A Valentine's Day Proposal

"Well, does it fit?" Rob finished pulling leather armor on. He had chosen a gladiator costume for himself. Steph had been in the bathroom forever. He figured that either the costume didn't fit or she was hiding.

Steph stared at the door for what seemed like forever. Finally she composed herself and walked out into the bedroom. "Yeah," she said calmly. "But I need a hair brush and some makeup."

Rob's eyes traveling her body were enough to make her skin crawl. Steph felt her nipples tighten as his gaze lingered on her breasts and she cursed her body for not cooperating. "I figured you'd want that stuff." He indicated a makeup case he'd thrown on the bed. "I had one of the girls put some stuff together for you. Hopefully it will work. You look incredible."

Cautiously, Steph walked over to pick up the makeup case. Without warning, Rob came up behind her and pulled her against himself. He felt her tense and begin to tremble in his arms. He pushed her hair to the side as he leaned in to kiss her neck, his hands stroking along her hips and across her stomach. Steph wanted to scream, push him away, and run. But she held still and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the torture to end. Somewhere in the back of her mind Jack's face floated into view. Something seemed to be telling her to hold on a little longer.

"See," Rob said, trying to sound seductive. "I can be as gentle as I can be cruel. You may not like it now. But if you give me a chance, you may come to appreciate what I can offer you, Steph. I don't want to hurt you. Don't give me any excuses to."

Steph nodded emphatically. "I I have to finish getting ready."

He released her and watched her virtually fall away from him to dart into the bathroom. The door closed behind her and he heard the lock turn. Rob was feeling generous. He'd give her a couple days. If she didn't settle down by then he'd find a way to make her. Smiling to himself he finished putting on his costume.

***

Knocking on the door drew Jack's attention. He got up from his bed and walked over to the door. He'd yet to come up with a descent plan other than waiting until people were asleep that night and go looking for Leesha. But it felt too simplistic and then there was the problem of how he was going to get back to Rob and kill him without traumatizing Leesha any more than had already been done. Overall he was feeling helpless and frustrated. One step at a time. Take advantage of the next opportunity given.

When he saw Valerie standing in the hallway he knew things had gotten much worse. She was dressed in her costume for the party that evening. Even as pissed as he was Jack couldn't help, but find her beautiful. She was wearing a white clingy dress and her brown hair had been pulled up and hung in ringlets around her face and grazing her neck. The only thing out of place was the puffy red appearance of her eyes. But that only made him want to protect her.

Valerie couldn't help smiling at the irony. Jack used to look at her like that all of the time. "And I was thinking that dressing as Aphrodite would be a bad idea," she tried to joke. "Can I come in?"

Jack's jaw tightened, as he came back to reality, and his admiration turned to a glared. He backed up so that she could enter the room. He at least needed to find out what had happened.

"This is going to sound bad," she said softly. "If you're going to do anything about it then you need to stay calm and not overreact."

He cleared his throat, trying not to overreact at the fact that she felt the need to tell him to not overreact. "How much worse could it possibly have become?" Valerie's eyes met his and his heart sank.

"Steph and Rob just left for the party. He took a good number of his men with them. I have to go as well. Currently he intends to blackmail Edward into changing the will and then he'll kill him. Steph is engaged to Rob under the threat of losing her sisters if she doesn't cooperate. The engagement is to be announced at the party tonight. If anything goes wrong, Rob's men are under orders to kill all of them except Sue." Valerie paused for a moment to let all the information she had spewed at Jack sink in. "Do you still have that gun you were swinging about earlier?"

Jack's brain was swimming. That's it. He was completely lost on ideas. This would have been the perfect opportunity. Get Leesha and get out before Rob got back from the party. He could have gotten Leesha to safety and come back to deal with Rob later. But there was no way he could leave knowing that Steph was in so much trouble now too.

"Jack?" Valerie was starting to think that she had lost him. "Jack?"

"Why the hell did you bring her here Val," Jack exploded and grabbed her violently by the arms.

Valerie bit back the painful yelp so as not to bring a guard into the room. "I didn't know what else to do. It was the only way I could think of getting back into Rob's good graces so that I could come save you. At least this way Rob hasn't killed anyone else yet."

