I went from a raging hard-on to storming out of Scarlett’s office after she took off with her ex-boyfriend. She watched me leave the building, right after she hugged that prick, and let me go. Maybe I'm more dramatic than normal. Maybe I just need a drink and a few hours of porn to calm my nerves.

But that’s what the old Aiden would do. I have spent too much time working out my issues with Scarlett that I cannot go back, despite the twitch in my cock and the sweaty palms that tell me to feed my inner demons. I’ve been home for all of thirty minutes and no Scarlett.

Where the fuck did she go?

I need a distraction. Scarlett is pushing my limits, and I hate when people push me. She tests every bit of my willpower that is fleeting by the second. Irritated and rock hard, I grab my cock over my slacks and lean against the wall in the living room. I stare up at the ceiling and suck in a deep breath. It feels so good to touch myself without Scarlett judging me. I unzip my pants and pull my cock through the slit in my boxers, fisting my shaft.

She made me do this. Fuck. But I don’t care. It feels too good, and I want to come. Scarlett was supposed to do this for me, not go off with her asshole ex-boyfriend. As I shut my eyes, I pick up the pace, surprised when the elevator dings. The sound takes me out of my element, completely fucking with my orgasm.

“What the fuck, Aiden?”

I open my eyes as Scarlett storms toward me, her heels clicking loudly on the marble floor. Staring down at my hand and then back up at Scarlett, I smile.

“You can take over for me, Scar.” I pull her closer with my other hand so that she’s standing in front of me. “We have to finish what we started earlier.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “We talked about this, Aiden. In fact, we discussed your addiction less than an hour ago, and I find you in the living room, of all places, with your hand on your dick.”

“What choice did you leave me? You walked away with your ex. I was mad. I still am.”

“You cannot be serious.” She throws her hands on her hips, staring me down with a fury. “How can you possibly be mad at me?”

“Did you fuck him?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Stop being so insecure, Aiden.” Scarlett turns on her heel, but I step forward to hook my arm around her stomach, pushing her back into my erection.

“I need you, Scar.” I breathe against her neck, and she stills from my touch as I slide my hand up her side. “I can’t lose you to him.”

She sucks in a deep breath and lets it out her nose. “I came home to you, did I not?”

I push Scarlett’s skirt up her thighs, bunching the fabric around her hips. As per my order, she’s not wearing any panties. Good girl. Despite her many attempts to be defiant, she always follows my rules. I reach between her legs to feel the wetness pooling between them, tracing my finger along her slick folds until I reach her ass.

“Give me what I want. Stop denying me.”

“Aiden, don’t even think about it,” she hisses. “You’re just mad.” Scarlett tilts her head back to rest it on my shoulder and stares into my eyes. “Because of that anger, you think a hate fuck will make everything better.”

“Fucking your ass has nothing to do with being angry.”

Pressing my cock between Scarlett’s ass cheeks, I grab a chunk of her hair in my hand, tugging hard enough that Scarlett winces.

“Ahh,” she moans.

“Is this what you want, my dirty little whore?”

Scarlett doesn’t speak, still unsure if she wants to give me the one thing she has forbid me from doing in the past. Something between a no and maybe escapes her lips in answer. I don’t care what she wants right now. The car ride home from her office was hell for me. Watching her hug that bastard in front of me was complete fucking torture.

I kiss her neck, as I inch myself further between her cheeks. Holding her hip with one hand, I use the other to reach between us to coat my fingers with her juices. She’s so fucking wet for me. I lean back, just enough to slide my finger along her hole, prepping her for what will be more pain than she has endured with me before.

I run my hand over her lower back, pushing her forward. “Do you remember your safeword, Scarlett?”

“Yes, sir,” she whispers.

“Be a good girl and bend down to touch your toes.”

With a slight hesitation, she does as I request. I slide what’s left of her juices along the head of my cock and inch myself inside her. Gripping her hip with one hand, slowly push myself the rest of the way, filling her up. Scarlett screams as I penetrate her virgin ass. She’s so fucking tight that I get lost inside her, forgetting to be careful. Like a ravenous beast, I clutch both of her hips and rock into her so hard and fast that she falls forward. I have to catch her each time she loses her balance.

“Aiden, please,” she yells.

Blind with rage and lust, I lift my hand to spank the back of her right thigh, before I repeat the same motion, this time hitting her ass with more force. I drive into her, consumed and overcome by the feeling of being inside Scarlett.

She screams. I thrust harder. She squeals. I laugh. Scarlett has given me a high unlike what I’ve had with her before. And then, it all ends with one word.

“Pirate,” she whimpers and then yells it a few more times just in case I hadn’t heard her the first time.

One word brings me back to reality. One word causes me to still in an instant.

Scarlett grabs my hands and cries, “Get off of me, Aiden. You fucking bastard.”

I pull out of her, and she begins to tumble forward, so I hook my arm around her stomach to keep her from falling onto the cold marble. Her entire body trembles from how hard she cries. I hug her from behind, and she swats my hands away from her.

“I’m sorry, Scar. I got lost in the moment.”

