Maya Banks - Colters’ Gift

He strode through the open door while she lay rigid in his arms, his words echoing over and over in her horrified mind. It was a threat, yes, but he sounded so certain. There was knowledge in his tone, as if he’d done just as he’d described to other women Joel had been with.

They were both twisted, fucked-up psychopaths whose hatred for women ran soul deep.

He entered the living room and dumped her onto the couch, earning him a frown from Joel, but Joel didn’t reprimand him.

When Lauren straightened herself, she saw another man about Joel’s age standing beside Joel, arms crossed over his chest.

This must be the physician Joel had summoned to meet them.

“See to her,” Joel said. “She was in an accident. She may have broken her ribs.”

“I can’t be sure without X-rays,” the doctor began.

“I only want to know if she’s okay to fuck,” Joel said coldly.

Lauren was utterly appalled, humiliation sucking her into its dark embrace. The doctor hesitated but then made his way over to Lauren.

He went to one knee on the couch in front of her.

“Lie down, please,” he said in a stiff voice that told her he was uncomfortable with the situation.

Slowly she lowered herself until her head met the cushions. She went tense when his hands lifted the hem of her shirt and started to pull it up over her breasts.

“I won’t hurt you,” he said in a low voice. “I’ll do my best to be gentle.”

He splayed his hands over her rib cage and then began to press in a series of areas with his fingertips.

“Tell me if at any point you feel more pain when I apply pressure,” he said.

When he reached the lower part, she winced and let out a gasp. He paused there and then worked his fingers into the area around the tender spot.

“I’m sorry,” he said when she let out another cry.

He probed another few moments and then lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Can you tell me what happened? Did anything hit you in this area? Have you had any difficulty breathing?”

She recounted the events of the accident in a halting voice.

“But I don’t remember hitting anything,” she said. “It was all a blur. We rolled several times and it was just so fast. And afterward, it didn’t hurt because . . .”

She broke off, refusing to say she hadn’t felt pain because of the adrenaline of running for her life away from the men pursuing her. Joel’s men. It would only piss him off more.

But Joel had stepped to the side and was having a rather animated conversation with Ron. She used that moment of distraction to whisper her plea to the doctor.

“Please, help me,” she begged. “He did this to me. And you heard what he wants to do. He wants to rape me. I’m not here willingly. Can you at least call the police when you leave?”

His face remained expressionless, but his eyes were heavy with regret and he could no longer hold her gaze. He dropped his eyes and continued his examination.

Finally he rose and turned in Joel’s direction.

“She most assuredly has broken ribs. It’s important you take care with her. I can bind them until you can take her to the hospital. They’ll need to do X-rays, give her proper pain medication and supervise her medical treatment.”

“That’s what I pay you to do,” Joel snapped. “I thought you said there was no way to tell if her ribs were broken without an X-ray. And now you’re so sure they are?”

“There is bruising in the lower rib cage. Tenderness to touch and at least one feels displaced. If there are breaks higher, she risks puncturing a lung if she isn’t careful.”

Joel scowled. “You write her the script for painkillers. I’ll see how things are in the morning before I worry over X-rays.”

The doctor sighed and turned, casting an apologetic look in Lauren’s direction. He’d tried and she knew he was afraid to do more. She didn’t know what hold Joel had on him, but it was obvious the doctor was captive to Joel’s demands.

The doctor spent a few seconds scribbling out a prescription from his pad, and then he pulled the top page off and held it out to Joel, who shoved it at Ron.

“Go have this filled.”

Then he focused his attention on the doctor and told him to get out. The doctor was only too eager to disappear. He nearly stumbled in his haste to get to the front door.

When both Ron and the doctor were gone, Joel walked to the couch where Lauren still lay, and he stared down at her, a malicious gleam in his eyes.

“Here’s how this will go, Lauren. Cooperate and please me and I won’t touch your ribs. Piss me off and be difficult and I’ll make you wish you were never born.”

LAUREN lay there frozen, so terrified that she couldn’t think of what she should do. She had no doubt that he would indeed make her very sorry if she fought him, but how could she not? How could she lie there and allow him to use her body as he’d already used her mouth?

What if she became pregnant? Joel hadn’t ever used condoms with her. He refused. And after she’d left him, she’d gone off birth control because she couldn’t imagine wanting to become involved in a sexual relationship with anyone. She hadn’t counted on Noah and Liam.

How could she force herself to have sex with him for the sake of survival? It was rape. Even if she didn’t fight him, because her mind and heart was screaming no. She didn’t want this!

And how could she ever face Noah and Liam if Joel raped her and she’d done nothing to prevent it? Would they even want her anymore? Could they look at her without disgust in their eyes, and could she ever look at them without shame in hers?

Joel stopped next to the couch, unzipped his fly and shoved his pants just to his hips so that his erect cock came free. It disgusted her that he was so turned on after hearing how injured she was, that he’d actually get off on the idea of forcing her to endure the humiliation of his possession in addition to the pain forced on her because she wasn’t ready or willing. And he knew she wasn’t willing and that she had no desire for him.