I paced in the bedroom, wrapping my arms around my torso that was covered in the silk of my robe. I’d risked Calix’s wrath to shower, unable to stomach the thought of facing him with my body covered in the evidence of my run.
With every moment I spent in that lightning-fast shower, and with every moment I’d spent pacing in the bedroom and wondering what was taking him so long before he could make his way to me, my fear bled to rage.
How fucking dare he send me to my bedroom like an errant child?
If I didn’t want to be a mother, then I damn well wouldn’t be a fucking mother. Whether that came with an end date was my decision.
I stormed to the window that looked out over the backyard, throwing it open so that I could lean closer to the screen and peer down at where I saw my husband. He stood beside the chiminea on the patio, his suit jacket draped over one of the patio chairs. He slowly rolled the white fabric of his sleeves up each forearm, watching as two of his other men brought a struggling Christian to the outdoor kitchen.
They pinned the back of Christian’s arm against the counter, holding him still as Calix moved to the chiminea and grabbed hold of the handle of what looked to be a fire poker. I winced when it glowed, the light radiating off the end conveying a heat I didn’t want to imagine.
He took a step toward Christian as one of the two men holding him spread his fingers open, laying the back of his hand flat until the palm that had grasped my arm faced the sky. “Calix!” I screamed, slapping a palm against the screen. There was a moment where I thought it might fall from the window, clatter to the patio down below, and cause enough distraction to snap him out of whatever trance the devil had caught him in.
Calix turned a dark stare my way, his eyes narrowing as they trailed down to where the robe covered my chest. “Quiet.” I couldn’t even hear his words over the pounding of my heart; only saw the way his lips moved.
I pressed my lips into a line, my jaw clenching as I fought to follow his order. Whatever move I made would only make it worse and punish Christian for my stupidity even more.
Calix moved toward him, staring down at the other man as he muttered something to him. He didn’t hesitate before he touched the white-hot metal of the poker to Christian’s palm.
Smoke rose off of Christian’s ruined hand, and I could swear I heard the way his skin sizzled beneath it. I gagged as the scent of burning flesh reached the screen, flinging myself back and raising a hand to cover my mouth.
Who the hell had Calix become?
“Nobody touches my wife. Is that understood?” Calix’s voice came from the patio as I took more steps back, trying to shut out the words of agreement that came from his men. Calix disappeared from sight as I looked over at the bed beside me, my fingers dropping to the silken belt tied around my waist. I couldn’t bring myself to untie it, to be so naked and vulnerable when he came up.
Not knowing what he was capable of.
“Fuck,” I whispered. My lungs heaved as I squeezed my eyes shut, slowly unknotting the tie at my waist. I clutched the two sides of the fabric together, holding them closed as slow, calculated footsteps came up the stairs.
My eyelids flung open when the doorknob turned and the door opened slowly, the tiniest of creaks confirming it as Calix appeared on the other side. He stood in the hallway, a hand pressed against the molding as he leaned forward. “What did I tell you to do?” he asked, making me swallow as I glanced over at the bed.
“You branded him,” I said, my voice trembling as I stared at him in shock. “How could you do that?”
“After they took me away from you,” he said, taking a step closer to me. He lifted a hand to run the backs of his fingers over my cheekbone, drawing a shuddering breath from my lungs. “I spent the next decade in El Infierno. I learned about penitencia from the devil himself. Christian made the mistake of touching what is mine. Now he will never be able to look at that hand and not be reminded of what I will do should he repeat that mistake. Next time, it will not be his hand that I maim, but his cock that I’ll sever from his body.”
“All he did was touch my arm, Calix. It wasn’t—”
“And he would do far more if he thought I would allow it. Today I made certain he knows that path is very, very unwise if he likes his limbs attached to his body,” Calix answered, shaking his head. “There are parts of this life that I don’t imagine you will ever want to be part of. Enforcing men, no matter how much they might have been friends, is one of those things. But you will shut your mouth and not question me on it.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“Unless you are willing to be the one to face the consequences of a betrayal, and make no mistake, Little One, they will come for you first. You are my only weakness and all here know it. So unless you want to be the one they take and they rape and they hurt because of my inability to do what needs to be done, then I suggest you shut up and accept that this is something you know nothing of.”
“You could inspire loyalty in your men by treating them well,” I snapped, crossing my arms tighter over my stomach.
Calix dropped a hand to my shoulder, brushing the silk of my robe off to reveal bare skin. “This is not the land of unicorns and rainbows where no one betrays the people they love. This is the land of bloodshed and vengeance, where even a man’s wife can go to another man behind his back. I have treated you well. Most would say far better than you could have hoped with any other husband at your side, and still you went to him before me.”
“I knew you’d say no,” I whispered, hanging my head in shame. I hadn’t wanted to ruin it all. I hadn’t wanted to make Christian suffer the consequences for what I’d done.
I’d just wanted a choice.
“And you did it anyway, without ever taking a single fucking second to wonder if there was a goddamn reason I would say no. I would give you the entire world, but I would not give you that. Everything I do is for you. Everything. They would not make you fight if you were pregnant, Thalia. I’m trying to keep you from having to fight on the same sands where your mother died. The least you could do is ask me about it,” he snapped, his rage twisting his lips as he stared down at me.
“I didn’t know—” I started.
“Because you didn’t fucking ask.”
