“It’s been a long while since I’ve felt normal,” she says, dragging my attention back to her bed. Her body is slight in that damn gown they’ve draped over her. “I don’t want to be here anymore Eli. Let me go,” she pleads once more. Every day she says the same thing.

My selfish nature is the only thing holding on. I can’t find it in my heart to walk away and leave her to die alone. “You know it’s not going to happen,” I tell her, but she doesn’t look at me. Instead, her eyes are trained on the window. I don’t know what she’s looking for, but she no longer gifts me those smiles I fell in love with.

“You need to move on.”

Those words sear me. Slicing into my chest, they wound me every time she voices them. I can’t let her see my pain, but all I want to do is tie her to the fucking bed and whip the weakness from her and bring back the woman I’ve spent the last eight years with.

“Can you get me water?” she asks, turning her head, finally meeting my gaze. I nod, pushing off the chair, I make my way out into the hallway. There should be water in her room. This is ridiculous. As soon as I reach the nurses station, I find her. The girl I’ve been speaking to for months.

“Hello,” I say to her. Those beautiful eyes peek up at me, and she smiles. She gives me something my wife will no longer offer.

“Hi. Are you here every day?”

“I am,” I respond, turning to the nurse, I request a jug of fresh water with lemon. She disappears down the hall informing me to wait for her. Turning back to my little friend, I take in the bruises on her slender wrist. “What’s that?” I ask, gesturing to her arm with my chin.

“Nothing,” she responds too quickly.

“I know when people lie. Tell me what happened?”

She shrugs, tugging the sleeve of her jacket down to cover the blue and purple marks.

“Life doesn’t afford everyone happy times. Some people’s lives are filled with dark and dreary moments. I’m sick,” she tells me almost proudly. Her smile is innocent, but there’s something else hidden beneath her exterior. “The doctor says I’ve got a dependency. He called it that anyway. He says I latch on to people too easily.”

“And when they leave?” I know the answer. I see it in her eyes before she tells me.

“Then I’m alone.” Her answer is only half truth. She hurts herself. The bruise is self-inflicted. Before I can say anything more, she turns to leave, but something tugs inside me and I grab her arm.

“You’ll never be alone again,” I whisper. I don’t know where the words come from, but I say them anyway. I don’t know how I’m going to keep my promise to her, but I find that I want to.

---

The moonlight shines silver in the darkened sky. I can’t sleep. I can’t think about anything other than having Giana by my side. Her body was so responsive, so fucking needy. After her confession, I was stripped down to my soul. I knew there was a reason she’d appeared in my life, but what she told me rocked the very earth beneath my feet.

It’s not been easy losing the one person you were meant to spend your life with. The one person you promised forever to. When she finally closed her eyes, I felt my heart lurch, it was a physical ache that gripped me in its rigid claw.

I didn’t know how else to move on. I lost myself in the pain I unleashed on others. On the cold, harsh demeanor I portrayed, but deep down, it was my agony that I wanted to rid myself of. I wanted to give it to someone else to bear. I was a fool. I see it now. All those girls, those women. They all meant nothing, a distraction when I wanted something more. Something real. And she was right in front of me all the time. I was just too afraid to allow my heart to feel again. As much as I loved Raquel, I love Giana as well. There’s no longer doubt in my mind. Which means I need to tell her I’m looking for her uncle, as well as the asshole who owned her. I’ll make sure both men pay.

Oliver has a lead, and soon I’ll be drenched in their blood because I will make them suffer. The anger I feel for them stifles me. I’ve never been one for violence. But what they did to Gia is something I find appalling, evil, and sadistic, and men like that should be taught a lesson.

A soft moan comes from the bed, and I glance over at the beauty asleep on the black satin sheets. Her face is illuminated by the soft silver light from the moon, causing her to look ethereal. An angel, yet deep down, she’s as sinful as a devil.

When she rolls over, her hair fans over the pillow, as if the wind is catching it, making it shimmer. Her curves are hidden by the blanket, but I know every inch of them. All her tiny beauty spots, her sweet smooth flesh, and that incredible cunt that I’m addicted to.

Pushing off the window ledge, I pad into the hallway and down to the kitchen. Everything is bathed in darkness. The same dark that I lived in for so long. The house has been part of my happiness, as well as part of my pain. It’s been empty for far too long. Each toy I’ve brought here has been nothing but sex. Emotion hasn’t followed me and I didn’t want it. Until her. Until Giana. I know now, I can never live without it again.

