Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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‘Next time you will,’ he said. ‘Bruno wants you by the pool.’

‘And you didn’t tell me that when you came in?’

‘I wanted you first,’ he said, opening the shower door again and testing the temperature of the water with his hand. ‘I’m your owner, I make the rules about where you go and what you do. Getting your face fucked was more important than running his errands.’

‘I can’t go down there looking like this,’ she said, getting to her feet. ‘He’ll see that you’re… all over me.’

‘That was the point,’ he said.

‘I need to shower,’ she said. When she tried to pass him to enter the cubicle he grabbed her and pulled her back to prevent her from reaching it.

‘No! You go down there, exactly like that!’

‘But, I—‘

‘He’ll think twice about touching you now, won’t he?’

Her indignation waned and for the first time when their eyes locked neither of them contained anger.

‘You do what you need to do, to get the job done,’ she muttered.

‘Yeah. Which includes letting any of the rest of them touch you in any way they want to.’

‘Even if you don’t want them to,’ she said. ‘You’re numb. You just go through the motions, don’t you? Do you actually feel anything? Do you even know what you want?’ Lifting her hand to reach for his jaw, he ducked away to avoid her caress.

‘What I want doesn’t matter,’ he snapped.

‘It does to me.’

‘Why?’

‘Because we’re both the same. Trapped. Doing what we have to even though we don’t want to,’ she said and took her arm from his grip to take his hand.

‘Don’t start thinking that I care about you. I don’t.’

‘God forbid you let yourself care about anything that they might take away.’

‘You don’t know who they are. You do what you’re told and let the men worry about the serious shit.’

‘Just like you do,’ she said. He had meant to insult her, what he didn’t seem to comprehend was that he’d been brainwashed by these people that were now trying to do it to her. Bruno knew what he was doing because he’d obviously been party to this kind of manipulation before. Dax on the other hand did what he was told and failed to see how he’d been manipulated into it. ‘They have your free will, is that why you think that you can take mine? I won’t let you.’

‘I’ll take whatever the fuck I want from you,’ he said. Narrowing her eyes she identified that he was trying to be angry. His show was believable, but it wasn’t there, his fury didn’t burn from his guts like her anger did.

‘You haven’t forced me into anything. They have, but not you.’

‘You think I’m here to look out for you?’

‘I don’t think you even know how to look out for yourself, street rat.’

‘You don’t have the first fucking clue about me,’ he said, but she wasn’t insulted by his attempt to belittle her.

‘How could I?’ she asked. ‘You don’t know anything about yourself either. You keep giving me advice like some subconscious part of you is trying to save me from what you failed to escape from.’

‘Your dad a shrink or something?’

‘Ex-boyfriend,’ she said. ‘He did try to save me, turned out he was more screwed up than I was.’

‘Get around did you, Minx?’

‘I don’t consider my life in the past tense.’

‘Maybe you should,’ he said. ‘You can’t fight fate, right?’

‘You can’t know its plan either. Maybe we’re supposed to fight against being forced into something we don’t want. Life doesn’t always turn out the way we think it’s supposed to.’

‘No, it doesn’t,’ he said.

‘If you don’t want him to touch me, tell him.’

Dax shook his head. ‘I can’t save you. If it’s your game to get into my head and have me get you out of here… you’ve got the wrong guy. You’re too important to them.’

‘And what am I to you?’ she asked. ‘Am I important to you?’

Snatching his hand away from hers, he backed off. ‘You’re manipulating me. You think you can use sex to soften me up? That I’ll believe you give a shit about me and fall for your wounded vulnerability act? I’m not gonna set you free.’

‘I haven’t asked you to set me free today, Dax, have I? All I want from you right now is one thing,’ she said, rising to her tiptoes.

Capturing his face in her hands, she joined their lips. He kissed her back and their conversation was abandoned to the oblivion of the hormones that drowned them. Dax took her weight and twisted their twined bodies around, still in their embrace to take them into the shower. Ivy might have a better handle on this man she shared her body with, but she wasn’t so sure that he was any more enlightened about his own situation. Dax was a prisoner in his own life, but she didn’t know how he’d found himself here or why he was ok with being a lackey.

As he pressed her into the slippery tile next to the scalding shower spray and loosened the ties on her briefs Ivy vowed to herself that she would find out why Dax was so detached from his own existence. She was a prisoner and she’d still prioritise herself and her freedom, but if she had the ability to hold a mirror up to Dax before she slipped out of his life, she would use it. Maybe they would both be able to free themselves from their internment.

