I open my eyes, but it still feels like I’m asleep. It’s dark. The pitch black kind. In-the-middle-of-the-night, in-the-middle-of-nowhere dark.

I try to sit up, but I immediately fall back down onto the dirt floor. The pain in my head is dizzying. I’ve never felt anything like it before. I grab my head with both hands, trying to remember what happened that made me feel this bad.

It’s all a haze. I remember Eden. I remember strange boys. I remember dancing. And Arlo. There was something important that happened with Arlo.

Pain. It’s all I feel right now, making it impossible to sort out everything floating around in my head.

My head is pounding. My whole body aches. My stomach is queasy.

I’m naked. I don’t have any clothing. Not my bra, not my panties, not an oversize shirt to cover me. There is just nothing.

I was raped.

It all comes flooding back to me. I took the shot. I passed out. Erick raped me. Arlo didn’t save me. I made a gigantic mistake. And, now, I just have to hope that I can escape before he kills me.

I push through the pounding in my head and the ache all over my body and manage to sit up. It’s incredibly dark, and I have no idea where the door is to make my escape. It doesn’t help that my head is spinning the longer I sit up.

“Drink.” A cup is thrust in front of me, seemingly out of nowhere.

I’m not going to be drugged again. I’m not going to let him rape me again. Not so easily. Not without a fight.

I push the cup away and force myself up. I start running in the opposite direction of the cup. There has to be an exit somewhere.

“Nina, stop,” I hear Arlo’s voice command.

I stop.

My heart stops beating. I stop breathing.

I wasn’t raped. At least, not by Erick.

I turn slowly and can faintly make out Arlo walking toward me with a cup in his hand.

“It’s just water. Drink. It will make your head stop aching.”

I take the cup out of his hand and drink until every last drop of water is gone.

“Sit down.”

I slowly sit back down on the dirt ground. I lean against the cold stone wall for support. Arlo does the same, sitting down next to me.

“Where’s Eden?”

“She’s safe. My driver took her home.”

I take a deep breath and let my shoulders relax. I believe him when he says that she is safe. She’s the only person in my world that matters. I can’t lose her.

“Why am I naked?” I ask.

“You don’t get to ask any stupid questions. Not after what you did last night.”

Instant anger overtakes any rational thoughts. “I sure as hell get to ask any damn question that I want! You got me into this fucking mess! If it wasn’t for you, I would never have taken any drugs.”

“I got you into this mess? You have got to be fucking kidding me! I told you not to drink it. You didn’t listen to me. You disobeyed me.”

“I’m not an idiot! I knew that he’d spiked the drink with something.”

“Then, why did you drink it? That sounds pretty idiotic to me!”

“I wasn’t going to drink it. I was just going to make him think I did. But then you had to get all bossy and demanding, showing that you cared about me.”

“You think I care about you?” He laughs. “Oh, man, Nina. Your worldview is definitely wrong. I don’t care about you. But acting like royalty in this town has its disadvantages. I couldn’t have a club full of people see you get drugged and disappear with a man without me interfering and saving you. One of the main reasons my family maintains so much power in this town is because we protect the town. Sorry that I was desperate not to have to spend my whole night fighting to keep you safe from some loser.”

“Erick didn’t rape me?”

“Of course he didn’t rape you.”

I clear my throat and then whisper, “Did you rape me?”

He laughs.

“It’s not funny. Did you rape me?”

He continues laughing, like it’s the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “No, Nina, I didn’t rape you. I don’t have to. You were willing to risk your life to try to get me to notice you. You’ve practically thrown yourself at me every chance you’ve gotten. I don’t need to rape you in order to have my way with you.”

“Then, why am I naked?”

Arlo sighs. “Because you threw up on yourself countless times as the drugs took effect and were leaving your system. I thought it would be easier to hose you down if you were naked.”

I frown. “You could have left my underwear on.”

He rolls his eyes. “I could have. But then what enjoyment would that have brought me? I thought it was my reward—to finally see you naked after saving your life and taking care of you all night.”

“I’m in your debt now,” I say with a small smile on my face.

“I want to wipe that damn smile off your face. You could have died last night, Nina. You did die last night. I had to perform CPR at one point because you weren’t breathing on your own. Whatever that asshole Erick gave you was strong shit. You would have died if it wasn’t for me.”

“But you did save me.”

He runs his hand through his hair. “I’ve never met a woman so frustrating as you, Nina. I want to punish you so that you will never do something so stupid again in your life, but I’m not convinced you will learn your lesson.”

The pain in my head is gone. My body is flush and warm with thoughts of Arlo. I have to have him. And I don’t care what words he says. He cares about me. He can lie to himself all he wants.

