’ goons realise the cameras in here have frozen. When they fix it we have to be on that bed naked and having sex.”

“Having…”

“Well, faking it at least. I’m sorry but we haven’t time for finesse. Tomorrow, when we leave here, it has to be in complete silence so I need you to understand some very basic hand signals.”

Rhiannon nodded and watched as he went through the basic signals. He made her repeat them back to him.

“I will come for you at midnight tomorrow. Now, I have to go and retrieve something and hide it in here. I suggest you get undressed and throw the clothes about.”

Rhiannon watched as he disappeared. What was he retrieving and from where? She undressed as he had told her. It made her feel sick to think that her every move in this room had been watched. She quickly slid beneath the covers just as he returned to the room.

It was a relief to remove the small knife from his rear end. He placed it inside the middle of a spare toilet roll and then washed his hands before returning to the bedroom. Rhiannon was in bed. Good, she was following his orders.

She watched as he walked across the room. All loose limbed grace like a cat. He stopped by the bed and in a totally uninhabited way he quickly undressed. Rhiannon watched. She’d never seen such a hard toned body before. When his hands moved to the waist band of his snug, trunk style, black briefs she turned away.

He slid in beside her.

“I’m sorry about this. I’ll try and shield you as much as I can from prying eyes.”

She turned her head back towards him.

“Thank you. So, we are going to fake this like in the movies?”

“Yeah. You need to act like a victim. I’ll make sure that the sheet covers us from the waist down and you have my word I won’t actually be… well, you know.”

“Screwing me?”

He nodded and with a glance at his watch he whispered.

“We’re on.”

********

They hadn’t had intercourse but to the bastards watching it must have looked like they had. It was strange; his hands and mouth had been virtually everywhere but she felt nothing, except when he kissed her on her mouth. Then she went up in flames. She lay puzzling over why that might be. He’d obviously realised that she couldn’t control her emotions when he kissed her on the mouth because he stopped touching her lips. He got up when they’d finished and he’d headed into the bathroom to dispose of the protection he’d used – he’d even thought of that. She watched as he walked back into the room and slipped under the covers, spooning up against her with his legs entwined with hers.

“Try and sleep,” he whispered against her ear.