It’s been one week since I last saw Nina.

And, every day that goes by, my heart hurts a little more. I thought that keeping my distance would make it easier for me to do what would have to be done, but it didn’t. I know I don’t have real feelings for her. That’s not what this is. I just want to fuck her again. She was the best fuck of my life. Her pussy was tight and inviting. Her body had curves in all the right places. But what I loved the most was how she craved my control. She wanted it. She’s fucked up, like me. She got off on acting like my slave.

And I’m desperate to feel that again. Even though I’ve had real slaves, none of them have done anything for me like what Nina did for me that one night. I’ve often pictured her face on the other whores while fucking them. But that doesn’t do anything for me either.

I want to fuck Nina again. Now. I want to rape her for real. I want to hear her cry when I stretch her open while she secretly wants more of my cock. I want it so bad that I can’t even focus on work, the only thing I give a shit about in this world.

The last time I saw Nina was in the dining room when my father slobbered all over her gorgeous face. She looked at me like she needed me to save her. I can’t fuck her until she realizes that I won’t save her. When she finally stops looking at me like a sad puppy dog that needs rescuing, then I’ll fuck her.

But I need to see her. I need to give a fresh face to my dirty dreams. I need to see her so that, when I jack off, I have a new image of her to get off to.

She’s probably still hiding in her bedroom. Matteo fed her some stupid lie about how she was safe in her bedroom. Maybe from him, but the rest of us won’t give her much space.

I should be heading off to work. I have a new deal that I’m working on closing that could bring us billions in weapons to sell, but I can’t. Not until I see her face.

I run up the stairs to her bedroom and then hesitate. Should I knock first or just barrel inside like I own the place? I choose the latter.

I push the door open, surprised that she doesn’t have it locked.

I don’t see her when I go inside. She’s not in the bed. Not on the bench overlooking the gardens below. She’s not in the bathroom. She’s not here.

I sigh. Matteo might have finally decided it was time to break her. Good. Let him. He can do the dirty work, and then I’ll be able to do what I need to.

But I guess I’ll have to wait until later to see her.

I run back down the stairs, knowing that I only have twenty minutes before I’m supposed to be at my meeting.

“Checking in on our guest? Isn’t it a bit early for you to make your move? You usually let me do all the dirty work first,” Matteo says, sipping his coffee in the dining room.

I frown. She’s not with him.

“Where’s Gia?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I think she went shopping.”

Matteo turns his attention back to the newspaper he’s reading.

I shake my head. Who reads newspapers anymore?

But he’s old school. He’ll never stop trying to impress our father.

Father.

He’s the only one unaccounted for. And he’s been dying to get his hands on a slave for months. He usually has his own playthings to keep him occupied. But he broke his last one too quickly. She didn’t survive long. Only a month. She found his gun and killed herself before he could touch her again.

Nina is stronger than her, but I have no idea how long he’s had her as his slave. A few hours? A day? Or the whole week?

If it’s been a week, Nina will be close to the point where she’d rather die than deal with another second of my father. And I let it happen.

I run through the mansion, leaving my idiot brother sitting, clueless, in the dining room. My father’s quarters are on the complete opposite side from Nina’s. Matteo and I made sure of that. We tried to protect her from him, but we’ve failed in the first week. We never thought he would go for her so quickly. But he must have lost his patience with us after the last one.

I expect to see the usual guards at the door, but there are none. That means he doesn’t think she has enough strength to escape anymore. He thinks he has her under his complete control. If there is one thing I know about Nina, it is, no matter what he does to her, she will never be controlled.

I burst into his room, and my stomach curls when I see her. She’s tied to the bed, face up. Blood covers every inch of her face. Bruises and more blood stain her body. Her arms and legs are spread wide as ropes tie her to each bedpost, but I’m not sure the restraints are necessary. Her body is so broken that she couldn’t possibly have the strength to fight him off her or even stand on her own.

