All Chapters of Doll: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

PrologueMy arms were tied together with a belt. His belt. He'd wrapped it around my wrists tight enough that I couldn't slip free, loose enough that I wasn't losing circulation. The leather was warm from his body, and it smelled like him, cedar, something dark, something that made my stomach clench even as my heart raced.He'd left me on the bed. Just for a minute. Just long enough to let me feel the weight of what was happening.I heard him move across the room. The soft fall of his footsteps on the hardwood. The drawer opening, closing. Then silence.I strained against the belt. Not to escape. Just to feel the pressure. To remind myself that this was real, that I was here, that I'd chosen this even though I didn't understand why."Don't."His voice came from somewhere behind me. Low. Calm. The kind of voice that didn't need to raise itself to be heard.I stopped moving.The mattress dipped as he sat beside me. I felt his hand on my shoulder, fingers pressing into the curve where my

I woke up with the card still on the floor where I’d dropped it.The morning light was thin and gray, slipping through the blinds I’d never gotten around to replacing. For a long moment I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, letting the weight of last night settle back onto my chest. The dent in my car. The empty street. The way he’d looked at me like I was something he’d already figured out.I reached down and picked up the card. Silver letters. No phone number. Just an address on the other side of the city, the kind of place where people like me didn’t go unless they were holding a mop.I sat up. My neck was stiff from sleeping against the door. My phone was on the nightstand, plugged in, the screen dark. I checked the time: 8:14 AM.Noon. I had until noon to decide whether I was going to hand myself over to a man who’d been following me for two weeks and now had a reason to own me.I got up. Showered. Let the water run hot until the bathroom was full of steam, until I couldn’t s

Chapter 5The foyer was too big. That was the first thing I noticed. Marble floors that reflected the chandelier above, a staircase that curved up to a second floor I couldn't see the end of, walls hung with paintings that probably cost more than my life. Everything was polished. Everything was quiet. The air smelled like cedar, like him.Dmitri stood beside me, his hands behind his back, waiting for me to move."This way," he said.I followed him. My suitcase felt heavier than it should. We went up the stairs each step wide, shallow, made for people who never had to rush and down a hallway with doors on either side, all closed. He stopped at one near the end and pushed it open.The room was beautiful. A bed big enough for three people, white sheets, dark wood headboard. Windows that faced the back of the property, looking out over gardens I could barely see in the fading light. A closet already open, empty except for a robe hanging inside. Fresh flowers on the nightstand. Someone had