“Calix—” I protested, wincing when he stepped back from me.
“If you don’t do as I tell you right now, I am going to bend you over the edge of this bed and fuck your ass while I’m far too angry to be as gentle as you need me to be. It will hurt and you will bleed. So for the love of God, get on the fucking bed, Thalia,” he snapped, making me step back in fear. I pried open my robe with trembling fingers, scrambling to get up on top of the bed as he’d instructed. “On your back.”
I moved to obey, placing my head on the pillow in the center of the bed. My damp hair clung to the side of my head as I settled into place, staring down my body at where Calix allowed his heated gaze to trail over me.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, swallowing around the words. He remained silent as he unbuttoned his shirt, shrugging it off his shoulders and tossing it to the side. He stripped his pants down his legs as soon as that was done, kicking his socks and shoes off as well.
“I’m going to fuck my wife,” he said, grabbing my ankles and shoving them apart until my legs were spread obscenely. He placed a hand in between them, crawling up onto the edge of the bed and prowling until his weight hovered over me. His skin never touched mine, the warmth of his body kissing my skin as I fought to control my ragged breaths.
Calix wouldn’t hurt me. I had to believe that, or what else did I have?
He reached over my head, sliding his hand between the headboard and the mattress. Something clanked as I twisted my neck to try to see what he was doing, his free hand grasping my right wrist and wrenching it over my head. A cuff wrapped around my wrist, the fabric soft but tight as he secured it.
“What are you doing?” I asked, tugging against the hand that wouldn’t come any lower.
He ignored me, grabbing my other wrist and repeating the process until both arms were trapped above my head, spread just far enough apart that I couldn’t reach one with the other to unclasp the cuffs.
“I already told you; I’m going to fuck my wife, and you are going to lie there like a good girl and let me fill you with so much cum, it drips out of you for a week,” he said, staring down at me as I shifted my legs against the bed. Trying to get higher on the mattress, trying to maneuver to get more control over my arms.
“Calix, please,” I begged, staring up at him as my bottom lip trembled. Something about being tied up, about having no control over how and when he touched me, erased all the trust I’d thought I had in his inability to hurt me.
“Shh,” he murmured, touching a finger to my lips. He trailed it down over the front of my throat, continuing through the valley between my breasts and over my belly button, until he touched it to my pussy and slid it through me. With his eyes holding mine captive, he slid that finger inside of me and chuckled as he pressed it deep. “Are you frightened, Little One?” he asked, the scent of burnt flesh lingering in the room to punctuate his words.
I nodded carefully, wondering what the right answer was as he slowly moved his finger inside me, adding a second one while I fought back the moan trying to escape.
“Your pussy seems to disagree with that assessment. Either that or you like the fear far more than you want to admit. Will it turn you on when I chase you through the house one day, knowing that when I catch you I’ll hold you down and fuck you until you scream?” he asked, and my body reacted to the words that should have sent a ripple of terror through my body. My stomach clenched, my hips moving toward the contact of his fingers as he prepared me to take his cock. “I think that’s a yes,” he added, that cruel chuckle tinting his voice as he pulled his fingers free and brought them to his mouth. He sucked them clean as he stared down at me, studying me for a reaction before he shifted his hips between my legs and lined his cock up. There was no preamble as he drove inside, filling me completely on that first thrust.
He pounded so deep that my entire body jolted with the force of it, my hips jerking back into the mattress. He grunted, setting a furious pace that echoed the anger on his face. There was no rhythm or concern to his fucking.
Only the drive for his own orgasm and taking the edge off his rage.
My pussy clenched around him, seeking out what it needed to find my own pleasure, but his movements were too erratic, almost as if he intentionally kept me from an orgasm. If it hadn’t been for his eyes on mine, and the way he seemed to still crave that connection that thrummed between us, I might have felt as if I could have been anyone.
But I was still his wife; I was still the girl he sought out and claimed to love.
He was just punishing me with his cock, depriving me of the one thing that would make sex between us feel less one-sided. “Calix, please,” I begged, lifting my legs higher and trying to get a better angle for him to stroke over that spot inside of me.
“You can come when I believe you regret what you did, and not a moment before,” he snapped, shoving deep as he dropped a palm against the front of my throat. He leaned down, touching his nose to mine as his ragged breathing mixed with my own. He grunted as he came, driving deeper and restricting my breathing as he held my gaze.
I whimpered as my air returned, watching with exhausted eyes as he pulled his face away from mine. His cock slid free, his mouth trailing down over the front of my throat until he could wrap his lips around my nipple and bite down harshly.
The feeling shot straight to the abused space between my legs where I’d been deprived of my orgasm. He rose to his knees, staring down at my pussy before he grabbed one of the spare pillows and shoved it beneath me. Lifting my ass off the bed and forcing my back to arch at an uncomfortable angle, he collected what little of his cum had dripped free and shoved it back inside of me.
“Untie me,” I said, my voice trailing off as a sneaking suspicion rose within me. Surely he couldn’t mean to….
He stood from the bed.
“Calix!”
“I’ll be back when I’m ready to fuck you again, λουλούδι μου. Until then, be a good girl and hold still. I won’t be pleased if I come back to find you’ve wiggled your ass off that pillow. If you waste my cum, I might as well pour the next load down your throat.”
The fucking prick pulled on his boxer briefs and left.
