Sweet Possession (Carson-Fox Resorts #2)

Chapter 4

Cora

A s soon as Mr. Fox left, I bolted to the door and locked it. Every littlepart of me screamedthatthis was a trap,evenwith a lock on the door and his promisesthatI was safe, I didn’t believe him.

How could I?

I didn’t know the man, and there was no getting away from the factthathe’d bought me. For what purpose other than to use me? And I couldn’t ignore Dwayne’s voice circling in my head, reminding me of the poor girl Mr. Fox and his friends violated so badly until she bled to death.

Is this what he did to her? Earned her trust, convinced her she hadnothing to fear, before betraying her in the worst possible way?

A tear slid down my cheek as I slumped against the door. Thebedroom was a far cry from the prison I’d been kept in, yet as my eyes wandered around the room, I couldn’t help but feel like I was still trapped in a cell.

There was no denying it was a beautiful room though, and thesuper-king bed was certain to be more comfortable than the cot bed I’d been sleeping on.

Small mercies I should have been thankful for, I supposed.

Getting to my feet, I let my toes sink into the plush light-gray carpet,enjoying the softness against the aching balls of my feet from the high heels, gladthatMr. Fox had taken them off.

His gentle touch against my skin had sent a shiver through me. Atfirst, I thought it was because I hadn’t expected to feel his hand on my ankle, but when he started to undo the second one, the same shiver had coursed through me. I wasn’t entirely surethatit was as a result of being scared of him.

What it was though, I didn’t know, and it wasn’t something I wanted tothink about. I refused to let myself get drawn into his tender touches and the softness in his eyes. The only way I’d survive whatever was about to happen to me was byprotecting my emotions as much as possible. Especially as there was no hope of me being able to protect my body.

The room was calming, decorated in hues of light and dark gray,white, and black. Aside from the super-king bed which had a huge velvet gray headboard, the room also had built-in wardrobes with mirrored doorsthatran the length of one wall.

Opposite the wardrobe were floor-to-ceiling windows looking out intoa beautifully manicured garden, complete with an enormous swimming pool. Soft voile drapes were tied back, and I quickly undid the ties and pulled the drapes across the windows in case someone could see me from the outside.

On the final wall, next to a large glass dressing table was a frostedglass doorthatMr. Fox had alluded to as leading to the bathroom.

As tempted as I was to explore the bathroom and have a shower towashthathorrible place off me, I didn’t want to take his jacket off. In fact, I didn’t want to remove the clothes I had on underneath the jacket either. As revealing as they were, it was better than nothing.

I pulled his jacket tighter around me, inhaling sharply to try and calmthe nervesthathad taken over my body, only to be hit by a wave of Mr. Fox’s scent. Dwayne’s words rang in my ears, telling methatMr. Fox was a monster,thathe’d hurt girls in the past.

But Mr. Fox’s actions and the way he spoke were the complete opposite of what I’d pictured. Conflict waged a war in my head, a battle commencing where one side told me to keep my guard up and not fall for his kind act. The other side saidthathe wasn’t like the men Dwayne had told me about.

I didn’t know which side to believe.

Feeling like I’d been carrying a twenty-ton weight on my shoulders,exhaustion hit me like a freight train. The past few days had been nothing but emotional turmoil, draining every ounce of energy I had, and if I was right, if Mr. Fox was lulling me into a false sense of security,thenI was in for more turmoil.

I crawled on the bed, figuringthatif I let myself sleep for a couple ofhours, I could work out a plan of what I was going to do when I woke up. Still wearing the jacket, I yanked back the covers and climbed in before pulling the covers over my head as if they would hide me from the world.

When my eyelids became too heavy, I succumbed to sleep, prayingthatwhen I woke up, I’d be back in my bedroom at the house I shared with my dad, and all of this wouldjustbe a horrible nightmare.

A gentle tapping at the door had me bolting up in a confused daze. I’dbeen in such a deep sleep,thatI had no idea where I was or the time of day.

Bright light streamed through the voile drapes, and birds chirpedmerrily outside. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, the room coming into focus, and memories flooding back in.

So much for waking up and everything being a nightmare.

Looking at the clock on the bedside table, my eyes widened insurprise. I’d been asleep for nearly fourteen hours.

“Cora?”the soft voice of a woman called through the door. My heartbegan to pound furiously as I leaped out of bed and backed up away from the door,eventhough it was on the other side of the enormous room. Panic gripped me as I tightened Mr. Fox’s jacket around me.