When the lights went out in my heart, I allowed my world to be swallowed in the murky emotion that seemed to compliment my demeanor. I didn’t see happiness as a place I belonged, as an emotion that could perhaps allow me to be normal again.

I accepted the depravity I dove into, and I allowed myself to come to terms with the new me. The man who uses women like toys. They were nothing more to me. Only holes to fuck and use.

“You’re awake?” Her soft voice comes from behind me. The sweet melodic tone that I’ve come to need. When I turn to her, I can’t help drinking her in with my heated gaze. Her body is wrapped in a black satin sheet. Her hair is messy, her eyes droopy with exhaustion.

“I am.” I nod. Moving toward her, I reach for her hips and tug her against me. The heat of her warms me, not only my body, but my heart as well. Her curvy frame molds perfectly to mine. She’s always meant to be mine. Even my wife saw it. Somehow, she knew that I’d need someone. “I couldn’t sleep, you looked so peaceful I didn’t want to wake you so I came in here,” I tell her, leaning in to plant a soft kiss on her lips.

“And you sitting watching me sleep for the last hour was just my imagination?” she quips playfully. Her nature is that of a vixen, a naughty little minx that I want to spank. My grip on her tightens. She stares up at me from under her long dark lashes; those eyes pierce me with love. They break down barriers, they desecrate the walls that have kept me safe all these years, and she burrows herself inside me.

“It was. I’d never do something like that. It’s creepy,” I joke, watching her eyes glisten with mischief. Lifting the corner of my mouth into a smirk that I know she loves to see on my face, I find myself releasing all the pent-up tension and enjoying my time with her.

“It is creepy, you should get help for that.” Her response comes along with a kiss on my stubbly cheek. “And you need to shave,” she says.

“I thought you liked the feel of my stubble between your sexy thighs, baby girl,” I rasp in her ear. The shudder that shoots through her vibrates through me, causing my cock to harden painfully.

“I do, Daddy,” she mewls as I lift her, along with the sheet, and press her against the wall in my kitchen. Her body pinned between me and the cold tiles.

“And what else do you like, my little toy?”

My question earns me a cock-jolting whimper. I roll my hips, pressing my hardness to her core, making sure she feels every inch I have for her.

“Tell me,” I order, my tone taking on one of dominance and demand.

“Everything.” The one word falls from her plump pink lips as a confession. A truth, honest and raw, filled with emotion so heartfelt, I know I have to tell her everything. I need to come clean about finding the monsters that have plagued her for so long. “I love everything about you, about us. Please, just never leave me.”

Her plea doesn’t only cause me to want her right here and now, it also makes my heart lurch with knowing. I’m in love with this woman. I’ve fallen down the abyss and I have no other way of finding my way out. I don’t want to. She’s never leaving my side again.

“I’m not walking away from this, you’ve got me. All of me. More than anyone ever had. Even…” My words trail off as I can’t bring myself to mention my wife’s name. Deceased wife. The woman who’s no longer here. The same woman who sent this sweet girl to me.

“I know. It’s okay to love two people you know,” Gia tells me sweetly, her fingertips trailing my face, her eyes looking at every inch of mine, as if she’s trying to see into the depths of my depraved soul. The darkened heart that’s been hidden for far too long.

“I’m not used to love.” My voice is husky, scraping the truth against my throat, causing it to burn. I don’t want to cry, to allow myself to hurt anymore. I’ve spent years mourning. I’ve allowed time to race away from me. Not wanting to face each day is not the way to live. I know Raquel wouldn’t have wanted that for me. Hell, she even sent someone to be there for me when she was gone. Her heart knew no bounds. For a woman to give her husband to another is something so selfless. She sacrificed her heart by loving me so much that she was willing to allow me to move on while she was lying in a hospital bed dying. The thought of that is mind-boggling, but it renders me speechless, I have to swallow the lump in my throat just thinking about it.

“Then what are you used to?” she questions, dragging me from the thoughts of the past and pulling me back to the present. I should look to the future now. Gia rolls her hips, her heated pussy pressing against my cock, causing me to groan in pleasure. Everything she does makes me needy. Her smile, her words, and especially her body. But it’s her mind that seems to call to me. Her soul, that piece of her that she has never given freely to anyone, I know she’s offering it to me on a silver platter. I am lucky. I’m beyond lucky. She’s perfect. My toy.

