It’s Saturday. The rain has fallen steadily day and night this week, tapering to drizzle only to gather strength and pound the saturated ground once again.
I sit in my office with Dante’s letter in my hands as I gaze out the window into the dreary afternoon. The Sound is a murky iron gray, its waters uneasy, whipped to white peaks by gusty winds. The house exhales an occasional wistful sigh, but otherwise is silent.
It’s been that way since my talk with Fiona last Monday. Eerily silent, as if it’s holding its breath.
It’s not the only one.
I’ve barely slept all week. I walk around on eggshells, my nerves screaming at every gust of wind or tree branch scraping a windowpane. But nothing out of the ordinary has happened. There have been no more sightings of the little boy or the man in the trench coat, no unexplained smells or flickering lights.
Out at the end of the dock, the Eurydice bobs restlessly in the choppy water. Drawn by some irresistible force, my gaze returns to it again and again.
I know it’s only my frazzled nerves that make it seem like the boat watches me back.
I work through the remainder of the day with Dante’s letter simmering on the back burner of my mind until a text comes through on my phone.
You win. Call me.
It’s Aidan. We haven’t spoken in six days. I’m not feeling particularly cooperative, so I send him a text back instead of calling.
What did I win?
I can almost feel his irritation that I disobeyed his order to call him in the three bouncing dots as he types his reply.
You were supposed to contact me first.
Frowning, I type back.
I didn’t realize it was a competition.
The phone rings. As soon as I pick up and say, “Hello?” Aidan’s displeased voice is in my ear.
“I was giving you space. Didn’t think it would turn into distance.”
“There’s no distance. It’s just been a weird week.”
After a pause, he asks, “You okay?”
“There’s honestly no accurate way to answer that. By the way, I miss you.”
His voice softens. “Yeah?”
“You know I do.”
“I hoped. Kept thinking I’d hear a knock on my door and open up to find a soaking wet, barefoot stunner in a see-through shirt on my doorstep.”
That makes me smile. “Isn’t that what every man wants?”
“Maybe, but I’m the one who got it.” His voice lowers an octave. “Get your sweet ass over here, bunny. I need you naked in my bed. You’ve made me wait long enough.”
“You made yourself wait, Fight Club. You could’ve picked up the phone days ago.”
“Told you I was giving you space.”
“Not that I wanted it.”
“I’m interested in giving you what you need, Kayla, which might not coincide with what you want.”
And I’m interested in my body’s reaction to those words, which is a confusing mix of desire and annoyance. I’d like to tear off all my clothes and kneel at his feet, but at the same time, I’d like to hang up on him.
I know I’d only call him right back, though, so I’ll skip it.
“And exactly what is it you think I need, Aidan?”
“To forget everything so you can remember who you are again.”
That takes my breath away. Not only because of the darkly sensual way it was spoken, but also because he’s right. My heart beating faster, I moisten my lips and whisper, “Yes.”
“I know. Now get over here. You have ten minutes. Any later than that, and you’ll be punished.” He hangs up.
I sit with the phone clenched in my hand and my stomach turning somersaults, wondering if I should wait thirty minutes before I leave just so I can see what my punishment would be.
I decide I’m not quite that brave yet. I’m out the door in under a minute. And once again, Aidan opens the door to his apartment before I even have a chance to knock.
Wearing only a pair of faded blue jeans, he’s barefoot, bare chested, and beautiful. I laugh as he drags me into his arms and kicks the door shut behind us.
“Do you stand there and listen for my footsteps on the stairs?”
“Yep. It’s all I can do not to run out to the parking lot like a fucking lunatic the minute your car pulls up.”
When I grin at him, he warns, “Don’t gloat.”
“I would never. My God, you’re even more handsome than I remember.”
He plants a big kiss on my mouth and says gruffly, “Sweet little rabbit. How do you want to get fucked?”
Thrilled, I whisper, “Any way you want.”
