“Please,” I say to the young man, named Riley. This is the first time he’s been left to come down here alone. Master has never trusted anyone else except himself. This man might be the only person who can get me out of here.

I think that he is Master’s son, but I can’t be sure.

Riley glances at me, but says nothing as he delivers my tray and turns towards the door.

“Please,” I say again. “I know you can hear me. You’ve seen what he does to me, Riley. He trusts you, please, I have a family too, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life here.”

“Be quiet,” Riley orders, opening the door and then stepping out, slamming it.

I try over the course of three weeks to get Riley to talk to me, but to no avail. Slowly but surely, though, he stops telling me to be quiet. So maybe, just maybe, he’s coming around. Maybe he’s thinking about my words. Maybe he’s wondering if he can help me.

The door swings open.

I’m sitting on my bed, knitting. It’s the only thing he’ll allow me to do, but I have to place everything down when he enters the room, or he’ll take it all away from me. I place my work down, and stand when he comes in. He’s angry, really really angry. I can see it in his face. It’s red, and his eyes are bloodshot. He comes storming over to me and grabs me by the throat, slamming me against the wall.

My head hits so hard I see stars.

I don’t scream anymore.

It only makes it worse.

“What are you saying to him?” he bellows.

“I don’t...I don’t know what you’re talking about, Master?” I slur my words, my head is spinning.

“You’ve been speaking to Riley, he told me so himself. Trying to get him to let you out. He’s not going to let you out, you stupid, imbecile.”

He slams me against the wall again, and tears roll down my cheeks, but I make no sound.

“You’ll be punished for trying to escape me. You know how much I hate it. You know what I said I’d do to you, if I found you trying to escape again.”

“I wasn’t...I wasn’t-”

A hard slap across my face sends my head whipping to the side. He drops me, and reaches around, pulling out a long, hard, terrifying piece of metal. He raises it up, and then swings. It hits me across the temple, sending me flying. This time I scream, I scream so loudly my throat burns. Blood fills my vision and the pain nearly takes me to my dark place, the place I need to get when he’s like this.

I keep my eyes clenched shut, my whole body shaking with agony, waiting for the next hit. It comes, a blow to my ribs, one that takes the breath right out of me. Then he’s lifting me by my hair, bringing me to his face, panting with rage, not caring that my blood is splattering all over him with every scream.

“You so much as ever even fucking think about escaping me again, I’ll cut your fingers off, one by one. Then your toes. Any anything else I can remove from your body without you dying. You’re mine, Raven. And you’ll spend the rest of your life being mine.”

He drops me to the floor, and the pain is so severe, I’m screaming.

I can’t stop.

I need it to stop.

Make it stop.

“Ellie!”

Someone is grabbing me. Shaking me.

I scream harder and fight, pushing the hands away. No, it already hurts too much. Please, he can’t be back already. I can’t take anymore. Someone, please help me. Riley.

“Ellie!”

Another shake.

My eyes fly open and it takes me a long moment to realize I’m in a dark room, and someone is shaking me. As I come out of my horrific nightmare, I remember where I am, and Slater’s voice penetrates my mind.

“Ellie, it’s me. It’s Slater. It’s okay.”

Slater.

Not Paul.

I’m here.

Not there.

I’m panting, and I’m soaked in sweat. Slater is clutching me, his big hands around my shoulders. As I come further into the realization that I’m not back there, I start to cry. Big, angry, heavy tears. They just roll down my face. Then come the sobs, the broken, pathetic sobs.

“Slater,” I croak.

He moves quickly.

He scoops me into his arms and brings me close to him, and in my haze, I don’t think about anything else except the way he’s making me feel in this moment. So safe, like not a single person in this would could get through him to me. That’s a feeling I want to cling to for the rest of my life. So, I let my body lead. For the first time, I just go with what feels right. I forget everything else. I forget what I’ve been through, and the horror that clings to my heart, and I just let my body take the lead.

I pull my cheek away from Slater’s chest, and tip my head back, stretching up. Instinctively, he moves down, and then our lips touch. And when they do, fire is ignited in my soul. Like a flame that’s just been hovering there for so many years, tiny and barely visible, just needing something to bring it back to life. I whimper and clutch Slater tighter, deepening the kiss, relishing in the way it makes me feel.

A feeling I’m not familiar with, but I need. I need more than anything.

Slater lets out a ragged moan, and pulls back. My lips feel swollen from the kiss, and I want more, I need more. That comfort, the way he just made me feel, I need so much more of it. And I need it now. I need something like that to make it all just go away.

“Ellie,” Slater says, his voice careful. “Don’t think you know what you’re doing.”

