by Abbi Cook
“There are other ways to feel that way that might not have caused you so much pain.”
“Not the same,” he says, shaking his head. “I’d take being inside you over your hand or even your mouth any day of the week.”
I’m not sure what to say to that as I feel my cheeks start to get warm from a blush. Looking away toward the floor, I mumble, “I guess that’s a compliment.”
His fingertip touches under my chin, and he gently turns my head so I face him. “It’s definitely a compliment, especially considering I think I have at least a couple fractured ribs.”
“I don’t understand men,” I say with a sigh.
Wincing, he takes a deep breath in as pain washes over his face. He lets it out slowly, and then answers in a strained tone, “There’s not much to understand. We like to eat, drink, sleep, fuck, and fight, not necessarily in that order. Even the worst of us don’t have needs that go past those five categories.”
“So why did you want to take me from Tap? Because you wanted to fuck me? I don’t fit into any of those other categories.”
All of a sudden, King turns distant. It’s like a gulf has formed between us, even though he sits right next to me. My heart sinks to hear his voice sound emotionless too when he says, “He owed me, so I took you. Simple.”
Simple? How can taking a human being to pay a debt be simple? I can’t explain it, but the way he dismisses any other reason for wanting to take me from Tap hurts my feelings. How can I expect him to protect me when I mean so little to him?
“Please promise me no matter what happens that you won’t let him get me. I know I’m just a repayment of a debt he owes you, but my life depends on it.”
And just like that, King looks at me and all that intensity I see when we’re together and he’s deep inside me rushes back into his eyes.
“You’re not just a repayment of a debt, Sophie.” He stops for a long moment and then continues, “You’re mine. I told you that. I won’t let him touch you.”
Mine. He says that like it means something more than just that I’m the person he keeps here in his apartment.
I want to ask what mine means to him, but it sounds childish and naïve, so I hold back and instead ask another question almost as important. “What about your boss?” I say, worried the answer to that question might not be the same.
“He has no interest in taking you from me. You don’t have to worry. Trust me.”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
He doesn’t respond for a moment, but then he shakes his head and I see the hint of a frown. “No, you don’t.”
We sit in silence as he slowly breathes in and out until I finally say, “I’m not sorry for wanting to be free, but I am sorry I may have caused you more trouble.”
In a quiet voice, he says, “I don’t blame you for trying to escape, Sophie.”
“You just blame me for being stupid about it?”
King shakes his head again. “I just need you to believe me, okay? I won’t let anyone hurt you. I swear.”
He gets up and slowly walks out of the bedroom, leaving me sitting there naked on the edge of his bed wondering why I do believe him. He’s no less vicious than any of the other men I’ve seen at this place, yet something about him makes me think he’ll do as he promises.
I want to hate him. I want to leave this place and never think about him or anyone here again. But I don’t know if I’ll ever forget King.
All I know is I will leave this place someday. With or without his help, I will escape. That’s the only sure thing I can cling to, and I can never let that thought leave my brain.
Chapter Fifteen
King
My eyes fly open, and I look down in horror at my side expecting to see someone with a sharp knife rooting around inside my gut. Barely awake, I see nothing, but then a second later, I instinctively take in a deep breath of air into my lungs and cry out in agony.
“Fuck!”
Beside me, Sophie stirs but doesn’t wake up, and I hold onto the side of the bed as I wait out this current wave of pain washing over me. A minute passes and then finally it subsides, so I let the air out of my lungs slowly, terrified that pain will return while I stare up at the ceiling and try to think of anything to get my mind off how fucking bad this hurts.
One hell of a way to wake up. Misery, the breakfast of champions.
Turning my head, I look over and watch Sophie as she sleeps. Her mouth turned down into a frown, her bottom lip juts out into a pout. It’s cute in a strange way since the only other times I’ve ever seen anyone look like that is when babies sleep.
Closing my eyes, I silently wonder what the fuck is wrong with me. She shouldn’t be here. I should have left her out on the couch. She would have been perfectly fine out there. The damn thing’s as comfortable as this bed, for Christ’s sake. Millions of people sleep on couches every night.
I stop beating myself up long enough to look over at her again. Why she’s here doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. That doesn’t explain what’s wrong with me, though. I know better than to let anyone in, most of all some woman. Females get guys like me killed. They get in the way. They fuck up our thinking.
Women like Sophie bring out things in us that make doing the job impossible.
I know all of that, and still she’ll stay with me in this bed. She belongs here with me. And yet, a tiny voice in the back of my mind whispers this is a mistake we’ll both pay for in the end.
“Why are you staring at me like that? Did I kick you or something in my sleep?”
Her question tears me out of my daydreaming about our eventual demise, and I shake my head. “No. At least I don’t think you did. I woke up with a sharp pain in my side, so maybe you did.”
With a wince, regret washes over her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose. I guess I move around a lot when I sleep.”
In truth, I have no idea if that’s true. Until I woke up in utter agony, I hadn’t felt a thing since I drifted off to sleep last night. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I slept so well.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.”