Chapter Seven

After screwing her in the shower, Dax had told her to wash and go down to Bruno who was outside, which she did, and that was the last of Dax she saw that day. He made no secret of the fact that he was avoiding her, he didn’t even appear for dinner.

Spraying her with his seed was Dax’s way of showing Bruno how intimate they’d been and giving the guy an unmistakable visual. She doubted that it was anything to do with primal marking, it was more about grossing the older man out. Ivy would guess that Dax wanted to make Bruno think twice about touching her breasts when there was a chance his spunk could be all over her. But the shower had washed away all evidence of their joining.

Bruno didn’t seem to notice or care that Dax wasn’t around, he was more interested in teasing her and the sad truth was that she was getting used to the middle-aged man’s innuendo and advances. Though that didn’t mean she liked it, not for one second. Bruno instructed her in every task then watched as she completed it, salivating and goading her throughout the whole event.

Though she had to admit that Bruno’s fondling was lessening, maybe because she didn’t give him the reaction that he wanted, or because now that he’d had the pleasure of it, it wasn’t as interesting – the novelty had worn off. His biggest thrill seemed to come when he exercised authority in other ways, he was content to demean her with words and actions, such as spilling food on the floor and demanding that she clean it up after he squashed it into the tile with his Croc covered feet.

Her “owner” had appeared when it was dark outside and he’d told her to go to bed. He proceeded to sit with Bruno and drink beer into the night instead of coming upstairs with her for more sex, so she knew that he didn’t want to be in a room with her.

Ivy was happy to go to bed because it gave her a reprieve, massaging Bruno’s feet was starting to give her fingers blisters. Any hope that sending her up to bed was a sign of care or trust on Dax’s part was obliterated when he did come up to bed about an hour later. He used another plastic tie to fasten her to the foot-post while grumbling something about not being bothered with her anymore. Then he went to sleep without gratification.

When she awoke the next day Dax was already gone from the bed and Bruno was there with his list of daily tasks, and that day played out much as it had the previous day.

Now the sun was high in the sky and the blazing heat was making her sweat, so when Bruno drifted off to sleep in his lounge chair by the pool, she went back into the house. With a quick check around the lower floor she found no sign of a key for the front door, or one for the drawer of knives.

Making a break for it now might be her only chance, but she did wish she’d had some more time to prepare and regain her strength. Upstairs, Bruno’s bedroom door was locked as was the other bedroom and Dax’s room held no sign of exit either; the walk-in closet was locked too. One of the men had to be carrying the key on them or they were hidden somewhere that she would never find them.

If she couldn’t get out of the house then she’d never be able to get into the car that stood outside, not without finding the keys. Without transport of her own, her captors would catch up to her pretty quickly. In her time undressing Dax and tidying up she had never seen keys. Finding out where they were kept became her next goal, and for that she’d have to get closer to the man who shared her bed.

Finding Dax was a piece of cake, he was where he always was, downstairs. Admitting to herself that the concept of going back into that basement voluntarily was distasteful, she bolstered her gumption and headed for the door. She would never be able to win Dax’s sympathy or assistance if she allowed him to maintain distance, so she had to step into his world, into his personal space, which she knew would be out of his comfort zone.

But if she could show him that she was human, and that this detached behaviour was unacceptable, there was a chance that Dax would be willing to set her free or help her escape. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Bruno wasn’t ever going to be a man who might consider doing that for her.

Descending the stairs into the basement, she could hear the thump of fists hitting leather and the occasional sniff or breath coming from a man. When she went lower, she paused at the vision he made. Wearing nothing but black shorts and black straps on his hands, she watched Dax throw one punch and then another, he stayed loose, keeping his hands near his face and his elbows in close to his body. The sheen of sweat across his back and arms made her think about how his skin had felt under her fingertips in the shower when water cascaded over both of their naked bodies.

His fist flew out and made contact with the black punching bag that hung from the ceiling at the head of the basement gym, then he slid back in an expert manoeuvre and threw another two punches, one with each hand in quick succession. The rough callouses and intersecting scars on his knuckles and hands made sense now. She’d noticed them when they were together in bed, but hadn’t asked about their origin, now she didn’t need to.

