Merciless Love: A Dark Romance

by Nicole Snow

  But it wasn't just his cock. Salacious pleasure ripped through in greater waves with every jerk of his hips. Below us, the bed creaked loudly, snapping in time to our moaning, groaning bliss.

  I didn't understand how fast and hard and strong he could fuck, but he was showing me. Ignorance melted in every stroke.

  Pleasure didn't lie. It tightened its hold around me, owning my clit, seizing all my nerves.

  I tried to hold onto him, digging my nails into his shoulder, gasping for sweet air. He pummeled me into the mattress, a frenzied pace that should've hurt if we weren't so carried away. I couldn't think about pain or stopping or anything that would take me a step away from the brink.

  “Come on this cock, babe,” he growled. “Milk my fucking nuts dry. Need to lose myself inside you. Make me lose my fucking mind.”

  Was I making those short shrill noises? I purred and growled softly, stabbing my ankles into his muscles until my legs burned, a few more thrusts away from –

  Oh, God! Oh, fuck!

  “Evan!” It hurt like hell to say his name, but it hurt damned good.

  I craned my neck, tilting my head completely upside down. The shrill squeaks and groans faded. Everything curled up inside me in a brutal tremor, the whole world imploding on itself. Orgasmic rapture rushing like rapids, carrying me away in ecstasy, into his strength and fury.

  I came, screaming and bucking my hips, gushing on his cock. Evan grunted louder, slamming his hips into me. He was fucking so fast and hard his balls slapped the tender edge of my ass.

  Convulsions hit me like lava flows, burning my body up again and again.

  Somewhere in heaven, I heard the fire rip through his throat, a sharper growl of pure masculine energy raining down. And then I felt it.

  His cock bulged, wedged deep, and exploded. Evan came like a demon, gripping my arms so tight and pinning me down, making sure I'd take his come.

  Fuck! My brain was past corrupted.

  It screamed in his language, sinful and possessed by lust, harsh words I was only beginning to understand. But they were the only ones worthy of describing the way he'd picked me up and slammed me down, pushing my entire being into the flames.

  Thick hot ropes filled my womb, one after another, a raging river that made the invisible one inside me look like a feeble stream. Liquid fire hurled itself up into me and melted. My sex hugged his cock, sucking and sliding all over him as he pumped his seed.

  I was gone.

  The insane orgasm that started reached an apex I couldn't even comprehend. All I knew were the spasms, the brutal rush pouring out of him into me, and the pure molten heat. It rose, crested, nearly made me black out, and then it began to fade as soft and mysterious as it began.

  “Evan!” I tried to call to him, wondering if the words ever made it out my mouth.

  I heard his gentle breathing. The death grip on my arms lessened, and his jaw clicked as he opened it.

  “Shhh.” He hissed so softly, close to my ear. Comforting. “We don't talk so soon after a fuck like that, babe. You just nestle into me and relax. Close your mouth and let your tight body do all the talking.”

  He ran his fingers through my hair. His lips were open, pouring hot breath over my body, gentle smoke after the wildfire.

  “We both know it was fucking amazing. You don't even need to say it. Here, listen to my lips.” He brushed his mouth against mine.

  I kissed him, feeling drunk and dreamy. He hadn't even pulled out, and I was sinking deep into the exhaustion that hit earlier.

  It had all happened so fast. My brain refused to cooperate, just like my body. All my systems were shutting down, failing me, demanding their leave. I vaguely sensed him lift off my body and roll me over, cradling my face to his huge tattooed chest.

  “Just sleep, babe. You deserve it after what you did. We're gonna figure all this shit out, and I'm never gonna fuck you up again. There's nothing but fucking and loving from here on out.”

  Crude, but effective, as usual. I smiled when he moved his lips to mine. By the time I really started to savor his kiss, I was out, lost in a warm dreamless sleep.

  Evan jerked awake sometime before dawn. And when I say jerked, I mean it was like an earthquake throttling the dark room.

  I woke up and yelped, shocked at the commotion. Even more shocked at how badly my muscles were twisted. Moving hurt as bad as Daddy's discipline beatings, except this was all on the inside, as if someone had bored through my skin and beat my muscle raw.