“Cora, sweetheart. My name’s Savannah. I know you must be scaredafter everything that’s happened to you, I would be too if I was in your place. But I’m not here to hurt you, Ijustwant to help.”Her voice held nothing but sincerity in it, but I didn’t dare move. It could have been another trick.“I’ve brought you some clothes and some food. You must be starving.”

I hadn’t thought about food, truth be told. I was used to going dayswithout eating when I lived with my dad, and the meals Dwayne had brought me hadn’t exactly been filling.

But now the woman, Savannah , had mentioned it, my belly rumbled,and as if my feet had a mind of their own, I crossed the room heading to the door.

When I reached it, I raised my hand to unlock the door when fearchurned in my gut, and something in my head told me not to fall for the ruse. I stared at the door, indecision weighing heavy.

If I didn’t eat now, when would I be offered food again? And if I didn’t eat now, and an opportunity arose later for me to escape, would I regret not eating to keep my energy up?

“Okay, well, I’ll leave the food and clothes out here, and you canget it when you’re ready,”she said, a hint of disappointment in her tone.

Common sense won out. I needed to eat. I was already feeling shaky.Before I could second guess my decision, I was unlocking the door and pulling it open.

The woman standing with a tray of food in her hands and a big bag ofclothes down by her feet was beautiful. Her kind voice matched her kind face, and she wore a bright smile, her brows pulled up in surprise, probably because I’d opened the door.

She could have only been a few years older than me, but as I took inthe tray of food she’d brought, a horrible thought popped into my mind.

Was she a victim too?

Oh god. What if Mr. Fox had bought her too, and we were both toserve him as his sex slaves? What if we weren’t the only ones, and he had a whole house of women he used whenever he damn well pleased?

Bile began to creep up my throat, the hungerthathad reared tolife at smelling the aroma emanating from the tray instantly vanished. What if this was me in a few months? Standing on the other side of the door smiling as if everything was normal, while I tried to coax Mr. Fox’s next victim out of her room .

“Cora, right?”Savannah said, still beaming at me.

I opened my mouth to reply, but the words lodged in my throat.

“I’m Savannah,”she repeated, suddenly sounding flustered when Istill didn’t reply.“Fox told us what happened, he’s downstairs with Nash, that’s my husband. Fox called Nash and we came straight over, he didn’t know what to do.”She trailed off as she chuckled.“I’m sorry, I’m babbling. I guess it’s not every day your husband’s best friend phones to say he’s rescued a girl from being sold at an auction and has no idea what to do next. He’s going out of his mind worrying about how he can help you.”

Rescued? Is that what he’d told her?

I supposed in a way he had rescued me. At least, from the hellhole Iwas being kept in.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it,”she said after a few seconds of megawking at her, debating if I could trust her.Evenwithout the events of the last few days, trust didn’t come easy for me.“We’ll be here for the rest of the day, and we only live down the road, so if you want to talk…”She trailed off, pushing the tray in my direction with hope still in her eyes.

“Did Mr. Fox buy you too?”I blurted, unable to stop the question fromfalling out.

I knew she’d said she was married to Nash, whoever he was, butmaybe Mr. Fox had bought her first andthensold her on. Maybe they were both involved in buying women, like the two men who my dad sold me to were.

Her lips pulled into a relieved smile.“It’s a long story. Any chance Icould put this tray down? It’s quite heavy.”

“Oh, sure,”I replied, hoping I wasn’t making a monumentalmistake as I opened the door wider and stepped aside to let her in.

“Thanks. Would you mind grabbing the bag of clothes?”she said asshe placed the tray down on the table.

Doing as she asked, I picked the heavy bag up before peeringout into the hallway to make sure danger wasn’t lurking.

To my relief, no one was there.

Savannah gave me a grateful smile as she stepped into the room,and I shut the door behind her, double checking the lock was firmly back in place.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I bought a selection for you,”shesaid, waving a hand to the tray.“Hopefully there’ll be something you like.”

“Thank you,”I replied, my mouth watering from the delicious smellsnow filling the room.

Stepping over to the tray, it was to find a portion of mac ’n’ cheese,tomato soup, two bread rolls, a bowl of chopped fruit, and a sealed bottle of water. Although I was ravenous, I grabbed the bottle and chugged down several large gulps. For the past few days, I’d only been allowed a small cup of water with my meals.

“You can sit down if you want,”I said, my throat finally feeling a littleless scratchy.

“Thank you.”

Savannah perched on my unmade bed. After drinking anothermouthful, I sat down on the other side, maintaining a gap between me and her. She watched me cautiously but her eyes held nothing but warmth and reassurance, and I found a hint of tension eased from my body.