With one arm wrapped tightly around my back, he takes my jaw in his hand and holds my face firmly like that as he growls, “Any way I want…what?”
I melt. I melt like a popsicle dropped onto hot asphalt on a blistering summer day. All other thoughts but of him fly out of my head.
As if it’s the most natural thing in the world, a hidden default mode I was unaware I was born to operate on, without a single second of resistance, I simply surrender.
I say breathlessly, “Any way you want, master.”
He kisses me as if he’s been starving for my mouth his entire life.
I cling to him, feeling his heart beating wildly against my breasts, feeling as if I’ve been sucking helium and might at any moment rise up to the ceiling and bob there, laughing and buoyant. He always makes me feel so alive, untethered to anything solid and utterly careless.
He makes me feel free.
And holy hell is it amazing.
Breaking the kiss, he yanks my T-shirt off over my head and tosses it aside. My jeans get torn off next. He growls in disapproval when he sees me wearing panties and pulls them down my legs impatiently. When I’m standing in front of him fully nude, he rips open the fly of his jeans and orders gruffly, “On your knees.”
I sink to my knees on the hardwood floor like a grateful supplicant and take his jutting erection in my hands.
“Suck, bunny.”
The moment my lips slide over the engorged head of his cock, he moans and tilts his head back, closing his eyes. He sinks his fingers into my hair and raggedly whispers my name.
“So fucking sweet. Everything about you. Love your sweet mouth, my good girl.”
His gruff praise is candy to my ears. It’s heroin injected into my veins. It’s hot euphoria running along every nerve ending, setting me on fire. I suck so eagerly on his dick, he has to warn me to slow down.
“Pace yourself, baby. You’ll get my cum, but not yet.”
He opens his eyes and gazes down at me, running his thumb over my top lip as I bob my head, taking him deep in my mouth, then going shallower again.
“Look at you,” he says hotly. “On your knees for me. My hard cock in your mouth. Your eyes begging for me to fuck you. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are? How perfect?”
Feeling crazed, I close my eyes and swallow him as deep as I can, gagging a little as I shove his girth down my throat.
“So fucking perfect,” he whispers. “Kayla. My beautiful, obedient girl.”
I moan around his cock, sucking frantically as I stroke his shaft with both hands. My pussy throbs. My nipples ache. I need him to fuck me so badly, I moan again, trembling with need.
He knows. Of course he knows. His laugh is soft and dark.
“You need to spread your legs for me and take that cock deep, don’t you, baby? You need your master to fuck you.”
The vein on the underside of his penis throbs against my tongue. His fingers tighten in my hair. Right now, he could order me to throw myself out the window, and I probably would.
“Yes, you do. Greedy girl. Let me watch you finger fuck that gorgeous pussy while you take my cock down your throat. But don’t you dare come without my permission.”
I shove one hand between my legs and frantically start rubbing my clit. I’m soaked already, desperate, breathing hard through my nose and shaking all over.
He cradles my face in both hands and flexes his hips, guiding his cock in and out of my mouth, controlling the speed and depth, controlling every part of me.
He whispers, “Oh, fuck yes, baby. Fuck yes.”
I gaze up at him. Our eyes lock. His lips are parted, and his eyes burn. They burn straight through me, flaying me open until I’m totally exposed, raw and vulnerable. Mewling around his cock, I shove a finger inside the aching space between my legs.
“Don’t come,” he orders in a soft, stroking voice as he imprisons me in his mesmerizing gaze. “Be a good girl and hold out for me.”
I’m going out of my mind. I beg him silently with my eyes. He licks his lips, watching me.
A contraction deep in my core makes me suck in a sharp breath through my nose. Aidan fists a hand in my hair and pulls my head back. His dick pops out of my mouth.
Breathing hard, he bends down until he’s staring into my wide eyes from only a few inches away. Holding my jaw firmly, he says in a guttural voice, “Did you disobey your master?”
