Dubious

by Charmaine Pauls

  He spits blood from a split lip on the floor. “Have myself some fun. She’s only a maid, for Christ’s sake.”

  My voice is soft, but my anger carries in my tone. “That gives you the right to assault the people living under my roof, the people I protect?”

  “Hold on, son.” Jeremy steps between us, his palms raised. “You’re not going to risk our newly forged relationship over a maid, are you?”

  I turn my vengeance on the old man. “She’s not just a maid. She’s property.”

  Jeremy knows what that means. In his and my world, property is more untouchable than a man’s wife. You may fuck someone else’s wife and pray you don’t get caught, but you don’t lay a finger on another man’s property without accepting that you’re going to get your hand chopped off.

  “Whoa.” He utters a nervous laugh. “Honest mistake. Diogo didn’t know. We’re used to helping ourselves, if you know what I mean.”

  “Are you insulting me by insinuating my house is a brothel?”

  “Jeremy,” Magda takes his arm, “your son needs medical attention. I’ll cover all the costs, of course. I do apologize for this unfortunate misunderstanding.”

  It’s a subtle way of telling him to leave. Magda knows me too well. I’m a lunatic, and right now, I’m about as stable as an active volcano.

  Jeremy frees his arm. “Let’s go, Diogo.”

  Diogo sneers at me as he passes, clutching his side. He should’ve just carried on walking, but the mistake he makes is to turn back in the doorway.

  “You know what your problem is, honey?” he says to Valentina. “You’re too damn pretty. It’s a shame you’re also a prude. I think you would’ve enjoyed it if I’d jumped you against the wall.”

  Just like that, my frayed control unravels. Magda grabs for the hem of my jacket as I lurch forward and catch the cocksucker around the neck. Jeremy is cussing and trying to pull my arms away from his son, but not a hundred horses are enough to tear me away. I drag him by his scrawny neck to Valentina and force him down on his knees at her feet. I grab a fistful of his perfectly styled hair and jerk his head back. Reaching for the same knife Valentina used to defend herself, I push the tip against his lilywhite, pretty-boy neck.

  “Apologize.”

  “Diogo,” Jeremy says from behind me, a tremor in his voice, “do as he says.”

  “Gabriel.” There’s consternation in Magda’s tone, but she doesn’t touch me. The situation is too volatile. I’m too unpredictable. A flick of my wrist and Diogo’s life will bleed out at Valentina’s feet. Only, I don’t want another man’s blood on her conscience. She already feels responsible for Tiny’s death. Diogo doesn’t deserve the guilt she’ll suffer over him.

  “I’m sorry,” Diogo grits out.

  I jerk harder on his hair, making him cry out in pain. “Say it like you mean it.”

  “I’m really fucking sorry.”

  I lodge the tip of the knife under his skin. “Beg.” A thin trickle of blood runs down his neck under his collar.

  “Forgive me,” he says. “I beg you.”

  I look at Valentina. “Do you forgive him?”

  She looks at me with owl eyes. “Yes.”

  “You’re more compassionate than me.” I yank him up by his hair until he finds his feet. “Get the fuck out of my house. The deal’s off, and you better pray I don’t run into you on the street. You better stay very far away from me.”

  When I let go, Diogo stumbles to his father. Magda is paler than the white tiles on the floor, quiet for once. Jeremy gives me a narrowed glare, but he takes Diogo’s arm and escorts him from the room. You don’t insult a man in his own house. Jeremy knows this. He knows I can cut Diogo’s throat for that, and none of his business associates will retaliate.

  Magda rubs the back of her neck. “I’ll see you out.” She turns to Valentina. “You better go to your room and not come out until morning. If I see your face before, I may not be able to suppress the urge to kill you.”

  When it’s just the two of us in the kitchen, I take her in my arms and give her a hug. “You okay?”

  She nods. “I didn’t want to cause trouble.”

  “You did the right thing.” I kiss her nose. “I’m proud of you.”

  “You put your life at risk. They’re going to kill you.”

  “They’ll try, but so is every other criminal and cop in the country. You’re mine, Valentina, and nobody touches you.”

