As I stepped through into the large Clapham house, it dawned that I was walking into the home of my enemy. The unease tightened in my chest as thugs trailed in behind us. If Marcus ordered it, they would take me down in a heartbeat. I’d gone from being held captive, to strolling in his house of my own accord.

It’s strange how things turn out sometimes.

Aaron headed down the hallway and I followed, stopping to glance at Marcus in a room off the side. He was talking on the phone and barking orders at various men. I wasn’t sure if his intentions for me had changed, but if they hadn’t, I’d just made things much easier for him.

I walked into the sleek kitchen, and stood at the island counter, watching as Aaron helped himself to the bourbon. He looked back at me and gestured with his glass.

“Drink?”

I nodded. He brought over the bottle and a fresh glass before knocking back his own and filling both.

“Are you okay?” The concern on his face was clear even behind the swelling and bruises.

I nodded at him again and took a sip.

“You don’t look it.”

He went to stroke my face, and I stepped away from him before I thought about why.

“Olivia, what’s wrong?”

“Seriously? What’s wrong? You need to ask that after the day I’ve had? Oh no, nothing’s wrong. Nothing’s wrong with me at all. I’m fucking tickety-boo.”

He looked into his glass then back up at me. “While I appreciate you’ve not had the best of days, it’s no reason to turn away from me.” He pointed. “That’s something more than this shit with your father.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. You don’t trust me.”

I huffed. “Well, I’m in the wrong fucking house if that’s the case.”

“Exactly.”

He stepped towards me and I took another step back. Fuck, he was right.

“This is about the knife, isn’t it?”

My hand gripped the small cut on my throat.

“It was only a ploy, Olivia. I was trying to stop your father. I meant none of it. You must know that.”

I sighed. His face held a solemn expression that made the longing lurch in my chest. I wanted to trust him. To forget everything that had happened and go back to how much I needed him this morning. But a growing kernel of doubt had taken root in my mind and I couldn’t shake the unease that he wasn’t the man I thought he was. “I know but…”

“The doctor will be here in half an hour.” Marcus strode into the kitchen and straight over to the cupboard to fetch a glass, talking over his shoulder as he did. “She’s no miracle worker, but she’ll be able to do something with that face of yours.”

I ran my fingers through my hair at the biting irritation he brought with him.

He walked over to the island, grabbed the bottle and poured himself a drink. Then paused and looked between us. “Something wrong?”

Aaron sighed. “No, nothing for you to worry about. Thanks, man.”

“Anytime.” Marcus glanced over at me and cocked his head as his eyes narrowed. “Are you not joining us, sweetheart?”

The pet name grated against my skin, and I had to bite back the urge to tell him where he should stick his sweetheart. As much as I despised him, I’d have to play nice for the time being. It was important that I at least appeared to be on his side until I figured out his plan.

I grabbed my glass, knocked back my drink and slid the glass towards him. “Fill her up.”

He smiled and obliged before sending it back. “A girl after my own heart.” He lifted his glass to make a toast. His eyes fixed on me and his eyebrows raised in questioning. “To new friendships?”

I raised my own glass and matched his stare. “To fucked up situations.”

Marcus huffed and nodded. “I guess I can drink to that.” He took a sip, kissed his teeth as he swallowed and placed the glass down. “So, you’re no longer Daddy’s girl?”

The question made me laugh. It conjured images of sweet six-year-olds playing in the park with their doting fathers. It couldn’t be further from my upbringing.

“I never was.” Taking a drink, I closed my eyes and composed my thoughts as the heat burned the back of my throat. “I hate my father. I hate who he is, and what he’s done.” Looking back at Marcus, I glared to drive my point across. “He deserves to be brought down.”

The smile widened across his face, but there was doubt in his eyes. “So, you’ll stand with me?”

“I’m not your friend, Marcus. I haven’t suddenly forgotten all the shit you’ve done. My father isn’t the only evil motherfucker around here.”

Aaron laughed, but collected himself when he caught Marcus’ glare. “What? Too soon?”

Marcus gave him a forced smile and turned back to me. “Are you with me or not?”

“That depends on what you have planned.”

“I can’t tell you what I have planned until I know where your allegiances lie?”

“Looks like we’ve reached an impasse then, doesn’t it?”

Marcus sighed and pushed away from the counter. His eyes searched the ceiling as he thought about his next move. He looked back at me with a cold stare and walked around the counter. Aaron tensed and stood straight, watching his movements. Marcus stood in front of me and folded his arms. His glare stirred the unease in my chest. I wanted to step back away from him, but I held my ground and balled my fists as I glared back.

“Do you think I’m as evil as Gian?”

I knew where this was headed. I said nothing and held his eyes.