I’m panting so hard, I can barely answer. “No. No. I promise.”
He doesn’t believe me. With a growl, he pushes me onto my back on the bare wood floor and kneels over me, flattening one hand over my sternum and pressing down so I’m pinned. The other hand he slides between my legs. He hisses when he finds me soaking wet and ready for him.
He thrusts a finger inside me, shushing me when I groan.
“Arms over your head. Spread your legs. One more sound, and you’ll be punished.”
Quaking, I lift my arms over my head and rest my clasped hands against the floor. Then I spread my thighs and bite my bottom lip, praying I’ll be strong enough to remain silent as I’ve been instructed.
He’s still for a moment, watching my face with avid eyes, that finger sunk deep inside me waiting for the rhythmic clench of orgasm. I’m almost there—almost—and if he moves his finger at all, I’ll tip over the edge and start fucking his hand desperately as my climax rips through me.
“Sweet little bunny,” he whispers, elated. “You’re trying so hard to be good, aren’t you?”
I nod frantically.
He slides the hand pressed against my sternum over to one breast and fondles it for a moment before he pinches the hard nipple. Pleasure ripples through my body in waves that head straight down between my legs. Though I’m unable to control the way my thighs quiver and my back arches from the floor, I remain silent, breathing shallowly through my nose.
Between his legs, his erection juts out from the open fly of his jeans. It’s big and glistens with my saliva, the crown flushed red. The shaft is thick, taut, and mapped with veins.
I want it. I need it. I need him to impale me on it and fuck me senseless as he growls filthy things into my ear and perfumes my skin with his scent as he grinds against my body.
“Eyes on me, Kayla.”
I meet his dark gaze and whisper, “Yes, sir.”
Though I was supposed to be quiet, I can tell that he’s pleased with me.
For my reward, he rolls me onto my belly and spanks my ass smartly, going back and forth between each cheek until I’m almost crying with need.
He stops just short of spanking me into an orgasm.
When I whimper, my cheek pressed against the floor and my eyes squeezed shut, he says through gritted teeth, “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. You better run away now, little rabbit, or I’ll rip you to fucking pieces.”
Knowing relief isn’t too far away now, I sob as I scramble to my hands and knees, then leap to my feet.
Snarling like an animal, he slaps my ass. I yelp and jump, then tear out of the kitchen with my heart in my throat. I barely get his bedroom door slammed and the lock on the handle turned before he’s pounding on it, demanding I let him in.
When I refuse, he kicks the door open.
It smashes against the wall. A few books fall off the bookshelf and tumble to the floor. A chunk of plaster drops from the ceiling. Aidan stands in the open doorway, breathing hard, nostrils flared, eyes as fierce as a hungry predator’s as he gazes at me, backed up trembling against the far wall.
He growls, “On your hands and knees on the mattress.”
I shout defiantly, “No! If you want me, you have to catch me!”
His grin is wide and lethal.
I feint left. He lunges. I dart the other direction, too fast for him to spin around and grab me. With a laugh of victory, I run from the bedroom and down the hall.
He catches me in the living room.
Grabbing me by the scruff of my neck, he pulls me back against his body and wraps an iron arm around my ribs. As I struggle to get free, he laughs, nuzzling his nose into my hair and inhaling deeply.
“You think you’re strong enough to get away from me, bunny?”
“Yes!” I twist and squirm helplessly.
“I don’t think so.” He bites my shoulder, reaching around to grab me between my legs. His voice drops. “What I think is that you’re about to get fucked very, very hard.”
I might faint. My pulse is wild, I’m panting in desperation, and I feel strangely weightless, as if I’m disembodied, floating outside of myself.
Aidan drops to the sofa, bringing me down with him, then flips us over and pins me under his weight so my face is smashed in the cushions. I struggle to get free, but he grabs my wrists and pins them overhead.
Hot and stiff, his erection pokes against my stinging ass.
