by Nicole Snow
It never came. He stepped forward, stern and serious, towering over me.
“You don't trust me?”
I'm starting not to. I don't know anything about you, much less the woman who just went nuts and beat me.
Who the hell are you, Evan? Where am I? Really?
What's this all about?
“It's not that.” My turn to lie.
It took all my strength not to reveal too much, especially when he was so close, only a whisper away from feeling his hot, angry breath on my neck. He put out an arm, spread his hand on the cupboard above me, and leaned in.
“Let me make this clear, Cassie: my house, my rules. Don't fucking question me. I'm being fair, and that's all you need to know. I'm not gonna let any harm come to you while you're here. Even if the stupid asshole I live with says otherwise. You hold tight and believe it, even if you don't want to.”
“I can't be alone with her again.” The words rushed out of my mouth. I shook my head. “It's her I don't trust.”
And you, I thought.
Christ. I was the liar.
“That's fair. Right now, I need you to do what I asked: go to your room. I'll bring your food. You ought to rest after all this shit. Last thing I need is you fucking up your wounds again. Don't need your sweet ass stressed or doubting. Switch your brain off, babe. Trust me.”
God, I wanted to. I really, really did. I stared at him, melting before the intensity pouring out his eyes. I wanted to lean on him, my own personal rock, bend around him in every sinful and soulful way a girl can.
But I wouldn't bend no matter how much he made me ache and burn. I couldn't. Not while there was a terrible secret between us, something so bad it turned him pitch black, fearsome and desperate.
“You don't want help cleaning up this mess? It was kinda my fault.” Fire lashed at my cheeks.
No, not just there. My nipples were hard through my dress, embarrassing peaks grown sensitive and almost painful to touch.
Had I really been corrupted so quickly after all? No good girl was supposed to feel this for a stranger. Much less a man who was treating me like he owned me, hiding something that chilled me to the bone.
“It's my fucking mess, Cassie. Always is. Now, go.” His eyes narrowed.
The look he was wearing said he wouldn't tolerate any more talk, or more questions either. I walked, shuffling down the hall to the huge door with the heavy locks.
When I got back, I headed straight for the bathroom attached to my little room. The shower felt good, the first one I'd taken by myself. The spectacle I'd lived through for the past hour deadened the pain on my cuts.
It was just as well. I needed to look out for myself now. There was no way I was letting that vicious, horrible woman anywhere near my body again. And Evan...something was off.
No matter how politely he treated me, or how perfect this house seemed, he had another motive. I felt its eerie gravity between every word he said, especially in the raging friction between those two.
Somehow, it was about me.
I didn't have a clue why I was really here. But I was going to find out, even if it brought me face to face with all the corruption and demons the Prophet had warned about.
I was ready to face the darkness, no matter how hungry it was.
I was laying on the bed, a little drowsy, when Evan came in. I twisted up, covering myself with the thin sheet. It wasn't like I was undressed, but he marched in without knocking, a plate of food in hand.
The door slammed shut. I jumped when I heard the bolt slamming automatically behind him, the same thing I'd heard whenever I came into this room.
“Eat,” he said, frowning when he saw the sour look on my face. He pushed a sandwich stacked with veggies and last night's leftover ham toward me. It sat in a sea of chips. I was upset, but I was pretty hungry too.
“What's with the locks? Why do they snap shut every time someone comes in here?” I pointed past him.
His face darkened as he turned, following my finger. “For your safety. This area is very isolated. We're not that far from Beacon Grove, and you know how lonely it can be. I know about the fucking traps the cult lays in the woods. Not just your people I'm worried about either. There are others, even some guys around here who used to belong to a cartel.”
Cartel. I didn't recognize the word and shrugged.
“I'm surprised you know about the traps...the congregation likes to think it's a big secret.” I picked up the sandwich and took a big bite. My, it was good, and I was hungrier than I realized. “The traps aren't really for our protection. The real dangers were on the inside all along. They always are, right?”
He gave me a blank look, as if he was holding something back. Again, the secrecy, the heavy, heavy pain I could feel hanging in the air like lead.
Okay, I'd eat my food, but I wasn't messing around anymore. I was ready to test him if brought me closer to the bitter truth.
I have to know who you really are, Evan. Even if the possibility you're a monster scares me so bad I want to shut down and pretend you're not.
He stepped forward, reached down, and grabbed my wrists. I shook lightly in his arms. It only made him tighten his grip.
“We don't need to talk about this shit. It's upsetting. Calm down and eat your sandwich.” Fire blazed in his eyes, surrounding me, burning me to ashes before he loosened his grip and pulled away.
Jesus. Why does his touch make me shake like this? Why do I want to feel it again when it makes me sick and sad and scared?
There was a deeper feeling I didn't want to acknowledge. The same thing I'd felt a couple times before when I watched him flexing his strength, seething with rage. It started like a fire in my blood, curling through my veins and unfolding at my core, building thick sugary heat where it had no business being.
My lust didn't lie. The truth hit, and it hit hard.
This man was a dangerous temptation in muscle and harsh, shining eyes. Doubly deadly for a girl who didn't have a clue what was happening. Not yet.