My father walks into the room, his dick in his hand, sticking out of his slacks. “Come to watch the show?” he asks.

“No, I’ve come to have my turn.”

He grins. “You don’t like them bloody though. You like them fighting.”

He’s right. I don’t like fucking helpless women like he does. I’m not a coward. I fuck them against their will, sure, but only when that’s what they want. I’m not my father.

I look at Nina. Her eyes finally find me in the room. I expect the same help-me look in her eyes that she gives me every time I am in the same room with her. But her eyes don’t ask for help. They expect nothing from me.

“Get out of here. You can have her when I’m finished with her,” my father says, turning his attention to her.

My stomach churns at the thought of my father fucking her like this. I can taste the bile in my mouth. It’s gone on for far too long.

I should have known.

I should have tried to stop it.

But I never have before. What makes me want to save Nina when I haven’t saved so many before?

I look at her long brown hair and her beat-up body. She’s beautiful, even in her current state. But it’s more than just her beauty that attracts me to her. It’s her obsession with me. I’ve never been the center of someone’s world. No one has ever cared about only me ever. Not even my own mother. That must be all it is. The fascination with a woman who is obsessed with me.

She’s not obsessed anymore.

She hates my guts.

I watch as my father walks toward her, and I can’t take it. I don’t know how to stop it, but I can’t let it happen. I can’t let him hurt her.

I grab my father’s shoulder, and I push him against the wall.

“What the fuck are you doing? You’ll have your turn with our slave. Wait, or I’ll make you wait your turn, you asshole,” he says.

I don’t even flinch when he calls me an asshole. He’s called me everything in the book. I’m not a son to him, and I never will be.

He looks at me in disgust. “Get out of here. You don’t have the balls to be half the man that I am.”

He throws me off of him even though I have three times the strength that he does. He’s in control here, not me. He has the power over the men who stand guard and are ready at his beck and call. Not me. I don’t have any power yet. But I will soon enough.

I grab his arm again, stopping him from touching Nina.

“Let go of me now. Or I’ll make you. I’ll whip your ass like when you were a kid, and maybe then, you’ll finally learn some manners.”

I tighten my grip on his arm, still not sure of what my next move will be. All I know is, I won’t let him touch her. He moves to punch me, but I block him, which only makes him angrier.

“Whipping your ass won’t be enough. I’ll lock you in the dungeon, and you’ll never see the light of day again if you keep defying me, boy.”

“I want her. Now. I can’t wait. I want to know what it’s like to fuck a woman who’s broken and beaten. I want the taste of blood in my mouth.”

He stops a second and looks at me, trying to tell if I’m lying or not. “I don’t believe you. You never want their blood unless they willingly give it to you. You’re weak—”

“I want her blood. I want to make this slave pay for what she did.”

He smiles when I use the word slave. “Be my guest then.”

I watch him slowly walk out of the room, leaving her to me. He might not be in the room any longer, but I know he is still watching. The sick fucker has video cameras everywhere so that he can relive his disgusting fantasies, even after the women are long gone.

And watching his son finally become a man in his eyes is going to make my twisted father jack off more times than I want to imagine.

I turn to Nina as she moans quietly to herself on the bed. It’s all she can do. And even her soft moans leave her exhausted.

I walk toward her and pull my knife from my back pocket. I begin slicing the ropes holding her in place. They’re all completely useless anyway. She can’t run; she’s only hours away from dying from her wounds or loss of blood. I’ve never seen my father brutalize a woman like he has Nina. I don’t know what she did to piss him off, but whatever it was, it was personal.

I finish cutting the last rope and watch as her arm falls free to the bed. I want her fingers digging into my back with her sharp nails drawing blood. I want her to use that arm to push and shove and fight with everything that she has to get away from me. I don’t want this emptiness.

She looks up at me like I’m a monster, and I am. Just a different kind than my father.