He sensed her and stopped his training to straighten up. Tensing to turn, he glared over his shoulder at her figure on the darkened stairway. Still, the blue of those eyes shot agony into her, because such a pure colour wasn’t meant to be so impersonal, yet in him it was.

His eyes were like icebergs on the sea, powerful and formidable, but also lonely, isolated out on the ocean without a place to connect with or to call home. Drifting out on the open water epitomised Dax, and she realised then her own life had been much the same way – out there and alone. She wondered if she was as hard as he was, or if she wasn’t, what he’d been through to make him so disconnected.

‘Where’s Bruno?’ he asked.

‘Sleeping,’ she replied, continuing down the stairs and toward him.

He began to unfasten the hand straps from his hands. ‘And you’re still here?’

‘I couldn’t get out. The door is locked.’

‘No one ever taught you how to pick a lock?’

She shook her head. ‘But I’m up for a lesson if you want to give me one.’

‘I don’t have the patience to be a teacher,’ he said, tossing the straps to the bench beside him then stretching out his fingers.

‘Did you used to be a boxer?’ she asked him, taking one of his hands. She held it open in front of her chest and began to massage his knuckles.

‘Boxing is too disciplined,’ he mumbled, watching her fingers working on his. ‘My sport is less regimented.’

‘What is your sport?’

‘I’m an underground fighter,’ he said, fascinated, or perhaps perplexed, by what she was doing.

‘Like in basements and cellars?’ she teased.

‘Like on the underground circuit,’ he said, and withdrew his hand from hers. ‘I’ve been doing it since I was eight. I don’t need to be pampered through it.’

‘Maybe I want to pamper,’ she said, taking his other hand to give it equal treatment. ‘How does it work? Underground fighting?’

‘Two guys in the ring and no weapons,’ he said.

‘There’s a ring?’

‘Sometimes,’ he said. ‘It depends on the venue. Some places make a business out of it, sometimes it’s a barn with a wooden fence, or just a line drawn in the sand.’

‘Fitting,’ she said. ‘So what are the rules?’

‘I told you. Two guys, no weapons, and you don’t hit a guy when he’s down.’

‘That’s it?’ Her massaging stalled. ‘Anything goes?’

He nodded. ‘Anything at all.’

‘So they could gouge out your eyes or bite off an ear or something?’

‘If they ever got close enough to do that then yeah,’ he said with a flippant, yet smug, smile. Leaving her side, he retrieved his hand wraps to tuck them into the back of his shorts.

‘Since you were eight, huh?’ she asked.

‘Yep.’

Crossing to the punching bag, she smoothed her hands over the leather. ‘Is this how you keep yourself so calm?’ she asked. ‘You take out all of your emotions on the punching bag?’

When he didn’t respond, she twisted around to rest her back on the punching bag, spreading her hands against it at her sides after her arms curled against it. ‘I guess,’ he said, and took one step toward her.

‘Is that why my anger turns you on? Because you don’t know how to be open like that, to experience that kind of emotion?’

‘I know anger,’ he said, coming closer still. ‘I know hurt and isolation. I know revenge and retribution.’ He came so close that his body made contact with hers. ‘I know fear and misery. I know respect and I know loyalty.’

‘What about compassion?’

He shook his head. ‘Weakness.’

‘And forgiveness? Do you know that?’ He shook his head, but brought up his hands to pull the ties from her hair, tugging on her locks in the process, sending a hiss through her teeth. ‘Do you know leniency? Or pity?’

‘No. But I know shame and rage.’

‘What about love? Do you know that?’

‘Never heard of it,’ he said, taking a fistful of her hair he yanked back her head and planted his mouth down on hers.

The squeal of her refusal was lost in the grip of her hands on his neck, and if this bag had been able to support their weight she may have leapt into his arms here. As it was, her fingertips skimmed down the bulge of his shoulders to his elbows, but when she tried to urge him away he took her waist and lifted her off the floor, holding her body to his.

‘Dax,’ she whispered. His mouth trailed to her neck and the press of his lips to the artery pulsing beneath them made her weak legs wobble. For stability she locked her ankles at the small of his back. ‘I came down here to talk.’

‘Talk isn’t what I need from you.’

The word “need” sent a sluice of ice through her torso. It was possibly just a slip of the tongue, but in the second she heard it she wanted him to mean it and that scared her. No man had ever needed her and she’d never needed them. Her role in seducing Dax was meant to be manipulation, she was meant to make friends, to make him want her freedom. Bringing need into the equation was a totally different thing.

