I roll over in bed, accidentally moving my shoulder. Fuck. Sharp pain shoots through my arm and deep into the bone. I clench my teeth, holding back the growl that desperately wants to escape my lips. I don’t want to wake Bree, though. She’s been more than a little concerned with what’s going on with my shoulder and I don’t want to stress her out anymore, especially since we are basically in the middle of a war between the mafias.

I look down at her. Her skin has small bruises and scratches on it, and I can’t help but run a finger along one of the marks wishing my touch can simply make it disappear.

A soft whimper escapes her beautiful lips, and I feel my dick growing hard. I know that I shouldn’t be messing around. I know I need to save my strength, but I survived because of this woman. I had considered her a weakness, but she is the strongest fucking thing, even stronger than I.

Sitting up slowly, I move to my knees. She is on her belly, which is fine with me. I slowly wiggle out of my night pants. Pulling up the hem of her night shirt, I notice all she has on is a thong. I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat. She is sexy as fuck… I imagine how her ass will look rosy red as I smack it repeatedly. Will her skin glow red as I pound into her from behind? Will she purr and moan, begging for more of me?

I pull myself from my thoughts as I slowly stroke my cock which is sitting at full attention, ready to take her as its next victim. Spreading her legs and pulling the thong back and to the side, I bend down and begin licking deeply. Her ass cheeks move as I nip at her entrance.

“What the…? Ah… Ah….” Her questions turn into moans and pleas for more. She humps my face as I deliver lick after lick. She tastes delicious just as she always does. I pull away, entering her deeply with one finger.

“More… Fuck me,” she begs. I smile against her skin. She won’t be getting off that easy.

“Ride my hand, baby,” I growl, gripping her by the back of the neck. She arches her back, her pace picking up. I watch as her pussy slides over my finger over and over and over again. If I don’t stop her, I am going to come just from watching her.

“Stop,” I gently command, releasing her and pulling my finger from her entrance. She whimpers, but only slightly as I situate her face down, ass up. Her legs are on the outside of mine, and her pussy is saturated with need. That need is for my cock.

She presses back against me as I use my good arm to grab her hip and hold her in place. I smile. My Piccolo is very eager for my cock…

“Is that pussy hungry for my cock?” My voice is just on the verge of slipping into animalistic territory. I want her so badly, I’m just not sure what part of me wants her more - the evil side of me that says keep her forever, or the new caring side of me that says let her do what she wants. Either way, at this very moment, I know nothing will stop me from fucking her like I own her. She is mine and always will be.

I slam balls deep into her. She clenches around me holding me in a vice that is so tight, I almost pass out. “Every time I slip inside this tight pussy, it’s like heaven—you’re like heaven.” She makes no attempt at speaking, she merely moans and pushes back against my cock.

I slip in and out of her with ease, her tight pussy taking every inch of me. My hand bites into her flesh, and I can’t stop myself. Even if my shoulder hurts later, it will be worth it. I grip her by the back of the neck again, making her fall on her stomach and arch for me.

She whimpers as I hit deeper than I ever have before.

“Who owns this pussy?” I ask between clenched teeth. I have no ownership of her. Not anymore. But I still want to hear her say it. I still want her to say I own her.

Her eyes close, and I grip her neck tighter, plowing into her deeper. My lips are on her ear as I whisper the words again, “Who owns this tight cunt, Piccolo?” A shudder runs through her as I plow into her again and again.

“You do. You… Do…” she barely gets out in between breaths. My chest is heaving and my balls are burning. I want to come so badly, but I know doing so will be the end of our bodies being one, and I can’t handle the separation yet. Except, the pleasure is too great, and with one last push to the end of her wall, I come. Her walls clench around me as she cries out, meeting her own orgasm.

Releasing her, I collapse onto her back. I pull myself from her and roll to my side right away, dragging her with me. Her eyes are closed, and her face has this content and blissfully-gone look on it. I smile knowing it is I who has given her that look. It has only been a day, but I feel closer to her now than I had before. I still haven’t opened up about anything, and we haven’t talked about what happened, but words aren’t needed when bodies can do the communicating.