No! I couldn't let him get away with this! I wasn't his property. I had to pry his true nature out, even if it snuffed out my lust like phantom candle flame...
“I'm not your slave.” I tried to say it boldly, but it came out in a faint, shaky whisper. “Look, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I deserve some courtesy and respect. What's really going on here, Evan? Why are you keeping me here? Tell me!”
For a moment, his eyes flashed lightning. Then he stepped closer again, knocking my plate behind me, hauling me up by the wrists until we were just inches apart.
“I'd tell you, but you won't be able to handle it. Not right now. I've got a lot of fucking work to do with you, babe. It's gonna take a goddamned miracle to drive the weakness out of you, to get you ready for what's coming at us like a screaming freight train hauling ass.”
My heartbeat picked up. Holy crap, he really wasn't lying anymore. His eyes said it just as much as his words, promising a deadly avalanche. It was all there, I just didn't know what.
“Let me go!” I yelped. “Please.”
“Respect? Courtesy? That's what you want?” A nasty laugh twisted his lips. “Fuck, I'm the guy who doesn't get shit around here. I'd send it all your way if it wasn't in such short fucking supply. Look, Cassie, I already flattened one bitch who's almost my own blood for tearing into you, into me. Don't think for one second I won't do it again. I don't owe you shit until I have your obedience.”
His powerful hands were growing tighter and tighter, fleshly claws winding around my wrists. When he started to pull me closer to his devilish face, I lost it.
I jerked down and bit him, hard as I could. I caught him right in the flap between the thumb and the palm, driving my teeth deep.
Evan roared. He jerked, and sent my whole world spinning as I flew off him.
I tumbled onto the bed, crashing over my food. What was left of dinner scattered to the floor, and the plate hit the hard wood with a resounding crash.
“No! No! You said you wouldn't hurt me!” He was right over me now, and I swore I saw him winding up to crack me across the face. “You promised.”
I broke. I begged. Pathetic.
The Prophet was right! People out here are corrupt. Evil.
But there's no oasis in this endless desert, is there? No tiny beacon in the all-consuming darkness.
The blow I expected to knock me into a mindless sleep never came. He lowered his palm, and then backed up, only assuming the fighting stance again when I dared to sit up on the bed.
“You step out of this fucking bed and I won't give you another chance. Keep your ass on the mattress. Fuck, babe, don't make me...”
He shook his head. The volcano sank inside him for now. But it promised to blow if I pressed him, and he shook and flushed like he wouldn't be able to stop it.
Trembling, I watched him squat. He began picking up pieces of broken ceramic and ruined food. He kept one glance in my direction the whole time, and the glint in his eye said freeze. No more chances.
This was my second chance, the only mercy he offered for freaking out and attacking him.
I took a deep breath. My eyes wandered lower, across his well-built frame, down his arms. Little droplets of blood ran around his hand and went straight to the floor.
Guilt swelled in my heart, and it scared me.
Any sane girl would've been happy to bite this freak's hand, this crazy asshole who'd taken me prisoner and wouldn't say why. Still, he hadn't actually hurt me with more than his words. Painful, terrifying words that made me almost wish he'd used his fists instead.
I wasn't a sane girl. Being cooped up in this little room in the woods with Izzy and him was worse than I thought. During my painful recovery in the bed where I sat, I worried the cult had done too much damage to ever let me be whole, let alone sane and free.
Now, I saw it wasn't just the Prophet's taint I had to worry about. For the first time in years, I clasped my hands. Earnestly, I mean.
“What the fuck do you think you're doing?” He growled.
My eyes were closed as I mumbled, but I knew he was staring dead at me, drowning me in the hot anger rolling off him.
“Forgiveness is the highest virtue. Trapped by the material, led astray by the darkness, there are no monsters where men live.”
There are no monsters, I repeated in my head, sniffing back my tears. If I said it enough times, would my prayers come true?
“Cassie!” he shouted my name so loud the whole room shook.
My eyes flew open, and I stopped. My hands instantly went to my wet cheeks, wiping away the embarrassing weakness, the fear and anguish swept away, leaving cold strength in its wake.
“You do that shit again in my house, we're gonna do things the hard way. I've told you my world runs on other rules. Here's the first for you to drill into your sweet little head: when I tell you to knock it off and do as I say, you fucking do it. No questions. No second guessing. You understand me, babe?”
His footstep clattered heavy on the floor as he walked forward. This time, he reached out slowly, cupping my chin and running his finger across it.
I turned away, as much as he'd allow in his tight grip. It was bad enough having this brute order me around. But worse – so much worse! – if he saw the frothing conflict surging in my brain, the intoxicating hate and submission forming a new universe as big as his shadow in my flesh.
“Right now, I told you to stop praying. Forget about the shit they brainwashed you with. It's not real!” The last words bounced off the high ceiling and rained in my ears. “Your mercy, punishment, and fate begins and ends here on Earth. Not in heaven, especially one some asshole guru cooked up. And babe, in case there were any doubts, I'm your whole fucking world. You need somewhere to look for guidance, you look right here.”
