Running Wilde (#Wattys2015 #Urban)

Ch. 7 | Rock-A-Bye Baby (Part II)

Hello luvvies!

I know you have been waiting ever so patiently (my sincerest apologies) but fam, listen; me and this chapter have been fighting each other from last week! Anyway, I finally defeated the dreaded Writer's Block Demon, and the chapter is here for you to enjoy -go and get your glass of wine and make yourself comfortable.

Just a lil heads up, I'm going on holiday from next Monday for two weeks, so this will have to keep you guys going until then.

Happy reading \(^-^)/ and don't forget to VOTE and COMMENT!

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The room was pitch black, and would have been silent if it weren’t for Ava-Marie's rattling dry heaves of that reverberated dramatically off of the concrete walls sounding like she was trying to hold onto her soul with every skirmishing breath she took. Aiden flipped the switch and the blinding florescent white light glared from the ceiling, filling the room with its unforgiving harshness. Ava squinted and moaned wearily. Her bare feet were curled beneath her in shades of scarlet and sooty black from the painful friction of the hard floor and the dirt that covered it. Her arms were red and swollen, with her dark blue veins embossed and pulsating against her skin, under pressure from holding up all of her weight for so long. Her late summer eyes had run out of tears by the fifth hour, and were puffy and red, shadowed underneath by depressing dark circles. Her lips were so dry and chapped that the delicate layer of skin covering them had shrivelled into flaky, translucent patches, that split and bled if she moved her mouth out of the confines that the paper thin skin allowed. Her body smelt like sweet salty sweat, decorated in thousands of tiny goosebumps from the lack of heat in the room and the lack of blood circulating through her veins properly. Small rivulets of her blood trickled from the sores around her dripping wrists where Aiden could see some pink flesh exposed around the base of the metal handcuffs, half way down her forearms.

Aiden stroked her tear-stained face from her temple to her chin then lifted it, forcing her to look at him. “You’re a mess, Ava-Marie,” he said quietly. Ava looked shattered; like she had stumbled across a landmine site with her loved ones, barely making it out alive by the skin of her teeth, only to find that everyone she held dear had been blown to smithereens; like her happiness had been ripped from her chest and she knew she would never get it back. She was broken. Aiden had broken her. He reached above her and tugged down the chain that the thick hook was attached to, pulling it low enough to unhook her. Ava’s body folded into itself as she descended stirring the strained muscles, the relief reminding her of how much pain she had mentally forced herself to endure. She cried out in anguish; her wail was a heart-breaking strangled sound that pretended he couldn’t hear as he scooped her up into his thick arms. It bothered him. “Let’s clean you up.”

Ava didn’t want Aiden to touch her, but she had no choice; she was too sore and too weak to do anything but lay catatonically in his in his arms with her head lolling back as he cradled her to his chest and carried her back upstairs. He took her down the hall to a large granite bathroom fitted with silver fixtures and charcoal grey furnishings. Aiden sat on the edge of the deep oval bath with Ava in his lap, as it gradually filled with hot water and a stimulating mix of frothy eucalyptus and ylang ylang scented bubbles. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the small silver key that would unlock the dreadful handcuffs. The cuffs clicked open and Ava howled again -the removal of the cuffs not providing the relief she had expected.

“Ssh,” he hushed her, touching the tips of his fingers to the translucent flakes of split skin scattered across her lips. “I know it hurts, but I’m going to make it all better. Do you want me to make it better Ava-Marie?” Ava’s blood ran cold and she immediately stiffened at his intrusive contact, lowering her eyes to her mouth, watching Aiden’s index finger glide across it slowly, as he touched her like she was made of glass...glass that he only intended to toy with before he pushed it off a ledge and watched it fall to the ground and smash. She was too scared to say a word. “C’mon Ava-Marie, tell me what you want,” his finger trailed down from her lips, rising and falling over the dips and peaks of her skin, leaving more prominent goosebumps in its path as it reached her damaged wrist. His hand clasped her wrist and Aiden brought her it to his mouth, hovering his lips over the shallow wound that decorated the circumference. “Do you want me to make it better?” he purred, pressing his lips to it with a soothing languid intensity that made Ava wince a little and gasp in spite of herself. Aiden smiled amused by how she seemed incapable of shielding her forbidden longing for him, before his dark eyes hardened, “Or do you want me to make it worse?” Suddenly his careful grip tightened and he pressed pitilessly onto the wound, restraining Ava with the arm he was using to hold her so that she couldn’t wiggle away.