A sigh comes from her lips as she peers up at me, finally opening her incredible eyes. I am certain I will never get used to looking at something as beautiful as she. She has taught me that in the blink of an eye, life can end. Without her yesterday, I would be dead right now. Even though I have killed many people, and I probably deserved to die, I am alive and am grateful for it. I am not saying I am turning over a new fucking leaf because I’m not, but when it comes to her, I will try to be a better man.

“You’re such a dirty talker…” she whispers breathlessly. I smile, laying a kiss against her forehead. She has no idea. At that moment, when my cock met her pussy, there was nothing else that I could say. The words I spoke, though dirty, were true.

“Dirty talking is just another thing I’m good at.”

Her deep brown eyes roll as if to say shut the fuck up. I know I’m cocky, but when you’re me, you have a reason to be.

“We shouldn’t have done that. If Jared finds out you were getting rowdy with me, he’s going to be pissed.” Her concern for me and my safety over Jared has me laughing. She doesn’t know Jared like I do. He is a friend, a very close friend, who I met back in grade school before I knew I had responsibilities before I knew I would be the king of a mafia. That was back when I was normal when I had a mom and did things that were ordinary. “Jared isn’t the big, bad wolf, Bree. He’s just an old friend who also happens to work for me. He couldn’t kick my ass if he tried.”

“Oh really, asshole?” I hear Jared’s voice on the other side of the door just before he walks in. I pull the covers up over Bree, who is still blissfully happy with her post-orgasmic face.

“Call me sir, douchebag,” I smirk at him. He comes to sit in one of the chairs by the door.

“I called Mack. He said he will be up in a few days. He wanted to lay low since you caused a complete shit storm. They were raiding every part of your house looking for you two.” My blood boils as I look down at Bree.

They are looking for her and going through all of my things. My personal fucking things! The very things I have earned and make me the person I am, are probably destroyed. The fucking nerve of these people! Luccio deserved to die. He was going to kill me, so it was either him or me. When it comes down to a bullet, I will always choose to put one in the other person.

“I didn’t cause a shit storm,” I proclaim, pulling myself from the bed and pulling on my sleep pants. Bree is about to doze off again, and I don’t want to cause a bunch of fuss.

I get up, and Jared follows behind me, closing the door. We head into the kitchen where I rummage through the fridge for the juice. Once I find it, I pour a glass and take a long drink from it.

“What the hell happened? I thought you were doing the right things? You had me driving you all over the place. That girl in there told me that you found out who killed your mom. When did you start claiming women? What the fuck happened?” Jared rambles, obviously stressed and confused by what is going on.

“Bree was never meant to be anything. She simply fell into my lap. I did what I had to do. I took her in return for a debt that was owed. She was my indebted, now it is I who is in debt to her.” I slam back the rest of the juice and wipe my mouth.

“So, she’s not yours, but you dragged her into this fucked up, sick, and twisted mess?” The thought of her no longer being mine has my blood boiling. Isn’t she still mine?

“Like I expected this shit to be so out of hand? Luccio was my family. Well, kind of. He took me in when I lost everything, but he put the knife in my back. I had no other option but to kill him. Like I told Bree, it is kill or be killed.”

Jared runs a hand through his hair, looking away from me and up at the ceiling as if he can’t believe the shit I have gotten into. It is fucked up, yes, but it is just the start of the war.

“I’ve known you forever, Zerro. You always told me you had it under control. Now, you have a full on war with another family on your doorstep, and a girl you don’t really know if you can trust or not.” He eyes me.

“She’s a farm girl. She was away at college, Jared. That’s cause to say she’s dangerous? She was simply paying a debt off that her father owed me,” I growl at him, my grip on the glass in my hand is tense, and I am afraid that if I don’t let it go soon, we will have glass shards all over.

Moving a couple steps forward, he laughs in my face, his expression telling me he doesn’t believe a fucking thing I am saying to him. When did I get off my game so much? When did I start allowing people to act like this?

“Zerro,“ he says my name as if he wants to say something else, so I stand there waiting for him to spit out whatever it is that he wants to say. “You’re right. She’s probably innocent, but that’s not the point. If she is, then you have dragged her into something that is dark and violent. She won’t be able to go back to college for a while, and her life has completely turned the fuck upside down.”