“Punish me.”

“Be careful what you ask for, Nina.”

“Fuck me. Punish me. Then, fuck me again. You know you want to.”

He growls, “You don’t get to make decisions anymore, Nina. You make shitty decisions.”

“Then, you decide. Am I in your debt or not?”

His eyes glow bright with anger.

A second later, I feel the full force of his anger as he pushes me onto the dirty ground, face-first, his body crushing me.

“You fucked up, Nina. Today is the last time you will ever fuck up like this. Do you understand?”

I can’t answer him. He’s squishing my lungs too much for me to be able to breathe, let alone answer him.

“Answer me!”

“Yes,” I croak out as I struggle to breathe.

“You will do exactly what I say, Nina. You will not hesitate. I’m going to punish you. I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to control you like I couldn’t last night. And, if you don’t obey me, you will only be punished harder. Understand?”

“Yes,” I breathe out, exhaling what feels like the last amount of breath in my body.

Scathing pain. That’s all I can think about. He slapped me hard on the ass as I answered, and I feel the tears already stinging my eyes.

I’ve been fucked by dozens of men. Most were boring men who wanted meaningful, monotonous sex. Some would occasionally slap me on the ass. But none have ever brought anything close to the pain that Arlo just gave me.

He slaps my ass again, and I try to cry but can’t from his crushing weight.

He strikes me again, and the tears that were simply falling before are rolling down my cheeks in waves.

“You will never disobey me again, Nina. You will never forget tonight.”

He hits me one more time before rolling me over. The sting of the dirt hitting my raw ass makes me cry again.

Arlo’s hand sinks between my legs, furiously rubbing me. “You’re so wet. You liked that, didn’t you? You can’t even get punished properly. You like it too much.”

I moan as he moves my wetness over my folds.

He’s right. The pain was intense, but it turned me on. I like being punished. I like being controlled. What’s wrong with me?

His hand moves from my folds and to his button and zipper on his slacks.

I watch with wide eyes as he slowly undoes the button and zipper until his cock springs free from his slacks and briefs.

It’s just as long and thick as I remember it being when I attempted to paint it and failed miserably.

My hands reach out to touch it, to feel how hard and big it really is, but he grabs my hands and forces them above my head.

“You don’t get to do anything without my permission. You don’t get to touch. You don’t get to speak. You don’t get to move.”

My eyes grow so wide that I’m afraid they are going to pop out of my head. How am I supposed to ask permission if I can’t even speak?

I nod though. It feels safer than speaking.

He continues to hold my hands high above my head while he moves his cock until it is resting on my lips. I don’t move. I try not to even breathe on him even though I’m desperate to take his dick in my mouth. I must taste it.

I don’t. I just look up at him with big eyes.

“Suck me.”

Finally.

I open my mouth, and his cock instantly fills me. He tastes as good as he looks. And, when his eyes roll back in his head as I run my tongue over the tip, I can’t help but feel good. He might think he has all the control, but the second he surrendered his cock to me was the second that I gained a little of that control back.

“Suck all of me.”

I lift my head up off the ground, trying to get all of him into my mouth. I’ve never tried fitting a man fully into my mouth before, but then again, I’ve never wanted to or been asked to.

I move his cock deeper into my mouth until I start gagging.

He shakes his head and grabs the back of my head. “Take all of me.”

He pushes my head up onto his cock until I’m gagging again, and tears are streaming down my face.

“Relax.”

I do, and he slides in a little bit further. And the look on his face is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. He’s lost all control to me now that I have all of him in my throat. I get braver and start pumping faster with my mouth. I move until he is almost fully out of my mouth and then take him all the way in again, holding his cock there until I can’t take it any longer.

“Fuck, Nina!” Arlo growls.

I take him all the way in again, and I feel the warm, salty liquid pouring down my throat. I stay relaxed so that I don’t choke as Arlo keeps his cock deep in my throat until he has finished spilling inside of me.

“Good girl,” he says as he removes his cock.

I cough a little, but I’m desperate to do it again. I’ve never been so turned on. I’ve never felt so in control or dirty.

I stare down at the clothes that Arlo is still wearing. I want him naked.

One of my hands slips out of his grasp and grabs at his shirt.

He seizes it almost instantly and thrusts it back over my head. “You don’t learn, do you, Nina?”

I grin. “Maybe you need to teach me another lesson.”

“No. I already taught you one lesson for today. It’s not my fault you don’t listen.”

He keeps my hands high over my head as he tightens his grip on my wrists, not letting me disobey him again.

“Spread your legs.”

I do.

I feel his cock move to my entrance that is soaking and begging for him to fuck me.

