Boredom had overtaken my anger, so now I sat on my bed, my chin resting on my knees, as I did my best to not give in to my irritation. What the hell was Hayden doing? I felt as though he’d been gone forever.

The familiar whirr of the elevator made me look up. He was coming! Finally.

I jumped to my feet, eager to find out what he’d been doing. I hoped that since we’d fucked he’d be a little keener to let me in on his plans. Men thought with their dicks, and this was very much a case of “fool him twice,” but I’d do anything I could to get out of this fucking room and off this island.

The elevator doors slid open, and my stomach sank. Loretta stepped out, carrying a tray.

I scowled at her. “Where’s Hayden?”

“He’s busy.”

“Doing what?”

“That’s none of your goddamned business.”

Anger flared within me, but I held myself back. It had always been clear that there had never been any love lost between Loretta and me, but she seemed even spikier than normal. Did she have that damned Taser on her? I quickly ran my gaze up and down her body, trying to spot a telltale bulge, but all the clothing she wore were lose, and it was impossible to tell.

I suddenly realized I trusted Loretta even less than I trusted Hayden. I could almost predict how Hayden would react to things, but she was like a snake, ready to dart out of the undergrowth and strike.

She plonked the tray unceremoniously down on the table and straightened.

“He might be warming to you,” she spat, “but don’t think for a minute that I’ll ever let my guard down with you around.”

I remembered how I’d softened when I’d heard Loretta’s tragic story, and I tried to pull back some of that emotion.

“Hayden told me what happened to your daughter. I just wanted to say how sorry I am.”

Instead of calming her down, my words had the opposite effect.

“He didn’t have any right to tell you. That’s my business, not his, and certainly not yours. I don’t even want to hear you mention my girl, do you understand?”

It was different with Loretta. I could understand why Hayden had such a hatred for me, because of the lie I’d told, but nothing I’d done had gotten Loretta’s daughter killed. That had all been on my father.

“I wasn’t the one who killed her, Loretta. I understand it must be hard for you—”

“Hard? You have no fucking idea what’s hard. You try carrying a child inside you, watching her grow from a baby, to a toddler, to a young woman. To be so proud of her, and put your entire world in her happiness, only to have it all snatched away by some fucking bastard.”

My heart twisted, heat flaring to my face. “You’re right. I don’t know, but I still wasn’t the one who killed her.”

“Maybe not, but I know what type of person you are. You protected him—the man who raped and murdered my baby-girl. You’re evil, down to the core, and if I had anything to do with it, you’d be dead already. You have his genes, and they’re rotten. God forbid you ever have children of your own and pass them on to a new generation. They should die with you.”

The threat was unmistakable, and I took a step back, wanting to put more space between us. I glanced up into the corner of the room, hoping Hayden was watching.

My lie had all come out after my father had been arrested the second time, after he’d murdered Hayden’s mother. The police had been torn to shreds for letting him go the first time, and the press got hold of the fact that my mother had lied for him, and that I’d corroborated the story. Everyone knew, and the shame I felt at not only being related to a mass-murderer and rapist, but also at everyone knowing I’d lied to protect him, had been overwhelming. At my aunt’s house, I’d stopped speaking and withdrew into myself, not wanting to eat and certainly not wanting to go outside. The world had suddenly become a terrifying place, and I wanted no part in it. In a way, I almost understood the reason my mother had taken her own life. It had been a get out clause, and there had been plenty of times I’d considered doing the same thing. I was on the cusp of being a teenager, with all the issues that brought with it, and then I suddenly had more heartbreak and grief than I’d ever thought possible.

The only thing that had kept me going was my little brother. I understood exactly what he was going through, and I wasn’t going to abandon him when he needed me the most. He’d slip into bed with me at night and curl up against my back with his forehead pressed between my shoulder blades. He struggled with what had happened just as much as I did, and there was no way I was going to leave him without a big sister as well. I guessed that was why it hurt so much that he wanted nothing to do with me now. As soon as he’d turned about fourteen, he’d started to pull away from both me and our aunt, not really speaking to us and shutting himself away in his room. We’d both been really worried about him, but he refused to talk about it. Then, as soon as he got old enough, he announced he was changing his name and moving away, and he didn’t want us to contact him. It had felt like the last tie to my family slipped from my fingers. He’d been my reason to keep going, but I wasn’t enough for him to want to stay.

I tore my thoughts away from the past and tried to focus on my present. I wanted Loretta to leave, but I also wanted to know what Hayden was doing. It felt as though he’d been gone forever, and we’d left things in a strange place. I’d been all alone down here, and having someone to talk to was still a bonus in my mind, even if that particular person hated me.

“Please, can you just tell me what Hayden’s plans are?” I asked, trying to turn the topic away from Loretta’s daughter. “He said he needs to take me off the island, but doesn’t have a way of doing it yet. All I want to know is what to expect and how long it’s going to take.”

“He’s swimming out to the boat,” she snapped. “He might not even make it back.”

