As consciousness returns I’m aware of a mattress beneath me.

Lips whisper over the roundness of my left hip. Gentle kisses work their way upwards.

Bindings of silk are bound around my wrists, securing my arms up to the headboard of the massive bed.

Eyes fluttering open, I find my tormentor looming naked over me. Beautiful emerald irises bore into me, penetrating my soul for a space of a heartbeat. He’s a vision of pure masculinity, raw intimidation. Every muscled inch of him is sculpted and well defined.

He makes the blood sing in my veins.

Raising his hand, he drags a long, black handled dagger up from the sheets.

Shrinking back, terror swamps me. I’m trapped, unable to fight, unable to flee. At his mercy.

Teasing the tip down between my breasts, my captor doesn’t break the skin. “I am your Master. Your lover. Your dark King. All that you are is mine. Given to me. I have the power to grind your bones to dust. To render you limb from limb. I will hurt you. Fuck you until your voice is raw from your screams. Body no longer with strength to hold you up as I take possession.” The blade circles my navel before dipping down over my shaven mound. “You will accept all of this and obey me or be punished.”

Breathing rapidly, I clutch at the silkiness of my restraints. Fear and arousal collide. I want him to fuck me. Stab me with his cock as he would the dagger. So deep that we’ll be melded as one.

Slithering up, the weight of his chest crushes my breasts as he lays over me. Against my stomach the hard ridge of his cock twitches hungrily where it’s sandwiches between us.

Grasping my hair, he forces my head back. The bite of something sharp presses gently at the exposed flesh of my neck.

“A sacrifice of blood. Is what I want from you.” He says with deadly calm.

I’m drowning in his dominance. His dark masculinity.

“Yes.” I agree. It’s a promise. A plea. A breathy prayer.

Whimpering, my legs fall willingly apart around his hips. Ready to accept him. All I want is fulfilment. I ache for it. Will do anything he asks just to have it. Even if it means I have to bleed.

“Good girl,” he praises.

The sound of the dagger clattering to the floor reaches my ears.

Fingers swipe across my nether lips making me mewl.

“Your pussy weeps for me,” he growls.

Undulating my hips against his touch, I beg for more. “Please.”

Hands move under my knees opening them further. Crawling between them his cock slides into my soaking wet pussy. My sex reacts hungrily. He’s not all the way in before an orgasm instantaneously takes me.

With hard brutal strokes he fucks me.

Legs clamped around his waist, I imprison him. Claiming him as mine.

I can do nothing but moan as he hammers into me, hands still tied above my head. I’m nothing and I’m everything. This male is the centre of my universe. Nothing else exists.

Teeth bite down against my neck. Gasping, I bare my throat at the sting. Not enough to break skin but adequate to leave a mark.

I want him to mark me. Conquer my body, my mind.

“My dirty slut. My whore who worships my cock. That’s what you are.” He tells me on a deeper penetrating thrust.

Fingers push against the seam of my mouth. I comply with the silent command, allowing the digits into the warm wetness. Swirling my tongue around the ends, I suck them, desperate to please him.

A deviant smirk plays across his sexy lips.

With little effort he knows how to unravel me. He sets a fire ablaze inside me. I lose myself in the act. Instinctively, I know I am somehow bound to him.

Concentrated low in my body, a tingle swells upwards until another orgasm detonates, making me arch my back. Crying out, I feel the loss when my captor removes his fingers from my mouth.

Gripping my hips, he fucks me mercilessly. Taking me over and over like a mindless beast. Ravaging. Devastating every one of my senses.

Throwing his dark head back, he snarls, teeth bared like an animal, cumming inside me in thick ropey spurts that brand my insides.

Slumping over me, he mutters something incoherent under his breath.

I’m dazed. Heart hammering against my rib cage as if I’ve just ran a marathon.

“That’s it. Take it all, Flower,” he groans, the last spasms filling me with his seed.

Breathing hard, I freeze. An explosion ricochets through my head. Memories hit me like shrapnel. Sharp and painful, they rip through me until every piece has fallen back into place.

Reality slams back.

Max. Son of a bitch.

I stiffen in denial of what has just happened.

He moves. Bracing himself up on his elbows, he scans my expression.

My eyes lock with his own hovering above me.

How is he still alive? I buried a blessed dagger in his demonic heart. No normal Demon walks away from something like that.

“Did you miss me?” He taunts, stare intent.

“How are you still breathing?” I whisper back in confusion.

His savage look spears me to the core. “You didn’t really think you could kill me, did you?”

Fuck.

“Then why pretend?”

We’re still a tangle of sweaty post sex limbs. His weight is keeping me pinned. Inside me, his cock is still semi-hard and pulsing with his release.

“Good for appearances.” He replies, flexing his hands still gripping my hips.

He’s like a fucking cockroach.

“Is this your sick idea of revenge?” I question. “Stealing my memory, having me fucked by your minions before you fuck me yourself?”

“I need you to do a job.”

He’s serious.

Tugging on the silk ties, I try to break free. “And why would I help you?”

“Because I still have your soul.” Max’s formidable presence encloses me. You don’t need to be a sensitive to sense the power rolling off him in waves. Dark. Menacing. It holds me prisoner.

Double Fuck.

Fingertips dancing up my sides, they caress me soothingly. “I want you to take out the other three Generals in the coup.”

His words halt my attempt at escape from my bondage. “The ones who moved against Lucifer with you to break Hell up into Kingdoms for themselves?” I query.

“Yes.” He replies calmly as if it’s nothing at all.

I’m suddenly out of fucks. He’s lost his fucking mind. What he is asking is suicide. I may be the best of the best as an assassin but powerful demons like these would crush me into powder even before I could get close. I never stood a chance against him. Why would I survive them?

“Why?”

It’s not the foremost question at my mind, but it’s the only one I can ask without going into a rant.

Reaching up, he patiently unties my wrists from the head board. “Because I want it all.”

I’m not quite sure how I can lay here talking to him so sedately about this. He betrayed me. Tried to kill me. Took my soul which I realise he still has. Mother fucker. Put my friend in a coma and threatened my brother. So why am I not trying to kill him?

“And you think your ex-Boss is going to allow that? Hand you over his domain?” I say, rubbing the bruises forming around my wrists. He’s still on top of me. I’m trying to ignore the fact he’s getting harder again. Pulsing, swelling, his cock thickens inside my core, making me stifle a moan.

Leaning down, he nuzzles my cheek. “Darling, we’ll deal with the Devil when the time is right.”

“No way. You’re crazy.” Hands on his shoulders I push him away.

A cruel hand captures my chin. “You will kill when ordered and fuck when instructed. Are we clear?”

I stare defiantly back. I need to get out of here. Wherever the hell I am.

“If you run, I will drag you back.” Voice low, it’s as if he’s read my mind. “I know every inch of this world and there is nowhere you can hide that I won’t find you. I’m Master here, Mavi, remember that.” Extracting himself from my limp hold, he climbs off the bed. “You better get used to this situation fast because I have little patience.”

Cold eyes survey every inch of me as I lay stunned and thoroughly fucked. The evidence of his deception still leaking from between my thighs. Without a backward glance he strides from the room.

I should be pleased he’s finally left me be. Done with taking my body. Fucking with my mind. Yet an odd sense of misery overruns me.