“Do you want to know what he did to your mother?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“Well, I’ll tell you the story, anyway.” He unfolded his arms and ran a hand through his greying hair as he shook his head. “I’d been working for Gian for a couple of years. He’d taken me under his wing, treated me like a son, showed me the ropes and all that bollocks. We were close. Close enough, he introduced me to Rebecca.”

My heart skipped when I heard my mother’s name. It made me sick to hear him say it. I had to look away.

“I loved her. Too fucking much. I couldn’t stay away. After a few years, Gian found out. Just as I’d convinced her to leave him. I thought he would kill me. I didn’t run. Owned up to it. Tried to protect her. That was a mistake. He knew I was ready to die for her. So that punishment wasn’t good enough. Instead, he tortured her. Slowly. Made me watch. Three fucking weeks. That’s how long she took to die. Three. Fucking. Weeks.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat and looked up at Marcus. The sadness was heavy on his face, but his jaw clenched tight. The anger radiated from him.

“He had her beaten, continuously. Strung her up so she couldn’t sleep. Starved her. Burnt her. Broke her bones. Are you getting the picture?”

Tears welled in my eyes. I pinched them shut as I swallowed, holding back the flood ready to pour.

“Marcus. She gets it. That’s enough.” Aaron’s voice was firm, but I knew Marcus wouldn’t stop.

“No, she hasn’t heard the best bit yet. After a week, Gian came to see her. Expecting her to be broken. He’d let her live if she left the country. Without her daughters. She told him to go fuck himself. She’d rather die than have to live without you and your sister.”

Pain gripped my heart like a vice and yanked it down to my guts. The tears streamed down my cheeks. The whole weight of my mother’s death wrapped around my body and encased me in the heavy cloak of guilt. She died for me.

“Gian told his men, she no longer belonged to him. They could do with her as they pleased.”

Cold dread flushed over my skin and I shook my head knowing full well what those men were capable of. “No.”

“They raped her. Took turns to see who could make her scream the loudest…”

“Enough!” My head spun. I felt like I’d be sick. I held out my arms to steady myself. Aaron caught me and pulled me towards him. I buried my face into his chest and tried to purge the images from my mind. They wouldn’t shift.

Aaron’s voice rumbled through me. “Well done, Marcus.”

He huffed. “If it’s that bad to hear, imagine living through it. Watching it happen while you’re powerless to stop it. Tell me now, Olivia. What do you think I’ll do to Gian?”

I shook my head and glanced at him. “Nothing would come close to that.”

The usual scowl had returned to Marcus’ face, but I saw the pain behind it. The fierce impression it once gave now replaced by a thin mask that hid the broken man within.

“I can but try.” He held my eyes for a few seconds longer then turned and walked from the kitchen.

Aaron gripped me tighter and sighed as he nuzzled into my hair. “You can’t catch a break today, can you?”

I snorted an unexpected laugh which made way for choked sobs. The tears stung my eyes and the overwhelming pain threatened to break me. I couldn’t take much more.

He released his grip, stepped back and cupped my face in his hands. His thumbs swept away the wetness from my cheeks as I closed my eyes and relished the tenderness of his touch.

“Let’s get you some peace and quiet.”

He took my hand and led me from the kitchen. My vision blurred from the tears, but I made out the shadows of thugs in the opposite rooms. They’d all gone quiet. Only small murmurs broke as we passed. They must’ve been listening to Marcus in the kitchen. It hurt to think they now knew what happened to my mother.

Aaron led me upstairs and into a bedroom at the back of the house. The afternoon sun shone through the large windows. I dropped his hand and turned away as I wiped the tears from my eyes. He closed the door behind me then pulled the curtains. The light was still bright through the thin white fabric but it defused it enough to give the room a soft, warm glow. I blinked away the last cloud in my vision.

“Are you coming in? Or are you gonna stand in the doorway for the rest of the day?”

He took my hand and sat me on the edge of the bed. Then brushed the hair from my eyes. My head fell to his touch, and I closed my eyes as I held his hand against my face.

“Relax. Try to anyway. Catch your thoughts. I’m just gonna get cleaned up before the Doc arrives.”

I nodded at him, and he strolled into the en suite behind. The sound of cascading water filled the room as he started the shower. I tried to run over the day in my mind. It was hard to recall anything beyond flashes of faces and movements. Numbness had taken over. I was heavy and weak. My thoughts stripped to bare emotion. There was no rational consciousness swirling. Just sadness and pain tingeing the edges of an overwhelming void of nothingness. I needed to feel something again. Something more than this vacuous black hole.

My breath quickened as I undressed, pulling the clothes from my body like they were suffocating me. I walked into the bathroom and had to catch my breath as I caught sight of him in the shower. My stomach lurched with longing as I watched him move under the falling water. His arms raised and flexed as he brushed the water through his hair. Suds streamed down the muscles on his back, changing direction as they met the scars that laced his skin.