  The clicking of Magda’s heels down the hallway makes me go rigid. “Go to bed.”

  “The kitchen––”

  “Can wait for tomorrow. Go.”

  She obeys wordlessly. By the time Magda reenters the room, Valentina is out of sight.

  “In my study.” Magda stalks from the room, not waiting to see if I’m following.

  She holds the door for me and slams it when I step over the threshold.

  “Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

  “You know I am, Magda.”

  “Do you have any idea how hard I worked to secure that deal?” She pushes her finger in my face. “What gave you the right to blow it away? Over a fucking maid!”

  I grab her finger and move it away with force. The act catches her off-guard. She stumbles a step back and gapes at me with a mixture of disbelief and fear.

  “If you ever push your finger in my face again, I’ll break it.”

  “Gabriel,” she exclaims on a gasp, “I’m your mother.”

  “You’ve never been a mother to me. Don’t claim the designation now.”

  “What’s gotten into you? You blew a multi-million-rand deal, for God’s sake!” She straightens her back, her fear suddenly gone. “Don’t think you’re above my punishment because you’re my son. You’re taking this game you’re playing with the girl too far. You’ve had your fun. Let her slip up and kill her so we can all go back to our lives.”

  “I’ll decide when the fun’s up.”

  “Is part of the fun buying her fancy clothes? Playing with a doll isn’t enough for you? You have to dress her, too?”

  “Are you checking my bank statements?”

  “I know the owner of the boutique where you took your slave on a shopping spree.”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “You’re fucked in the head, you know that? Just like your father.”

  “How can I forget when you’re doing such a great job of reminding me?”

  She wipes a hand over her face. “I need a drink.” Propping her hands on her hips, she regards me from under her lashes. “Get her out of your system, Gabriel. Do whatever it takes. Eventually, you’re going to have to kill her.”

  “Good night, Mother.”

  I leave her alone in her study, going to my own for a stiff drink and to mull over the evening. I should’ve broken Diogo’s nose the minute he stepped over my doorstep. That way, I would’ve saved myself a whole evening of his unpleasant presence. My thoughts don’t dwell on the cocksucker for long. As always, my attention is reserved for Valentina. I’m not sure in what emotional state she’ll be when I go to her room, but I’ll be there for her, regardless. She should feel safe under my roof, knowing I won’t let anyone harm her. The kind of hurt I want to give her, that’s something entirely different. The kind of pain I like to inflict is as much for her pleasure as mine.

  When I walk through her door, I don’t find her curled up in bed or huddled in a corner. She’s spread out on the bed, naked, waiting for me. My balls draw tight. My cock swells.

  I can’t look away from her fingers where they rest between her legs. “You played with yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you come?”

  “No, I was saving that for you.”

  “Good, because otherwise I would’ve had to punish you. I own your orgasms. Say it.”

  “You own me, Gabriel. All of my orgasms.”

  I swallow away the hoarseness in my throat. “Show me. Play with yourself.”

  “Later.” She wigg
les her hips. “I want you inside me.”

  Holy fuck. What she does to me. I strip my clothes and climb between her legs. Even if she’s offering herself, I want to hunt her. I want to catch her in the wild, wild, darkest woods of our desires and conquer her body. I want to tame her soul. I’ve got her, but I’m terrified I’ll lose her. I need to pin her down and constrain her, keep her in the cage of lust I so carefully constructed to trap her.

  I flatten my palm on her pelvis, keeping her lower body in place as I push two fingers inside her pussy. She’s wet. The suction of her inner muscles welcomes me. I can’t wait. I grip the root of my shaft and place it at her entrance, but she shakes her head. It takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to give in to the urge to tie her up and make her have it my way. It takes strength to lift my hand from her abdomen and allow her to escape, but she doesn’t run away from the monster in her bed. She embraces the need that’s chasing us both by turning over on her hands and knees. She looks back at me from over her shoulder, putting her beautiful cunt on display.

  “Take me like this,” she whispers.

