by Ella Miles
“How?”
“Because this is my final assignment. After this, I’m free.”
She sucks in a breath, and for the first time, I see real terror in her eyes. She realizes there is nothing she can do to stop me from killing her. That my desire to be free is greater than my desire to save her.
Kai takes a second to compose herself, and then she stands. She walks to me, ignoring the gun in my hand pointed toward her leg.
Her lips pout, and her body sways as she walks toward me.
My pulse races, my jaw twitches, and my cock hardens.
I want her.
There’s no denying it. It’s been a while since I’ve felt a kiss like the one she just gave me. No, I’ve never had a kiss like that one.
It was passionate, mysterious, sweet, and full of promise. Her first kiss was everything a kiss should be. Too bad it will also be her last kiss.
I want Kai.
More than I want to breathe.
More than I want my freedom.
I could have both. Spend the day kissing her, fucking her, using her. Then get the freedom I’m desperate for.
As Kai moves closer, I know that is what she is offering me too. Her body on a platter. She thinks it is the only possibility she has at keeping herself alive. If I develop any feelings for her, then I won’t kill her. But that’s not going to save her. Nothing will.
She reaches out hesitantly, touching my face.
My eyes stay glued to hers as I watch her tongue caress her bottom lip. And then I remember how good it felt to have her lips pressed against mine. But I’ve had years of training in self-control. No matter how much Kai tempts me, I won’t give in.
She presses her lips to mine, softly.
“You can try to seduce me all you want; it won’t save you.”
“I beg to differ,” she purrs back before her lips crash hard against mine.
After putting my gun back in my waistband, I close my eyes as my hands grip her body, jerking her to me. Her body is cold, soft, and so breakable in my arms—everything I’ve always wanted but never been able to taste. The mix of hot and cold together creating a tsunami in both of us.
The only women I’ve been with were whores or worked for my father. They were all skilled in how to kiss, how to fuck. It was business to them. Not Kai. She’s a breath of fresh air, untamed and wild with her movements.
Her tongue pushes deeper, exploring my mouth without the finesse I’m used to. And damn, that turns me on.
“Fuck,” I growl as she knees me in the balls.
I knew it was coming. Despite knowing she would try something like this, it didn’t stop me from taking the brief moment of pleasure. Something I almost always deny myself, because it makes me weak.
Kai runs, but I take my time chasing after her. The ship is big, but not so large I won’t be able to find her. And even if it were too large, I would still be able to find her. I’m too drawn to her not to notice her heart beating, begging me to stay away and yet still hoping I will find her and claim her.
After adjusting myself in my jeans, I feel the pain ease, and I start walking. The gun has returned to my hand as I walk.
I should be pissed and angry about what she did. I should find her and shoot her on the spot without giving her another second to breathe. But I know I won’t, because she intrigues me.
I hear the engines roar.
I shake my head, knowing exactly where she is.
I walk slowly to the engine room. I try the door, but I already know it’s locked.
The engines burn louder, but we won’t move because the GPS autopilot is engaged and she doesn’t know how to turn it off.
I kick the door in easily.
Kai stands frozen as I enter, but I don’t raise my gun.
“What’s your plan now?” I ask because I know she has a plan B and a plan C, etc. She won’t stop until I’ve decided I’ve had enough.
She faces me stoically, with no fear. She won’t die terrified.
“To cause as much pain as possible to you before I go.”
I nod. “I don’t think that’s your real plan.”
“It is.”
“Liar. You haven’t given up yet. You’ll only change to trying to hurt me to extract revenge when you’ve given up trying to survive.”
She frowns, hating I know her so well.
“You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to kill me.”
I raise an eyebrow and wait. Apparently plan B is persuading me not to kill her, although I’m guessing there’s more to her plan. With Kai, there always is.
“I’m not a snitch. I won’t tell anybody this ever happened.”
I nod, believing if I let her go free, she would never mention this to anyone.
“I haven’t witnessed anything else. I know nothing about the organization you work for. I don’t know the name. I don’t know who your boss is. Or what crimes anyone has committed. I’ve never seen anyone steal, or rape, or shoot, or murder. And even if I did, I would know well enough to keep my mouth shut to survive.”
My eyes harden. I believe her. My father wants her dead, and I have no idea why. It may not even be about Kai. It might be that he is just testing me to kill someone innocent to ensure I would do anything for him.
“I will pay my debt to you. And I will pay any debts my father owes if that is what this is about. No matter how high of a price, I will find a way to pay it back. My stealing your watch and using it to pay my father’s last debt should prove that to you.”
I smirk. “I have no doubt you would. You’re a thief. You know how cruel the world can be. But you are also a survivor. I would guess one of the reasons you’ve never been kissed is because the men in your life have only caused you more pain. None of them were worthy of taking something so innocent from you. You protected something so simple that most people give without thinking. You only gave when you were desperate for it. But I have no doubt you would sell your body, even your soul to survive. To protect your father. You would give everything.”
