"Did you find anything out yet?"

"No. I talked to your dad's guys and a couple friends over here and I got nothing other than what we already know—that your dad has men out there looking for you."

"But do you have any idea where they are? No one knows anything?"

"Sorry, Adrian, the only ones who have that kind of information would probably be your dad and possibly your brother and whoever is taking orders directly. And there's no way I can get any closer to your dad."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry, I just can't believe they found us again. And that means they know the general region we're in, so even though there are tons of islands to dock at down here, they're gonna have an easier time tracking us."

"There's no way you can talk to Lucas?"

"I don't know. I've thought about it, but I don't know if I can trust him. He has a sick sense of humor I've never understood, and I could see him throwing me to my dad just to get a laugh out of it. And I know he'd love to get his hands on Brooklyn again."

"Wow, that's harsh. I'm sorry, buddy. I'll do everything I can to find out more. And you're sure it's only your father who has men out there looking for you?"

"Well, that's what I'm afraid of … it's not just my father. All I really know is Brooklyn was supposed to be sold to some bigwig somewhere. I'm assuming someone in the business. But I don't know who or where or anything about the transaction at all. I don't know if he already paid my father or if he was okay with taking another girl. I don't know if Lucas is in on it or if he is off doing his own thing right now. I don't know a goddamned thing!"

"All right, we'll figure it out. I'll see if the guys at the villa can ask around a little more. And you might want to consider contacting your brother. You don't have to tell him where you are, but you might be able to get an idea of what's going on by talking to him. Try to keep it together, Adrian. And maybe sleep with one eye open from now on."

"That's what I've been doing. If only I could sleep with both eyes open," I said with a dry laugh, but I didn't find it funny at all. I was dead serious. "Okay, thanks, Grady. Talk to you later."

I disconnected the satellite phone and buried my face in my hands. As much as I wanted to look on the bright side with Grady, I just couldn't. I had an overwhelmingly bad feeling about everything now. The fact that I didn't know who was after us would not stop eating at me. It could be anyone in the world, and if they got their hands on her she would vanish into thin air.

I would have no way of tracking her if she were to disappear. I had plenty of money for us to live off of, but most of the resources I'd had when I was working with my father were gone. All my contacts—gone. If someone took her I wouldn't even know where to begin looking and I would have a whole fucking world of people who were working for my dad against me.

I needed to make sure nothing happened to her, that no one got their hands on her because if that happened, if she slipped out of my fingers for one second, she would be gone. I was afraid I couldn't trust myself to keep her safe anymore.

"Are you okay, Adrian?"

I turned and looked at the doorway to the master bedroom and there was Brooklyn, all small and cute, with her arms folded in front of her, her hands running up and down the sides of her arms. I knew she was more worried about me than she was about her own safety, and that thought killed me. She'd be much better off if I wasn't in the picture anymore. Or if I had never been in the picture in the first place.

"Yeah," I said as I got up and walked over to her. "I was talking to Grady."

"Yeah, I heard. I guess he didn't have any good news?"

"Well, he didn't find anything out. He thinks I should try and talk to Lucas."

"Are you going to?" she asked, her face growing even more worried.

"I don't know. But don't worry, if I do he won't be able to track our location. I have it set up so the satellite phone and internet are both untraceable."

"I'm not worried. I know you'll keep us safe," she said with a sweet little smile that curled up both sides of her beautiful mouth and just about broke my heart. I didn't understand how she could trust me so completely after everything that had happened. After everything I'd done to her and continued to do to her.

"I will," I said as I held her head in my hands. "I'll never stop, no matter what, until I know you're completely safe."

"I couldn't be any safer than in your arms, Adrian. I've always felt better with them wrapped around me. Even when we were at the villa."

"Are you sure about that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just … I know you cry sometimes when … I mean … I know there are times when I'm hurting you and—"

"I'm not ever crying because of you, Adrian."

"Why then? It breaks my heart after … when you're lying in my arms after we've made love. The thought that you … that I was the one that made you cry. I hate myself because of it," I said as I almost choked.

It wasn't the whole truth. I was talking to her but I couldn't look her in the eye because I knew I was lying. There was a part of me that liked it. But that's even a goddamned lie. I fucking loved it. I loved to watch her sexy little body squirm and I love to watch her blush and scream and cry about the things I asked her to do … and the things I did to her.

That was the part of me that I had hoped I would leave behind when I was finally out of the shadow of my father and away from the caverns below the villa. The caverns where we kept the girls. I thought if I got far enough away from all of the horror and degradation that went on in that place that the feelings would fade away like a bad dream. But they didn't stop.

I still wanted to do the things I had done to the girls down in the caverns. Only now I wanted to do them to Brooklyn. I wanted to do things to her I couldn't imagine anyone ever enjoying, and I hated myself for that. I didn't know if she put up with it because she loved me or if she was afraid to say no.

But no matter how hard I tried, the minute I looked into her eyes and saw her desire to please me, to do anything, anything, I asked of her, at that moment I would completely lose control.

And it didn't matter how remorseful I had been the days or weeks leading up, it didn't matter that I swore I would never treat her like one of them again, it didn't matter how much she cried and screamed. In that moment I wanted it more than anything.

I wanted to see the humiliation in her face and to hear her sobs. I wanted to watch her do the things I asked her to do that I knew she didn't want to do. That she would only do because I asked her. It made me so fucking hard I could barely see straight. And at that point, after she had demonstrated to me how much power I had over her, all I wanted was for her warm, soft lips to be wrapped around my cock.

"Don't," she said as she touched my lips with the tips of her fingers. "Please don't say that, Adrian. You don't deserve that. No one deserves to be hated, especially by themselves."

"I would do anything for you, Brooklyn. Anything in the world. And if you want me to stop, I will."

