Aurora walked the expansive grounds of her palatial home. As always, her guard followed at a discreet distance so as not to interfere with her enjoyment of her twilight stroll. She had worked hard to earn the moniker given to her by Escondido: La Reina del Sur. Queen of the South. She had built her kingdom from nothing by sheer force of will, with no help from anyone. She certainly didn’t look to any man to help her make her way in life.

There was only one man capable of penetrating her cold, dark heart anyway. Escondido. He was her last thought when she closed her eyes at night and her first thought when she woke up in the morning. In between? He featured prominently in her dreams. And yet he remained an enigma. She never knew when or where he would show up. But he was always watching, somehow. His obsession with her knew no bounds.

They had been virgins as teenagers, until one day they weren’t virgins anymore. They had been friends as children, of course, then there had been the awkward, pre-teen crush phase. As teens, a simmering sexual awareness and not-so-innocent touches quickly became lingering caresses and ‘accidental’ brushes of skin against skin. The visceral sexual tension that still sizzled between them had its origins during those early years when they hadn’t even known what to do about it. Then one day Escondido had decided enough was enough.

Aurora had been changing her clothes in the pool house next to her family’s backyard swimming pool. She had spent that balmy afternoon watching the muscles of Escondido’s perfect ass flex with every step he took to and from the diving board. He liked to show off for her, and she liked to let him. Long after the warmth of the sun had dried off the rest of her, her bikini bottom remained drenched with evidence of her readiness to explore the sexual side of things. That was the way it was whenever she was near Escondido. She stayed so turned on around him but had no idea what to do about it.

She had just taken her bikini top off and was reaching for her bra when she heard a click. Escondido was standing just inside the door, which he had just locked.

He had spent plenty of time fantasizing about what he would do to her body at his first opportunity. There would be no clumsy fumbling around for him. Her puffy, pink nipples pebbled under his gaze without him even touching them. Suddenly, it was like someone had flipped a switch and he was on her like a wild beast.

They conquered each other’s firsts in that little pool house that afternoon. First kiss, first cum, first fuck, and everything in between. They were novices, but they figured it all out soon enough. In the years since, they had abided by an unspoken agreement, sharing their bodies only with each other. But that didn’t mean she made it easy for him. He was a natural predator and she was his eternal prey. They both liked it that way.

The stiletto heels of her boots clicked against the cobblestone path as she approached the tunnel door concealed beneath a patch of green turf. She used the tip of her boot to tap on it. Moments later, a guard carrying a machine gun opened it, allowing her passage.

“La Reina,” he purred, stealing a glance at the beautiful woman as she descended the steep stairs. She stood back briefly to get a feel for the atmosphere in the underground hideout where cocaine was being weighed and prepared for distribution. Nude women sat around a long table, weighing out and bagging up the drug. Nudity was required of the workers for the sake of inventory control. And their hands had to stay above the table at all times, or the worker would risk a body cavity search. Aurora wouldn’t tolerate a packet of coke making its way out the door in somebody’s twat.

The street dealers would break the drugs down with substances like baby laxative before they sold it. Let them do the grunt work for street sales. Aurora was a high-end dealer who ran a tight, efficient operation so the drugs didn’t remain in her possession any longer than necessary.

She wanted out. She knew to stay in this business would inevitably end in her death or imprisonment. Escondido wanted her out of the game even more than she did.

Cameras were strategically placed around the room. Every movement the workers made was being scrutinized by a guard who was positioned in front of a security feed in the backroom. The women were paid a thousand dollars a day for their allegiance and were granted occasional access to stolen merchandise.

Aurora strode past the metal shelves that lined the concrete walls, heading to the backroom to check in with the guard doing surveillance. “Good evening. Everybody remaining faithful and true to the call?” she asked of him.

“You know it. Nobody wants to die today.”

“Hmm, smart decision on their part.”

“Absolutely, my queen, absolutely.”

He gave her a general update on the day’s activities and she thanked him for his meticulous attention to detail. She then retraced her steps, making a mental note to reassign one of the guards who was more focused on a particularly nice pair of tits than his official duties. With a cool nod to the machine gun-toting guard at the entrance, Aurora ascended the stairs out of the subterranean production facility and concealed the entrance before strolling along the cobblestone path to her house.

The maid met her at the door. “Do you require anything?” the young woman inquired solicitously.

“No. Just a few moments of solitude in my room. Make certain I’m not disturbed. I have work to do.”

“Yes, ma’am, as you wish.”

Aurora took the grand staircase to her master suite. The luxuriously appointed bedroom was her haven, complete with a fire burning in the corner fireplace. She was looking forward to some time alone after the week’s mayhem.

“Don’t fucking move,” a husky voice said at her ear. A thickly muscled arm wrapped itself tightly around her waist as a hand was clapped over her mouth. “Surprised, darling? You probably thought I’d be in Louisville. You should have known better than that.”

He swung her body around easily and pinned her against the wall next to the door. “There’s going to come a day when I take you with me whether you want to go or not. You’ve got to stop this cartel Russian roulette you’re playing with your drug trade. You don’t need the fucking money. You’re just addicted to the rush of the game.” His hand slid up her ribcage, coming to rest over a breast. “I can give you that and more,” he purred as his thumb stroked rhythmically across her nipple, then circled the puckered flesh.