“I do,” I say, reaching for him, sliding my hand up his bare, warm chest. “I didn’t know it until this very second, but I do, Slater. I haven’t felt anything like this since...well, I don’t remember. But it feels good. Right, even. The way you make me feel, I want to experience it over and over a thousand times. You make me feel safe. Please, please don’t turn me away. I know you might not need me, but I need you.”

He lets out a long, and ragged moan. “You gotta know I’ve been waiting ten fuckin’ years for this moment, but I don’t want to make things worse. But if you think I don’t need you, Ellie, you’re so fuckin’ incredibly wrong. I’ve needed nothing but you for every waking second since you left. I’m never goin’ to be the same unless you’re in my world, because fuck, you are my world.”

I reach up, tangling my fingers in his hair, letting my body guide me and this is exactly where it wants to take me. Right into his arms, a place where I know I’ll be okay. Our mouths meet again, and the kiss we share is explosive. It makes things inside me come alive, that I didn’t even know were dead. My lips part on a whimper, and a moan escapes Slater, before our tongues begin a soft, gentle dance.

Slater’s big body gently lays mine down, and his incredible size is no factor in how gentle he’s treating me. It’s like I’m made of china. Nobody has ever handled me so careful before. His fingers graze over my skin, his mouth is soft against mine, his hands caress me in the most careful way, as if he’s trying hard not to break me.

My whimpers become moans as our kisses become more frantic. Slater’s hand moves down, gliding over my breasts and down my stomach, until he reaches my panties. He hesitates there, but I don’t want him to stop. I’ve been dead for so long, and when his hands are on me, my body is alive, something I’m absolutely not familiar with. I arch up into his hand, needing him to relieve the ache that’s building between my legs.

He does.

With a gentle glide of his fingers, his lips on mine, his body pressed against me, he rubs and slides, until I’m gasping his name and my body is exploding with the kind of pleasure I’ve never experienced before. Slater growls, and his hand leaves my panties, sliding up under my shirt and over my scarred skin. He doesn’t hesitate, or pause, his fingers trace every line, and he moves up and over me until he’s hovering above me, eyes locked on mine.

Above me like this, Slater looks terrifying. He’s huge, in a way that would no doubt scare most people, but for some reason, his large shoulders, huge biceps, and big build hovering over my petite one, does nothing but make me want him even more. His big hand goes around and cups my face, and he murmurs, “Tell me to stop, if you want me to stop.”

His mouth is saying that, but his eyes are pleading with me not to ask him to stop.

“Please don’t stop,” I whisper. “Make love to me.”

For a moment, he just stares down at me, and then he drops his mouth to mine again, kissing me as his hands gently work my shirt up. When it’s near my arms, he parts and lifts it up and over my head, before removing my panties and leaving me naked beneath him. Suddenly I’m very aware that my body isn’t...beautiful. I have scars, and I’m only just starting to put a little weight on from being starved for a while.

Slater glances down at me, but I see nothing in his eyes except need.

It’s like he can’t see my imperfections, he can only see the beauty.

“I...I don’t like how I look,” I whisper.

His eyes move to mine, and he says, his voice low and raspy, “There isn’t a single force in this world, that could ever make you look anything but perfect to me, Ellie. Nothing you could do to your body, would ever make me see you any differently. You’re beautiful. And you’re mine.”

He shuffles around a bit more, removing his pants, and then he’s over me again, lips on mine, big body positioned right where I need him. My legs go up around his hips and he probes me, lightly at first, and then he’s sliding inside me, setting my body to a dull burn as he stretches and fills me. I whimper, and clutch his shoulders, trying to bring myself closer to him, trying to feel more of the incredible pleasure he’s offering.

My body stretches around him, and when he’s fully in, he drops his forehead to mine, and stares at me. “If you need me to stop, for whatever reason, at any point. You tell me to stop, do you understand?”

“I don’t want you to stop,” I say, reaching up and touching the scar on his face.

Did he get that because of me?

He turns his head slightly into my touch, closing his eyes for a moment, and then he begins to move. Dragging his hard length in and out of me, slowly, clutching me like I’m the very source of his existence. He moves at that slow, agonizing pace, until my body is heating up from the inside, building and building until I can’t take it anymore. I gasp his name and an orgasm tears through my body, taking every single inch of me.

I gasp his name, over and over, and my head tips back into the pillow, my back arching, my body burning with pure desire. Slater moves faster now, his jaw tight, his muscles bulging. With a ragged groan, he joins me, clutching me tightly, rasping my name, pulsing inside of me until there’s nothing left.

And then, after a few moments, he rolls to his side, slipping out of me, but taking me with him. I’m in his arms, my face buried in his armpit, big bicep curled around me. And I feel so safe, I feel safer than I’ve ever felt in my life, and I never want to leave. Frustration grips my chest, and I battle to try and remember moments like these. I know there would have been some. Many, even.

Slater, he feels like home.

And I don’t ever want to leave.

~*~*~*~