“How are you doing?”she asked, her concerned gaze landing on thebruise Dwayne gave me.“I can’tevenbegin to imagine what you’ve been through.”

Tears stabbed at the back of my eyes at her kindness. A kindnessthatnotevenmy own father had shown me during my eighteen years on this planet .

“I…I don’t know,”I replied honestly, earning me a sympatheticsmile from her.

“That’s understandable, Cora. It sounds like you’ve been to hell andback these last few days,”she said softly, reaching out to take my hand. Despite wanting to keep my guard up, I let her, craving the touch of a human who didn’t want to hurt me.“And I know it’s going to take you some time to believe it, but Foxreallydoes want to help you.”

“Did he buy you?”I repeated my earlier question, my voice comingout in a whisper.

She squeezed my hand.“No, Fox didn’t. Fox has never beenanything but a gentleman to me. My husband on the other hand…”she said, smiling conspiratorially.

“What happened?”I asked, desperate to know if she had been sold atan auction like I was supposed to be.

“Like I said, it’s a long story. The short version though, Nashblackmailed me into marrying him,”she replied, although there was no anger or fear in her voice, if anything, she spoke of Nash with nothing but fondness.

I gaped at her, my mind spinning with how someone could be blackmailed into marriage.

She chuckled at my reaction.“I know what it sounds like, and believeme, it didn’t start with me being this happy, it took me a while to come around. But Nash, well, let’sjustsay he has a way of charming people, and despite my protests, and the crazy situation he put me in, I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.”

For a few seconds, she stared into thin air, her eyes shining withaffection.

“So to answer your question,”she said, returning to the conversation.“No, Fox didn’t buy me. Never in his life has Fox bought another human being, he abhors human trafficking. ”

My mouth opened and closed several times but my questionswouldn’t come out. If Mr. Fox feltthatstrongly about human trafficking, why did he buy me? Why didn’t he go to the police?

Before I could speak, Savannah beat me to it.“If I had to guess,would I be right in thinking the men who kept you inthatplace told youthatyou werejustanother girl on a long listthatFox had bought from them?”

“Something likethat,”I muttered, not able to meet her eye as shamefilled me. The picture of Mr. Fox she was painting was not the same as what Dwayne had painted.

“Hey.”She gave my hand another gentle squeeze, and slowly I raisedmy head, my cheeks burning.“It’s okay, Cora. Those men were horrible men who got off on scaring you. They were cruel and evil, and it’s no wonder you now feel like there is no one you can trust. But Fox, he isn’t like them. He’s the most kind-hearted and genuine man you’ll ever meet. And he would never hurt you, Cora.”She paused, and when I didn’t reply, she added,“I wish there was a way I could convince you to give him a chance, hereallyis a good man.”

“Why though? Why me?”I asked after a pause to let her words sinkin.

It was something I didn’t understand. If Fox didn’t want me for thethings Dwayne said,thenwhy did he go through the trouble of buying me?

I didn’t know how much my dad owed, but the way he would stress, Iknew it had to be quite a bit. Why would a stranger spend any kind of money on someone they didn’t know?

In my experience, people didn’t do thingsjustto be nice. They always wanted something in return.

“It’s not for me to say why he did what he did, that’s something youneed to ask him,”Savannah replied, her words only adding to my growing curiosity as to who Mr. Fox was.“What I can tell you though, Cora, is Foxjustwants to keep you safe. Whatever his reasons are, that’s for him to tell you, but if you can find it in yourself to trust him, he’ll take the best care of you.Thatman will move the earth to protect you.”

I gaped at her as a thick lump of emotion clogged my throat,preventing any kind of response from coming out. Every part of me wanted to believe her, believethatMr. Fox didn’t want to hurt me. But with my dad’s betrayal still weighing heavily in my heart, I didn’t know if I had it in me to trust another person.

She gave my hand a final squeeze before standing.“Give him achance, Cora. You might find it’s the best thing to ever happen to you. Look what happened to me.”

She crossed to the door, stopping to unlock it.“I know Fox told you totake your time, and he’s absolutely right. Take as much time as you need.”She paused, smiling fondly.“I’m afraid my husband and Fox are a bit of a package deal though, which means, you don’tjustget Fox, but you get us too. So when you’re ready, we’ll be waiting for you. It’s going to take time for you to learn to trust us, but I do hopethatone day, we can be friends.”

She held my gaze for a few seconds, and in her eyes, there wasnothing but sincerity.

When she left, I laid back on the bed and stared up at theceiling, surprisedthatI didn’t have the instinct to immediately jump up and bolt the door like I had done earlier.

Friends.

It would be nice to have friends.