“Vanity. Bottom drawer.” I waved toward the bathroom. “There’s a kit.”

“A kit?”

“Spare items that a guest might require during their stay here.”

Her eyes flared. “So, you do have guests? What is this place? Some type of Air BnB?”

I scowled. “I have no idea what that is.”

“It’s a third-party program that allows homeowners to rent their properties to vacationers. Kind of like a hotel, but you stay in their personal homes.”

That sounded godawful. “You sleep in someone else’s bed?”

She shrugged. “Well, yes. Isn’t that the same principle of a hotel? Multiple people sharing the same bed? The sheets are changed, but the mattress is the same.”

My skin crawled, and I shot off the bed I was sitting on.

Fables wasn’t that sort of place. We weren’t a venue for hire. Randoms couldn’t just pay to stay here. To be invited meant you were elite. To have a permanent bedroom here meant you were untouchable.

“Get the kit and finish whatever you need to do. I’ve wasted enough time on you.” Crossing my arms, I lowered my voice to a snarl, “Hurry.”

She backed up, keeping her eyes on me as she crossed the bedroom to the bathroom. With a wary look, she darted inside. The sound of a drawer opening, followed by the zipper of a leather bag echoed back.

Tracking her on silent feet, I leaned against the doorframe as she unwrapped a toothbrush, squirted a new tube of paste onto the bristles, and almost sank in relief as she tasted minty freshness.

I never looked away as she cleaned, spat, rinsed, then applied the expensive moisturizer to her face before quickly running a brush through her shower-damp hair. My cock never deflated, and by the time she was done, I danced on the decision to make her serve me again.

She was nice and clean. Skin dewy fresh and lips just begging to be messed up with my cock.

Placing everything neatly back in the bag, she zipped it up and went to put it in the drawer.

“Keep it,” I said, pushing off the door and wincing at the pain between my legs. “Take it with you.”

“Take it where?” Her eyes met mine as she spun to face me.

“Where do you think?” I stepped toward her. “Your accommodations, of course.”

She balked. “Wait...you’re taking me back down into the cellar?”

I laughed with ice. “You didn’t think I’d upgrade you to this room, did you?” Waving my arm at the opulence and the many escape routes, I shook my head. “And give you the keys to run? This isn’t secure. We both know that.”

Even with a leash, she could possibly get free if I wasn’t here to supervise.

I wasn’t prepared to take that chance.

She huffed. “I won’t run. Didn’t I already prove that to you?”

“You merely proved your limits. You let bodily functions get in the way of your ability to stay strong.”

And you don’t?

The fact that I couldn’t touch my own cock. That I could handle anything—literally any-fucking-thing—yet I still couldn’t get past my aversion of self-sex. If I was braver, I had the answers inside my messed-up skull. Somewhere inside me, I knew why that was. But if I had my way, I would never remember.

Fury blazed through her gold-hazel eyes. “You’re saying you find me weak?”

“I’m saying you need to get over such things if you’re to survive here.”

“And that turns you on? Watching me use the bathroom in front of you?” Her lips turned into a sneer as she glanced at my stiff erection. “Any other fetishes I should be aware of?”

“Not a fetish. Just a part of life.”

A fragment of memories shot into my head. The soothing tones of a girl I’d once loved. The sobs of a boy I’d hugged in the dark. The stench of a communal bucket being used by all of us. We hadn’t had the luxury of being given a bathroom. We hadn’t been given privacy. Fuck, our bodies hadn’t been ours since the day we’d stepped through the cave and entered this place.

Christ.

Ice water shot down my spine as I shoved such things away and slammed the door in my mind.

What the fuck?

That shouldn’t have happened.

I’d spent a decade forgetting. I would forget for the rest of my life. Until she’d arrived, I could go months in blissful oblivion, alone and not fully recalling why, content in my loneliness because I knew there were things far, far worse out there.

First the sleepwalking and now remembering while I was still awake?

What’s next?

Full-blown recollection of things I couldn’t afford to recall? What if my nightmares entered my reality again? What if I couldn’t shut it off?

Panic made me angry, and anger made me short-tempered. Snatching her by the wrist, I barked, “Enough. Time to go home.”

She pulled against me as I dragged her from the bathroom. Her socked feet slid on the marble tile, skidding into me. “Wait. I don’t want to go back down there.”

“I don’t care what you want.”

“Please. Lock me in here. Let me have access to sunlight and a toilet, for god’s sake.”

Hauling her through the room, I glowered at the crimson and silver space. Luckily, no other memories sprang forth. Only the vague sensation that something bad had happened here, and it was time for me to go.

Reaching the door, I changed the subject. I deflected back onto my tempting little trespasser. A prisoner I should probably get rid of but still wanted far too badly. “How many exits do you count? Be honest, I’m curious.”

Her forehead furrowed, her arm still squirming in my hold for freedom.

I waited for her to play dumb. To pretend she hadn’t searched every wall, nook, and window for signs of easy breakouts. However, she once again surprised me when she stopped fighting and went with honesty instead. “I really shouldn’t say this, but at first glance, I see one in the bathroom and at least three in this bedroom.”

The door, window, and balcony.

I stopped pulling her, and we stood far too close. So close those damn currents of energy crackled between us, making my belly coil and thighs bunch. “The windows being the obvious choice.”

She nodded reluctantly. “That and this door. I remember the layout of the house. If I could pick the lock, I could run down the corridor and out the front door.”

“There aren’t any locks.” I clenched my jaw against hazy awareness of why that was. Why this entire place didn’t have a single lock on any door or window, apart from the cells below and my rigged attempts in my dorm. I’d made deadbolts for the exterior doors but hadn’t bothered with the internal ones. It’d been yet another mind game. A power trip to those unfortunate not to be guests here but permanent residents.

“Is that why you won’t let me stay in this room?”

“What do you think?” I sneered.

“I think I proved you can trust me.”

I laughed. “It’ll take a lot more than that to earn my trust.”

“Tell me, and I’ll do it.” Her green swirling eyes melded with brown, firing with so many things. The intensity of her made my heart pound. She made equal urges of violence and protection fight for space in my chest.