I was lost in the magical world of Harry Potter when I heard a heavy fist on the door, and my stomach dropped. Had Diego come back? Sitting up on Andre’s bed, my heart pounded against the inside of my chest at a much more rapid pace than the second round of knocks.

“Nicky, open the door.” It was Andre’s voice, and I shoved a scrap of paper I’d found into the book to mark my place and left it on the bedside table before moving to the door. I fumbled with shaking hands through the locks, but finally opened it and he pushed both me and the door aside as he walked in. I caught the masculine scent of sweat and the outside as he brushed past, but managed to shut the door tight as soon as he was inside. Redoing all of the locks.

“What happened?” I asked, but Andre was silent. Removing his guns to set them on the top of the dresser beside his closet. Then the jacket came off, and then the holster thing that wrapped across his back and chest to keep the guns against his ribs. “Andre?”

When he turned around, I stumbled backward until my legs hit the bed behind me. He looked like he had the day before, when I was caught in that fucking chair, waiting for Paulo to decide my fate. Empty, dark brown eyes, a frightening expression on his face that sent fear thrumming through me.

He didn’t look human.

“Andre?” I repeated, voice wavering, and he stalked forward. So tall, so broad, and when he grabbed onto my waist I flinched. He squeezed hard, pinching my skin before he ripped my shirt over my head, forcing me to duck my head through the hole as he tossed it aside. I couldn’t even react because his hands were already at my shorts, the button popped free and the zipper down. Then he grabbed me under the arms and tossed me onto the bed hard so he could roughly yank the shorts free.

Fuck. What was wrong with him?

I was afraid. No other reaction was really appropriate as he planted one knee on the end of the bed, and I scrambled backward but he caught my ankle and yanked me flat. He was still clothed, sweaty and silent and terrifying. “Don’t hurt me,” I whispered.

Something in his expression faltered, but then his eyes dropped to my chest and he grabbed my shoulder to jerk me onto my side so he could undo the clasp of my bra. He tossed it aside, immediately palming my breasts as he straddled one of my thighs. Thumbs rolling over my nipples, I could barely process that they were already hard and peaked before I felt him tighten his grip and pinch them both.

“FUCK!” I screamed, whimpering as the pain shot like bolts of lightning through my breasts, forcing my back to arch in an effort to ease the strain. But Andre didn’t back off, he twisted them further and I felt tears in my eyes, grabbing onto his arms and digging my nails in as if it would make him stop.

Leaning over me, he bit down on my shoulder and I screamed again, pleading with him to stop, pushing at his ribs as he released my tender nipples — and then he had both his legs between mine. Spreading me, digging his knees into my thighs so I had no way to stop him, but I could barely focus as his teeth pressed in harder.

“Please, please, please!” I begged, whining when he finally took a breath and released me, his dark eyes staring at the place his mouth had just been. Then he looked between us, and he growled like an animal as he grabbed my panties, tearing the pale blue fabric, biceps bulging from the effort. The fabric burned against my hips as he ripped it, yanking the remnants out from under me so he could throw them aside. “Andre?”

His name didn’t seem to affect him at all as he slid his fingers between my legs, forcing two of them into me where I wasn’t wet in the least. I cried out and lifted my hips off the bed, but he ran his thumb over my clit as his mouth moved to my breast, sucking on the tender bud as he stroked me below. For a minute, every shift of his fingers seemed to burn and ache, and then my body finally caught up, lubricating around his harsh touch. There was pleasure and pain as he opened me up, warming my body for what I knew would come next. It was almost cruel how deft his touch was, the way his thumb swirled over my clit, his mouth sucking and nipping at my breast, sending zings of sensation through my body.

I wanted to fight, and I didn’t. I wanted to give in, and I wanted him to take me by force.

Thought was something I couldn’t effectively manage as he stroked his fingers in and out, wetting them as I grew slick, as my whimpers turned to moans. Then he grabbed my thighs and bent them towards my chest, staring down at my open pussy with the look of a desperate, dangerous man.

I was afraid to speak, afraid to struggle against his strength as he tucked my heels over his shoulders and opened his jeans to shove the fabric out of the way and free his cock. I had stared yesterday, but in this position he somehow seemed larger, especially as he moved closer to my entrance, erection bobbing at his hips. Watching him wrap one fist around it, I opened my mouth to argue, but he lined up and drove home hard, stealing the words away as I cried out.