Jack felt a sick feeling in his stomach. "Else?"

"Jack you're hurting me," Valerie cried. She forced the tears back.

"Else? Valerie what do you mean 'else'?"

"Leesha killed herself Jack. Please let me down," she whimpered.

Jack released Valerie and then sat down on the bed, rocking a bit, not able to hold still. He didn't want to believe it. Tears welled in his eyes and poured down his cheeks. "I promised her, I'd get her out of here."

Kneeling in front of him, Valerie pulled a ring off her finger and held it up to him.

Jack took it from her wordlessly. He couldn't have asked for better proof that what Valerie had said was true. A gray foggy star moved with the dim light of the room in the black depths of the stone. Jack had bought the ring at a second hand antique shop when they were kids and had given it to Leesha for her birthday one year. It had only cost about thirty bucks. Leesha never took it off. She had always said that it was magic.

"Jack," Valerie said through tears of her own. "Leesha is out of here now. Rob can't ever hurt her again. But there are other people. I don't know if I can fix this by myself. I need you to get it together and help me. Rob and his cronies are already on their way to the party."

***

Walking into the main room was dizzying. Steph had attended parties that her father had put together since she was a child. Some overpaid decorator had truly outdone this one. The vaulted ceiling was strewn with red, pink, and white streamers. There were hearts, lace, confetti, ribbons, and balloons scattered precisely about the room. Music tinkled from all corners of the guest filled room. Masked people danced and laughed together. A buffet like nothing she had ever seen was set in an adjoining room. Drinks were being served from trays on the hands of wait staff uniformed in red. It was breath taking. The entire scene was a sharp contrast to the hopelessness she felt at the moment. Rob walked her through the crowd, schmoozing select officials and reminding her to smile.

Steph was doing her best to not fidget. She felt like she might as well have been wearing nothing for all the good the dress she was wearing was doing. Leering men and disgusted women watched her pass as she held on to Rob's arm. It was bad enough that Steph was almost grateful for the protection that standing next to anyone would afford, even Rob.

Out of the thronging masses, Cinderella swept up to them. Dressed to perfection all the way down to the glass slippers, Sue was beaming as she approached Steph and Rob. "Oh my God," she squealed. "I take it that you finally came to your senses! Let me see the ring!"

Rob smiled with amusement and held Steph's hand up to be examined by her sister.

"It's gorgeous Steph." Sue's eyes were more than sisterly as she looked at Rob. Steph couldn't help the revulsion she felt as Rob continued to hold her hand and leer back at Sue. It was almost enough for her to change her mind about sacrificing herself for her sister's well being. We're your sisters you disgusting cretin, Steph's mind reeled. But she studiously kept her mouth shut.

Steph pulled her hand away from Rob. "Where's daddy?"

Rob was snapped back into his mission for the evening. He had promised Val that he would deal with Edward before she had to. Rob was comfortable with the idea that Ed wouldn't go telling anyone about the situation. At least not until he had a chance to get his spin doctors involved and fix what the rumor mill would do to the wealthy man's reputation, if it got out that he had married his daughter. "Yes, where is daddy," Rob added.

Steph felt her stomach turn when he said it. She couldn't help glaring at him. "That's not funny," she hissed. Smiling back, Rob gathered her hand up again and placed a soft kiss on the back of it.

"He's not come in yet. It's a bit strange. I guess he's still working on his costume or something. You know daddy. He probably waited until the last minute to get one and it doesn't fit or something," Sue said still eyeing Steph's ring finger. "Valerie isn't here yet either. So, Stacy and I have been playing hostess."

Rob flashed a secretive warning look at Steph. "I think I'm going to go locate Edward and tell him the good news. If you need anything, love," Rob's eyes pointed out several of his personal entourage who were around the crowd, "I 'm sure someone can help you."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was telling her to behave and testing her at the same time. Steph watched him walk off toward a hallway that led out of the public area reserved for the party. Now was her chance. But she wasn't sure what she could say or to whom. Rob had purposely introduced her to several officials at the party who seemed to be very fond of him. She had been given the impression that Rob had half of this party in his back pocket. Steph didn't know who she could trust. If she left then her sisters and father would be hurt. If she stayed she was going to end up in a perverted marriage. Sue was still talking at her, but her sister's voice wasn't registering past the fact that she was there.