‘Take my cock out of my shorts,’ he said. In a show of strength, he locked one arm around her waist, holding her up with only that arm so he could free his other hand to unwrap her breasts from her bikini, and untie the strings on her hips.

‘I am not a part of your work out, stranger.’

‘You are today, or I’m a part of yours.’

Seating himself on the inclined weight bench, he leaned back and nodded downwards. ‘If you make me do it you’ll get yourself a spanking when we’re through, and I’ve got weapons down here.’

Coiling her arms around his neck, she pulled herself close enough to press her face to his. ‘I thought weapons were against the rules.’

‘You wouldn’t stand a chance in the ring with me, Minx.’

‘Throw in some jello, take away the clothes and the audience and I think I might be able to pin you down.’

His smile creased his cheeks and the reverberation of his laugh made her recoil, it was the first time she had heard it. ‘You’ve got me pinned now.’

That wasn’t really true, his arms were still around her waist and although she was on top, he was definitely in control. Her parted thighs gave her premium position to undulate against the thick organ protruding from his shorts.

‘You didn’t fuck me last night.’

‘I’m not gonna to fuck you now,’ he said. ‘You’re gonna do it all by yourself.’

‘How do you manage to stay in control even when you’re underneath me?’

‘You want to please me, don’t you?’

And she nodded, realising that his pleasure was important. Seeing how she could control and influence this monolith of a man made her feel powerful in a set of circumstances where she was otherwise powerless and that heightened her own enjoyment. ‘I do, Dax… Master.’

‘I hate that word,’ he admitted, much to her surprise, but she tried to quell it.

‘Ok. What would you rather I called you?’ spreading her hands on his bare chest, she kept moving her hips against him. ‘Chief? Major? Guru?’

‘Stranger will do just fine.’ Taking a breast in hand, he squeezed then tensed his arm to arch her back giving him leave to suck her nipple into his mouth. ‘They do taste good, damn good.’

That was something close to an apology for what he’d said in front of Bruno. Every day more of the males’ dynamic was revealed, and every day she was more perplexed by it. In front of Bruno, Dax acted like she was nothing and he tried to maintain that indifference when he was alone with her.

Yet, he was far more honest than she’d have believed he would be and thought nothing of revealing the truth in these rare moments of intimacy. As far as she knew he had never lied to her. When they were alone he battled to maintain his disinterest but often failed. Sex made him honest and he seemed to demand that same honesty in return.

It was like he was only willing to have sex with her if he could be himself while he did it and he’d only have sex with the true her. He didn’t want her scared and pitiful, he wanted her fire, the truth of her personality in his bed. Outside the bedroom, and in company, he didn’t care who she was but he wasn’t going to play games in bed. Maybe he was supposed to and he just sucked at this game, or maybe lulling her into his confidence was a game all in itself.

But she could only judge the situation on what she witnessed, Dax didn’t get off on demeaning her like Bruno did. In fact, Dax seemed happier to leave the room when Bruno was exerting control over her. As long as Bruno did his work in a place where Dax didn’t have to see it then Dax could ignore it.

Whatever Bruno’s game with her was, Dax felt the need to play along with it when they were all together, because he never corrected or questioned the older man. However, when Bruno wasn’t around Dax let the shield fall, it could mean that he cared, or it could just mean that he didn’t care about Bruno when Bruno wasn’t around.

Except one thing kept nipping on the periphery of her mind, she was keeping a secret for Dax. He let her question him and talk to him as an equal in private, if she did that with Bruno he’d send her to the basement. So by not revealing Dax’s indifference to Bruno’s rules, Ivy was keeping Dax’s secret. She played along with the rules in front of Bruno and Dax didn’t get her into trouble for what she said to him, so he was keeping her secret too. In each other, they already had an ally.

‘If I call you stranger it’s like we’re not connected,’ she said, reluctantly prying herself away from his kiss. ‘It’s like we’re still in that alley.’

‘I wanted to fuck you then,’ he said, kissing his way to her throat then down in a triangle to her other breast. His arm around her shifted to whip the lower half of her suit away. Casting them aside, he ran a finger between the cheeks of her ass.

‘You said that you didn’t.’