I blinked in surprise. “The boat? I thought the boat was gone.”

I wondered how much Loretta knew of what had happened, since she’d been sick during the events of the storm.

“Well, you’d better hope he comes back, ’cause I’m not going to make any promises about what I would be forced to do with you if he doesn’t.”

And with that, she turned and stalked away, flashing her keycard against the control pad and then vanishing inside the elevator.

I stood, watching her go, and then sank down onto the edge of the bed, my hand at my mouth. Hayden had spotted the boat and was swimming out to it. Was that safe? How far out would it be? He was clearly a strong swimmer because he’d managed to swim from it the first time, and during the storm as well, but I couldn’t imagine how far out the boat would have drifted by now.

My stomach curdled. What if he didn’t make it, and I was stuck here with Loretta? She might be half his size and twice his age, but I feared her more than I feared him. Hayden and I had a strange kind of connection, and I knew he felt it, too, but with Loretta there was nothing but hate. Without Hayden to act as a buffer between us, I was genuinely frightened of what she might do.

It dawned on me that I was frightened for Hayden’s safety as well. I wanted to hate the man, and I guessed I did in a way, but I also felt as though I was starting to understand him. I didn’t want him to drown out in the ocean. If that happened, I’d never see him again.

The memory of us having sex was never far from my mind. Was it just because of our situation that the sex had been so incredibly hot? My head told me it was bad, it was taboo, forbidden, and maybe that was why I craved it so much. I’d never had a man give me an orgasm like that before, and I wanted more. I knew I shouldn’t, but just thinking of him caused heat to condense in my pussy and for me to grow wet, my nipples hardening. He’d taken me, and now it felt like he owned me, at least physically.

Loretta had brought me a sandwich and a bottle of water, but even though I hadn’t eaten for something approaching twenty-four hours now, I found my stomach was too tightly knotted to bring myself to consume the food. Instead, I went back to pacing the room, my fist pressed to my mouth with worry.

The elevator whirred, and I turned toward it, my eyes wide and unblinking as I waited for it to descend. I didn’t want to see Loretta again, and I was terrified that if she came back down here it would be with bad news.

But the doors opened, and Hayden stepped out.

“Oh, thank God.”

Unthinking, caught in my relief, I threw myself forward. My hands were still cuffed, or I would have thrown them around his neck, but instead I just kind of slammed myself against his chest. He was warm and solid and smelled incredible, and, after a moment of surprise, he wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.

We stood that way for a moment, me drinking in his presence, so relieved to have him back. I closed my eyes and pressed my nose against the soft material of his shirt. His hands spanned my back, holding me close, and his head ducked down, his face pressed to my crown.

“I was terrified you weren’t going to come back. Loretta told me you’d swam for the boat. I thought you might have drowned, and then—” My voice broke and my eyes filled with tears. I hadn’t expected to have that reaction.

“Shush, I’m here, I’m safe.” His voice was surprisingly soft, reassuring, calming. He stroked my cheek then lifted my chin to bring my gaze to his. “I’m fine, Jolie. Everything is okay.”

He ducked his head and kissed me.

I sucked in a breath of surprise, but then my body took over and I kissed him back. Hungry, desperate. I’d wanted this the whole time he’d been gone. My entire body craved another hit of what he’d given me. I pushed myself up harder against him, wanting more. His hands moved lower, grabbing my ass and wrenching me to him. My cuffed wrists were squashed between us, and I wished I could separate my hands, if only to touch him more. His erection pressed hard into my stomach, and I knew he’d had the same reaction at seeing me again.

This was a bad idea. I shouldn’t want this. Shouldn’t need this. But pure animalistic desire had taken hold of me, and I couldn’t control it. I didn’t care about what had happened, and I no longer had any careful plan formulated about how to manipulate him to win my freedom. All I wanted was for him to fill every single part of me.

I broke the kiss and sank to my knees in front of him, eagerly working his zipper. I slipped my hand inside his pants and my fingers met with hot, silky, hardness. Eagerly I pulled him out, and his erection sprang into the space between us. I parted my lips to take him into my mouth, but suddenly he fisted my hair and yanked my head away, forcing my chin to lift so I looked up at him.

“No pencils this time, Jolie,” he warned, his green eyes glittering. “No games. I mean it.”

I shook my head. “No games, I swear.”

He released his hold on my hair, but only by a fraction, easing up just enough for me to move. “Good girl.”

I leaned forward again, wanting to taste him. I swiped my tongue across the tip of his cock, and his hips jerked forward. I circled his cock with my mouth and then swirled my tongue all around him, like I was licking the top of an ice cream.

“Jesus Christ,” he hissed above me. I took that as a good sign. Sucking his cock aroused me, and I squeezed my thighs together, sending an extra rush of pleasure through my core. I wanted him so badly, but for the moment I wanted to give him pleasure in return.