Remembering what Cam said about getting pneumonia if I don’t keep my lungs in shape, I take a shallow breath in and hold it there, waiting for the pain to come rushing back any second. When it doesn’t, I let it out slowly and try another, slightly deeper inhale. Better to feel pain now than be laid up in bed for weeks while my place is taken by the likes of Tap.
As if she can read my mind, Sophie asks, “Why do you do what you do with your boss?”
“Do what I do? What do you mean?” I ask as I let that deeper breath out of my lungs with relief. No red-hot, searing pain yet.
She doesn’t answer for a long moment, and when I look over at her to see why she’s hesitating, she looks uncomfortable. “I’m not actually sure what you do, but you work for that Duke guy, right?”
“Yep.”
“So, what do you do for him? Like why were you in my neighborhood that night?” she asks as she props her head up on her hand and then waits for my answer.
My boss’s warning not to have pillow talk with her echoes in my head, but I push it away. It can’t hurt to tell her what I do. Who’s she going to blab to?
“I do a lot of things, but that night we were there to collect money from someone who owed Duke.”
She listens to my answer and quickly asks, “For what?”
“What did he owe him money for?” I ask in return, knowing what she means but unsure how much further I want to go into what I do in this world.
Too clever for my little game, she smiles. “Yes. What did he buy that he had to pay you guys for?”
I know what she thinks. Drugs. Maybe guns. Not that either of those answers would be incorrect most of the time when it comes to the people Duke deals with, but in this case, neither is right.
“He didn’t buy anything. It wasn’t that kind of debt,” I say, explaining nothing and only muddying the conversation
.
Sophie’s eyebrows draw in toward her nose, making her look only slightly less beautiful. Clearly frustrated, she sighs. “You know what I’m asking. If you don’t want to tell me, don’t, but why answer in the first place?”
Something about her exasperation makes me chuckle, but no sooner do I start, so does the pain in my side. She sees me cringe and quickly sits up.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to answer. I’m sorry I asked.”
“I’m not angry, Sophie. My ribs just gave me a shot of pain when I chuckled. I can answer your question.”
“Only if you want to,” she says shyly, looking down at me while she stays away from me.
“He owed him money because he borrowed money. Loan sharking,” I explain even as I wonder why she hasn’t laid back down.
Does she think I’m going to lash out at her?
“Oh.”
“You sound disappointed,” I say, smiling. “What did you think I’d say?”
Sophie hesitates for a moment and then looks down toward her legs. “I thought you were going to say he bought someone…like me, I mean.”
“No, Duke doesn’t sell people,” I answer before touching her knee.
Looking up at me, she studies my face for a few seconds and shakes her head. “He only takes them? What’s the end game of that?”
“He doesn’t even do that. Tap took it upon himself to grab you. We were just supposed to go get money,” I explain, but at my mention of his name, she moves her leg so I’m not touching her anymore.
Suddenly quiet, she avoids looking at me. Everything in her body language says just hearing Tap’s name now bothers her. Why, though?
“Sophie, I told you I’ll keep you safe. You can believe me. I won’t let Tap or anyone else get their hands on you.”
“You said a lot of things last night.”
Between the pain that ebbs and flows through my body and the great sex last night, I’m not sure I can pinpoint what she’s referring to. What did I say that has her so worried?
“I meant what I said about not letting him or anyone else hurt you. I promise.”
Lifting her head, she looks down at me with such innocence in her eyes that I almost don’t recognize her. “You said I was yours last night. Did you mean that?”
I look up into her big brown eyes and nod. “Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means no one else can touch you. That’s what it means.”
But that isn’t what she wants to know. And just like that, she backs me into a corner I shouldn’t have been anywhere close to.
“Is that it?” she asks in a voice barely above a whisper.
She bites her lower lip anxiously as I consider what to tell her. It’s not it. And that’s the worst part of all of this. I don’t know when or how I let this happen, but she got under my skin.
For a man like me in a world like this, nothing could be worse.
Reaching out for her, I pull Sophie down and kiss her with every bit of need inside me. Nobody else will ever touch her again. If they do, I’ll kill them.
And I don’t care what that does to put me in danger.
Her soft lips search for my tongue, sucking it into her mouth and teasing me. Lifting her head, she smiles playfully.
“You should really rest those ribs.”
I pull back the sheet and show her I’ve already dismissed that idea. With a gentle tug on my hard cock, I shrug.
“Too late for that. Come here.”
My hand pulls her head back down, and I kiss her hard, needing the feel of her lips on mine. She’s so soft compared to everything else that surrounds me in this world we’re trapped in. I crave that mouth, and as much as having her suck my cock at this moment sounds like pure ecstasy, I have a better idea.
She mews against my hold, so I slide my hand down and lift her onto me. She’s wet and ready, just like I need her to be. “Somebody woke up in a good mood this morning,” I say against her lips.
“I would have said I was still sleepy until you kissed me, to be honest.”
That’s a lie, and she knows it as well as I do. I can see it in her eyes, even though she’s brave enough to keep her gaze fixed on me after she says those words.