“You aren’t helping…” I mutter, a feeling of guilt washing over me. I am never guilty of doing anything. I have killed hundreds of people, but that woman in there has me feeling guilt. Guilt that is going to eat away at me every time I look at her beautiful face.

“I’m not trying to,” he retorts. My fist unclenches, releasing the glass onto the marble counter. It falls, breaking into a million pieces. The shards scatter in every direction, but I don’t even care as I bring my fist back down onto the counter.

“I won’t feel guilty for anything I did, Jared. It had to be done. I have killed countless….” I pause for a moment, looking him straight in the eyes. “Countless people. I have killed for no reason at all. I feel no remorse for any of it.”

“But you feel guilty for dragging her into this, don’t you?” His voice is quiet, and I can barely hear him over the blood rushing in my ears. My heart is pumping at Mach speeds, or at least it feels like it. Do I feel guilty for it? I have held a gun to her head and wrapped my hand around her delicate neck many times. Neither of those things makes me feel guilty, though. Why? Because I knew I would never kill her. The thought enters my mind without resistance. Have I known that I won’t kill her?

I can’t answer Jared even though I know the answer is deep inside of me. I have dragged someone who is, in fact, innocent into my shit hole. The very fact that he is right has me growing angrier.

“It’s not like I meant for any of this to happen…”

“You feel guilt though, don’t you?

I am avoiding his question. I don’t want to admit that I hate what I have pulled Bree into. I don’t want to admit that I have feelings for her. At least not aloud. Caring for someone just means another weakness. Losing my parents has led me to believe anyone you love will be ripped from you. Caring and loving just puts an X on your back. Enemies will know how they can hurt you the most.

“You’re such a fucking hard ass,” Jared mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. “Just admit it. For the first time in your fucking life, you care about someone.”

“Just stop.” My muscles are taut with aggression. I feel the need to kill something or someone right away. Jared is starting to look really appealing on the ground in a puddle of blood...

“It’s not a weakness to care for someone, Zerro. I can tell you right now that when I saw you on the ground, I thought the worst. Then there she was, standing there with a gun trembling in her hands ready to take anyone out who even looked at you the wrong way. She’s stronger than you give her credit for…”

My heart beat speeds up as it fills with adoration and something else—love? It can’t be. I don’t love anyone. Love isn’t even a word that I know how to say. Still, she saved my life, so I feel as though I am indebted to her. Most people would’ve left me there to fend for myself.

“Fuck. Okay, I feel guilty for putting her in this situation…” My clenched hands unclenched as I think about her lifeless body on the ground, a bullet hole in her head, her body surrounded by a dark rimmed puddle of blood. I can’t handle it. I can’t let her die. Not at my hands. I am a monster, a sick and sadistic one, but when it comes to her, I feel different. It is no butterflies and sunshine bullshit, but it is something that causes my heart to race and my blood to boil. She is becoming something to me.

“I knew it,” he says, smirking at me. I raise my eyes to his. He has a smile on his face. The fucker knows what it takes for me to admit something, and he’s rubbing it in my fucking face?

“Get the fuck out of here before I wipe the floor your face.” I turn on my heels, heading to get the broom.

“I’ll remember that at your wedding, asshole.” His words stop me in my tracks. Wedding? I hear the front door slam and know he has taken my advice on leaving, although not before leaving me with the thought of marriage. Can I ever get married? Can I commit to someone? Will Bree even be able to handle someone like me?

She is strong, given everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours, but to have to go through it every day for the rest of her life… Can she do it? The better question is, can I let her?

I walk around the house aimlessly, going stir-crazy. For the first time in my life, I have no answers as to what to do. If the FBI is on my ass, there isn’t a lot that can be done. Hiding is all that can get them off your radar for a while. Then, the second you fall back into the limelight, they will be on your ass again.

Bree has slept the whole afternoon, and though I want to wake her, every time I walk into the room to do it, I can’t. She looks so at peace in bed and I know if I wake her, the peacefulness that resides within her now will be gone.