I slid down his length as deep as I could then pulled back again. His hand tightened in my hair and his hips bucked, pushing farther into my throat. I gagged around him, but didn’t let that stop me, moving deeper and faster, even while tears sprang from the corners of my eyes. Above me, his breathing grew ragged, and I pushed my hand between his legs to cup his balls and try to slow him down.

I released his cock from my mouth, not wanting him to come yet.

“I want you,” I said, gazing up at him. “Fuck me.”

He yanked me to my feet by my hair and shoved me toward the bed. Spinning me around, I landed with my hands on the bed to support myself, my ass pushed out toward him. I only wore yoga pants, so there was no belt or button to fiddle with. Instead, he just yanked my clothing down, together with my panties, leaving me naked from the waist down. I had no shoes, so I just kicked the pants away. He pulled my top up and over my head, but the handcuffs meant he was unable to take it off fully. Frustrated at his inability to get me fully naked, he took hold of the shirt at the bottom and tore it right up the back, so it fell from my body in rags.

“Fucking hell, Jolie,” he panted from behind me. “This is insane.”

“Stop talking, just screw me.”

He moved in behind me. I was already wet, and when the head of his cock pushed against my slit, there wasn’t much resistance. He let out a groan, one of his hands against my tailbone, as he slid in deep. My eyes rolled with bliss at the friction of him sliding between my folds and deep through my channel. When he was seated inside me, every inch of him, right down to the root, he gave an extra thrust as though trying to get even deeper.

“Fuck, you feel incredible,” he growled from over my shoulder. “You’re so damned tight.”

As though he was talking directly to my pussy, my inner muscles clamped around him, holding him firm. This was only the second time we’d screwed, and already he had my cunt well trained.

Slowly, he pulled out, inch by tantalizing inch, as though he knew exactly how that felt to me, the friction against my swollen, wet folds. He was almost fully out, the head of his cock stretching me open, and then he shunted back in again, fast and hard, shoving me forward on the bed.

I cried out as a combination of pain and pleasure blasted through me, and then he repeated the movement, slowly withdrawing before slamming back in. His movements grew faster and harder, and my orgasm started to rise, twisting tighter in my core. Each time he slammed back into me, he took me up another level, and I had to go through the slow, excruciating feel of him almost slipping from my body before he pounded me with another deep penetration.

This time, he didn’t start to pull out, but held himself inside me.

I trembled in his grip, my breath caught, wondering what was coming next.

His finger ran down between the cleft of my buttocks, stroking over the top of my asshole. I tensed, my inner muscles tightening around his cock. He must have felt my reaction, as he went back to that spot.

“Do you like this, Jolie?” He circled my asshole again, and I bit down on a groan. Just like him fucking me, having him touching me there felt both wrong and incredibly right. “I can feel your pussy clamping down on me every time I touch you here.”

He increased the pressure, no longer circling, but pressing. My pussy juices had made the whole area wet, and he didn’t need any more lubrication, but as I glanced over my shoulder at him, he worked up some saliva and spat on my hole. Oh, fuck. Where was this going?

“Hayden,” I groaned.

“You’re mine, remember. Your body is mine. I know how to give you pleasure.”

And with that, with his cock still embedded deep inside me, he pushed his finger into my ass.

“Oh God.” My head spun with pleasure.

“That’s it. You like that, huh?”

I let out a whimper. He started moving again, sliding his cock in and out, while keeping his finger firmly inside my ass. I pushed back on him, wanting more even as he fucked me. He was right. He did seem to know exactly what I wanted and needed, perhaps even more than I did myself.  I’d always believed that description of sex I’d read or seen on the television had always been exaggerated—that it was a fun and somewhat pleasurable thing to do if you liked a guy—but I’d never had sex like this. Putting myself completely in Hayden’s hands drove me crazy, and I realized I trusted him. It was completely misplaced trust—after all, he was the one who’d kidnapped me, and I was even still handcuffed because of him—but I trusted that he knew how to work my body, and that allowed me to give everything over to him.

The sounds of us fucking filled the room, heavy breathing, and grunting, and moans and flesh slapping together. Hayden’s finger worked my ass, moving in and out of me at the same pace as he pounded his cock into my pussy.

I was a mess, barely in control of my own body. My toes curled, every muscle taut to the point of snapping. I climbed higher and higher, until I eventually hovered on the edge, on the tipping point. And then my climax exploded through me, and I clenched my handcuffed fists against the bed, my face buried into the mattress as cries poured from my mouth. Waves of my orgasm swept me away, and my inner muscles pulsed around his cock, milking him, urging him on. But he didn’t continue to fuck me, but instead pulled out, removing his finger from my ass at the same time. His cock pressed against my asshole and hot, creamy semen landed on my stretched anus, spurt after spurt.

I collapsed against the mattress, his cum running down between my ass cheeks. I’d expected him to crawl onto the bed with me, but instead he remained where he was. I glanced over my shoulder at him, to discover him shaking his head.

“Fuck,” he said, before tucking his softening cock back into his pants, and then he turned and left.