“Give it back.”

He never saw it coming.

But it had been on my mind since my eyes first landed on it.

I had to have it.

Leaving Kelly’s overly-bright eyes, I glanced down at the handgun I now held in my hands. It was heavier than I’d expected. Suddenly, I was overcome by fascination. Guns. They were powerful, and those who held them were even more influential.

Kelly stepped forward, holding his hand out for me to give it back.

But that wasn’t going to happen. Not without a fight. The polished silver caught the light and sparkled in my eye. Just the mere sight of it had me forgetting everything we’d discussed—the reasons I thought I was next to die.

“Kendra,” Kelly’s voice was soft but demanding, “like I said in the car, it’s nothing to play around with.”

I felt my lips curl at the corners as adrenaline kept me light on my feet. Kelly underestimated my desire to hold it, to know what it felt like to wrap my fingers around the handle. As soon as Kelly told me I couldn’t have it, he made the mistake of not putting it away sooner—I decided that it had to be mine.

Kelly inched closer.

I was well aware of his desire to get the gun back.

But, since stealing it away, I had lost all inhibitions, knowing that I now held the keys to the questions I demanded answers to.

Raising the muzzle, I pointed it at him.

He clenched his jaw and held up his hands, showing me his palms. “What the fuck, Kendra?”

Laughing, I pretended to pull the trigger and said, “Bang.”

Kelly dropped his head to his chest and let out a heavy breath.

Rounding my lips, I blew on the muzzle pretending there was smoke rising from the barrel. A sense of power washed over me. The fear in his eyes was nothing like I’d seen before. Kelly was human after all. Mortal like the rest of us. And that made me feel better about my own fears.

“What’s gotten into you?” He clenched a fist.

My chest was open and I felt free. Light on my feet, I raised the muzzle and pointed it at him again. This time shooting from the hip.

“Kendra, really,” he pleaded. “That thing is loaded.”

My eyes narrowed, the corners tightening as they glimmered with amusement. He had underestimated my need to know what it felt like to hold a gun. It was something I had never done before so when he said I couldn’t, I quickly developed a plan to steal it away from him.

I’d kept my mind on it when strolling through the front lobby. Still, Kelly insisted that it wasn’t child’s play. I’d kept my eye on it as Kelly swiped his keycard to fetch the elevator, and I’d felt it pressing against my body as he ravaged me all the way inside his apartment. Thinking he was going to get laid, he never even saw it coming.

“I want to shoot it,” I said.

Shaking his head, he inched his way closer to me. “I’ll teach you.”

“It can’t be that hard.” I cast my gaze to the gun, curling my index finger over the trigger.

“It’s not.” His tone was truthful.

I lifted my arms and brought both of my hands together—one gripping the handle, the other firmly placed on the butt of the weapon, just like I had seen in movies. Locking my arms at the elbow, I felt indestructible. Turning to my side, I closed one eye and aimed for the lamp on the opposite side of the room. “Like this, right?”

“You’re holding it wrong.” He closed the gap between us. “Let me show you how.”

With my ears perked, I counted his steps, aware of his every move. When Kelly stepped behind me, I watched his hands lift out of the corner of my eye and just as he was about to encase me inside his big strong arms, I scurried away before he had a chance to steal the gun back. “Oh, no you don’t mister.”

Smart enough not to chase me, he folded one arm over his mid-section as he stroked his strong jawline with his free hand. Chuckling, he shook his head. “What do you want?”

“For the gun?”

He nodded.

“You never did say.” One brow raised. “What the fuck is it for?”

“It’s America.” He planted his hands on his hips. “I have it for protection.”

“Am I in danger?” My voice cracked under the sudden weight of the question I was seeking an answer to.

His eyes glanced to the gun. “With your lack of experience, yes. You’re in danger as long as you are holding that gun.”

Clucking my tongue, I tsked him. “That’s not what I meant.” Pointing the gun at my head, I threatened, “Tell me or lose me forever.”

His brows pinched and his eyes went wild as he reached out for me, begging me to put the gun down. “Kendra, that’s not funny. I’ll tell you anything. Just put the gun down!”

I cocked the hammer with my thumb as my pulse ticked up a notch higher.

“That fucking thing is loaded!” He shook his head as his wild eyes rounded to the size of golf balls.