I needed to give myself to him. More than that. I needed him to hurt me.

He stood to the side and caught me watching through the glass. A smile raised as he wiped away the condensation. The water had washed away the blood from his face. The cut was bad, and he was beaten up, but he was still the most gorgeous guy I’d ever seen. Every time I looked at him, the longing pulled at my chest.

His eyes lit as his smile grew and he cocked his head to the side. “Olivia, what are you doing?”

I made my way to the shower and placed my hands on the glass. Not dropping his eyes for a second. He turned and placed his hands to match mine. With a small push he opened the door towards me. I stepped aside and let the glass swing wide. A rush of heat and mist kissed my skin. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me in, swinging me around and pushing me back against the tiled wall. The impact caught my breath, and the tiles made me shudder as the cold contrasted against the heat of the falling water.

He licked his lips and stepped closer, brushing the hair from my face and stroking my cheeks. I moved my lips to his hands and kissed his fingers, closing my eyes and losing myself in the smallest touch he allowed. The water fell over my face and into my mouth as my lips grazed against his thumbs. I lapped them with my tongue and sucked on each one slowly. The soft moan reached me over the fall of the water. It caused the longing in my heart to pull between my legs.

As I groaned back, he grabbed my hair and yanked me towards him, holding my body into his. My nipples pressed into his hot, wet skin as I wrapped my arms around his back, and pulled myself closer still. His growing cock slid against my stomach, throbbing as I rubbed against it. My hips circling as the need inside me grew.

Our lips danced a hair apart, he was savouring my advances as I begged for him. He tasted my lips, his tongue grazing my own as he pulled the delicate touches from me.

My head spun with his presence. He awoke every sense in me, and bombarded my mind with his touch, his taste, his smell. I felt every movement and every droplet of water caress my skin, but I wanted more.

I leant back and tried to catch my breath as the water cascaded down my face. “Hurt me.”

He forced me to look at him. The longing lurched again as I stared into the intricate colours of his hazel eyes and kissed the water from his lips.

He shook his head and whispered. “No.”

Irritation sparked up to the base of my skull. I was in no state to take that for an answer. I kissed him harder, held his bottom lip between my teeth and growled. “Hurt me.”

He huffed and pulled his lip from my teeth as he held my head firmer. “No, not today.”

I jumped back and out of his arms. “Fucking hurt me!”

His eyes narrowed, and he tipped his head to the side. The water ran over his lips as he spoke. “You really want me to hurt you?”

“I wouldn’t have fucking said it if I didn’t!”

He frowned at me before a wicked smile curled on his lips. “If you insist.”

My cheek exploded as he slapped me across the face. The shocked yelp he drew from me gave way to a gagged moan as he grabbed my throat and pushed me back to the wall. He stared as he closed in, his eyes fixed on mine. Alight with raw need. Like the night he took me. Only now did I realise how much it turned me on. How much I wanted him to want me.

I smiled. “Take me.”

He grabbed me by the jaw and his lips pressed heavy on mine, eager to taste me as the water lapped between our tongues. His hand traced to my shoulders. His nails scraped across my skin as he clawed me closer, but his body pressed me tighter to the wall. He bit into my bottom lip and drew a pained groan from my throat.

His body tightened. It was like every sound I made flicked another notch on his desire. Every moan drew him further from rational thought and closer to animal instinct.

He spun me around and forced me back against the wall. My hands broke the impact, but slipped, and my face smacked against the cold, wet tiles. My bruised cheekbone protested with pain.

I welcomed it, knowing it was nothing compared to what I wanted him to do.

Yanking my hair to the side, he pulled my head back and slid up behind me, grasping me tight as he kissed my neck. His hard cock pressed into my back, rubbing against my skin as his hand travelled to my breast. I moved with him, circling my body, trying to turn him on more than he already was.

A bite sank into my neck as he pinched my breast between his strong fingers. I yelped, and he gripped me harder. It wasn’t until I wailed that he let me go. The release of pressure made my skin sing with fire.

He moved his mouth up to my ear and his lips tickled my lobe as he whispered. “How much do you want me?”

I turned my head to reach his lips, searching for his kiss. “Too much.”

He pulled my hair tighter and forced my head back. His hand dropped from my breast, and he spanked me hard on the side of my arse. The water made the slap ring loud in the enclosed space. The sting travelled from the impact around my thighs and tingled between my legs.

He found my ear again. “How much do you want me?”

I moaned out my answer louder. “So fucking much.”

The slap on my arse resonated in my ears before the pain exploded on my skin. The warm handprint etched on my cheek. The sharp sting outlining where it landed.

“How much do you want me?”

I shouted out in desperation. My body aching for him. “With everything I am!”