“I shouldn’t fuck you, Nina. It’s what you want.”

I pout and moan a little as I ache, waiting to see if he is actually going to fuck me or not.

His thumb glides over my clit, making me purr, as he teases me while he decides what he’s going to do.

“You haven’t learned your lesson, have you? You would still risk your life in order to get me to fuck you?”

I nod. “Please,” I whisper.

He shakes his head, and then he plunges inside me.

I exhale a groan I was holding in as he pushes me open wide.

He doesn’t take his time. He moves fast, expertly filling every inch of me while also making me feel incredibly good. I can’t take it. It’s too much and not enough at the same time.

The sex is amazing. My hands are held high above my head as he fucks me on the dirty floor, like the slut that I am.

But I want more.

His head bends down, and he roughly takes my nipple into his mouth, giving me the more that I crave as he fucks me.

I don’t know if it is the fact that I risked my life to have sex with him, the drug, or the anticipation of finally fucking him, but everything that I have becomes lost in him as he fucks me. I’ve never been so into a man before. I’ve never been so fully lost. Never this obsessed.

But, now that I’ve had him, I’m not sure how I can ever not have him again.

“Kiss me,” I whisper.

He releases my nipple and moves his lips over mine as he slows his thrusts inside me. All I have to do to feel his lips on mine again is move up an inch. But I want him to kiss me. Claim me fully.

“No,” he says.

Then, his lips are gone, and he’s thrusting so hard that I can’t think about the fact that he’s not kissing me. All I can do is try to hang on while he takes me to a place that I didn’t know was possible to reach.

He spills inside me, not waiting for me to come, but his cum filling me combined with the deep growls leaving his throat are enough to make me come. When I do come, I lose it. I lose everything I was holding on to, and I just feel.

I feel the pain and the intense pleasure. Sex with Arlo is everything I ever imagined and more. It’s a ride I never want to get off of.

But, before I even have a chance to come down off my high, he slips out of me and is gone, leaving me alone on the floor of the same dungeon he left me alone in before. Dirty and spent and naked.

I take a deep breath as I lay motionless on the floor, and a slow smile creeps over my face. It was worth it. It was all worth it.

Shit. We didn’t use a condom. I’m on birth control, but still, that was risky. And exciting. And I want more.

A second later, his hands grab at my wrists again, and I’m being pulled along the dirt floor, hitting every rock, stinging my ass.

I don’t know if I have the energy to go again, but I want to. More than anything, I want him to fuck me again.

He stops and releases me. “Stand up.”

It takes everything that I have, but I stand up and stare into his dark eyes.

He grabs one of my wrists again and places a cold metal shackle on it. Then, he does the same to the other. I bite my lip as I try to anticipate what he’s going to do next. I try not to show how giddy I am, but I’m also exhausted.

I test the shackles once he has them on, and once he attaches them, I know I won’t be able to get free. He will have full control over me. And it excites me and terrifies me at the same time.

He begins to attach a chain to both of the shackles without saying a word to me or looking me in the eye. And then, without warning, he pulls hard on the chain.

I begin falling as my arms are pulled forward and downward in front of me.

I can’t catch my fall with my arms, but instead of landing on the dirt below me, my face and chest land on something hard a few feet off the ground.

My arms are tied to a pole at one end of an apparatus while my face and breasts are smashed against a wooden apparatus below me.

Arlo moves to my back. “Spread your legs.”

I do, barely able to touch the ground. I feel another cold shackle go around each ankle, and then Arlo spreads my legs to my limit.

“Arch your back.”

I do the best I can, and my ass is thrust into the air.

He slaps it again. I was expecting it, but the sting still hurts after all the hits before.

“I love you like this. So helpless and spread wide, just for me.”

He’s right. I’m completely helpless, and I’m afraid I love it just as much as he does.

I take a deep breath as I wait for what he is going to do next.

“I have to taste you first.”

I feel his tongue on my folds as he buries his face in my ass. His tongue darts in and out of my pussy, alternating with licking my clit. As I’m stretched wide for him, I’m so close to coming, it’s ridiculous.

“You don’t get to come without my permission.”

I clench my teeth, trying my best to keep from coming, while his tongue continually dances over my clit. I squeeze my hands into fists and curl my toes, but it can’t stop the inevitable.

I come.

Hard.

And uncontrollably.

I scream, “Arlo!”

He smacks my ass harder than he ever has, and tears immediately sting my eyes again.

“I told you not to come. You have a lot to learn, Nina.”

And then, before I can breathe, his cock slides into my ass without warning. He fucks me hard and fast in the ass—a place I’ve never been fucked before. He’s ruthless in his thrusts, not caring how hard it is for me to keep up with him.