Shaking my head, I smile up at her. “No, you weren’t.”
With a quizzical look, she asks, “What do you mean?”
All this talking when I could be inside her makes me wish I hadn’t mentioned her good mood, but now that she’s taken the conversation and her lie this far, I’m going to push her a little more for the truth.
I push her hips down so she’s pressed against my cock. My ribs make moving next to impossible, so Sophie’s going to have to do all the hard work today.
“You laid there trying to fall asleep last night, but you couldn’t. You tossed and turned thinking about how I said you were mine, and you wanted to know what that means. Then you woke up and it was the first thing on your mind, so when you had the opportunity, you asked about it. You weren’t sleep. You were curious, little one.”
My claim is met with silence, and I study her face as she tries to think of something to say. Her cheeks grow pink with each passing moment, a tell-tale sign I’m right.
Finally, her mouth turns down into that pout like when she’s sleeping, her bottom lip jutting out and making me want to suck it into my mouth. “How do you know I didn’t toss and turn before I fell asleep because I’m torn about wanting to be with you and wanting to be away from this place?”
There’s more truth than bluff in that statement too, but just hearing her talk about leaving irritates me, even if I do know somewhere deep inside that the sooner she gets away from here the better.
But it can’t be until the time is right.
Stuffing my hand into her hair, I tug her head down so her face is level to mine and stare into her eyes. “Patience, Sophie. Don’t do anything stupid again, or I won’t be able to protect you.”
Her eyes grow wide with fear. “I-I won’t. I promise.”
“Good. For now, we’re both stuck in this place with very few choices, so we might as well take advantage of the fact that I’m hard and you’re wet.”
Sophie looks down between us and then back up at me. “That deep breath you took in looked like it hurt. Don’t you think this is going to make things worse?”
Typical woman.
“One, this never makes things worse. Never in the history of the world has good sex made things worse. But you’re not wrong about me being a little laid up, so you’re going to be doing the hard work this morning, Miss Sophie,” I explain.
Her eyebrows shoot up into her forehead at hearing my new nickname for her. “Miss Sophie? What happened to little one?”
“I thought you hated little one,” I tease as I run my hands down over her body and grab her hips.
“I thought I did, too, but Miss Sophie sounds like a kindergarten teacher.”
A hint of her pout returns, so I say, “Well, as hot as fucking an innocent kindergarten teacher sounds, you seem to dislike it, so I’ll go back to little one. Happy?”
I don’t give her a chance to answer before I lift her off me and push myself up against the headboard. In a seated position, I stretch my legs and she hovers above my cock, teasing me with what’s to come. At the first touch of the head to her pussy, she sighs, and as much as I want to lift my hips and bury myself balls deep inside her, the memory of the pain from just one breath this morning stops me.
Instead, I push her down onto me and achieve the same perfect goal. A few seconds later, she’s filled with my cock and lets out a tiny moan.
But I want to hear her scream this morning.
“Let me see you ride me, little one. I want to watch you come for me.”
On cue, she rolls her hips, and the top of my head nearly blows off she feels so fucking good. She’s dripping wet, but still her cunt fits me like a glove.
“Is this hurting you?” she asks sweetly, her body moving up an
d down my shaft while I hold her hips to keep her from going too fast.
I shake my head and grin. “Hurting is the last thing this is doing to me.”
That she cares charms me, but I don’t want sweet or kind this morning. I want rough and hard, and when I hear her scream my name, that’s when I’ll be satisfied. Me coming will be good, of course, but her yelling while she rides my cock and creams all over me is what I want.
Arching her back, Sophie’s body undulates like she wants to feel every inch of me fuck her. I reach up and cup her breasts in my hands, squeezing her hard nipples between my thumbs and forefingers. A single pinch makes her squeal, and she starts to bounce up and down on my cock.
“See? I told you a little pain would be nice,” I groan before giving her tits another hard squeeze.
She swipes her lower lip with the tip of her tongue and smiles down at me. “I’ve never liked anyone doing that to me.”
“That isn’t what I saw. It’s too bad I don’t have a mirror behind this bed so you could have seen how much you liked when I gave each of them a pinch.”
Leaning down, she kisses me before rolling her hips again to take my cock deep inside her. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it with you.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I’ve got something even better you’re going to love.”
A look of confusion settles into her face, and for a moment, she stops riding me. She doesn’t have to worry. Like I told her, she’ll like this kind of pain.
I cup her right breast in my palm and lift it to my mouth. It’s heavy in my hand, and her nipple is the perfect shade of deep pink. Flicking my tongue over it, I taste her skin and love the way it hits my taste buds. Like soap and water, she’s clean in my mouth.
When I hear her start to moan, I close my teeth around her skin and bite down. Not too much, but hard enough that she’s surprised.
“You bit me!”
I look up at her and nod. “Uh-huh. And you loved it.”
She doesn’t answer, but I know by the way her cunt squeezed around my cock when I nipped her breast that it made her want more. I take her into my mouth and suck even harder than I bit to inch up her pain even more.