  “What! What is it?” I shook him.

  His lip quivered. He stared at me like he didn't recognize me. Did he even know he was awake?

  “Oh, fuck. Fuck. I'm sorry, Jenny...”

  His dark beautiful eyes pinched shut, and then opened. I swore one of us was losing our minds. He didn't react to me until I waved my hand right across his face.

  “Shit!” he stood, dragging the loose blanket off the bed, wrapped around his shoulders.

  “What the hell was that? Were you having a nightmare?” I wanted to reach for him. He was too far away, just out of grasp.

  Evan had his back turned to me, pacing toward the window. He threw the curtains aside. Totally dark, a cold autumn morning, except for the faintest orange stripe on the horizon.

  The muscles on his neck and shoulders bristled. He was shaking his head, a silent refusal. Still holding back after he'd bared the world to me.

  I got up and walked over cautiously. His skin jerked when I wrapped my arms around his hard abs, but he didn't throw me off. I had to stand on the tips of my toes to whisper into his ear.

  “I know you had to have a damned good reason for doing what you did when you first picked me up. What is it? What almost caused you to give me to another man as a slave?”

  I waited. No answer. His breathing was heavy, broad chest rising and falling beneath my nails.

  There was only one little clue to all this, and it wasn't one I understood. I had to roll the dice, no matter if it risked throwing him into a fury.

  “Evan...who's Ty?” I said the name as carefully as I'd heard both him and Izzy use it. And there was one more. “Who's Jenny?”

  “Not your fucking problem. They're mine, babe. All mine.” His big strong hands were shaking as he settled them over mine.

  I gave him space to turn around. We switched positions. He placed his hands on my smooth hips, gliding up along my back, as if convincing himself I was real.

  “I shouldn't tell you a damned thing. It'll confirm what you knew about me. If you're not crazy, you'll run outta here screaming, hating me for what I've done, and then I'll have to chase your pretty ass down in the woods all over again.”

  My eyes narrowed, and I looked at him. He was so, so tense. Whatever the big secret was, it hurt to hold it in.

  “Tell me. I'm not as fickle and scared as you think, not after all this.” I took a step closer, pushing my way into his arms, inhaling his musk. “I'm yours, Evan. I want to know. I want to help you. I already know you're hurting bad enough to kill people. I've seen you destroy at least three lives right before my eyes, including my own father, and I'm still here, aren't I? How bad could this be?”

  His eyes mirrored the strain on his face. One hand zipped up my spine, traced its way over my neck, and tossed my hair, burying his fingers in my strands.

  “You really want to know?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. I'll tell you, babe, and then we're never, ever gonna mention it again. Maybe you'll finally understood why I need to keep you safe. Can't leave you alone and let you out of my sight, not after what happened to her...”

  I blinked. He had my full attention. I just wished he'd stop delaying.

  “Fuck. Remember, Cassie, you asked. Here goes...”

  Just like that, he opened his chest and pulled out his heart.

  X: Unconditional (Evan)

  It was a botched job, and she was the whole fucking world to me.

  Jenny and I were happily married for three yea
rs when I fucked it all away. Never knew what the fuck she saw in me, but she did, the same charm that draws in girls who have no business getting mixed up with an asshole like me.

  Jenny, she was in deep. We had a son, Ty, five years old. He's the only thing in this world who really makes me smile, all I had left to protect 'til you, babe.

  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

  You wanna know my job? I was a hit man, a hired killer. I put people down for the cartel. Other bosses before Borzia too. Did my job well without a conscience, until the day he sent me to wipe out this asshole with a family.

  Fuck, Cassie, I see what you're thinking. I didn't do it.

  He had a teenage son. Found the kid cowering in a closet, begging for mercy. I spared him, but it was too fucking late. The savage sonofabitch who was helping me on the job put a hole through the kid's heart, and I put one through his fucking skull.

  Killing one of Borzia's men is like turning on the cartel – especially when that man happens to share his DNA. Yeah, the snake was family, and those roots run deep as hell in the underworld. Blood runs thick in crime, and so does betrayal. The instant I saw his body drop, I knew I was fucked.