***

"I can't fucking believe you talked me into this Valerie." Jack was walking uncomfortably through the crowd at the costume party. The men were staring with amused snobbery and the women were gawking lasciviously at him. Jack ignored the urge to tug the short white skirt down, knowing it would do nothing for his dignity. His best bet was to walk around with his head held high in the ignorant wings and try to look as though he was perfectly happy to be the recipient of the attention he was receiving.

"Stop complaining. When we find them, Rob will assume that I'm taking advantage of the fact that he gave you to me and won't automatically figure that I've betrayed him. It may be long enough for us to get Steph away from him and for you to get out of here."

Jack grabbed Valerie's arm and forced her to look at him. "What do you mean, for me to get out of here? What are you thinking Valerie?" He was suddenly regretting the fact that he had to give Valerie the gun, since there wasn't anywhere for him to hide it in his skirt.

"Jack, Rob is my responsibility. I'm sorry he's hurt you so much. I know I was part of that too. The thing is, whoever kills him is going to get caught. Look around this place. Unless you can think of a way to end all this without Rob being dead then someone has to kill him. If any of one us deserves to spend a life in prison, it's me. Don't argue for once. You can't save us all."

"Valerie-"

"There they are."

Jack looked up to see the most incredible vision of a woman he had seen in the whole of his life. Steph was dressed similarly to Valerie, a white dress, held to her body with gold cords. Her brown hair fell long around her shoulders. A golden circlet was twined in her hair and matched the chains around her neck and the bracelets on her wrists. He was virtually struck dumb.

Steph was standing with Rob and showing a ring on her hand to a woman dressed as Cinderella. Steph looked scared and angry. As Jack watched Rob started looking around the room and pointing people out to Steph. Jack hadn't been noticed yet, but he already knew that any of the men Rob was indicating could recognize him if they got a good look.

When Rob moved away from Steph, seeing an opportunity, Jack turned to look for Valerie. She had already begun moving through the crowd in the direction that Rob was going. Jack was torn. He didn't know if he should go after Valerie or try and get to Steph. After a frustrated debate he decided that Valerie was more capable of protecting herself than Steph was at that moment.

He looked around the room again. At least Rob had made it easy. All of his goons were dressed as Greek gladiators. Jack counted six in the main room. He knew that the minute he approached Steph he would get spotted and that would end his rescue mission. Looking around, he noticed a waiter walking with a tray of wrapped sausages on toothpicks. There was a large red fabric napkin laid across his arm. Jack laughed to himself. I might as well embrace the role, he thought.

Jack picked his way through the room to the waiter and stole the napkin off his arm. The waiter rolled his eyes, figuring that the guy dressed as Cupid was probably drunk, and continued his rounds with his sausages. Jack pulled one of his arrows out of the quiver on his back. He snapped the hard plastic shaft in half and used the sharp edge to rip two holes in the napkin and fashioned a blindfold mask out of the napkin.

Once he felt like he wouldn't draw immediate attention from the guys who knew him, he headed for Steph. His intent was to get her out of the room. He figured that he had been playing it by ear this far, he might as well worry about what would happen next after he got her out of the view of the thugs that Rob had watching her. Then he could go after Valerie.

Dodging a dinosaur, a fairy, and a devil, Jack made his way to the goddess speaking with Cinderella. Steph had a lost, hopeless look on her face. When Jack stepped up in front of her she was taken off guard. An amused smile crept into the corners of her mouth. "What are you doing here," she whispered as if someone was going to hear.

Jack smiled and shrugged. Her eyes were so warm and bright. Jack wanted to fall into them and lose himself. She was enough to make all the misery go away. "You look incredible," he said trancelike.

Sue was glaring at him. "Aren't you that delivery guy who lost her engagement ring?"