Instead, I sit in the chair across from the bed and watch her delicate body. I appreciate her plump lips, the slope of her back, and the way her mouth parts as she allows a sigh to escape her lips as she sleeps.

She is magnificent, and she is mine. No longer able to hold back, I slip back into bed beside her. I need her to wake up. I need to talk to her, tell her how much her life has changed. The moment she saved my life is the moment she became a part of this war.

“Piccolo…” I whisper in her ear. She doesn’t move, and for a moment I think she doesn’t hear me. That is until my eyes sweep across her face. Her big, brown, doe eyes are wide open, peering up at me.

“What time is it?” she asks, her voice full of sleep. I smile at the sound.

“It’s late. I just figured after letting you sleep all day you would want to get up.” She rolls over, stretching. My dick automatically awakes, rising to the occasion. Of course, the fucker wants to interfere right now when I have business to talk about.

Her eyes roam the room as if she is looking for something. I wonder what she is thinking. Is she scared, worried, afraid? Does she think I will kill her after everything that has happened between us?

“What is going on in that head of yours?” I ask, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. I have never been the type to caress, touch, love. There isn’t a bone in my body that is made for such simple touches.

“I’m just thinking how much things have changed. When I woke up, it took me a second to realize where I was and what was going on.”

Sighing, I look deeply into her eyes. “Things are going to change. Whatever life you had before this is gone. You and the person you used to be are gone. The second you saved my life is the second that everything changed for you.”

A smile pulls at her lips as her brown eyes sparkle brightly in the light. “My life changed the moment you took me…”

“I know that, but I mean it will never be the same. Ever. Whatever freedoms you had before, you don’t have now. I know I promised you that you could leave, and you can. I swear to God, when all this is over if you want to run, you can. You can go wherever the fuck you want to go, but just know that while you’re here with me, you’re mine.” I am being possessive, and I don’t even fucking care. What Jared said to me hit a nerve.

“Yours.” I kind of like the sound of that.” She laughs softly.

“Yes, mine. Now, I have a plan, and it’s going to involve us staying in hiding for a while.” I am never one for running and hiding, and if I didn’t have someone I actually cared about for the first time in my life beside me, I wouldn’t be hiding now either.

“What’s your plan?” she asks, genuinely curious about what I am going to say.

“Mack is coming…” She cringes slightly at the sound of his name, and I am still wondering why. Did he do something to her?

“Great. What else?” She sounds completely displeased with the idea of Mack, and I can’t help but ask her what the problem is.

Moving closer to her, I rest my hand on her shoulder. “Is there something I should know about? Did Mack do something to you?” There had been so many times when I allowed him to go downstairs and check on her without my knowledge of what took place.

How could I be so fucking dumb? She is a beautiful woman, of course, he did something. Any man would.

“No…” Bree’s voice shakes as the lie escapes her lips. Anger rushes through me as my hand slips from her shoulder and up to the back of her neck where I grip her tightly, pulling her face into mine. Our lips are almost touching when I speak.

“Never. I mean never lie to me. Tell me whatever it is that you have to, but never lie to me. Dishonesty will get you killed faster than anything in this world. Even if it hurts to tell the truth, say it anyway because at least you said it.”

My eyes dart over her succulent lips, and the thought of taking her tongue into my mouth is sending my thoughts to all the wrong places.

“Now tell me what he did.” I try to hide to need from my voice and the fact that I want to take her against the wall right this second and forget about all the shit in our lives. The problems will still be here when I get done with her, right?

Her eyes gaze down and away from mine as if she is ashamed to speak. My heart starts beating out of my chest. If she has been with him, I don’t know what I will do. Will I kill her right here? Right now? That is the ultimate betrayal.

Her lip quivers, and I swear I see tears swimming in her eyes before she blinks them away.

“He got a little grabby and rough with me. I don’t like him and given the chance, I would stab him in the heart. Better yet, I might just shoot him.” She sounds vicious and sexy as hell when she is angry.

“When did he touch you?” I ask, withholding my rage. There is no point in showing her my anger. It wasn’t her fault. What am I supposed to do, though? I still have to somehow work with Mack. I have to find a way out of this, but he is my main man.

