I wake up next to her, the muscles in my leg throbbing from the rock hard mattress, but I’m used to it. I’ve been through worse. What’s most painful is watching her curled in a fetal position on the opposite edge of the bed and not knowing how far Rich will take all this. I don’t care give a fuck what happens to me, but I’ll see her out of this mess.

The only thing that matters is keeping her safe.

I roll over onto my back and for a long time I stare at the ceiling. I try to ignore the flashes of memory on playback in my mind. Everything Rich has ever made me do. Everything I’ve watched Rich do himself. The threats. The lies, the stealing, the intimidating. The shittier things. After my fighting career ended and I went to him for help, I was the one who broke bones for him. Broke spirits. I’d helped Rich do his dirty work and hadn’t asked questions because I just wanted to get it over with.

Skye is right to look at me the way she has since she found out why I sought her out. I’m not the kind of man a woman like her should love.

There’s a faint rustle from the bed, and her gentle breathing hitches. I turn my head to find her curled on her side facing me now, the sheets tangled around her night shirt. We don’t say anything for a long while. We just watch each other in the moonlight and motel parking lot lights that filter through the flimsy curtains. Finally, after what feels like forever, she lifts an arm, extends it toward me.

“Please,” she whispers.

I don’t hesitate. I slide across the bed to her. Before she can say another word, I already have her warm body in my arms, my lips crashing hard against hers. She wraps her long legs around my waist, drawing me down, until I’m thrusting inside her, finding home inside her warm, soft body. We keep our mouths locked the whole time, our hips thrusting violently, hers pulsing up to meet mine so that with every drive, my cock delves deeper into her.

Over and over, I strike deep into her core, until her entire body vibrates beneath me and she’s sobbing for release. I reach between our bodies and drag my thumb over her clit, groaning when her pussy tightens around me. So I do it again. And again. I fuck her hard and fast, stroking her clit relentlessly, until she comes, screaming. I cover her mouth with mine and swallow her moans and gasps of ecstasy.

A moment passes, and then I come too, filling her perfect cunt with my seed before I collapse on top of her. Our sweat-coated bodies meld together as one, our breathing synchronizes, and even our hearts pulse in tune.

We drift into oblivion, our bodies still locked together, inseparable, and the next time I crack my eyes open dawn is already pouring through the curtains. I curse to myself. I should already be back at my place, responding to Rich’s inevitable summons. He’ll want to know what happened, why I didn’t deliver Skye as promised.

I’m going over what the fuck I’m going to tell him when her phone starts to buzz on the nightstand, an angry, invasive sound. Her eyelids fly open and she’s got a fist wrapped around the cell before I can make a move to silence it for her.

“It’s Ian,” she rasps. Clearly she’s used to being called this early. It hits me all over again, what it must have been like for her to grow up with a brother like she has, constantly afraid that something could go wrong at any moment, always on high alert for any kind of emergency.

She’s acting on that same instinct now, I’m sure, as she speaks to him in a low, murmured tone. “… promise I’m fine,” she’s saying, her voice husky from sleep. It makes me want to tear the phone away from her, pull her back into my arms where nothing else matters.

Except, we can’t lose ourselves like that right now. We need to stay one step ahead of this shit. One step ahead of the prick I sold my life to years ago, back when I had no other choice but sell out because I thought he could save the only person I had left.

That’s not who I am anymore. Not since I met Skye.

“Yeah.” Skye squints at me, bleary-eyed. “He’s still here.”

This time, I can hear the voice on the other end, raised, probably for my benefit. “I’m coming over.”

She looks to me for approval, and after I give her a brisk nod, she reads her brother the hotel address. Before she’s even hung up the phone, she’s already climbing out of bed, slamming the door to the bathroom behind her. Cutting herself off from me yet again.

I wait until the shower kicks on before I follow her out of the bed. Pull on my boxers, a T-shirt, and stumble out the door to crouch on the stoop. I need to screw my head on straight, or I’m going to get us both killed.