“I’m used to hurting girls like you. Taking them and making them cry while I drive deep inside their tight little holes.” I grunt out as she continues to rub herself on me.

“Then make me your Toy. Only yours. I’ll do anything you want.” Her confidence shines through those incredibly beautiful eyes. She wants this so much. So do I. Images of what I want to do to her flit through my mind like a film reel. All the ways I can taunt her, tease her, and bend her to my will. All the while delivering pleasure on her body that she’ll never receive from anyone else. I want to take her to subspace. I want to give her the ultimate of pleasures, the only place that a submissive can truly let go. I know she trusts me enough to allow me to do it. And when she finally reaches it, she’ll know the true meaning of being with me.

“You think you can handle all of me?” I ask, tipping my head to the side. My eyes narrow as I regard her. I in turn press my cock against her heat. She’s already soaked through the sweatpants I’m wearing. Her cunt is delectable, I can smell her sweet arousal as she continues to rub against me. A horny little toy. A kitten that needs to be pleasured until she’s screaming so loudly, my neighbors will know who I am and what I can do.

“I can handle all of you and more. You and Oliver. Anything you throw at me, I’ll take and I’ll accept. If it means being yours.” She’s confident. I know she’ll obey anything I ask of her. I don’t want to share her again. As much as I know Oli would love it, this is my time with her. To learn who she is, what she loves, and how her body responds to the different implements I have hidden in the array of cabinets. This time, she cups my face in her hands, pulling me closer to her so our lips touch. The moment lingers sweetly, almost too much so.

I want to pull away, but I can’t. There’s no way I can break this connection with her. Something shifts between us then. Something deep. Profound almost. I can’t place my finger on it, but I feel it.

“This is love,” she tells me. Then her lips open and she licks the seam of my mouth, asking for entry, and I give it to her. Our tongues tangle in a furious dance of passion, need, and desire.

Lust has woven itself around us. A sweet, decadent emotion, dirty and dark, yet so passionate and profound. She’s taken the venom that seeped into every part of my life, and turned it into love. When she pulls away, her gaze locks on mine.

“This is lust,” she whispers gently. Her words are fuel, dripping onto my cold heart. As if a match has been lit, it burns, slow and steady. A kindling, which trickles through my veins and I find myself alight with need.

“Take me. Right here and now. Hard, furious, and violently,” she says, meeting my blazing stare. Her lips part on a moan when I trail the tip of my tongue down her neck, from the back of her ear, finding her collarbone, nipping at it with my teeth.

“Drop the sheet,” I growl into her neck, nuzzling myself in the crook, needing to inhale her, to take her into my veins, into my bloodstream like an addict craving his next fix. As soon as the silk pools on the floor in a black puddle, I shove my sweatpants down and nudge her core. “You ready for me, Toy?”

“Please!”

With one long brutal thrust, I’m buried to the hilt inside her. The slickness of her body takes me in all the way as she cries out my name. Her nails dig into my shoulders as I pull out and drive back in. Fucking her brutally. Molding her body for my cock only.

Her mewls echo around me in a chorus of satisfaction, of pleasure.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” I chant.

It’s a prayer for salvation. It’s a plea for acceptance. It’s an appeal for forgiveness.

“I’m going to hurt you,” I utter through clenched teeth. I can’t hold back anymore. I need to claim her. I need to own every inch of her. To make her take all of me. To feel her blood bathe me in its purity. I want it. I hunger for it. My lust takes over as I thrust into her tight body.

“Do it.” Two words shove me over the edge and I pull out of her, allowing her back on her feet, I spin her around. Her back against my chest. Gripping her hair in my fist, I tug her head back until her neck is obscenely stretched.

Kicking her legs apart, I fuck myself back into her. Her scream is otherworldly. It’s primal, basal, just like the need that’s fueling me. Her fingers claw at the wall. “Fight me. Fucking fight this,” I grunt with each word, and every thrust. She does. She tries to shove away from me, but I’m too strong. I overpower her each time, taking her in an animalistic way.

Reaching for her clit, I tug it harshly, causing her to whimper and cry out again.

“Come for me, Toy,” I order as I feel my own release skittering down my spine with white hot speed. Her body pulses, tightens, milking my dick. “That’s it. Take it all,” I growl, empting my seed inside her tight little cunt.