Taken by the Heartless (HEARTLESS, Book 1) (NOW EDITING)

ALONE WITH EROS

 The time to choose a girl to spend the night with finally came. Cassandra was surprised to see other girls as she was brought out to the center of the room. The old girls filed up at a corner, while the new girls lined up at a corner. As expected, the new girls were all nervous, and some of them were wiping because of what they had heard. Cassandra didn't want to get nervous, but her hands kept quivering. They were required to clutch their hands behind them and keep their heads straight.

Eros was the first to choose a woman of his choice, and he had to start with the old girls. Cassandra knew most of those old girls were pretty, and she hoped he would choose from there. But Eros looked over the faces of the girls, and he didn't seem to have any interest in any of them. It seemed he was searching for someone because he looked longingly at only brunettes, or maybe he was into brunette women. When he was done with the old girls and didn't pick any of them, Cassandra could see the disappointment in their eyes. Her heart started to pound against her ribcage when he started coming over to the new girls. Silence fell over the whole place as he moved over to the new girls. Everyone was eager to know the girl who caught Eros' eye. The new girls all looked nervous and innocent, and that was an added advantage.

Once Eros came over to them, he didn't walk around them as he did with the old girls; he stood in front of them and ran his gaze through their faces one after the other. When his eyes caught Cassandra's, she quickly removed her gaze and bent her head. Eros smirked his signature devilish smirk and walked straight to her. All her hair stood on edge as he came close to her. She could perceive his musky scent, and it smelled so familiar. She had perceived that scent somewhere tonight. She remembered. It was when she was hurrying out of the bathroom. Was he the one she had bumped into earlier?

She raised her eyes quickly at him, and their eyes locked. His eyes held amusement in them, while hers were filled with surprise. He raised his hand, reached for her hair, and tucked it behind her ear. A smile that she thought was mischievous crept into his face.

"Bully, take her into the dark room." "She is mine for tonight," Eros said, his thumbs now stroking her cheeks and his eyes running over her lustfully.

There was murmuring in the room as the man Eros spoke to started to come towards her. He was the same man who had thrown her into the dungeon. He grabbed Cassandra's arm roughly.

"Easy, Bully, she is my woman for the night," Eros called as the giant man dragged Cassandra away.

Before she was finally led out of the room, her eyes met Dimitra's, and the lady stared at her with contempt. Cassandra wasn't ready for any of it. For some reason, she wasn't comfortable with Dimitra. She wondered if it had anything to do with what she saw tonight. Her eyes tore away from the girl as she was led through a door that led to a dimly lit corridor with a rugged floor that muffled the sounds of their footsteps. Cassandra felt like a ram being taken to the slaughterhouse. How was she going to escape tonight?

If everything she heard about Eros was true, then she was going to die if she didn't succumb to him tonight. But she wasn't going to lose her virginity to the devil himself. He won't care about her. That was not how she had dreamed of losing her virginity. She looked at the face of the man who was leading her to the dark room, or whatever room Eros spoke about; his face made her understand what Lucia meant by guards shooting and asking questions later. He was not smiling, and the scars on his face made him look more hideous.

After walking through the maze of the narrow, dimly lit corridor for a while, they came to a stop in front of a locked door. Cassandra wasn't sure she could recall all those corners if she wanted to escape. He might have built the house for that purpose—to make it difficult for his captive to escape. The man called Bully took out a keycard from his pocket and slid it through the door lock. There was a beeping sound, and he pushed the door in and shoved her inside. She wondered why he was always shoving her in; he could just let her walk in on her own. When she turned back, he was already closing the door.

"Wait! Wait!" she yelled, running to the door. "Is that your real name? Bully?"

The man shut the door in her face. She stood at the door for a while and then decided to see what the room was like. It was really a dark room; the interior of the room was dark but elegant, even the heavy drapes that hung gloomily behind a king-size bed. Maybe there was a brighter light that could make everything look bright and vibrant. She looked around and saw the walls were covered with golden wallpaper, but there were no light switches. The room was bare of furniture, except for that bed, a nightstand, a king-size chair fixed to a corner directly opposite the bed, and a little ottoman beside it. She imagined Eros sitting on that chair like the Lucifer he was, commanding and watching the women—his conquests naked. It gave her the jitters to think about him seeing her nakedness.

She sat on the bed and felt like she was floating on some kind of water. The bed was so fluffy, and she ran her fingers over the smooth satin of the sheets. She would have had the sweetest dream here if it had not been her tormentor's den. She had never slept on any soft beds before, at least not this soft. She and her parents slept on mattresses back at home, and in the dungeon, it was more like they were lying on the springs that held the bed to the bunk instead of a bed. She lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. She could feel free for a while. She could just enjoy the luxury for a while.

The next time she opened her eyes, she heard the beep of the door. She had dozed off, and she didn't know for how long. She tried to get up from the bed, but she wasn't quick enough to get up before Eros walked into the room.

"I see you are already getting comfortable, Bella." The smoothness of his voice was striking.

She quickly stood from the bed and stood beside it, looking at him as he removed his watches, necklace, and knuckle rings and placed them on the ottoman beside the king-size chair. Then he turned his back to her and started to unbutton his shirt. She quickly removed her eyes from him, but her eyes didn't stay away from him for long as he started to remove his shirt. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the dark tattoos running all over his back. It was difficult to make them out in the dark. His muscles flexed with every move he made. She was left staring at him, lost. She swore he knew the effect he was having on her, and she almost felt he was smirking, even with his back to her. He had that effect on every woman, and that was why they forgave him, even after what he did to them. She could understand now why Dimitra was holding onto him like she was holding onto life, even after disrespecting her. But she was not going to be one of those women. He had killed her father, and she was never going to forgive him. She was not going to fall for his charm.

He turned sharply, making her flinch a little, then sat down as confidently as ever, his eyes running over her again. "You are not out of your clothes yet." She didn't reply. "Okay, maybe you want to do it uniquely. Now, seduce me," he commanded, and he relaxed in the chair, watching her.

She stood there by the nightstand, hugging herself because she felt his eyes were already tearing off her clothes.

"Ahh, I see. You want some music to strip-tease." He stood up, and to her surprise, he pushed a wall, and it opened up to another room, and he went in.

The room was even brighter than the one they were in. She saw different BDSM equipment inside there, and she cringed. Was she going to go through this pain on her first night? There was no way she was going to let this devil touch her, talk much about torturing her tonight. Her whole family was dead, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to die along with them; she was no longer living for any reason anyway.

He reappeared with a music box, placed it on the ottoman beside his seat, and turned it on. Slow jazz music started to play. He went into the room again and took out a cat o' nine tails, came back into the room where Cassandra was, and closed the other room. He sat back in his seat.

"Or do you get pleasure from pain?" he asked.

"No," she blurted. "Don't you want to get to know me first?" she asked, trying to stall to do exactly nothing.

"I don't care to know who you are. You are my slave, and all I want from you is satisfaction."

"I am a virgin," she muttered, but loud enough for him to hear. She hoped that somehow, he would reconsider her, but what she didn't know was that the devil always wanted special things from people.