by KL Donn
“If you were used,” I say, watching her observe every motion I make, “I wouldn’t hold back. I’d already be inside you.” She flinches as her dress exposes her white, lace-covered breasts. “So innocent, I mutter. “I’d fill each hole so full of my cum, it’d leak from you for days.”
A tear escapes from her eye as my words hit home.
“I’d turn you into a dirty whore, dolce.” Her breath hitches. “But you’re not. You’re sweetness and sunshine. You’re innocence and purity. You’re everything I don’t deserve, but I’m going to take you anyways. I’m going to make you so desperate for me, you’ll never want to leave.”
What the fuck am I saying? I don’t want this girl. Not forever. I don’t fucking do forever.
I sure as fuck don’t do virgins.
But Talia is special. She’s something different.
“You’re crude,” she retorts. I grin. “You’re sweet.” She sighs. I frown. “You’re every contradiction in the book.” I couldn’t agree more. “I shouldn’t be crushing on you. I shouldn’t want you the way I do. But so help me, you’re all I’ve ever wanted.”
My grin turns predatory.
She just sealed her fate.
TALIA
Sweet mercy. What am I doing?
He just admitted to wanting to hurt me. He’s running a damn knife down my chest and between my breasts as he exposes my flesh.
He’s dangerous and volatile.
He’s sweet and protective.
Castiel is everything I should be running away from but all I want to run towards. I know he’s no good for me, yet I can’t help needing him to be everything to me.
I want to be everything to him.
I’m not some foolish girl thinking she can change a man. A man like Castiel can’t be altered. He’ll grow darker, angrier, and call me crazy, but I want to be witness to that.
He may not know it, but in his cold, dark gaze right now, I recognize a vulnerability. An emotion I’ll never allow another soul to see. Castiel needs me to accept him.
“I spot death in your eyes. Darkness. Pain. Violence,” he snarls. “I want those, Castiel. All of it. Every dark desire, each pain-filled stroke, the need to decompress from the violence, I’ll accept that all.”
He seems shocked at first, then quickly moves to suspicion. “Why?”
To me, the answer is simple. “I have no doubt that behind closed doors, you won’t be able to quench the thirst for mixing your pain with pleasure. But when you hurt me, I’ll have control over it.”
“You think so?” He rubs his rough cheek against mine. I can feel his pulse pick up where my thumb lays over it.
“I think you’ll control my pain, so it’s overlapped with pleasure. I know you, Castiel.” I lay a light kiss on his jaw. “I know you won’t hurt me unless I betray you. I can feel you.”
“Why are you willing to accept my pain?” There’s doubt in his tone.
“You think you know all about me. You don’t. I crave pain every bit as much as you enjoy dishing it out. I want you to hurt me. I want your strength. I want your dominance.” I purr the last word in his ear as his body freezes.
His knife clatters to the floor as he rips my dress to shreds. The flimsy garment falls at our feet. His hands grip my breasts, plump with my desire for this man.
“I’m going to love you, dolce, like we’ve never been broken.” Just when I think he’s going to kiss me, devour me like he did before, Castiel steps back. My body wilts from the loss of contact. His gaze roams my frame from toe to hair as he bites his bottom lip. “Go, have a shower. Get cleaned up.”
Startled by his words, I quickly walk to the small bathroom on the far side of the room. Before I close the door, he barks out, “When you’re done, you’ll tell me everything you know about McCray.” Nodding, I shut the door behind me. I don’t bother to lock it because I know if he wants in here, a quick twist of the flimsy knob and he’ll be in.
Removing my bra and panties, I turn the shower on in hopes there’ll be hot water behind all that rattling. Stepping into the room temperature water, I wash quickly, knowing I’ll be warmer in bed than in here.
Wrapping one towel around my body and the other in my hair, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be to answer all of his questions.
Opening the door, I’m unsurprised to see Cas standing there. Arms braced on the frame, feet shoulder width apart, and a look in his cold stare I’ve yet to see. He looks almost lost. Like without me in the room with him, he doesn’t know what to do with himself.
“Remove the towel.” His voice is raspy.
I act before I think as cold air hits my wet flesh as the towel sails to the floor. His right hand reaches for the cloth holding my hair and unravels it so my blonde mass drops in wet curls around my face.
“When you’re with me, when it’s just us, nothing covers you. I want you naked and at my disposal every second.” Swallowing hard, I nod. I don’t know what else to do. He steps closer, the fine material of his clothes brushing against my hypersensitive skin as he bends down to grip my thighs from behind. Shocked, I wrap my arms around his neck as he lifts me off the floor.
“I’m getting you wet,” I murmur.
“Dolce,” he groans in my ear. “You can’t say stuff like that.”
Not understanding, I frown at him. “Why not?”
“Because then I want to take you when I know you’re not ready for the depravity I’m going to impart on your body.”
“Oh.” I know what I want Castiel to do to my body, but I have a feeling what he wants to do is much more…intense.
Placing me on the bed, he pushes me back to lay down. His big hands grip my knees and slowly draw them apart, exposing every inch of me.