“That night he got me out of the basement, the night you came home with that girl,” Bree replies. Fire builds in her eyes when she says that girl. Who did she think I was bringing home? I don’t bring women to my private home.

“What did he do to you?” I clench my teeth, not wanting to hear what he did. Her eyes glaze over, and it is as if she is reliving the whole scene. Her body shakes as a single tear escapes her eye. Had I been that dark and uncaring that I hadn’t noticed someone who is mine, and mine alone, had been violated?

“He just wouldn’t leave me alone. He touched me and pushed me down on the stairs in the basement. He told me I was a distraction for you…” She sounds hurt as if she wants me to contradict what Mack said. Except he is right, she is nothing but a distraction. She wove herself deep under my skin and somehow made her way into my black heart, causing it to beat again.

“Did he…?” I can’t even say it. If he touched her like that, my patience for anything would be gone. I will kill him. I will rip him to shreds, detach his limbs, and feed him his dick.

She shakes her head no, her dark hair cascading into her face. My heartbeat stops, and I suck a breath in between my teeth.

“I’ll make him pay… I promise. The second I’m done with needing him, he will die.” I say softly, placing a kiss against her warm skin. In this crazy ass shit hole, she is the one thing holding me together. Without her here, I would shed more blood. I would be bathing in my enemy’s blood.

“Why do we need him?” she squeaks out, my lips still against her skin. I peer down at her. “He’s our ticket out of here…” I mumble.

“Can’t we just run?” she asks.

“No. Running is for the weak. We will hide, and when the time is right, I will strike, killing every single one of them.” The need for vengeance can be heard in my voice, and I don’t even care if it scares Bree. What they have done to me is something they will pay for.

“So we hide until the time is right and then you kill them all?” she inquires, tipping her head sideways. I release her head and sink back onto the bed.

“The only option is death, Bree. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but that’s how things are paid for. If they can so easily attempt to kill me, they should die for trying. It has always worked this way.” Frustration fills my body to the brim. How badly I wish I didn’t have someone whom I care about!

“You act like I don’t get it…” she whispers, getting up from the bed. Does she get it? I am not sure she understands the danger that she put herself in. Saving me should’ve been the last thing she ever did. She should’ve run when she got the chance.

“Saving me put you here. If you didn’t want this, then you should’ve run when you had the chance.” I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but she has to know what will come from this.

She stops dead in her tracks just inside the bathroom door and turns to face me, her face a pure mask of anger.

“I saved you because it was the right thing to do. I saved you because, even though you’re a ruthless killer who has threatened to kill me on more than one occasion, I have grown to want you. I have grown to feel for you. Now, saving your ass by killing that fucker has put an X on my back too.”

As her words assault me and her eyes hold a fire so deep, I feel like reaching out and touching it to see if it really will burn me, and it hits me. She made the choice, she made the decision. Running wasn’t even a thought to her when she pulled the trigger.

I smile smugly. I may be a ruthless killer who is deadly with his hands, but I am also someone who can bring my piccolo pleasure over and over again. She allows my deadly hands to touch her body. She sees the good in me, even when the bad overpowers it. She accepts me the way I am.

“You saved me even after everything…” I whisper, not really meaning to say it out loud. I know she hears it, though, the minute her eyes darken with lust and she smiles. She is ready for me again, I am sure. This is dangerous—she is dangerous. Even if I don’t want to admit it, she causes my heart to beat harder and faster, and suddenly my thoughts turn to taking her against the wall again.

I keep gazing out the window, pulling back the shades as I wait for Mack to show the fuck up already. He said he would be here soon. Obviously his soon and my soon aren’t the same.

“You never told me about your family. Do you have brothers or sisters?” Bree asks, so I turn around to face her. She has on one of my shirts and a cup of tea in her hands. She let me fuck her two more times before saying she needed to shower. Then I climbed in and took her a third time. She is addicting.

“No siblings who I know of. My father and mother are both dead.” Saying it always makes it seem real again, which hurts far more than the bullet wound in my shoulder. I never talk about my parents to anyone, so I don’t know why I am spilling my guts to her.