He loved me. I could see it in his eyes. He didn’t want to lose me. And, without having to hear him say it, I knew that he would do everything in his power to make sure that I remained out of harm’s way.

Dropping the gun away from my pulsing temple, I turned it back on him. “You shouldn’t be keeping secrets from me.”

“What the fuck do you want?” His teeth grinded as he held his palms up in the air. “I tell you everything. You know that.”

Shaking my head, I said, “Not. Everything.”

“Bella.” He tilted his head to the side. “The things you call secrets, I call protection. It’s for your own good. You know that I wouldn’t let you get hurt.”

Lowering the gun, I felt my heart begin to race. My chest heaved as a sudden burst of anger rushed through me. Tossing the gun to the couch, I charged across the room. Running at top speed, I slammed my hands into his chest.

Kelly stumbled back, catching me in his arms. “It’s all right, baby.”

I stepped forward and pushed him again. “It’s not all right,” I cried.

Worry lined his brow.

“Women are being murdered.” My chin trembled. “And I’m going to lose you.”

“You’re not going to lose me.” Kelly pulled me into his chest, but I refused to be comforted by him.

“You can’t promise me that.” I rapped my fists against his chest. “It’s not our choice.”

He caught my wrists, his nostrils flaring. The way he was looking at me, I knew he understood what it was I was saying. If Madam was generous enough to allow us to continue being a couple, then it would be some other outside force threatening to break us apart. And if it wasn’t that, then it would be someone trying to end my life to get back at Kelly for something he did.

“What do you want from me?” he said.

“I want you to hit me.”

His wild eyes darted across my face.

“C’mon. Hit me,” I pleaded. “Show me how much you care.”

Digging the tips of his fingers into the insides of my wrists, I felt my own fingers begin to tingle. “What the fuck has gotten into you?”

Thrashing against him, my knees gave and my body went limp. He kept me from collapsing to the floor as the ceiling spun overhead. Him hitting me was the only way to rid me from this pain ballooning inside my chest. I needed him to take my mind off of the future, away from the fears of death, and bring me back to living in the now.

“You.” My hands hooked onto his shoulders as I fixed my gaze with his. “You have gotten into me.”

“Is it your uncle?” He fisted my hair, forcing me to look him in the eye. “Is he back?”

Kicking him in the shin, Kelly didn’t understand my need to experience the intense pain he had introduced me to. Ever since the last time he spread me over the sawhorse, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I would dream of how he took me. How he brought me to new heights. I was addicted. Addicted to the new ways he had shown me how to get off. And I wanted to experience it again. More than anything else. It was what I craved.

Letting go of my wrists, Kelly growled.

“Hit me pussy!” I punched him over his heart.

In one fell swoop he spun me around and pushed me over the back of the couch. Before I had time to breathe, he lifted up my dress as he wound his hand back, letting it fly across my ass cheeks as he spanked me raw.

The pain was instant. The distraction, welcoming. Finally, my focus was back to the present where it belonged. And as the sting rippled across my skin, neither my future nor my past mattered as much as it had only a second ago.

“This is what you wanted?” He ripped my underwear off my body. “For me to rough you up?”

“Yes,” I growled like a lioness. I was so wet, it was disgusting. But what he was doing to me was exactly what I’d requested. “But harder.”

Kelly kicked my ankles wide and continued his assault on my backside.

The next time I blinked, my eyes landed on the gun. It wasn’t too far away and, again, I was drawn to it. All I wanted was to shoot it. Pull the trigger to feel the power. To know that I had it in me to protect myself from the dangers that seemed to be coming my way. But as soon as I extended a hand, reaching for it as if it had called me in, Kelly grabbed it away.

“Oh, no you don’t,” he said, yanking my arms behind my back, clamping my wrists together with one hand. Leaning close to my ear, he whispered, “What is it about guns that gets you so turned on?”

Smiling, I murmured, “The feel of the cool metal against my skin.”

Pushing my face into the couch with his hand, Kelly stood back, opened the cylinder, and cleared out the bullets, emptying the gun. Fisting my hair, he grazed the insides of my thighs with the barrel. My muscles quivered against the cool metal, getting my breath to hitch. “Is this what you want?” he asked, nudging the muzzle against my throbbing pussy lips.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I tempted him. But the truth was, I wanted him to do it. More than anything, I begged to get fucked by his gun.