I take her and flip her over so that she doesn’t have to look me in the eye. And then I climb on top of her.

She moans as I let my weight settle onto her body. But she doesn’t fight. She can’t fight. She has nothing left.

I pull my shirt off my body, and then I undo my pants, letting my hard cock spring free. I really am a monster. I shouldn’t be hard at the sight of a woman in this much pain.

But, instead, I’ve never been harder. I push my cock against her ass. She flinches at just the touch of my cock against her ass.

I want her to feel good, but I also can’t control myself once I start. I don’t know if it’s possible to make her feel good when she’s in this state. I should just focus on being fast, and then I’ll get her out of here.

I need to taste her. My lips kiss her neck. I love her sweet smell that still lingers mixed with her blood, sweat, and tears. She doesn’t move when I kiss her. No reaction at all. But it doesn’t stop me. I move down her body, kissing every inch of her back, trying to make the pain go away from each scar my father caused. Even once they heal, they will always be present on her body. She will never escape this. She will take this week with her forever.

If only she had a forever.

Kissing her neck and back isn’t enough to satisfy me. I want to taste every inch of her body. I need it more than I need air.

I know I need to be rough with her, and I will be. But, first, I need to be sweet. As much for her as for me.

I grab her hips and pull her up onto all fours. She moves, but she doesn’t have the strength to hold herself up. I have to hold her up.

I spread her legs and move underneath her. I suck each of her nipples first. Loving how they harden under my tongue. It’s the first reaction I’ve gotten from her. I watch her chest rise and fall a little as I suck on one, her breathing slowly picking up.

She’s excited.

I kiss down her smooth stomach as I hold her up with my arms, as her arms are doing nothing to keep her up. My tongue slips down to her pussy. I forgot how good she tastes. I feel the slickness that has already formed there. I expertly move my tongue around her folds and over her clit, and I feel more liquid pool. And I lap every drop that I can, loving that, even though she is in this much pain, I can still turn her body on.

Her body wants me even if she doesn’t.

I continue licking a few seconds more until I finally get the one word I was hoping to get from her.

“Yes,” she moans ever so quietly. So quietly that I’m not even sure I heard it or if I just wanted to hear it.

But I take that as my cue that she wants this. Maybe not exactly like this, but she still wants me. And this is much better than the alternative.

“I’m going to fuck you so hard, Nina, that you are going to forget about everything other than me,” I say as I move from underneath her to behind her again.

I let her hips rest back down as I push my cock against her ass. This time, when I do, she doesn’t moan; she whimpers in an I-need-you kind of way.

I spread her legs further, and then I push my cock into her pussy, just letting the head rest inside her.

Her slickness welcomes me, pushing me deeper inside. I don’t want gentle though, and I don’t think Nina does either.

I slap her ass hard as I drive my cock inside her.

She screams, and my cock hardens more.

I slap her again as I thrust inside.

She screams, but it’s not a terrifying or painful scream. It’s a God-please-don’t-stop scream.

It drives me mad, and I forget about everything else other than fucking her. My beautiful, imperfect, obsessive Nina.

I move faster, pushing her so hard into the bed that I’m sure it’s impossible for her to breathe. I grab her hair, pulling it roughly, lifting her head up so that I can see her face.

I slap her ass again, but this time, I get no response.

I slip my hand around to find her clit and rub furiously, bringing her back to life.

“Stay with me, Nina,” I whisper into her ear.

She comes to life.

I feel her hips move against mine just ever so slightly. I feel her whimpers pick up as I fuck her harder. Her whole body comes alive, like I was the shock her body needed to remember to keep fighting. To keep living.

I push harder until I’m about to come, finally letting her have some relief. I hit her ass hard. Her pussy clinches my cock as she comes, barely whispering my name.

Her coming takes me to a whole different level. When I come, it’s an explosion that I was never expecting. But then nothing with Nina has been expected. Nothing.

