“They’re utterly perfect.” Killion turned to glance back at me. “Are they not, Caleb?”
I couldn’t answer, couldn’t move. To see her standing there, dressed like…one of them was almost too much to bear. Her eyes widened, and a look of relief washed over her as our gazes collided.
She started forward, and it was all I could do not to lunge across the goddamn room and take her in my arms. But one wrong move, and they’d know. Doors. Guards. Men with machine guns. They all stood between us. Right now, we didn’t stand a chance. I gave a tiny shake of my head, cast a careful glance toward The Principal, and forced myself to answer. “They are.”
“You can choose any one you want.” Killion strode toward the ones dressed in red. “You can own her, anyway you want.”
“As long as the contract is complete,” that sick fuck growled at my side. “With payment, of course.”
I clenched my jaw and forced the words through clenched teeth. “Of course.”
The woman next to Ryth grabbed her hand and yanked her back into line. The movement drew Killion’s attention. Like a hunting shark, he narrowed in, looking past the others to Ryth. “Who do we have here?”
No…Jesus, no.
He left those dressed in red and black behind…until he reached the white. “New recruits?” He glanced at the bastard behind me.
“Some,” The Principal answered. “One is under contract already, but only as a ward. She’s not yet…broken.”
Killion turned back to Ryth, standing last in the line. Panic thrummed in my head, the sound booming. I cleared my throat and kept on walking, heading to the opposite end of the line. I didn’t see them. I couldn’t see them. All I saw in the corner of my eye was Killion as he moved one girl closer. “This one.” He stopped in front of Ryth and reached up, grabbing her face cruelly. “Is ruined.”
The pink birthmark reddened under his grasp.
No…not ruined.
Special.
“She’s…perfect,” Killion murmured as he yanked her closer. “I want her.”
“No!” She shoved away from him, jerking her gaze to me. “Get the fuck off me!”
“Ryth is new,” The Principal declared as he stepped closer. “She doesn’t yet understand.”
“But she will, won’t you, little one?” Killion spun her around and pressed her against the wall. “I’ll make her.”
Rage punched through me with an icy fist. I took a step. “He said she’s not for sale.”
But the bastard barely heard me. He yanked Ryth’s negligee up and kneaded her ass with his filthy fucking hand. “I don’t care.”
“Fuck you!” She bucked, driving him backwards. She was so goddamn small, dwarfed by his size and power. Killion liked that. He liked them small and weaker. But she wasn’t weak—not when she was with us.
The image of her and Nick came roaring back to me. Her words echoed in my head. Get on your fucking knees, Nick. Just get on your goddamn knees. She was ours. She was…mine.
My past and present collided. Her and us. Our forbidden torment, then the brutality in this room. Killion grabbed her wrists with one hand, and lifted to pin them to the wall.
“That mark on your face looks like the mark of a hand,” Killion growled in her ear. “Like you’ve been beaten.” He moaned, pinching her nipple. “You like to be beaten?”
She moaned in agony and that sound was a knife to my fucking chest. I’m going to kill him! I’m going to tear his fucking—
Something had to be done. I had to — “This one.” I grabbed a woman in red at the far end of the line.
Killion stopped mauling my fucking stepsister and watched me.
“She is beautiful,” The Principal murmured, and stepped closer. “Olivia is quiet and vulnerable, trained in all the ways a man might require her to be.”
She’s trained…
That alone should sicken me. But it didn’t. I grabbed her around the back of her neck and pulled her forward.
“No. Don’t do this,” my stepsister moaned, betrayal etched in her tone. I knew who her words were meant for. She’d rather be at the mercy of a fucking monster like Killion than to see me touch another woman. I was hurting her…this was hurting her.
I had to force that out of my head. I had to focus. I was so close now. So fucking close. Couldn’t she see what I was doing? Couldn’t she see this was just a game?
Killion watched me as he pushed my stepsister against the wall. She struggled, his hand around her throat, the other sliding over her ass to yank the white lace negligee higher. “Just a taste. Surely you can allow me that.”
I grabbed this woman, my fingers clenched tight, finding the taut tendons that ran alongside her neck. “I could press this right here.” I dug my fingers in. “Make your entire world turn to darkness. Would you like that? Slipping in and out of consciousness while I fuck you?”
“Dear God,” Killion murmured. “You really are just like me, aren’t you?”