Laughing, he pulled the gun away, ripping my clothes off my body at the same time. My chest heaved as I fisted the couch with legs spread, admiring the tatters and shredded fabric that once was my dress and now hung off of me.

Kelly let his hand come flying down over the same places he’d first hit. Spanking the areas until they swelled, he grunted his way to exertion.

My nipples peaked, and my clit was erect. I throbbed with need, eager to be filled. “Do it. Fuck me with your gun. Stick it inside me.”

Kelly chuckled as he reached behind me, spreading my pussy lips with his fingers. Slowly, he worked the gun’s muzzle inside me. Moaning, I tightened around the cold metal, not caring about making sure he had fully unloaded it before shoving it deep inside my drenched cunt.

“Is this want you wanted?” Kelly thrust it in and out of me. “To know what it felt like to touch something so powerful?”

Whimpering, I nodded.

He reached around my pelvic bone and pressed his finger pad against my clit. Rubbing it in tiny circles, he continued to fuck me with the gun. “You’re a hot mess.”

Biting my bottom lip, my body was on fire. What Kelly said was true. My toes curled and I was close to spilling over the edge.

“You don’t need me.” He shoved the muzzle deeper inside me. “All you need to get off is the threat of death.”

I heaved through labored breaths as my eyes closed.

“Isn’t that true, my little slut?”

Nodding, I wasn’t offended by his use of the word ‘slut.’ I knew better than anyone else I was damaged goods. Even before this, before Kelly, I knew what I was. There was no shame in the title given to us women with sexual appetites the size of men.

“Don’t you dare come,” he said firmly.

“I’m so close,” I cried.

In and out he thrust the gun, pressing harder on my erect clit. There was no way I wasn’t going to be able to stop myself from climaxing. It was there. So close I could taste it. “Kelly,” I breathed. “I can’t stop myself.”

He removed his hand from my swollen nub and spanked my cheeks. And just when I was about to spill over, Kelly pulled the gun out of my pussy and quickly worked to unzip himself. A second later he slammed into me, violently thrusting his monster cock deep into my tight snatch.

“Not until I say so,” he said, wrapping his fingers around my throat.

Nodding, I got lost in the delicious way he stretched me. My flesh ached with raw, dull pain. And with each long stroke of his delicious cock, Kelly tightened his fingers over my trachea, slowly cutting off the air flow to my lungs. There was little doubt in my mind this was Kelly’s way of reminding me who held the power in our relationship. It wasn’t me. Wasn’t Madam. But Kelly. He was the one to decide when, how, and where we would go.

“Fuck,” he growled. “Look at you.” He slammed into me from behind. “A sexy piece of tail who craves excitement.”

When Kelly reached around to stroke my clit, I was blanketed in extreme pleasure. My body rocked to his rhythm, crashing forward with the power he packed into his rocking hips. Soon my eyes fluttered to the back of my head as a tingling sensation quickly consumed my entire body.

On the verge of passing out, I thought about Mom, Angel, Madam, Alex, and Nash. And when Kelly touched me next, flashbacks to my uncle came rushing to the front of my mind. The good. The bad. The ugly.

Kelly’s grip tightened and when his cock swelled, I knew he was close.

Squeezing his shaft with my pussy, I tapped his hand around my throat, needing to breathe.

Continuing his onslaught from behind, Kelly’s fingers flexed tighter.

Stars flashed behind my lids.

My mind slowly went black.

And just when I was on my way to sleep, Kelly released his hold. “Now, baby. Come for me now.”

Blood rushed to my head—I felt like I was flying.

Kelly’s dick sent thick ropes of hot seed into my womb and I released my hold, letting my orgasm spill over the side, matching his escape.

I felt dizzy as my body convulsed through an earth-shattering climax.

My knees were weak, my legs jelly.

Gasping for much-needed air, Kelly remained inside me. Smoothing his hand up and down my back, compassion consumed the man who’d just dominated me.

And as the pain to breathe was quickly replaced by the feelings of euphoria rushing through my entire body, I knew in that moment what I needed to erase everything that made me broken.

Kelly Black.