I roll off of her and tuck my cock back into my pants. Then, I lift her from the bed before my father has a chance to say anything different.

She’s limp in my arms. I’m not even sure how she managed to stay awake the whole time I was fucking her. In a way, I wish she had passed out so that she wouldn’t remember me raping her. Because, as much as I want to tell myself that she wanted that, it isn’t true. No woman wants what I just did. No woman wants to be fucked while completely broken.

My father doesn’t stop me when I leave his quarters. I see a couple of his men as I pass, but they don’t say anything either, and if they did, I would fight them to the death. No one is touching her. No one.

I feel my phone buzz in my pants pocket, but it can wait. I don’t give a shit who is calling me right now. I just want to get Nina somewhere safe. And she’s no longer safe with me.

I keep walking until I get to the one door I never thought I would knock on for help. I knock loudly, making it clear that he’d better get his ass to the door as quickly as possible.

Matteo does. He opens the door seconds later and looks just as confused to see me standing at his door as I am to be standing here. We might all live under the same roof, but the mansion is so big that we basically have our own homes within its walls. We each have half a dozen or more rooms that are our own and are blocked off from everything else, giving us a feeling of having our own house.

I push past him without saying a word and carry Nina to his bed. I lay her down on the bed as gingerly as I can.

“What the hell happened? I’ve never seen you beat a woman like this before,” Matteo says.

“It wasn’t me.”

Matteo’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t ask any more questions. He knows who caused the scars all over her body.

“How did you get her out?” he asks.

“I became a monster, just like him.” I don’t look at him when I say it. I don’t want his judgmental stare.

I know what I did was wrong. I swore I would never become him, but maybe this is how it starts. It starts by pretending like you are saving someone, and then it’s a slippery slope from there. I liked hurting her when she couldn’t fight back.

“She needs medical help,” I say.

“I can handle it.”

I nod. I know Matteo will heal her wounds. That’s why I brought her here. He’s the best with medical care.

He goes over to a dresser where he pulls out a syringe and medicine, and then he injects it into her arm. “That should take away most of her pain. At least temporarily,” Matteo says.

I nod.

“You’re bleeding. Do you want me to stitch you up? You always suck at it, which is why you keep bleeding.”

“No. Just take care of her,” I say, not bothering to look down at the scar that has opened up again and is bleeding profusely. It’s nothing compared to what she has gone through.

My phone buzzes again, and I know it’s the arms dealer I’m supposed to be meeting with. I press Decline, but I can’t actually ignore it.

“I need to go,” I say for more than one reason.

“You shouldn’t go. She might not make it through the night. She’s lost a lot of blood.”

Fuck, and I’ve made it that much worse.

“I have to go.”

Matteo frowns. “No, you fucking don’t, man. The deal can wait a couple of days.”

I stare into Matteo’s eyes, and he knows it isn’t about the deal. I can’t face myself around Nina. Not when I’ve caused her as much pain as my father. Not when I couldn’t save her from my father before he ever laid a hand on her.

“She’s strong. The strongest. She will survive this and more if she has to.”

Matteo glares at me. “She shouldn’t fucking have to. That wasn’t the plan.”

Matteo and I haven’t always gotten along, but I don’t want to fight now.

“I trust that you will keep her safe.”

“Of course,” Matteo says.

Nina stirs, looking at Matteo. He takes her hand in his, comforting her.

“You saved me,” she croaks out.

Matteo grins. “Of course I saved you. I shouldn’t have ever let you get hurt in the first place. I’m sorry, beautiful.”

Nina gives him a faint smile, and then she begins to fade again. She doesn’t look at me. She doesn’t even know that I’m in the same room as her.

She’s going to hate me.

Forever.

I’ve done something unforgivable.

She’s going to love Matteo.

She thinks he saved her.

I made the right choice in bringing her to Matteo. He might actually be strong enough to save her. He can put an end to this madness. He can put an end to it all.