She turns to face me, with her skirt still bunched up around her waist and black streaks of mascara running down her face. “I hate you. I trusted you, Aiden. I thought this relationship was about trust.”

“It is. That’s why you have a safeword.”

“I feel like you raped me.” She wraps her arms around herself, and the tears spill down her face. “You are always rough, but not like this. I let you bruise me, ruin my body, make me your sex slave, but what you did to me…I don’t know if I can forgive you for this. Giving you my body and heart is one thing, but my mind is another. This entire relationship is one big mind fuck.” She sniffs back the tears and pushes her skirt back down over her thighs.

Scarlett moves her hand to her backside and winces in pain. Fuck.

I step forward and reach out to Scarlett, but she recoils. “I didn’t mean to take it that far.”

“You never mean to do anything, Aiden, but you hurt me all the time. I thought I could handle being your submissive. I thought that by doing this with you that I could help you heal.”

“You are helping me heal,” I counter.

She shakes her head, with her jaw clenched in anger. “No, I am not. This experiment was a failure. You only proved to me what I had already known.”

“And what is that?”

“Men you like you don’t change. You are just like your father.”

Her words send a rush of adrenaline through my veins that force me to walk away from her. With my back turned to her, I yell, “Get out, Scar. Just get the fuck out.”

“I was planning on leaving anyway,” she spits back with fire behind her words. “I’ll be gone in the next ten minutes. Please stay out of my way.”

Unable to think straight, I stomp off and down the hallway to my office. I slam the door behind me with so much force that it shakes the walls. She thinks I’m just like my father. She has no idea how wrong she is about that statement. I’m so mad that I see red when I close my eyes and hold my hands over them.

What the fuck did I do? Scarlett knew that rough sex comes with the package and that I wouldn’t take it easy on her forever. Was I that bad? Sometimes, I block out everything around me. The only thing that matters is finding my release.

As I pace the room, I shove my hands into my pockets and ball them into fists.

How could she say that to me?

Scarlett wanted to hurt me just as much as I had hurt her. My father is the one person who provokes an instant rage inside me.

She must have known I wouldn’t hurt her. Despite taking out my frustration on her body during sex, I would never lay a hand on Scarlett. Ever. Not unless you count all the spankings. But I had to walk away. I couldn’t stand to see the look on her face or the fear in her eyes. She was never scared of me before.

I lost her, all because Scarlett’s stupid ex-boyfriend had to show up. Jealousy had gotten the best of me, and I took my insecurities out on her. She’s right about me. For a man who craves so much control, I am insecure about so many things. But sex is not one of them. It’s the one time I feel alive.

When Scarlett hands over the reigns to me and submits, she gives me power. She gives me the control I crave. I need it. I’m addicted to the high that power provides me. She’s right about my addiction. Except now, I am addicted to her.

I can’t lose her. I need Scarlett. Not just to feed my addiction but because of my strange feelings for her. I’ve never cared for one of my submissives in this way—not until Scarlett had waltzed back into my life.

By the time the realization hits me, the door slams, followed by the ding of the elevator. I throw the door open and jog down the hallway, my fear propelling me forward. I stop when I see blood on the white marble in the living room and gasp.

Did I do this to Scarlett? I was too caught up in the moment to notice how much I had hurt her. Fuck.

The elevator doors close by the time I reach them. With Scarlett on her way downstairs, it does nothing when I hit the button. I’m trapped up here until she gets to the ground floor. And I will lose any chance of salvaging our relationship.

Deflated, I walk into my bedroom, hoping she left something behind. Something that will give me a reason to see her again. I should leave Scarlett alone. We are wrong for each other on so many levels, but when we are together, everything falls into place. Everything is right.

The closet doors are open in my bedroom. Some of my clothes are on the floor, the hangers in a pile along with my dress shirts and pants. I check the open chest drawers, all of them empty. She left nothing behind, nothing I can use as an excuse to see her again.

Scarlett hates me for what I have done. And she should. I am a bastard. My soul is so dark and hardened, blackened from the years of physical and mental abuse from my father. I’m incapable of love because I have no clue what it feels like to love someone who loves me back.

All of my submissives had developed feelings for me over time. Just like Scarlett. They always want more. But I never felt a thing for them in return. Not until now. The pain that stirs in my chest is nothing more than fear, longing, and loss. It will go away.

I finish scanning the bedroom, hopeful for something of Scarlett’s. She left one thing. Her ring. The tungsten ring I gave her, the piece of jewelry that declares her as mine. My submissive. My property. And now, she’s gone.

I lift the band from the nightstand on her side of the bed and sit down on the mattress. Scarlett left ten minutes ago, and I miss her already. I fucked up. She deserves someone who can love her the way she needs to be loved. Not an animal that fucks her until she bleeds. Not a man who bruises almost every inch of her skin and has the nerve to call them love marks.

Nothing is loving about the things I did to her. The things I will continue to do to her if she stays with me. I shouldn’t want her, but I do. She completes me in ways I never thought possible.

Pressing the tiny band between my fingers, I sink back onto the mattress and lay my head on Scarlett’s pillow. It still smells of vanilla and the perfect scent of her skin. Now, I’m the one who is fucked. I have to get her back.