I try to hold on as best as I can as he thrusts inside me, but I can’t. The intensity is too much. I’m tied too tightly. I’m just here for the ride.

So, I let go, and when I do, I feel myself inching closer to that blissful feeling he gave me earlier. The feeling that I will never get enough of.

“Come, Nina.”

I come.

He comes.

And I will never be the same.

He pulls out and then slowly unlocks the shackles on my ankles before moving and undoing the shackles on my wrists.

I can’t move even though I’m free.

I have no energy, no ability to move.

I feel Arlo’s arms go around me, and he scoops me up into his arms. He carefully places me down on the floor, leaning against the cold wall. He leans down and firmly kisses me on the lips, claiming me with his mouth.

And then he returns to the darkness while I sit, confused at what just happened.

He returns a few minutes later and throws my clothes to me. “You can get dressed now.”

I’m surprised that he didn’t command me like he had for the last hour that we’d been having sex.

I slowly begin putting my clothes on, starting with my panties and jeans. I have to stand to put them on, and when I do, I come face-to-face with Arlo again. It’s an intimate moment, coming face-to-face with a man who has just changed everything I knew about having sex with men.

“Did I just repay my debt, or do we get to do that again?” I ask as my cheeks flush. Please tell me we get to do that again and again and again.

He frowns. “You don’t get it, do you? You aren’t even close to repaying your debt. I saved your life. Now, you have to pay the ultimate price for me giving the ultimate sacrifice. You have to pay me back with your life.”

I narrow my eyes, not understanding. “Didn’t you just punch Erick or something and then scoop me up and bring me here?”

He laughs. “You have no idea what I had to do to get you here.”

“So, I have to pay you back with my life? What does that mean?”

“You are mine to do what I want with.”

“Until?”

He shrugs. “Your death.”

I shake my head. “So, what? You are going to hold me captive here and force me to do all sorts of things against my will? That’s illegal.”

He laughs. “It doesn’t matter what is legal or not. I own this town and most of the country. No one cares what my family or I do as long as we keep pumping money into the towns and protect them. Then, they look the other way to what we do in our spare time or how we make our money.”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be.”

“I’m not,” I say, but my voice falters.

“I’m not the only one you should be afraid of. When you are in my debt, you are in my entire family’s debt. My sister is not as sweet as she looks. My father is more controlling than you could ever imagine. And my brother doesn’t have the same charm that I do.”

“You have a brother?”

“Yes.”

I don’t know why I didn’t know that before, but it doesn’t matter now. He’ll rape me or make me do unthinkable things, the same as Arlo. The difference is, I want Arlo to do those things to me. His brother, not so much.

“So, what? They will all rape me? Make me have sex with them?”

“My father and brother probably will. My sister will find other ways to torture you and make you pay us back for going through the trouble of saving you. Trust me, it was a family effort to save you. I couldn’t have done it on my own. As much as you think I’m some type of superman who can save you from anything, I’m not, and I can’t. I’m human. The same as you.”

I wrap my arms across my bare chest. I still haven’t bothered to put my shirt back on.

“I warned you to stay away. Several times. But you couldn’t resist. And, now, you will pay the price. You have just entered a world that you couldn’t even imagine. A world where the men in my family will fight over you. The women will punish you. We will all make you love us and hate us at the same time until it drives you mad. We will play games with your mind, heart, and soul. We are twisted, dirty people who have learned to control people in the only way we know how. By putting you in our debt. Then, we can do whatever we want.”

“I don’t believe you. I’ve met your sister. She’s nice. You aren’t even as evil as you seem.”

He shakes his head. “Then, you’re naive. You thought Erick was bad. We are worse. We’ll rape you and threaten to kill you; one of us might even follow through on that threat. We control you. You are our plaything, Nina. A game to entertain us when we are bored. A game that you won’t even understand the rules of until you have already lost. You’ve just entered a dirty, dark world without any escape.”

His words are twisted and wrong. Nothing makes sense. I don’t know how a family could get away with raping and murdering for years without getting prosecuted. I don’t even know if what he is saying is true or if he is just messing with me.

I’m scared.

Just enough to not want to be here anymore. He’s scared me enough to believe that at least part of it is true.

If his brother or father is anything like him, then they will try to control me. Rape me if they want. And I won’t let them.

I run.

Through the darkness, not even fully dressed, I run. I get to the door and throw it open shocked that is isn’t locked and run out into the sunlight. To freedom. But I still hear his threat ringing in my ear behind me.

“Run, Nina! Don’t ever stop running! We love the chase. Don’t ever stop running. Because, when you do, we will own you. Forever.”