She let out a whimper, filled with shock and desire. That sound vibrated through my fingers and permeated the room. The thought of us being the same made me sick to my stomach. Killion was a weak, pathetic piece of shit. A sick fucking sadist who didn’t give a fuck about pleasure, he was all about pain.
He had no idea what it meant to deny and give all at once. How her pleasure was a fucking playground, how you could be so fucking tender and brutal all at the same time. How you could give and give, and all the while, the moans were for you. Those tiny gasps were for you. How this was as much for her as it was for me.
For Ryth, you mean…
I closed my eyes as her name filled me.
It was Ryth I spoke to. Ryth I felt against my body. Ryth I wanted more than air to breathe. I tightened my fingers, feeling the frantic throb race. “Have you ever been licked as you pass out?”
The woman moaned against me.
As hunger rose inside me, I pushed against her. I leaned down, my breath dancing across her ear. “I’m going to ride this sweet, young body, princess. Gonna fuck you hard and slow and as you scream my name. I’m going to tighten just a little as I suck your clit and eat your pussy.” I pressed against the vein in her neck, making her buck in fear, then eased my hold. “Then I’ll release as you come. We’re going to do that over…and over…and over, princess. By morning, all you’ll manage is a whisper, from all the fucking screaming you’ll do. I’ll bruise you, and you’ll love every goddamn minute of it.”
In the corner of my eye, Ryth’s chest rose with a breath. But Killion was no longer pushing her against the wall. I turned until I faced him, desperate for him to see what he could have right now.
Come on…come on, you fucking bastard.
I held his stare, those dark eyes shining with excitement. I pulled this woman against me, this woman who was nothing more than a fucking diversion. My gaze wavered, but I tried to hold his focus. I couldn’t look at Ryth, couldn’t see tears shimmering or her look of fucking betrayal. Not yet…because I wasn’t done with my deception.
Not yet FINISHED BREAKING HER FUCKING HEART.
“You will be mine. You understand me?” I hissed, tightened my hand around her neck, and lifted until her body stretched taut. “You’ll be fucking mine until I’m done with you.”
Killion released his hold around my stepsister and moved closer. “Olivia, you said her name was?”
The woman nodded meekly, but it wasn’t her submission I wanted. Fuck, I was rock hard, my cock driving against my zipper. The fantasy of Ryth was almost painful. “Yes,” she whispered, just like she’d been trained.
My focus slipped…I met Ryth’s stare, my cock twitching, desperate for release. I wanted her…I wanted her so fucking badly. I wanted to kiss her, to taste her. To have her back in that pantry once more. Only this time I wouldn’t stop, not even with her mom mere feet away.
This time I’d fuck her against the canned foods. I’d fuck her until her legs shook and her pussy throbbed.
This woman moaned, driving her ass against me, her warmth pressed against my shaft. I wanted to come…wanted to —
“Can’t be tender,” I growled. “I’m going to be a beast to you. You’ll fucking hate me and want me at the same time.”
“No.” Ryth stumbled backwards. “No…”
“I’ll take her.” Killion strode forward, stopping in front of us. In the howling desperation of the room, no one heard Ryth as she cried. No one but me.
I sucked in a hard breath. “You want her, Killion?”
His chilling smile grew wider. “I do, do you have a problem with that?”
That’s what this had come down to, wasn’t it? It was all a game for men like him, always a fucking game. I dropped my hand from around her neck and pushed her forward, leaving her to stumble toward a monster. “No, not at all.”
My body screamed for release, but it was my soul that was trapped in that pit of darkness inside me. A place I knew I’d never come out of.
“Draw up the contract,” Killion instructed. “I’ll take this one tonight.”
“Very well,” The Principal murmured.
I tore my gaze from my stepsister to his. That stony focus never flinched, not once. He gave a jerk of his head and the guards moved forward, taking the rest of the women from the room. Ryth was the last one to leave, the last one to walk past me, and as she did, I turned my gaze toward her as she spat.
Spittle flew through the air and landed on my cheek.
I wore it.
I deserved it.
No, I deserved more.
Agony filled those blue-gray eyes of hers as she was led away. Killion and The Principal stared, but they said nothing, waiting for me to call for her to be beaten. After all, she was a nobody, right?
The anguish that filled my chest said otherwise.
“Let’s go,” I murmured. “I want out of here.”
Killion nodded, his gaze turning to his prize. “I couldn’t agree more.”