  Not me, per say. The Mexican wasn't interested in snuffing my ass out the way I took out his guy. If he just wanted me dead, I could've lived and died accepting it. We would've been square. Would've been a thousand times better than the world of shit I landed my family in.

  When you fuck criminals who move in packs like these bastards, they fuck back. Always harder because they've got the numbers, but not a single goddamned heart.

  To them, the quickest way to fuck a man up isn't by blowing his brains out.

  Borzia took my family, Jenny and Ty, swept 'em up like they were just a dream. All I had was Izzy, who stayed by my side as soon as I talked her down from calling the cops, plotting to get them back. Trouble is she didn't know a damned thing about my world.

  I worked my ass off for weeks, wondering if they were alive. The place where they were kept was tight as Fort Fuckin' Knox. I know because I built it, gave the asshole iron tight security for his villa.

  I designed the prison for my own family and dug their graves.

  That bullshitter I killed in cult territory talked a good game about sin, didn't he? Well, I've fucking lived it, every cancerous second, unforgivable shit no God who has any shred of justice in the world will ever forgive...

  At this point, I lost it. It was hard just to breathe around the rock in my throat. I wanted to squeeze Cassie to my chest and throw her across the damned room simultaneously.

  This was a mistake. Should've kept my stupid mouth shut.

  Why was I dropping this anguish on her, horrific shit she'd never understand?

  “It's okay,” she whispered. “The Prophet's sin isn't the way of this world. I can't tell you what heaven says you deserve, Evan, but I know what you are. You're sorry for what's happened, and that's got to count for something.” She squeezed me, so hard her sharp little nails clawed at my skin. “Tell me the rest. Please.”

  Okay, fine.

  Couple weeks later, the motherfucker calls me up. He does everything over conference call because he likes watching my ass squirm.

  At first, I'm desperate. Fucking crazy. I offer to empty out every dime in my bank account, deed him the house through his proxies, but what's the damned point?

  Dangerous business pays better than anything, and this fuck is loaded. He laughs at my offers and doesn't tell me what the hell he wants until he's good and ready.

  The bastard needs a slave. “Companions,” he calls them, women so physically and mentally fucked they disappear after a few months. They're usually poor bitches his thugs buy off the black market, straight outta Eastern Europe.

  This time, he wants an American girl, and he wants me to wrangle her up. He's no dumbass. Bastard coughed up the best goddamned torture he could've thought up in his warped little brain.

  By this time, Izzy's losing her fucking mind with drink and being cooped up in this house, waiting to hear about her sister and our boy. When I tell her what he wants, she starts to ride my ass. The guilt that ate her up and set you free wasn't there while she was hitting the sauce.

  She tells me we better do anything to bring them back. I pussied out. Didn't want to drag an innocent girl into this, much less one who'll be going to her to doom with Borzia.

  I should've fucking listened. If I'd given him what he wanted, then and there, I wouldn't have put you through this shit. I wouldn't have had to watch what happened next. I only would've had to beat my brains out against the wall until I forgot all about doing wrong to some poor bitch.

  Adrenaline hit. Pure adrenaline dumped into my veins. Even leaning on this soft, understanding angel didn't help.

  Whenever I pictured it, my fucking heart almost exploded, alive with the rage I'd tried to contain for so long and couldn't anymore.

  I had to keep it together. I had to re-walk the nightmare and take Cassie with me.

  I did the stupidest thing I could've done, babe. I waited until he called me up, then told him to his face there was no fucking deal, and there never would be.

  Bastard took it like a challenge.

  Next thing I knew, he was on the line again, just a few hours later. This time, he had Jenny strapped in a chair, looking right at me. Her scared, sweet face told me what I already knew: I'd ruined myself and butchered my family.

  When I thought he was going to rape her in front of me, I went berserk. If only I were so fucking lucky.

  The motherfucker didn't say a damned thing. Just pulled two huge daggers and held them to her neck, hooked around her skin like scimitars. Jenny was looking at the ground, silent and accepting, ready to die for my mistake.