She nods, her throat tight, and the vein in her neck pulsing hard. She’s already relented to the fact she would eventually sell her body to survive. Like so many women from her part of town do.
I raise the gun again as anger pulses through me. I can’t stand the thought of her selling herself to another man. She’s mine. “You won’t be selling yourself, thief.”
She swallows and licks her lips.
“Don’t kill me…”
I hesitate.
“…not with your gun. If you’re going to kill me, then do it with your bare hands.”
I smirk, both liking and hating her plan C because the only way I could truly kill her is by touching her. But her touch will end me too.
8
Kai
I try to look past the black metal aimed at me, to the man behind it. The gun might lead to my death, but Enzo will be the one squeezing the trigger.
I don’t know why I ask him to kill me without using the gun. It will make no difference. I will be dead no matter how he does it. A gun might even make my death swifter.
I don’t want to die from a bullet to the head.
If Enzo is going to kill me, I want him to do it with his bare hands. I want him to feel the life he’s taking, and how desperate, determined I am to live. And a tiny part of me hopes he won’t be able to kill me if he’s forced to endure my heart stopping, my breathing slowing, and my essence leaving my body.
I swallow hard, trying to remain calm.
No, it won’t make a difference. He will kill me either way, unless I find a way to escape. But at least this way, I will have some amount of control over when and how I die.
Enzo doesn’t lower the gun.
I’m going to die.
Right here and now.
Instinctively, I close my eyes, like somehow not seeing the bullet coming will make dying easier.
I should be thinking about my mother, whom I miss. Or how my father will be lost, u
nable to survive without me. I should be thinking about the friends I will never get to see again. About the future I will be deprived of.
I will never fall in love…
Get married…
Or have kids…
Not that I ever thought those things were really in my future anyway.
But my brain doesn’t go to any of those things. All I can think about is that damn kiss. The first one, the second one…I want more.
I let my lips curl up in a smile. At least if I’m going to die, I’m going to die with something happy in my head. Even if it is twisted that I’m thinking of Enzo when he’s the one who’s going to destroy me.
One second.
Two…
Three…
Nothing.
My eyes flutter open. Enzo’s eyes darken as he looks at me. He lowers the gun, empties the ammo, and tosses the gun to the side while the bullets fall to the ground next to him.
“Why?” I ask, my bottom lip trembling.
“You ask that question a lot, thief.”
“That’s not an answer, killer.”
“Because you asked me to. You didn’t beg, you asked with dignity. And after not being able to answer the one question you want answers to the most, I owe you.”
“Thank you.”
“My debt has now been repaid. We owe each other nothing.”
I nod. “Nothing.”
Enzo steps toward me, and I reciprocate.
I should be running. I should be searching for a weapon to fight back. To kill him before he kills me.
The pull to him is too strong. I want him more than I want to live.
What’s wrong with me? Am I that desperate for a small taste of what love could feel like?
Yes.
Because I know without a doubt if the circumstances were different, I could love the boy standing in front of me. He’s handsome, my attraction to him overwhelms me. But it’s more than his looks. He has an old soul, like me. Dangerous, yet truthful. Controlling, demanding, and merciless. He’s honest, yet holds the secrets of the world. He’s complicated and simple. He craves freedom, like me.
I could love a monster like him.
We both take another step closer. Neither of us knows what the other is going to do when we meet.
I hold my head high as I edge closer. My lips are parted, and my breathing is slow. Time creeps. I should be thankful. I could live a lifetime in this moment with Enzo; maybe then I could live forever.
Closer, closer, closer.
One more step…
We collide. Our bodies attach like magnets. My arms go around his waist, and his hands go to my throat.
The electricity between us is unfathomable. It dances between us like tiny fairies trying to bind us together.
We are together. Now, what the fuck do you want?
“Why?” his voice grumbles.
I cock my head, not understanding his question.
“Why do you trust me, when I’ve threatened to kill you?”
“You’re an honest man. You may hide truths, but you don’t lie. I trust you will keep your promise and kill me.”
He strokes my cheek. It’s not meant to be comforting; he just needs to touch me.
“I don’t want to die, though. Dying would be the easy way out.”
“Why?” he asks, again.
Enzo doesn’t know why he’s supposed to kill me, and I don’t know why I keep getting close to him even though every nerve in my body is screaming for me to run away. He didn’t answer me; I won’t answer him.
“Kiss me,” I demand.
He isn’t used to being bossed around by anyone other than the man he works for. I doubt a woman has ever commanded him to do anything. But for some reason, he does as I demand without question.
Lips crash down on mine, hungrier than the last two times we kissed combined.
The kiss is reckless, for both of us. But soon all thoughts are lost, fading away as quickly as they started.
I nip on his bottom lip before he has a chance to torture mine again.
He gasps from the way I take over the kiss. And then I bite hard, drawing blood the same way he did me.
He jerks away, and I see the small pebble of blood on his bottom lip. His tongue licks over his tiny wound and the lust in his eyes deepens.