  The animal in me rises to the occasion. I open her pussy with my thumbs, align my cock with her slick folds, and drive home. Her back arches from the fast and hard intrusion, but she slams back, meeting my force with an urgency of her own. I’m giving her my all, thrusting our groins together with enough force to bruise her skin.

  “More,” she pants. “You’re holding back.”

  I’m fucking the air from her lungs, and she’s begging for more.

  “Harder, Gabriel. Please. Please, God. Let it go. Make me forget. Make me forget what happened tonight.”

  I do. The walls of my constraint break, crumbling around her, and I take her like I’ve never taken a woman before.

  * * *

  Valentina

  Gabriel is pounding into me, hurting me inside, but I need more. With him, I’ll always need more. He steals my breath, takes my pleasure, and owns my desires. I am so filled with him, I can’t take more, and, yet I want him in every crevice and corner of my body.

  Reaching between my legs, I caress his testicles, feeling their charged sway as he slams his groin against my ass.

  “More,” I moan. “Please.”

  “If I fuck you harder, I’ll break you.”

  I want him to bleed into my cells until we are inseparable, until our DNA is entangled and my life is grafted with his. Together, we’re invincible. As long as he’s with me, no one else can touch me. Like this, there’s no ugly. No Diogo. No men like Tiny. Only Gabriel who makes me forget everything, even that he owns me.

  “Fill me, Gabriel. Fill me more.”

  “Goddammit, Valentina. You kill me.”

  I look back at him from over my shoulder. His face is scrunched up with pent-up desire, his cool eyes dark with lust, and his jaw tense with control. Without breaking his pace, he lets go of my hip to stick his forefinger in his mouth. He opens my ass with his free hand and sticks his wet finger into my dark entrance. I fall forward and catch my weight on my arms. With the intrusion in my ass, the pressure in my pussy increases two-fold.

  “Yes,” I whimper. “Like that.”

  I brace myself for the impact. His hands being otherwise occupied, he can no longer support my hips. The force is too much. My body is helpless under his brutal hammering. Every thrust shifts me higher up the mattress. He follows me, pulling out and pushing back in, his cock and finger working in synchrony. One hand moves around to the front of my body, finding my clit. A few fast strokes and I come, yelling his name. I expect him to come with me, but he doesn’t. While I’m riding the incredible wave of my release, he stretches me by adding a second finger to the first in my backside. I’m overfull, but I don’t care. I’m contracting and sizzling, my body a canvas of receptors for pleasure. I’m floating in a space of euphoric bliss. I don’t care what he does with my body.

  After a while, he pulls his cock free. Only his fingers are punishing my ass. This, too, stops. His touch disappears.

  “Don’t move.”

  Exhausted, I melt into the sheets. I’m not going anywhere. The bed dips, and then he’s gone. Cupboards open and close in the kitchen. What is he doing? I have my answer when he returns with a bottle of cooking oil. He places it on the floor and continues right where he left off, working two fingers into my ass. The sensation is wrong and thrilling. A forbidden kind of pleasure runs up my spine. After a moment, he withdraws his fingers and opens my crack. Cold liquid squirts into my ass. After the heat, the cold comes as a shock. I squirm to escape the onslaught, but he grabs me between the legs and holds me still while more of that slippery liquid fills me up. The oil. It feels like when he comes inside of me, only colder. He smears the substance around the tight ring of muscle, and when he pushes his finger back, it slips right in. I arch my back in response, needing more of the friction. The second finger joins the first, and soon a third finger stretches me. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s too full. I’m about to say so when his hand disappears and a hot, smooth surface pushes against my dark entrance. I look over my shoulder to see him positioning his cock where his fingers have been.

  I try to lift my upper body, but he pushes me down with a hand on my lower back, working himself into me an inch. It burns like hell. I moan and squirm and try to push him out, but the harder I clench my backside, the harder he pushes.

  “Relax,” he says in a tight voice. “I’ll take your ass regardless.”

  I know he will, and I want him to. I take a deep breath and try to let the tension go, but when he moves deeper, I cry out and bite into the pillow to muffle the sound.

  “Almost there,” he says, rubbing his palms over my ass cheeks.