He cupped her chin and tilted it toward him. He kissed her deeply, letting their lips and tongues get reacquainted. His lips were demanding and urgent. Her body melted into his, the way it always did. She couldn’t help it. His body was beautifully made and strong, and the knowledge that it had only known her touch was enough to steal her breath.

He pulled away and rested his forehead against hers, his breathing labored. “I love you, Aurora. I refuse to lose you to the risks you embrace so recklessly. This is your last haul. You quit on your own or I will take you somewhere to convince you that I’m right. I have no qualms about locking you in a cell until you see things my way.”

She knew he meant every word and that he had the power to pull it off. Even so, she couldn’t resist taunting her childhood love. Lowering her voice to a throaty purr, she started in on him. “So, you’re back. How long have you been here? Were you here last night, I wonder? Did you enjoy watching me through the window as I touched myself? Did you stroke your cock as you thought about being inside this pussy? Or maybe you were in my bedroom today, looking through my things because you couldn’t resist the need to confirm that no one had encroached on your territory, that no other man had sunk his cock into the heat between my legs. Did the mere thought of it make the blood surge straight to that big, gorgeous cock of yours? Did it make you hard?”

Escondido groaned through gritted teeth, letting her know she was on target. He had done all those things. The woman knew him like no one else. He seized her hand and placed it over the outline of his engorged cock. With a soft hum of pleasure, she languidly stroked his impressive length through his pants. He grabbed the front of her shirt with both hands and ripped it open. The clatter of buttons scattering across the floor was music to his ears.

His nostrils flared as he yanked her bra cups down and cupped her breasts. He hungrily clamped his lips onto the firm flesh, nipping at a pale pink rosette hard enough to send a jolt of pleasure and pain through her.

“So fucking beautiful,” he murmured between the open-mouthed kisses he was lavishing on her skin. “I walk this earth with an ache in my chest; it gets worse every day. Come home with me, my queen. Come home with me and let me love you.”

“You know I can’t think straight when you touch me this way,” she whispered as she ran her hands along his shoulder blades and dug her fingers into his hair.

“You think too much.”

“Maybe. I love you, too, you know. This is the last shipment, I swear.” She didn’t know if she was lying to him or herself.

“Liar,” he spat before biting down hard on her plump bottom lip. He chuckled smugly at her gasp of pain, then slid the tip of his tongue along the wounded flesh. “You have no choice. You belong to me and I’m through with waiting. I’m coming for you.” He focused his attention on removing the rest of her clothes. Then he pushed her against the wall and knelt before her, sliding first one shapely leg and then the other over his shoulder.

With her perched on his shoulders, her feet off the ground, her most intimate flesh was only inches from his mouth. She was at his mercy. He sealed his mouth over her pussy. Aurora clawed wildly at the wall behind her, exhaling harshly on a hoarse cry that quickly became a series of grunts as her hips responded to his ministrations.

Escondido went at her pussy hard with his lips, tongue and teeth. He reached up to roughly knead a breast as he clamped his other hand over a lushly curved buttock. As she moved against his mouth, his cock ached with the need to sink into her tight, slick heat. Her legs quaked as an orgasm rolled through her with such force that her knees surely would have given out if she’d been relying on them at the time.

Gently sliding her legs from his shoulders, he steadied her with a hand over each hipbone, then stood. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed where she rolled onto her forearms and knees with her cheek pressed to the mattress. He quickly worked his cock loose from the confines of his pants, convinced he was being driven to madness by the way she was presenting herself to him.

He smacked her ass as he greedily thrust his way home. At her breathless cry of pleasure, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His whole world had been reduced to the delicious, bone-melting heat that had wrapped itself around his shaft.

He was tired of waiting for her to make up her mind. He wanted her with him. His fingers dug into the curve of her hips. He pulled out only to ruthlessly plunge balls deep inside her again. Hips thrusting relentlessly, he slammed against the lush curve of her ass again and again. On and on it went, with him determined to conquer her and leave her no choice but to stay with him once and for all.

“Whose pussy is this, my Queen of the South?”

“Yours. Yours, unh, oh God…” she cried out incoherently, unashamed in her pleasure and unconcerned about who might hear her.

“Damn straight, it is. I want it with me when I wake up and when I go to sleep. I want you to come back to Louisville with me. I’m not playing anymore, woman. I’m tired of waiting.” He shifted his hips and targeted the bundle of nerves just inside her entrance, triggering a powerful climax that had her shuddering as she collapsed onto the mattress.

He followed her down, blanketing her body with his, pressing her stomach flat against the bedcovers. She spread her legs wide, sliding her bent knees out to the side as she opened herself to him as wide as she could. Unable to summon the strength to thrust with him, she lay beneath him and enjoyed his fierce attentions, content to let him use her body to sate the beast within him.

He recognized her stillness for what it was: her total, willing surrender. He was proven right when her snug channel began to pulse around his length as she came once more. It was as if her pussy was making its own demands, drawing from him an intense, deliciously prolonged release that was so good, it made him want to howl at the fucking moon.

As he came down from the high, he draped himself over her, enjoying how their sweat-slickened bodies slid against each other. Yes, he had given her his body, his heart, and his soul. The only thing left to do was give her his name.