“No siblings for me either. My mom got sick not long after I was born.” She sounds defeated as she talks about her mom. I knew when her father came for money what his story was. His wife had died from cancer, so he was alone with a daughter and needed to find a way to make ends meet.

“What type of cancer did she have?” I ask, wanting to take the focus off myself, even if only for a short amount of time. There is a pause as she takes a drink from her cup. Once her lips leave the rim of the coffee cup, she seems to be lost in memories.

“Ovarian cancer.” I know nothing about cancer. It has claimed many people in this world, but I have never taken the time to learn more about any of it. Not that I had ever met anyone with cancer. We didn’t hang around death. We simply killed and went on our way.

“I’m sorry,” I offer sincerely. I am not sure what else to say. What is someone like me, who has more blood on his hands than anyone, to say to a person who has lost a parent to cancer? Even worse, is that I was going to take her father, her last living relative. I know exactly why she gave herself up. I understand.

“Don’t be,” she hiccups. A small tear streams down her cheek. Her doe eyes smile at me as her lips shake. What the fuck? Why the hell did I bring this up?

“I am, though,” I reiterate, moving closer to her. I may be hateful and so very fucked up, but my heart breaks for Bree. It breaks because I know what it is like to be alone in a world full of people. I know how quiet it is even in a crowded room.

My hands wrap around her, wanting nothing more than to shield her from the pain. How can that even be possible when I am the only person in the room who can bring her pain?

“What about your parents?” she asks, smiling. My arms drop from her sides instantly. Can I talk about this with her? Can I tell her how my mother had been killed by the very people who were trained to protect this country?

I feel the coldness seeping into my bones, the walls coming back up. Can I do this to her? Can I make her tell me her secrets without telling her my own?

“I….” I am stuttering over my words. I am actually, for the first time in my fucking life, left speechless.

“My mom was killed,” I state in such an obvious manner. I know she knows that much, but she doesn’t know how it happened.

“I know,” she says calmly as if waiting for me to finish my sentence.

I sigh, taking a step back to sit on the oversized chair. I am actually going to tell her the story. Memories assault me—the crying, the screams of my mom, the fear I felt in her words.

“She was killed when I was eight by the FBI, or at least that’s what’s being said now... I don’t know why, and I don’t know who did it. She was a good woman and was never involved with anything that my father had dealt with.”

I watch Bree approach the side of the couch slowly before deciding it is safe enough to take a seat next to me.

“I swore from that moment on that I would do whatever I could to find her killers, I would hunt them down and destroy them. Every member of their family would suffer for her loss. They owed me their lives, and I promised to collect.”

My eyes stay trained on the floor. I can’t look at her.

“So you planned on avenging your mother’s death?” she asks, her voice so soft.

“I didn’t just plan on avenging her death. I planned on ripping those people from their loved ones as they took my mother from me. She was the last thing I had when it came to a family. I was left with no one when she died. I am the heir to the king of money and mafia crown.”

A moment of silence passes, and I look up to see if she is still with me.

“Killing people never brought her back, though, and it just ate at you, at your insides. I know it did because looking at who you are now and the person you were when I first met you, seems as if I have met two different people.”

I close my eyes. This is the problem. I exhale a deep breath.

“People get used to this side of me without knowing that I can change in a moment’s time. I protect myself, and that’s it. Until—you. I was so keen on getting my revenge through my family’s mafia that it never occurred to me what I was doing. I have killed hundreds of people, Bree. There is so much blood on my hands, sometimes it takes me to the darkest places in my mind if I think about it too long.”

Setting her glass down on the table, she moves closer to me. Her hands find mine. “Killing people won’t bring her back. Doing what you do won’t bring her back. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

My eyes pop open as I stare at her face. She feels sorry for me. She sees me as that young boy who lost his mom, who lost everything, and that’s not what I want. I don’t want pity for what I have done or gone through.

“I don’t want your pity, Bree. I don’t want you to tell me what I can and can’t do, what will work and won’t work. We all have our own ways of working through things, and I get by just fine with what I do…” My voice is so full of anger that I have to clench my hands from lashing out at her.