  God, it hurts. I’m not sure I can take it. “Gabriel.”

  “Hush, beautiful.” He bends down and kisses my spine. “Take a deep breath.”

  He talks me through it, making me breathe in and out until he has buried all of him inside me. The last inch is the worst. I gasp and swallow air. When he moves, I scream, grinding my pelvis to the mattress to escape the touch, but he chases after me, fucking me deeper. With every thrust he pounds the breath out of me until my voice is raw, and then he stills, keeping his cock in my body. I’m barely aware of anything but the invasive hardness. Carefully, he slips two fingers into my pussy. The pad of his thumb rests on my clit, stimulating my need. As my desire starts climbing again and my muscles contract around him, he moves again. He takes me to a place I didn’t know existed, where pleasure and pain are one, and the effect of having both sensations simultaneously on my body makes it impossible to discern where the one starts and the other stops. He’s kindling the biggest need in me yet. I’m full and fulfilled. I’m aching, but he’s soothing me. I’m hovering on the edge. If I tumble over, I may not stop falling, but I’m powerless to prevent it.

  My body tightens. As the wave starts rolling, he drags his wet fingers from my pussy. His hands fold around my neck, squeezing just enough to cut my airflow. I need to fight, but I’m too weak. I don’t have enough energy left. I can only lie there with electric shivers running through my clit, and Gabriel’s cock ramming into my ass while white spots start to dance in my vision, and my pulse hammers in my ears. The minute he gives me back the gift of oxygen, of life, I come with a force that shatters my body and mind. Thousands of volts of pleasure course through me, pulling every muscle, finger, and toe so tight my body is one, great spasm. I must’ve fallen over that edge, because I’m drifting like a feather, and everything around me turns into a comfortable darkness where the brutal pleasure mercifully stops.

  * * *

  Gabriel

  Fuck. Shit. It’s the first time I fucked a woman unconscious. I turn Valentina’s limp body on her back and slap her cheeks.

  “Wake up, baby.”

  She doesn’t move. Not even her eyelashes flutter. The euphoria of my climax evaporates. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I pick her up in my arms and carry her to the shower. I can barely squeeze inside
with her draped over me. I adjust the water to a lukewarm setting and, tipping her head back, let it run over her face and hair.

  She frowns and stirs.

  “That’s my girl. Come on, Valentina.”

  She gasps and coughs. Her eyelids lift to reveal tiger-eye gemstones staring at me. “Gabriel.”

  Relief washes over me, and the tightness in my chest expands marginally. “I’m here, beautiful.”

  I hold her to me, letting her find her feet without releasing my grip on her waist. Allowing her to pass out wasn’t part of my plan. I’m furious with myself. She deserves better than a sadist who pushes her to the limits of pleasure, all the way into fucking fainting. The only way I know to make it right is to give her comfort. Like she took care of me the night I was stabbed, I take care of her, washing her hair and her body from the top of her head to the tip of her toes as best as I can in the confined space. I’m careful with the tender part between her legs and especially her ass. After drying and dressing her, I put her to bed. It tears me up, but I have to go to my own. I’m too exhausted to risk staying with her. If I fall asleep, I may not wake up before Carly. I don’t want to leave her like this, but I must. For how much longer can I keep up the pretense?

  * * *

  After my morning workout with Quincy and Rhett, I meet Sonny and Lance, two of my franchise owners, about a dispute over territory. Lance has been casting his nets in Sonny’s reservoir, and as much as I hate playing ombudsman, I prefer to step in before we have a war on our hands. It’s a glorious day, and we’re having our discussion by the pool. My leg has been bothering me more than usual after last night’s sexual marathon, and the exercise in the water does me good. I swim a few laps before stretching out on a deckchair in the sun, listening to the squabble between the grown men. When it gets close to one o’clock, I interrupt their bickering.

  “No eyes on the housekeeper.”

  Sonny and Lance exchange a glance, but comprehension dawns on their faces when Valentina exits from the kitchen, a tray loaded with food in her hands, and walks our way. Sonny looks up at the sky while Lance fixes his gaze on his toes.