  Prophet or bullshit, I don't care. If there's a heaven, she's got to be there after sacrificing herself for me and Ty.

  I watched the whole thing.

  Borzia cut her throat in one jerk. My vision went red with rage and blood and horror. Nearly tore the whole fucking house apart before I blacked out. Last thing I remember was laying on the ground, watching the screen before blood red turned black.

  I let it drain. I cried. I wept like a fucking bitch.

  Borzia kicked the love of my life on the ground like she was garbage! I'll never forget it, babe. Never!

  Won't pretend it means anything more profound than I'm a fuckup, and I deserve to suffer.

  See, Jenny's dull eyes burned a hole in my soul and her blood stained my evil ass forever. Borzia made his damned point: he was willing to kill and destroy everything I ever cared about if I didn't give him what he wanted.

  He killed her without batting a fucking eye, and he wouldn't hesitate to murder my son too. I was lost.

  I was ready to give him what he wanted 'til yesterday. I was gonna do it, babe, and use you to get Ty home. If Izzy's guardian angel hadn't come back and perched on her shoulder, I would've given you up.

  I would've fucked up again and damned myself with the unthinkable.

  I'd only blacked out twice in my life. One time happened when I was a dumb kid and this big gorilla biker broke my jaw after I hit on his old lady at a bar. The second time was when I saw my wife's dead eyes and dark red blood – so much fucking blood – thick murder that should've made it impossible to feel a damned thing ever again.

  I felt detached, like I was going to fall over and crush her to the floor. I shook my head, fighting the sensation.

  “You understand now?” I growled. “I don't give a shit if I came to my senses, Cassie. My fuckup killed my wife, and it would've killed you too if I'd thrown you to the wolf in the white suit. If I don't figure something out, it's still gonna kill my son. I'm a walking curse, babe, and the nightmare you've lived isn't gonna end as long as you're with me.”

  Her eyes were huge. Speaking of blood, I was sure she'd torn into my skin with her nails. My fucked up brain enjoyed the tiny warm trickle rolling toward my ass where she clenched me.

 
All of a sudden, she let go and jerked back. “Oh my God...I'm sorry!”

  She looked at her hands. Yep, blood under her nails, but only a little bit. I shook my head.

  In the grand scheme of things, bleeding out my confession didn't matter. Hell, it was a match for the way I tore myself open and spilled my poisoned soul, dark and thick as Jenny's blood.

  What the fuck was I thinking? How had I ever tried to break her down for a death sentence in Borzia's sick hands?

  I didn't deserve the wide eyed compassionate angel in front of me. My guts tightened up and burned, raging at the realization that I couldn't keep anybody safe.

  My stupid, sloppy errors dragged good people to their deaths, and it was bound to do some more before I was done. Had to be karma biting me right in the ass for all the lives I'd taken.

  Satan was a hungry sonofabitch, and I had a cold feeling he wasn't done with me yet. Not by a goddamned California mile.

  “I...I don't know what to say,” she stammered. Cassie shook her head, dark hair bouncing over her beautiful bare shoulders. “What's done is done. You made your mistakes and they were bad ones, Evan...”

  Don't say it, I thought.

  My guts heaved. Fuck, the last thing in the world I wanted was to hear her tell me everything was all right, and the future was gonna be all roses. I turned away when she stepped up and ran her hand over my face.

  “You're sweet, baby girl, but you don't got a fucking clue. I deserve this shit. I deserve everything for the things I did, let alone the sick and shitty things I was close to doing just thirty hours ago. You see this?”

  I jabbed my thumb into my chest, tracing the crossed swords I had inked on my breast. They symbolized the way my whole life had gone to hell, reminders to avoid fucking up again, burned on my flesh where I couldn't forget.

  “This shit here used to be a skull and crossbones. Used to think I was Mister Badass with life and death wrapped around my fucking finger. Turns out it's not so simple. I played reaper and shoved the nastiest assholes you can imagine into their graves. Now, I'm the hunted. My head's between those damned swords if I don't figure this shit out. And I'm not taking any more chances. Not with you, not with Izzy, not with Ty. I'm doing this alone.”