He stabbed his thumb against his chest. Dark and light fought in his eyes, mingling for dominance.
I looked away, hiding the vile heat licking at my cheeks. His fingers pressed harder into my face, tensing with frustration. I whimpered and finally locked eyes with the fallen angel in front of me, the stranger who'd barged into my life and reminded me there was no escape.
None for Cassie. None for the ignorant, inexperienced, screwed up little girl who wished her way out of the fire and got into the brimstone instead.
“We got an understanding?” he said slowly, rolling the words on his tongue like a foreign phrase. “Answer me.”
“I understand. I'll stop.”
He let my chin fall. Without another word, he scraped up the rest of my mess and headed for the door. My eyes instantly fell to the floor, searching for a fragment he'd missed, anything I could stuff up my dress or underneath my pillow.
I didn't know the first thing about using weapons on a real person. But now that his true nature was right in front of me, so dark it was crystal clear, I had to try. The nuts I'd lived with all my life kept me from learning, but that was over.
The steely stare he shot at me just before he left couldn't be misinterpreted. You'd better start learning, girl, and fast. Grow the hell up or die.
Strange that I heard the warning in his voice. Evan nodded once, and then turned smartly, slamming the door behind him.
He was gone. I crashed forward on the bed, wondering if this whole thing was really one long nightmare. It wasn't until the evening sun slunk behind the horizon and dashed my room in blackness that I got up.
I didn't bother with the lamp. I flew to the floor, hurled myself as far as I could reach beneath the bed. Not far enough, even if there was something he'd missed. My hand wouldn't fit more than a few inches beneath the narrow crevice.
“Damn it!” I finally had good reason to curse without feeling guilty about it. “Why? Why why why?”
All the attacks and wrestling around, first with Izzy and then with Evan, left my cuts stretched and burning. I didn't care. The pain throbbed insistently when I stood up again.
I headed straight for the door and pushed with all my might. Then I wrapped both hands around the knob, pivoted my bare feet on the edge, and jerked frantically, trying to rattle it open. When that didn't work, I beat it with my fists, crying and screaming to someone or something who would hear.
Anyone. Anything. Anywhere.
Something except the man who'd just proven I was a stupid judge of character. He was a walking mistake, a cruel icon of my ignorance in rock hard muscle and molten black eyes.
Jesus, I hadn't hallucinated those evil tattoos after all. If I saw him shirtless again, I was sure they'd be there, monstrous and threatening perversions inked on his manly canvass.
I screamed and slapped the door until the pain in my body burned itself out. I wasn't even crying anymore when I slumped to the floor, still pawing at it.
I was beaten.
There are no monsters. The Prophet's verse came over and over and over. There are no monsters. There are no –
Who the hell was I kidding, if not myself?
I'd been raised by monsters, and thinking they were just men brought me no comfort then. And now, with the worst one yet prowling around in this dungeon of a house, I realized everything that had ever brought me knowledge or comfort was a horrible rotten lie.
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More Erotic Romance by Nicole Snow on Amazon
KEPT WOMEN: TWO FERTILE SUBMISSIVE STORIES
SUBMISSIVE'S FOLLY (SEDUCED AND RAVAGED)
SUBMISSIVE'S EDUCATION
SUBMISSIVE'S HARD DISCOVERY
HER STRICT NEIGHBOR
SOLDIER'S STRICT ORDERS
COWBOY'S STRICT COMMANDS
RUSTLING UP A BRIDE: RANCHER'S PREGNANT CURVES
FIGHT FOR HER HEART
BIG BAD DARE: TATTOOS AND SUBMISSION
OUTLAW KIND OF LOVE
NOMAD KIND OF LOVE
SAVAGE KIND OF LOVE
SEXY SAMPLES: SAVAGE KIND OF LOVE
I: Three Nights (Saffron)
They say it only takes one night to change a woman's life. For me, it was three, each more savage than the last.
Deep in the darkness, forced to wrestle with dreams and desires and nightmares, a girl finds out what's really important really damned fast. And when it's all over, there's no more doubt.
Scars don't lie, and neither do hearts.
Three sunrises later, I knew I'd never know uncertainty again.
Three nights. Three vicious, unforgettable, pitch black collisions with life and death, love and hate. Three nights to mold me into what I was always meant to be.
I still think about the last one the most.
Starting with the way the sick, soulless bastard held the knife to my throat, digging in so deep he drew blood. His words echoed like a lion's growl in my ear. Distant and distorted by fear, but unmistakably dangerous.
“I see you've made your choice, baby doll. If you're not gonna tell us what we need to know about your boyfriend and his Prairie Pussies, then I guess we'll do things the hard way.” He paused, his stained teeth shaping a smile. “Lucky for you I like it hard.”
“Kill me now. You're a dead man either way,” I growled.
The knife relaxed its deadly pressure on my throat. His other hand tangled itself deeper in my hair and jerked, twisting my face to his, just the right position for a grotesque kiss.
I'd bite his lips if I had to. Only one man's skin belonged on mine, and I wouldn't forget it, no matter how hopeless this battle was.