The fire grows between us. No kiss will be able to extinguish it. It will burn, long after either of us are gone. That will be my legacy—an intense fire that will reign hell down on those who hurt me.
My mouth waters, needing him again.
He gives me a predatory glare. I smirk back, tempting him to devour me again the way I want.
He does.
His lips suck on mine as his tongue invades my mouth, demanding for me to give in to his power. Not going to happen.
I fight right back, my tongue dipping deeper into his mouth. Our tongues continue dancing with each other for dominance. Our groans grow heavier with each lap of our tongues, and our lips are swollen from the vicious kisses.
We would make a fiery match. Both of us unrelenting and stubborn. We both have pasts that have made us ruthless and savage. We would be one of those couples with an inextinguishable passion that would turn to fighting any time we left the bedroom. The arguing would be worth it though to be kissed like this.
My hand slides under his shirt, my nails dig into his back as I push his shirt up, before tearing it off his body.
I gasp.
Enzo’s hard body terrifies and intrigues me. He’s not fit in the same way the football players at my high school are. His muscles aren’t even or crafted in a weight room. I doubt he’s ever worked out in the traditional sense, but his body is hard as steel. It’s rough and sharp along the edges of his muscles that have been built with years of hard work in the streets instead of in the gym.
He’s seventeen, barely a man, still a boy by most people’s tabulation. Young enough to still be in high school, although I doubt he attends, he has no need for an education a typical school can provide. He’s smart and sly despite little formal education. That’s all the skill he needs.
I stop our kisses as my hands move over his rippled abs and up to his chest. Scars darken his once flawless skin. He doesn’t have any tattoos I can see, which surprises me. Only scars. Too many for someone so young to have.
I have almost as many. Though none of mine come from being shot like his. But the knife scars I recognize. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of getting a knife jabbed into my arm before.
“Rape me,” I say.
His velvety eyes widen as he tucks my hair behind my ear gently. How can he be so tender right now? “It wouldn’t be rape,” his voice threatens.
My body burns with an ache I’ve never felt before. He’s right. It wouldn’t be rape, even though that should be the only way his cock gets inside me—by force.
I want him to fuck me, to tear away my virginity, to be my first.
“It wouldn’t be,” I agree, my eyelids growing heavy as I trace over a scar in his shoulder that appears to be a bullet wound. My body pulsates with blistering need.
My heavy eyes meet his and the whole world stills. The ocean waves calm, the motor stops, the seagulls stop squawking. Even the wind is silent.
“Fuck me; I don’t want to die a virgin.”
I wait for him to tell me that fucking me won’t save me. He won’t fall in love with my pussy and keep me so he can fuck me again. This man has fucked plenty of women in his short life, I’m sure.
He doesn’t say any of those things though.
Instead, he kisses me softer than he ever has before—a goodbye kiss.
Like hell it is! He doesn’t get a goodbye kiss.
I press my body to his naked front and feel his erection thrust into my stomach. He wants me, so much. Maybe more than I want him.
I don’t let him kiss me softly; I pull him back into our rough dance.
This time, it’s rougher than the first.
I kiss hi
m hard.
He slams my body against the wall.
I nibble harder on his lip.
He grabs my neck, threatening to kill me with his hands around my throat, his lips against mine, and his cock hard against my stomach. If I die, will he fuck my lifeless body?
The glare and determination in his eyes say no. He wants me very much alive.
Pain starts in my neck as he narrows his grip.
I can’t breathe.
I try sucking in.
Nothing.
I gasp, which makes it worse as all my oxygen leaves my body.
My head feels dizzy, cloudy.
This is it.
His mouth pushes to me again, his grip loosens, and he breathes into my body.
He’s not ready, yet. But soon, very soon…
“We could leave. Run away together. If we are both trapped, maybe leaving together would set us free,” I say. It’s a lie. I won’t leave my father even if Enzo allows me to live. And the look in Enzo’s eyes says he knows I’m lying too.
I push back, knowing my frail body can’t compete against his hard one, but he lets me shove him.
I relish the space between us and hate it at the same time.
I push again, and he stumbles through the open doorway.
I storm after him.
I push him against the railing, and my hands go around his throat the same way his did mine. I tighten, knowing he can stop me at any second, and I’m not even sure I’m strong enough to strangle him, even if I wanted to.
He lets me. I kiss him and squeeze his neck at the same time, cutting off his oxygen the same way he did to me.
I don’t see panic in his eyes, but I didn’t reveal my terror when he did the same to me earlier. Not because I didn’t think he would kill me, but because I’m stupid enough to trust I’m supposed to leave this world at his hands. I trust him to kill me in the way I deserve.
When his face starts to turn purple, I release.
And he inhales before releasing a tiny cough.
His eyes threaten mine. “Yea, we could run away and escape all of this. Or we could stay. I could protect you, make you my queen. Make you untouchable by any of my men.”