Why does what she says bother me so fucking much? Because she’s right, my mind whispers to me, which just makes me angrier, of course.

Her mouth parts, and it looks as if she is going to say something. Then she closes it, only to open it again. “I don’t feel sorry for you. That’s the last fucking thing I feel for you. The blood on your hands is because of you, and there isn’t any type of pity or saying sorry that can make that shit go away. I just know what it’s like to lose a fucking parent so I feel your pain.”

Her words just make me angrier. She knows what pain feels like. Yes, she lost a parent, but she still has one, or at least something similar to one. I have nothing. I have me, myself and I. Relying on anyone else would just lead to death.

“Pain. You have no fucking clue what pain is…” I sneer. My muscles are clenching with the need to pound on something, and I know the moment Bree notices. She takes a step back, she is smart, too. I am a ticking time bomb…and she is right in the way of getting hit.

“I do!” she shoots back. She may have backed up away from me, but her face says she could give a fuck about how angry I am. Either way, I have had enough of her defiance.

Standing, I corner her. She thinks I am evil and dark, she thinks I won’t hurt her. She thinks wrong.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t know you when you’re like this….” Her cry is the one thing that causes me to gentle my touch as I grip her by the throat. My nose skims over her skin, settling just over her heart beat. It’s fluttering so fast I am afraid it will burst from her neck.

“You know me, as does your body,” I whisper, placing a soft kiss against her throat.

“My body wants you, but that’s it,” she lies. I can tell, I know, she wants me. She wants me for me. The killer in me wants her dead, but the lover in me wants to fuck her senseless. I don’t know which one will win.

“You lie…” I growl, nipping at her skin with my teeth. A deep moan escapes her lips. She is the worst fucking liar on the face of the earth.

“I didn’t,” she says with anger in her eyes that cause my dick to rise. Using my other hand, I slip in between her legs. Evidence of her arousal and need for me is dripping from her leg. She is wet for me.

“The proof is in the pudding, baby...” I growl, slipping a finger inside her. My other hand is still wrapped around her throat. I am in control, and I want her to know that. We have shared something that I haven’t with anyone else, but I don’t want her to think she can pull the wool over my eyes. It will always be me who owns her. I, who loves her…

Love? My attack stops as I pull away from her. My hands leave her, and I can tell it upsets her, but I don’t care. Did I love her? Love. Why would my mind even think that?

“I thought the proof is in the pudding?” She says slyly, trying to bait me. I lift my face to her, a sinister smile showing. I don’t know if I love her, but if my mind tells me I do, then I must. My feelings for her are deep. Love is very possible even if I don’t want to admit it out loud.

Dropping my jeans to the ground, I sit back on the couch.

“Ride me,” I growl. Her sweet face turns dark as she bites her bottom lip. God, I want to take that fucking lip into my mouth and bite it until I taste blood.

She walks over to me slowly, her hips swaying back and forth. The body of a goddess stands before me.

“Strip… Now…” I say louder than necessary. However, all she does is continue to sway her hips in front of me. My cock is growing harder and harder with every glimpse of her pussy from under my shirt. She wants to kill me. I always thought I would die from a wound, but I am certain it will be at the hands of this woman.

She giggles as she pulls at the hem of the shirt until it is all the way off. She stands before me in all her glory. She doesn’t shy away as I stare at her body. She has seen things most will never understand.

“Fuck me…” I say under my breath as I imagine palming her breast. Her tits are perky, and her nipples are pink.

“At your command, King,” she says softly stepping forward. My hands instinctively reach out and grip her hips hard. There will be bruises tomorrow, but I don’t care. That is just a sign of how intense our love is. Fuck, there is that word again—Love.

“I think I love you…” I whisper against her chest as she sits on my lap, my cock slipping in between us.

“What?” she questions just above a whisper. Her voice is filled with surprise.

“Ride me,” I demand instead of repeating what I had just said.

“Wait… Did you say you love me?” she asks. Her eyes are eager to meet mine, and I know she will know I am telling her the truth when I look her in the eyes. So I do just that—I look her straight in the eyes.