It was painful, the sudden, brutal stretch as he bottomed out in one thrust. With my body bent he slammed even deeper on his second drive, and I felt the sharp ache as he hit my cervix, tears burning my eyes. “Please,” I whimpered, reaching past my legs to dig my nails into his arms, but there was no reaction.

Andre braced his hands on either side of my ribs, folding me as he used every inch of power in his body to fuck me. It hurt, it felt good, and I couldn’t think straight as he continued to move. My breaths were short, a consequence of my ribs being compressed, and that wasn’t helping the dizzying effects of his thrusts. Pleasure blurred the aches and pains, made me forget the threat of the man above me as I sank into it.

Soon, I was crying out, moaning, saying his name even though I knew this was wrong. Everything about this situation was wrong. This house, the fact that he’d paid for me, the fact that… “Condom!” I shouted as his breaths shortened and my mind cleared enough for me to remember that he hadn’t put one on as he’d climbed atop me.

That seemed to make him shudder, and he slammed deep once more and growled, a low, feral noise that made me whimper. When he spit on his fingers, I was confused for half a second, until he pulled out and began to rub my asshole.

“NO!” My scream didn’t mean anything, especially when I tried to twist free of him, and his other hand dug furrows into my thigh, painfully gripping me as he bent me further.

He shoved two fingers deep in my pussy, gliding along my g-spot as I shuddered, and then he pulled back to press one of them against my ass. I squirmed, flexed my legs to try and force him back, but he dropped his body weight against me and I buckled just as his finger forced past my tight ring.

“AH! DON’T!” The shock was worse than the pain, but he only stroked a few times before his second finger was working its way inside my ass, and the dull ache spread. My quiet pleas ignored by the monster above me.

Shifting again, he pulled his fingers free and planted that hand against the bed so he could guide his cock to me with the other. I shook my head, I tried to struggle, to fight as he pushed himself against the ring of muscle — but he was too strong. With a sharp pain he was inside me, sinking deeper as he groaned above me, and I couldn’t speak, couldn’t scream as the burn intensified. “Yessss,” he growled as his hips met my ass.

He was inside me, fucking my ass, and I whimpered because I’d only tried anal once before with a boyfriend. It hadn’t gone well, I’d cried and made him stop, but that wasn’t an option now. Andre wasn’t going to back down. His hips pulled back, and then slammed forward, making me squeak. Don’t… I wanted to tell him to stop. I’d rather have him come inside me than this, but I couldn’t get the words past my lips.

Nothing was working, nothing except my body as it fired the sensations of pain and fullness as he stretched my ass with each new thrust.

* * *

Andre

I heard her scream, but surged forward anyways. Her ass was so tight, only growing tighter with each pain-filled cry, and I didn’t even have to hold her down. The girl’s calves were over my shoulders, pinned in place by my weight, by each thrust as I forced my way into her ass.

Delirium.

I wasn’t thinking straight, wasn’t thinking clearly at all. She’d been the one to shout out about the condom, and it had been the first rational thought I’d had since she’d opened the door and I’d seen her again. Immediately, I’d felt the urge to take her, possess her, but the weight of the guns and the extra clips had held me back. I needed them off, I didn’t want to kill her. I’d done enough killing, I needed something else.

Escape. Control. Satisfaction.

That’s what her body was — satisfying. As I sank in, I felt the darkness purr. It swelled, blocking out anything resembling morality. I’d tried to warm her up, but my tingling balls and aching cock were impatient. The darkness was hungry, and I knew I’d started fucking her ass before she was ready, but a part of me reveled in the pained expression on her face. The quiet squeaks of agony as her nails bit into my arms, digging in, making me want to slam into her harder. So, I did, and she screamed.

Beautiful. Belleza.

There would be no doubts in anyone listening in the house, she’d screamed loud enough for everyone to hear, and I slid back and forward again just to replicate it, but she only whimpered. Tears tracking across her nose with her head turned to the side.

This is wrong.

The black inside me rumbled, waves crashing, and I leaned down to kiss her throat, keeping still inside her as I nipped and licked my way to her shoulder and then to her breast. Sucking her nipple into my mouth, flicking the hard bud and drawing on it until she squeezed my cock and moaned softly. My hips jerked against her ass on instinct, and she yelped, but I shifted my weight to one hand so I could reach between us and find her clit. It took me a few rubs before I felt the hardened nub, but the bucking of her body confirmed I’d hit the right spot and I honed in on it. Switching to her other breast as I worked her and continued to move my hips, feeling the tight grip of her ass as she whimpered and started to moan.