Steph returned her sister's glare. "Mind your own business Sue," Steph ordered looking nonchalantly around at the goons who were watching. They appeared confused, but they weren't moving in, yet. A surge of hope shot through her. "Just call me Psyche," Steph teased. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nice effect. Though I'm fairly certain you're not what Shakespeare intended. And the holes in the blindfold ruin the drama."

Jack noted one of Rob's lackeys getting too close and decided that now wasn't the best time for playful banter. "Remind me to ask what you're talking about when we're not being stalked by killers. So where's the back door to this place?"

"Do you really think we can get out of here without them charging?"

"I think if we make it look like we know what we're doing and we're allowed, they're less likely to stop us." He offered her his arm. "Would you like to dance?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Steph beamed.

Jack led Steph in the direction of the dance floor, as if they were going to join the others. Rob's men were a little confused. They were under orders to not make a large scene. Though they knew Rob probably wouldn't be happy with Steph dancing with a well built Cupid, it didn't look like a problem.

Once on the dance floor Jack pulled Steph into his arms and they began to waltz around the floor with the rest of the crowd. Steph flashed him an impressed gaze. "I would never have guessed."

He smiled back at her. But Steph could see sadness in his eyes too. Something that ran incredibly deep.

As they got to the far side of the dance floor and found that there were no gladiators near one of the main halls out of the public area, Steph stopped the dance and tried to lead Jack slowly out the hall. That move was obvious enough to get the attention of Rob's men.

"Run," Jack said calmly and they took off down the hall. Steph led the way through a number of doors, slamming and locking them behind her. But the gladiators were right behind them. After a few turns Jack threw open a couple more doors and pulled Steph behind him through another and closed it just as one of the gladiators came running in. Jack had Steph against the wall and was covering her body with his protectively as they waited for someone to come bursting into the room.

They could feel each other's heart beating fast and hard through their chests. Fear, anger, adrenaline, and the need for none of what was happening to be real suddenly had them kissing. Savage heat radiated from their lips down their bodies. Steph felt warmth pooling between her legs. For the first time that night she was pleased that she wasn't wearing underwear. Jack's hands tore her skirt up her legs and gripped her naked butt as he pressed his hard cock against her.

Steph's fingers pulled frantically at Jack's costume, to free his member from the fabric. Jack sucked in a sharp breath and let it out slowly as Steph's hands wrapped around his shaft and squeezed hard. Jack lifted her up, her back pressed against the wall, and held her as she aimed his cock at her dripping sex. She bit down on his shoulder to muffle her cry as he thrust up with his hips and pulled her down onto him at the same time.

Jack bit back the moan as pain and pleasure mingled. Both of them were convinced that someone was going to hear them and come in. The forced silence only added to the intensity as they tried to use each other's body to escape their reality.

Steph's hands tangled in Jack's hair. His fingers dug into her hips as he steadied her for each upward thrust. Steph felt herself stretching around Jack's huge member as he plowed into her over and over again. It was all she could do to stifle the moans that were building in her body. Jack could feel her legs, wrapped around him, begin to tremble as her pleasure began to build.

"Oh God Jack," she whispered breathlessly into the dark. Hearing her say his name almost pushed him over the edge. His thrust became harder, more insistent as he tried to wring the orgasm from her body.

"Come for me Steph," he whispered against her ear.

Steph's heart leapt in her throat. Something in the way he had said it made that tiny sentence the most passionate thing any man had ever said to her. Mind and body reeled for a moment and Steph lost control. The moan that escaped seemed loud enough to be heard all the way through the house and over the music at the party.

Steph's cunt squeezed Jack's cock with each wave of pleasure and Jack doubled his stroke bringing himself over the edge coming inside her unable to stop his own groan from mingling with hers. Jack braced himself on the wall with one hand as his body jerked its last throws of pleasure. His legs nearly buckled under them. But he managed to hold Steph against him and not fall over, just barely.

The door slamming open brought the two of them forcefully back into the situation. Jack nearly dropped Steph to the floor as he turned to block the punch that had been aimed at his back. Rob's men had no idea what they were messing with that night. They all knew Jack was good. It was half the reason that Rob had kept him around. But he had lost his sister and now he was protecting Steph. He had too much incentive to cause everyone associated with Rob a great deal of pain.