He breathed hard. He groaned low in his throat. His hips rocked in time to his quaking. And still, he didn’t touch himself or drag my mouth to his cock.

Why?

What is he waiting for?

Was this all a challenge to him? I’d given myself over to him, but he’d still found a way to win. To make me bow to his demands. To rip that fight from me even while I’d done my best to avoid it.

His right hand opened and closed by his thigh as his cock twitched with another bead of pre-cum. His jaw worked as he clenched his teeth, and his fingers closed around my hair, pulling painfully.

“Your choice.” He bit out each word. “Live or die.”

My knees dug into the cold concrete as my palms turned damp with fear. The thought of touching him, licking him, sucking him made my empty stomach flip over with acid. It made my mouth water for anything else but him.

He pulled me closer, his slacks rustling on the floor.

That was his only instruction. His only guidance. Not once did he touch himself. Not once did he even acknowledge the hard thickness throbbing between his legs.

My baby brother popped into my head.

An awful moment to think of my darling sibling but a potent reminder of why I’d made the offer in the first place. I wanted to see Josh again. I wanted to joke with him. Hug him. Let him scold me for ever going out of reception and finding a hidden house that was never meant to be found.

I couldn’t die like our father. I couldn’t just disappear.

I have to live.

My eyes snapped up to his, then dropped to his impressive erection. I’d pleasured only two other men this way, and each time, I’d despised it. They’d shoved in too deep and come down my throat without warning. I’d felt used and dirty and unappreciated.

And somehow, even with this monster looming over me, using my life as a noose to dictate forced pleasuring, I felt more wanted than any other encounter.

I knew I was beautiful to him.

I knew I was everything he wanted in that moment.

I knew I had the power to shatter his world with just a single touch. One touch on his cock and he would break. That wasn’t a secret he could hide. His stark confession blazed across his face with a thirst that made me wet despite my hatred.

One touch.

One touch and I could be free.

Sucking in a harsh breath, giving myself over to the galloping beats of my heart, I swooped forward and wrapped my fingers around his hot erection. Not letting myself think, I opened my lips and sank his heat onto my tongue.

And

Everything

Changed.

He crumpled over me.

He let out a bone-aching grunt.

He stumbled and steadied himself, using me as support as his entire body became mine.

I was the one submitting, but somehow, he became my prisoner.

A crest of agonizing heat rushed through me, arching through my blood and pooling in my belly. My core clenched around nothing, drunk on his lust, becoming infected by his hunger.

I was affected.

I was wet and heavy and utterly intoxicated in the way he gave me everything.

My world narrowed down to one thing.

Him.

I sucked hard.

I squeezed my fingers and stroked his blazing cock.

He snarled and thrust, his erection slipping deeper into my mouth.

My other senses exploded into hyperawareness. He tasted fresh, like blue rivers and green grasslands. He smelled earthy, like bracken and forest undertones. He pulsed on my tongue, delivering a salty musk that punched me with sex and seduction.

Both his hands dived into my hair, dragging me onto him. His muscular belly pressed against my forehead. His chest rumbled with grunts and groans. His vocal appreciation of what I did to him spurred me forward, erasing my humiliation at sucking a stranger in return for my life.

He changed me.

He showed me that my body wasn’t on my side. That I could lust as dangerously as he. That I could want someone I couldn’t understand or tolerate. He taught me that this was what I’d been missing.

This flair of dominance.

This threat of danger.

This delicious, disgusting power that drove me to my knees and allowed a monster to claim me.

“Fuck!” He threw his head back as I dragged my teeth along his cock. Tears rolled from my eyes as I fought my own battle of right and wrong. My breasts ached to be touched. My clit begged to be rubbed.

In a few manic moments, I’d become hotter and wetter than I’d ever been in my entire life.

I hated him for that.

I hated myself even more.

I sucked him harder, faster, crueler.

I needed this over with...so I didn’t fall even deeper into this erotic nightmare.

Digging my fingernails into the velvet casing of his cock, I didn’t sheath my teeth as I swooped up and sank down. I punished him while punishing myself, and when the temptation to snap almost broke me, when my teeth ached to bite deep, when tears drenched my cheeks and dripped off my chin, he snatched my hair and howled.

He gave me a warning.

He wasn’t like the others.

He stiffened and jerked.

His cock spurted even as he withdrew.

Half his seed spilled over my tongue, the rest spurted all over my chest. Ribbons of white cascading in jets, sticking to my hair, smelling strong and uniquely him.

The second he stopped coming, he tripped away from me. He looked down at his still saliva-glistening cock, and the haggard expression that clouded his face was swallowed up by the blackest storm.

Snatching his slacks from around his ankles, he jerked them up and secured them. The top of his cum-smeared cock popped out of the waistband, angry and raw. He swallowed and swiped both hands through his long hair, sending the mob of darkness to swing to his shoulders.

I sat back on my heels, still cursed with the wet heat inside me.

He’d had a release.

I hadn’t.

He’d come expecting one.

I’d submitted, never expecting to feel an ounce of attraction.

We’d both been destroyed in a single interaction.

I saw it on his face.

He most likely saw it on mine.

The air crushed us, dense and accusing that whatever had just happened was outside both our control.

Bracing his shoulders and standing tall, as if he hadn’t just been curled around my head while thrusting into my mouth, he seethed, “You’ll stay alive another day.”

And then, he was gone.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I SPENT THE DAY AS far away from the basement as possible. As far away from the girl as possible.

Gemma.

Her name is Gemma.

I scoffed and swiped at the weeds daring to encroach on my spinach patch.

Who cared what her damn name was? I’d been the idiot who’d asked, but I definitely wouldn’t be the idiot who cared. It was a stupid name for a stupid girl. There was no other explanation for her.

She was stupid for exploring untouched ravines where she didn’t belong. She was stupid for climbing into a valley without backup. She was stupid for entering a house that wasn’t hers to enter.

But most of all?

She was beyond fucking stupid for offering me something I had no power to refuse.

I threw the handful of weeds into the compost, glancing down at my still eager cock tenting my slacks. All fucking day, I’d been hard as a damn rock. Every time my thoughts strayed to her—no matter how quick the passing thought—my cock went stiff.