“That’s it,” I whispered, growling as she leveraged my shoulders to lift her hips into my cock and fingers. It took every shredded scrap of my concentration to focus on rubbing her clit as I moved in her ass, thrusting again and again, but her muffled cries of pleasure were worth it.

She made the best noises.

I wanted to make this last, to make the distraction stretch into the infinite, but my balls tightened and lightning stroked up my spine, sending heat mirroring downward in response, and I came deep inside. Everything disappeared, whited out, the world evaporating for a glorious moment of pure bliss — pure escape.

Her whimpers drew me out of my haze, my weight crushing her legs to her chest, and I clumsily pushed myself up, cock slipping free of her ass as I rolled myself to the side. I laid out beside her, breathing hard, hearing her groaning and panting as I tried to return to reality.

“Did you come?” I asked, and she shifted on the bed but didn’t respond. “Answer me, Nicky.”

“No,” she grumbled, and it was a prick to my pride. Grabbing her thigh, I turned her on the bed, and she gasped as I ran my tongue over my pussy. Swollen, red, she was soaking wet now and still needy. I could feel her desperation as I flicked over her clit, hips bucking, her sweet whines louder when I pulled my mouth away.

“Beg.”

“What?” she asked, more anger than pleasure in her tone, but I was sated and content to wait her out.

“Beg me to make you come, belleza.” Speaking the words directly against the golden down between her thighs, I leaned forward and breathed in the scent of her. It made me salivate. She smelled like sex, all female wetness, but I wanted her to ask for it.

“You hurt me,” she whined, accusing, and I nodded, nuzzling her clit with my nose but not offering my tongue.

“Yes, I did.” Burying my face against her cunt, I let the scruff on my chin scrape over her sensitive parts, and her hips jerked, but I forced her to be still, digging my fingers in at her hips. “Now, beg me to make you feel good.”

“You’re an asshole,” Nicky growled, fists clenched in the sheets on either side of her, breasts aimed to the ceiling as her back arched off the bed.

“So?” I chuckled. “Do you want to come or not?”

Just as I flicked my tongue against her clit, she hissed and nodded. “YES! I want to come!”

“Then beg,” I demanded, already salivating at the movement of her sweet hips against my grip. She had the slightest softness to her belly, enough weight on her hips that I’d been able to squeeze her flesh, and now all those curves were writhing above me. Another delicate flick of my tongue and she buckled.

“PLEASE! Andre, please, just… just do it. You had me, please?” Nicky pleaded, whining as her hips twitched, seeking my mouth, and I almost wished I hadn’t come already, just to feel her cunt reaching for my cock. But, having her desperate was fun either way. The darkness inside me seemed to abate as I licked between her thighs, swallowing her wetness as she moaned and whimpered. When I sucked on her clit she jerked off the bed, pushing up onto her elbows for a moment, cursing and crying out.

It was perfect.

I strained to remember which fingers I’d shoved into her ass, and then remembered so that I could bury the other hand between her thighs and focus my mouth on her clit. Two fingers, then three, and she was practically screaming her pleasure to the house. How long had it been since I’d had a woman like this? Something more than a drunken one-night-stand? I wasn’t sure on the timeline and didn’t care as she started to twitch her hips, writhing, whining. The time didn’t matter, because I still remembered how to bring a woman over the edge. Curving to match my fingers to the place where my tongue focused, she jerked, thighs squeezing at my shoulders, and then she shouted and came hard.

Body shuddering, legs spreading, feet planted to lift her cunt to my mouth, I rode out her orgasm as her liquid heat pooled against my fingers. Licking, stroking, slowing down until she was twitching and satisfied — as sated as my dick was. I wanted to make her come again, but I was dizzy and my own orgasm had caught up to me. Giving her one last long lick as I slid my fingers free, I turned her on the bed so she was laying the right way and then moved beside her.

“Good girl,” I mumbled, drawing her against my front as she panted, breathing hard, and I licked my lips, savoring the taste of her.

* * *

It was some time later when my heart had stopped racing, and I roused from my half-asleep state to take a deep breath of the tangled hair in my face. Nicky. My innocent warrior, my brave Valkyrie, mine. Pulling her closer to me, I buried my face against her neck and nipped her flesh before I kissed her soft skin. Licking over the fading imprint of my teeth in her shoulder, which would definitely bruise.