She looked up into my eyes for what felt like an eternity. I was terrified she was going to tell me to stop, but I was even more terrified she was going to tell me not to.

"I don't want you to stop. Whatever you want, I want you to do it to me."

I closed my eyes and dropped my head down so it was resting on Brooklyn's forehead. All I could think was that she was in as much danger with me than she would be if my father ever caught up with us.

* * *

I didn't ever start out wanting to hit her. I didn't start out wanting to hurt her in any way. A lot of times when we made love it was incredibly intense and passionate, and that was all I needed. Sometimes things might get a little rough, but mostly we were happy to be intertwined in each other's bodies.

But other times something would set me off, a look or a sound or the feel of her flesh in my hands. I could never tell if it was her or me, because sometimes I swear the way she looked at me she was begging me with her eyes to smack her tits until they were raw while I shoved my cock down her throat.

But something in me would change, like a light switch being thrown, and my hand would ache for her red, hot skin. And when I did, when I felt the heat of my hand slapping her ass and I felt the movement of her flesh under my palm, it was over. There was no turning back.

"I want you to spread your legs wider, Brooklyn," I said into her ear. She sucked in her breath sharply and I could feel her ass wiggle under my hard cock as it rested in the crack between her ass cheeks and she struggled to comply. I hovered over her and watched her from where I stood, then I heard a faint whine as her feet twisted and scooted across the surface, spreading her legs a fraction of an inch more.

"Good girl," I said as I brought my hand squarely down onto one of her ass cheeks. It was already beet red from the twenty or so times I had smacked it since she crawled up onto the bed and spread her legs for me. She let out a scream and gripped the comforter with both hands as her body stiffened under the blow.

I barely remembered telling her to get into the position she was now in. After our conversation in the doorway, after she told me she wanted to do whatever I asked her to do, I told her to remove her clothes while I sat on a large, overstuffed chair in the bedroom and watched.

I told her to stand in front of me and bend over, then I had her insert a plug into her asshole while I watched. It took her a few minutes, partly because she was incredibly embarrassed and partly because it was a large plug and it took while to work it in. The humiliation and the strain both made me incredibly hard, and I released my cock from my pants while I watched her struggle.

She would work the plug in almost to its widest part over and over but would have to stop, and then the muscles of her sphincter would push it back out.

"I don't know if I can do it," she said at one point, her voice small and shaky. But I didn't let her stop. I told her I knew she could get it in. That I wanted her to, and she did.

I stared at the view in front of me for a while: the large, round, jewel-encrusted end of the plug that took the place of Brooklyn's tiny pink asshole. She stayed doubled over, her hands flat on the ground next to her feet, while I wrapped my hand around my cock and started stroking it.

I told her to stack two pillows on the end of the bed and lie with her stomach on them and her legs spread wide, then I watched as she stood up and walked over to the bed and carefully followed my instructions.

And now that I was standing over her, smacking her ass and watching the red flesh quiver with every flex of her tensed muscles, nothing that had happened up to this point mattered.

None of the words that were said earlier or the tears that had been shed or the guilt I had felt or the hatred I had for myself over the way I treated her. All I could see was her. All I wanted was to control her, and to make her do the very things I had told her less than an hour ago broke my heart. I wanted her to cry again and scream again and tell me she couldn't go any further, but to then look up at me and beg me for more with those beautiful, teary eyes of hers.

"Move your hand down and touch your clit. I want you to make yourself come for me."

She did as she was told, with her ass high in the air and her legs spread wide. I saw her ass raise up as her hand slipped between the pillows and her skin. Then I stepped back a little and watched her fingers move across her glistening clit that was quickly covered in the juices that flowed out of her. Her ass humped the pillows slightly as she became lost in a trance of her own pleasure.

I moved up to her and ran the head of my cock over the soft folds of her lips, then plunged myself into the wet hole that was begging to be filled. I could feel the pressure that was created by the presence of the thick plug that was still in her ass. Brooklyn screamed as the full length of my cock entered her and I almost lost it as I felt her fingers moving furiously over her clit.

I grabbed a fistful of her hair with one hand and her red ass cheek with the other, and pummeled her while she moaned and gasped. The tone of Brooklyn's cries went up an octave as I plunged the full length of my cock into her over and over. Her head was bent back so that it was next to mine, and I found her shoulder with my teeth and bit down until she screamed.

I felt her body go rigid and still and I knew she was about to come. I grabbed her hips with both of my hands and thrust deeply into her, then pulled all the way out so the thick ridge of my cock head moved past her tightest muscles, then plunged back into her over and over.

I could feel her pussy clenching around my cock as her whole body convulsed. Then as I felt her body relax, I pulled out completely. I pulled the pillows out from underneath her and rolled her over onto her back, then climbed on top of the bed, moving her arms up over her head and straddling her with my knees.

"I'm going to fuck your mouth now, Brooklyn. Do you know why?"

"Why?" she said in a small voice, but with a look that told me she knew why.

"Because it belongs to me. This mouth belongs to me," I said as I put my finger in her mouth and pulled it open.

I shoved my cock in between her lips, then put all my weight forward on her wrists while I thrust myself down her throat. I could hear her muffled moans and squeals as she protested, but I didn't let up. I fucked her face while she lay squirming underneath my weight, my cock sliding down her throat and my pelvis grinding into her face, until I could feel myself start to cum.

As I leaned back and put my weight on my knees, I looked down at her face so I could watch my cock slide in and out of those soft, pink lips, and I came harder than I had ever come in my life when I saw tears overflowing from her eyes and running down her cheeks. Her lips were quivering, even as they were stretched tight and wrapped around my shaft, and she gasped for air when I finally pulled my cock out of her mouth.