“So pretty,” he murmurs before pulling the blanket up to cover my nudity. “Now, sweet Talia.” His voice hardens. “Tell me everything you know about McCray and why he was here.”
How do I tell the man who wants to destroy my family that McCray was bartering the Adair territory for me?
CASTIEL
I can see her pulse pick up in her neck. There’s the reason I demand that she be nude while telling me what I want to know. It’ll show every time she lies.
Like now, I can see she’s gearing up for one with the way her eyes twitch. The way her breathing has picked up.
“Thomas was offering everything King owns. From the weapons to drugs, an army of men. Everything.”
“In exchange for what?” Androph does nothing for free.
She swallows hard. “Father killing King and his top men.”
“Meaning Luther, Atticus, Carver, and I?”
“Yes.”
“What else?” I can see in her eyes there’s more. “Don’t lie to me, dolce,” I snap when I see a blush begin to creep up her chest and into her neck.
“Me.”
Sitting back, I have to control my own response to that. Talia is a gem in a dark world. She is light in our jaded life. Which also means she’s a sitting duck for sick, twisted men.
Worse men than me.
Men like Thomas McCray.
“How old are you Talia?” I’ve never asked, and until now, I’ve never cared.
“Twenty.” I breathe a sigh of relief. With all the shady shit I’ve done, the last thing I need to send me to prison is an underage girl.
“Did they make the deal?”
She shakes her head. “You showed up before my father answered him. Thomas went into hiding on the bayou.”
Fuck does that ever piss me off. “Why did you never come forward? Tell me?”
“I’ve been conditioned to be seen and never heard. A pretty doll on the arm of any man of my father’s choosing. Until you, I’ve never had the chance to step forward. I wasn’t given a choice in anything in my life. Repercussions were too severe for me to blindly trust you.”
“And now? What’s changed?” She’s such a contradiction of smart and sexy.
“You held a gun to my head. You easily could ha
ve pulled that trigger and been done with my family. I know you, Castiel, I know you could have taken on every man at the plantation and not broken a sweat.”
“So?”
“Instead of putting a bullet in my head, you brought me with you. I’m not some dumb, naïve girl. I know you’d kill me at the drop of a hat should you choose. I also know you live by a certain code, a creed that is never broken, or hell rains down on anyone that crosses you.” Profound words for someone so innocent. “I may live in the sticks, my background nothing stellar, but I watched you and Daniel while you were here that first time. You stopped Gustave from killing his wife because she knocked over some glasses. You didn’t even know she existed before that moment.”
The stupid bastard had it coming from what we could tell. He’ll be walking funny for the rest of his life now that Daniel’s finished with him.
“What else does he want?”
“He wants control.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes. He knows you’ve found Timothy and his operation. He wants to keep you guys running around so that he can strike.” That doesn’t shock me.
“Anything else?”
“He mentioned something about going to Alaska. But I didn’t hear much of that conversation.”
It’s more than I had yesterday, I guess. “Tell me something, Talia, would you have blindly accepted your fate with him?”
“I’d have slit his throat while he slept.” Her snarled words have my dick jumping with approval.
“That’s my girl.” She grins at my praise. “Get some sleep. I’ve got some calls to make.”
“What’s going to happen with my father?” Her worry is wasted on the man.
“I won’t lie to you.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“I’m going to kill him. Everyone under his roof will reap their penance. He betrayed the Empire. That doesn’t go unpunished.”
I fall asleep to the dinging of Cas’ cellphone with incoming texts and the typing of the keyboard on his laptop as he searches for answers I was unable to give him. Every now and again, I hear a curse as he either finds more than he expects or doesn’t find what he’s looking for.
I know the exact moment he finds the article about my mother. The press left nothing out in their retelling of her gruesome murder. They rehashed every lie my father had relayed and didn’t care to verify the validity of his claims.
At one time, my mother was a good woman. A tender woman who loved me with her whole being. Androph turned her into a strung-out whore for his men. She warmed the beds of multiple males each night and forgot she had a young daughter.
By the time she did remember me, it was too late. I’d grown out of my need for her, and she’d grown out of her need to live. In a fit of temporary lucidity and rebellion, she tried to take me away to Texas, her home state. She was going to leave me with a distant cousin to have a normal life. Instead, I was locked away in a closet for a month as punishment, and she had been filleted like a fish. There were still missing body parts. Over the past eight years, a bone would show up here or there, and she’d become the first deceased person to be tested, and it usually matched.
Some days, I miss her; most days, I don’t give her another thought. She made her choices a long time ago, and I have to live with it now.
In so many ways, I’m glad Castiel is here. No matter how I grew up, what I’ve seen or heard, I’ve always chosen to believe in the fairytale of white knights. Even if they are more like dark knights. He’s what I’ve been waiting for.
He’ll take me away, give me a better life. And if I’m lucky, fall in love with me. I’ll fall in love with him. And maybe, we’ll live in dark harmony. Maybe together, we’ll find the light at the end of our shadowy tunnel.
The mattress shifting alerts me to Castiel’s presence as his massive body caves the bed in. The heat from his frame is enticing. I want to scoot back into his warmth, but I’m not sure if I’ll be welcome.