She squirmed, making quiet sounds in her sleep, and I propped my head up so I could look down at her. We were still on top of the sheets, but the air conditioning wasn’t strong enough to make us cold with the afternoon Miami sun battering at the windows. Stroking along her side, keeping my touch light, it took a few minutes for my actions to catch up with me. But it wasn’t the beating or the murder that weighed on me… it was what I’d done to her.

Nicky hadn’t signed up to be in my bed, had never agreed to choose me over the other monsters in the house. No, I had chosen for her. I had decided I was a better option for this golden skinned beauty. My belleza. Mine. The word echoed in my head again, and I felt the sickening pit in my stomach as I recalled Paulo’s addendum to our agreement. Yeah, I could have her, I could keep her from everyone else in the house, and any of the men he was bringing in — but I couldn’t keep her from him.

Fuck.

I hadn’t thought of anything but touching her on the long ride home. Knuckles bloody, the smell of gunpowder on my hands, and I’d gone straight for her. Didn’t even wash my hands before I climbed the stairs to seek her out. As I looked her over, I could see blurred smears of red on her thighs, her hips, her breasts… all from me. I’d tainted her, and I needed to wash it away. Needed to wash it off of me.

Leaning down, I tilted her face towards me so I could kiss her softly. Nibbling her lower lip, I felt her wake, the twitch of her body as she curved towards me, leaning into my mouth for just a moment, but then she jerked back.

Her blue eyes would have singed me if she’d had the ability to turn that glare into fire, but she didn’t, and so I simply sighed. “Hola, belleza.”

Twisting away from me, she gained a few inches as she turned onto her back, but it only gave me an excellent view of her naked body. The death glare didn’t change though. “Is this how it’s going to be?” she asked, and I felt my stomach tighten.

“Nicky…”

“Don’t say my name like you know me,” she snapped, throwing my words back in my face.

“You’re beautiful,” I replied without thinking, landing my hand on her thigh as she bent her knees and brought them together.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Shifting her gaze, she grabbed at my hand and pried it off her leg, but she didn’t let go. “And what the fuck did you do this morning?”

“What I was told to.”

Her expression tightened, tension etching a furrow between her brows, and then she brushed her thumbs just below my bruised, split knuckles. “Paulo made you do this?”

“I work for him,” I answered, trying to end the discussion, but she tightened her grip on my hand as I attempted to pull it away.

“And, what? You went and beat someone up for him?”

The truth weighed heavy on me, on my fucked up soul, and I confessed to her like it could somehow ease me. “Yes, and then I shot them. Killed them for him.”

Nicky jerked, her reaction one of shock and confusion and a hint of concern. “You killed someone? This morning?”

“Yes,” I answered, unable to lie to her about it, and I found myself leaning forward to capture her mouth — and she let me. The kiss was rough, messy, but still perfect. Her warm lips parted and our tongues met in a clash, the softest of moans rumbling up her throat until I could feel the buzz as I pulled her closer. It was good, too good for someone like me.

Then she broke the kiss, exhaling against my lips. “Are— are you going to kill me?” she asked softly, the hint of fear in her tone sending a dark, twisted thrill through my veins.

“I don’t want to.”

“But…” Nicky licked her lips, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment, those sweet blue eyes pleading with me to lie to her. “But you will? If Paulo tells you to?”

Burying my face against her shoulder, I pulled her harder against me, breathing in the summer scent of her hair. “I don’t want to,” I repeated, because I had killed this morning at his word, and Nathan had already told me that one girl’s life didn’t matter to him. Didn’t matter to the department. The only thing that mattered was Paulo, and his connections in South America. He was the highest point on the food chain in Florida, and unless I could take him down, there was no way in hell they were pulling Nicky out. One sweet, innocent, warrior-like girl didn’t matter to them, but she did matter, and I wouldn’t feed her false hope.

“I just… I only wanted to save Chris,” she whispered, and I felt her shudder as she stifled her tears. On instinct I wrapped my arms around her, pulled her tight to my chest. All of those soft curves conforming to my hard edges as she started to cry.

“I know, belleza,” I whispered, but I couldn’t offer any other assurances. I had pulled the only string I had, and Nathan had told me no. The only hope I had was that, eventually, everyone in the house might stop caring about her and I could take her outside without an argument. Let her go, let her be free… even if I never could be.