He takes a moment to enjoy my helpless struggles and cries and merely lies on top of me, his bare chest burning my back as he sniffs my hair, shoulders, and neck and grunts in pleasure.
“Let me go!”
He chuckles. “Say the safe word, and I will.”
The smug bastard. He knows I won’t say the fucking safe word.
I scream in frustration. It makes him laugh.
“Bad bunny,” he whispers, his tone jubilant.
“No!”
“Oh, yes, you are. And you know what bad bunnies get, don’t you.”
It’s not a question, but it still requires an answer.
“Set free!”
He puts his mouth next to my ear and says hotly, “No, baby. They get fucked in the ass by their masters until they promise to be good.”
I almost orgasm then. My pussy clenches with need. I groan in desperation, wriggling my butt against him.
Gripping my wrists with one hand, Aidan slides the other between my legs. He rubs my pussy lips, spreading the wetness up between my ass cheeks. When his fingertips glide over my anus, I squeal.
He slides his finger in up to the knuckle. I cry out, stiffening.
“This is mine,” he says darkly. “I’m gonna claim it. If you don’t want that, say the safe word right fucking now.”
Trapped beneath him, I’m helpless, but not completely. I know all it would take is one word to turn this whole thing around. If I said the safe word, I know he’d stop instantly and release me. I know it without a doubt, and that’s what keeps me on the right side of the fine line between pleasure and fear.
I turn my face to the cushion and sob his name.
He exhales a moan filled with desire and dark satisfaction. “Yes, baby. Say my name when I fuck you. Scream it when you come for me.”
He spits on his fingers, rubs his saliva all over the sensitive knot between my ass cheeks, then holds me down as he guides the head of his hard cock inside me.
I cry out, shuddering.
“Take your master’s dick,” he commands, and shoves it all the way in.
It burns and leaves me breathless, my eyes watering and my ass muscles clenched. Aidan doesn’t move his hips again, he simply lies on top of me, breathing heavily against my hair, both hands now wrapped around my wrists.
His total dominance over my body makes something fragile inside my chest snap like a twig.
A tear slides over the bridge of my nose. Trembling, full of him and chaotic emotion, I whisper brokenly, “Master.”
He groans. In a faint, breathless voice, he says, “Sweet girl. My good girl. Beg for me.”
I close my eyes and obey. “Please, master. Please fuck me. Fuck me hard.”
He withdraws and pumps back into my ass with a sharp snap of his hips.
My sob is broken and grateful.
He does it again, thrusting harder, then again with a grunt when I moan.
It stings like a son of a bitch, but my clit is throbbing and my hard nipples rub with delicious friction against the coarse fabric of the sofa with every thrust, so I beg him to keep going, canting my hips up and back like the greedy little slut he’s made me.
Releasing my wrists, he grabs my hip in one hand and pushes against the sofa with the other. He rears back to his knees, keeping his cock inside my ass and bringing me with him. He steadies me and braces one foot against the floor, then grips my hips in both hands as he kneels behind me.
Then he fucks me hard and deep, driving into my tender ass with relentless force as I cry out deliriously and his heavy balls slap against my pussy.
“Master! Master! Please may I come?”
He pants, “Yes, baby. Give it to me.”
He reaches around between my legs and firmly tugs on my swollen clit.
It sets off an instantaneous chain reaction.
I gasp and buck. My pussy clenches rhythmically. My mind blinks offline as my body takes over, responding to his touch on a level beyond conscious control.
“Aidan! Oh God, Aidan, I’m coming! I’m coming!”
The sound that breaks from his throat is guttural, animalistic, and thoroughly pleased.
Then he shoves his thick finger inside my throbbing pussy, and his sounds are drowned out by my high, wavering scream of pleasure.
He shudders, lets out a primal roar, and comes inside me.
I break down into tears, sobbing helplessly in sweet surrender as this beautiful beast of a man drags me down with him into the dark.