When his hand grabs my hip, rolling me onto my back, half of his body covers mine. His leg pins both of mine down while his chest covers the rest of me. His free hand crawls up my neck to tangle in my hair.
The pressing of his erection into my hip has my breath catching as he whispers, “All for you, dolce.” The feeling of his breath against my neck sends shivers racing up and down my spine. “Soon, Talia.” And I can feel his promise to the depths of my heart.
CASTIEL
Sleep has never come easy for me. I’ve never been able to settle the feeling of impending doom that awaits with a knock on my door.
With Talia, the worry just fucking melts away.
I both love and hate it.
Talia is the scenario I never saw coming. I pride myself on sensing what’s happening where and when. The why’s of it. I know it all.
With her, I can’t predict anything.
I struggle to understand how she can calm the deepest parts of my soul and still entice the demons to come out and play with her.
She keeps insisting she knows me. The person I am behind the veneer, and I fear she’s right. I could never hurt her. Not even sure I could if she stabbed me in the back. I recognize her spirit as the other half of mine. I understand that she’ll have to be backed into a corner to betray me.
Her hatred of her own family runs deeper than mine of Thomas. The man hurt Lilith in a way that would have broken a lesser woman. She showed her strength that day. Taunting men who sought to destroy her, knowing King would come. And come, we did.
There wasn’t a soul who left alive then that we didn’t want to breathe another breath. McCray’s men sung like canaries once they were met with King and Luther’s perverse wrath.
King has a penchant for knives. He’s an expert and has taught me far more than I’ve ever known.
Luther has a love for flame. Once, he confessed that the smell of burning flesh was like an aphrodisiac. I almost feel sorry for his girl.
Carver and Atticus enjoy switching their techniques up and being creative. There isn’t a man alive that has survived their craft.
I enjoy playing with rope.
In the bedroom.
In the dungeon.
Wherever a good binding is needed.
Talia will learn that soon enough. The craving I have to see her in nothing but velvet rope is nearly overpowering.
Feeling her soft skin under me as she sleeps brings the fantasy to life in my mind. Seeing the abrasions from a harsher rope on her flesh has my cock hardening. I have a feeling once she gets a feel for it, punishment will be her way of bringing me to my knees.
She’s all innocence and curiosity now, but I know that once I crack open her suppressed desires, she’ll be insatiable.
The ringing of my phone dissolves any thoughts of tying her up as the sun rises in the window. Rolling over, I grab the device. Seeing Luther’s name, I know it can’t be good news.
“What’s happened?”
“Timothy’s operation has been dissolved,” he bites out, sounding irritated.
“Did you catch him?”
“Eventually, yes.” His silence speaks of his frustration. “He had a Fed undercover. Dimitri Petrov. Daniel dropped him at a hospital after Ariel shot him.”
That shocks me. “He tell you anything? Is he gonna rat? We know what the fuck is going on yet?”
“He has no interest in us. In fact, I don’t think he’s been clean for years. What’s happening on your end?”
“Talia says–“
“Who the fuck is Talia?”
Second in command or not, I’ll snap his neck if he speaks to her like that. “Talia is Andersson’s princess. Turns out Thomas wanted her in exchange for giving the man our territory. All of our operations.”
“So what happened to that shit?”
“I came. Thomas ran. Andersson tried to broker a better deal with me. I left. Thomas came out of hiding. The leech has been here the entire time.”
“So what are you doing wit
h the girl?”
“She’s giving me everything I’ve asked for so far.”
“You're using her?”
“I’m keeping her,” I bark at him. She’s all fucking mine. “If I send her back, Andersson will kill her.”
“She could work as bait.” Luther’s suggestion has me seeing red.
“I don’t fucking think so. You used Ariel as bait and look where that got her. Where it got you.” I’m lowballing, and I know it.
“Shut the fuck up, Cas.”
“Where’s Atticus?”
“Alaska. Yukon. Somewhere fucking cold. He went on a wild goose chase when we were looking for Timothy.”
“Castiel?” Talia’s soft voice tempers my rage.
“Gotta go, Luther. I’ll call when I can.” I hang up before he can bitch at me more. The sleepy look on her face is far more worth my time than arguing with my friend.
“Is everything okay?”
“Did Thomas ever mention a sister? Alaska or the Yukon?”
“Catalina?”
“Yes.” I’m almost shocked he did.
“Yes. He said Timothy was going to get her for my father. A gift of goodwill.”
“It’s not happening now,” I mutter. Knowing if Luther has Timothy, the man won’t be alive for long.
“Why do you say that?” Her head tilts with the question.
“Because we’ve caught him. He won’t be travelling anywhere but to hell.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” She puzzles me. “I tell you someone is going to die, and you’re just okay with it?”
“I live the life you do, Castiel. I was born to murder and mayhem. I’ve seen more people leave this earth than come into it. I’ve heard all the rumors about you and your men. I know if you deem someone worthy of death, they’ve done horrible things. Given who Timothy is and who he’s related to, I can only imagine what his intentions in life were.”