He stood back and yanked my hips away from the wall. I clambered my hands against the slick tiles trying to stay balanced. A smack landed heavy on my cheek. The pain shot through my core and I cried out with the ferocity. Before the sting faded on one, he cracked me hard on the other. My wail turned into a long guttural moan as I focused on the energy that shot through my body, and the pulsations that grew deep inside.

I arched my back and pushed my hips towards him, inviting him to do it again. He obliged.

The pain ebbed and struck over and over. My moans became constant as I lost myself to the undulating surges that raged through my body. The harder his strikes got, the deeper I went. My mind clouded, nothing else existed but him, me, the pain and the pleasure.

When he stopped, I groaned in frustration. The heat still burned, but I ached for the contact. I gasped when his fingers worked their way between my legs, drawing a line of sensitivity that made my body shake.

I heard him moan as he felt the slickness he’d created. He reached my clit and my body almost dropped with the intensity. I groaned as he slid through my folds. He plunged his fingers inside and the rush of heat flooded out from my core in waves. As he pressed into my inner walls the pulsating pleasure grew, and I moaned as I opened my legs wider, begging him for more.

He worked me up into a rhythm, his fingers circling inside me, then thrusting hard. All I could do was groan in time with the fast, pounding beat as my core tensed against his advances.

He pulled out and wrapped his arms around my body, leaving my pussy aching to be filled. His hot, wet skin slid against mine and his cock felt solid and heavy as he pressed against my raw cheeks. I couldn’t help but grind my hips against it. I needed him to fuck me. Sod the pain, I wanted the pleasure.

Biting across my shoulder, he held me tight as the sharp stings continued up my neck. His teeth held onto my ear as he whispered. “I want you.”

I melted in his arms. It felt so good to hear. I leant into him and whispered between short breaths. “How much do you want me?”

“More than I can bear.”

He pushed me up against the wall, and his hands worked down my back, pulling my hips to match his. He positioned between my folds and pressed his cock inside. I let out a long, deep moan as he stretched me wide. The intoxicating waves of pleasure flooded from my core, spreading like a torrent of water throughout my body.

No one else had ever filled me like he did. Physically, mentally, emotionally. He filled me with his presence, with warmth and security. Filled me with his need and desire. He made me whole. Completed me.

He took the time to make me feel every millimetre that pushed inside. Every ounce of pressure as he pressed deep against my cervix, and every tingling pull he drew from my core as he extended his full length.

I lost myself to the sensations. Felt them magnify as I gave them my focus. My head fell forward, and he yanked my hair, forcing my spine to arch and his thrust deeper.

I wailed with the intense pressure, and his drive became punishing. He fucked me with all the vigour of a man in total control, deep, even and mean. My hips jarred from the impact. His skin slapped loud against mine. If he wasn’t holding my hair, my face would have crashed into the tiles. It was unrelenting, and amazing.

The harder he pushed, the harder I wanted it. My teeth gritted as I groaned with each thrust. Igniting the raw, animalistic power that surged, and making him pound me faster. He released my hair and grabbed my hips, pulling me back onto his cock with every brutal charge. My groans became cries as the pressure held somewhere between pain and pleasure. It hurt, but sent my mind reeling with bliss all at the same time.

The heat balled in my core, growing and pulsing with every surge, making my muscles tense and contract. Without warning, it exploded with a fire that almost caused me to collapse. My legs jellied underneath me as my whole body trembled with release. If he hadn’t been holding my hips, I’d have sunk to the floor. Before my orgasm had subsided, he pulled my limp torso against his chest and forced me against the wall.

He wasn’t through with me, yet.

Pinned between his hot, hulking body and the cold bite of the tiles, I barely had room to breathe as he speared me with frenzied drives. Still weak and dazed from my climax, I let my body fall to him as he reached a place I didn’t even know was accessible.

The pounding high in my core released coils of euphoria that made my orgasm seem like a quiver. I could do nothing but succumb to the sensation and let it float me up into the reaches of ecstasy.

His deep grunts rolled in my ear as he held me tighter and fucked me faster. His drive almost matched the racing heartbeat that thudded heavy into my back.

I felt his cock throb inside, growing harder. His breath hitched and his grunt faltered as he came. I moaned with him as the surges in his cock coursed into me, and I felt the strength of his orgasm.

It was mind-blowing. I didn’t know which was better, his orgasm or my own.

His wet skin slid against mine as his chest heaved and he held me tight. He caught his breath and nuzzled into my neck. His tender kisses were a world away from the aggressive punishment he’d given me, but they were just as good. The delicate sensations rippled down my chest and built upon the warmth that sat there.

It’d had done the trick. I was no longer empty. The dark void replaced with a sense of warm completeness. Filled with him.