‘I lied,’ he admitted, confirming that her assumption that he’d always been honest was incorrect. ‘Your body is hot, and you’ve got these fuck me eyes, like the only way a guy will ever get your respect is to fill that smart mouth with cock every time you step out of line.’

‘I’m entitled to my opinions, why should I shy from voicing them?’ she whispered, aroused by the idea that he’d even considered earning her respect. The speed of her heart was making it difficult to talk. Her lungs weren’t taking in enough air and she knew there was only one cure.

‘You should know your place,’ he muttered.

‘Beneath you.’

‘That’s right.’

Her fingers found their way into his shorts and when she touched his solid dick, she sighed out, making the appendage jump in her grip. The heat of her breath must have affected him because he dug his teeth into her bosom until she squeaked.

‘Sex is all you ever want from me,’ she said. Squeezing his member in her clenched hand, she removed it from his shorts and elevated her hips to prod his dribbling head onto her clit. Undulating, she merged their juices, stimulating herself with him, letting her wetness lap and lick the bulb, which was eager to conquer her. ‘Is Bruno your boss?’

‘We work for the same man,’ he said, licking her breast and rolling the peak between his warm fingers.

The bench was narrow and her feet were hooked up behind her over his thighs, it was the only thing giving her leverage, but the chance of cramp in this position was high. ‘I need…’ she inhaled, not really sure how to make the best of this position.

‘What?’ he asked, stroking up to her shoulders and down her spine with the very tips of his fingers, making her quiver. ‘What does my babygirl need?’

The pet name made her lose all cohesion and her torso fell against his, her breasts heated against his damp chest, and he swept her hair out of the way to suck and nibble on her ear and neck. Words were gone from her brain, so all she could do was take hold of his wrists and guide his hands down to her ass, where he could take some of her weight.

‘Like that?’ he grumbled and she nodded, nuzzling against his throat. Pushing her weight to her shins she rose and lined him up so that when she released the tension in her legs she sank down onto him. ‘Oh yeah, like that.’

Moving up and down, her pace was fast instantly, she didn’t want to take her time here. What he had started to burn in her made her so wet for him that their bodies wouldn’t rest or relax until they had sought completion with each other.

‘You feel amazing inside me,’ she breathed into his mouth on another kiss. ‘Dax, this, your dick…’

‘Yeah?’ he asked, gripping onto her ass and using his own strength to raise her body faster until it became a fight, he pulled up and she pushed down at the same time his body fought to remain in her.

‘I’ve never…’ Maybe it was the position, her legs were stretched so far apart that her thighs burned, and she was entirely at his mercy because his body was the only thing holding her up on this narrow bench.

‘Say it,’ he demanded.

‘Don’t ever take it away from me,’ she screamed out at the first ember of orgasm that burst in her crotch.

His roar wasn’t one of climax, but his arms clamped around her and she yelped when he stood up and slammed her onto her back on the bench, then he was pumping into her with such fierce single-mindedness that she couldn’t see man, only animal.

‘Look at me!’

Grabbing a handful of her hair, he wrenched her eyes to his and that cool iceberg in his eyes was aflame with a determined possession that fired through her like a missile aimed for her core. Shrieking out his name, she cared not about volume or about Bruno, and Dax didn’t appear too either because at the same time she arched up, her body locked in spasm around his, the boom of his orgasm shook through her and they growled together, their eyes matched in their epiphany.

One huff followed another. After they were both done and she was riding out the aftershocks, they stayed right there, her on her back, him above her, inside her, staring down into her eyes.

‘Shit,’ he whispered and she had no time to ask why he cursed because his mouth came to hers in a slow, but punishing kiss that pinned her skull to the bench and allowed him to pour the truth of his curse into her. He did care about her, and her admission in the midst of their passion that she wanted this, wanted him, was enough for him to release that truth to himself.

Jerking his mouth away, he dismounted the bench and pulled his shorts back up. ‘No more bikinis,’ he said, picking up his hand wraps from the floor to begin wrapping his hands again.

‘Ok,’ she said, retrieving her bikini from the floor because it was all she had to wear now.

‘I can’t stop him from touching you. If I tried it would… raise too many questions.’

‘What kind of questions?’ she asked.

He looked up from his task, and she saw anger in him now, she definitely recognised it. ‘You don’t understand what’s going on here and how we all fit into the bigger picture.’

‘What is the bigger picture?’ She tied her bikini back on.

‘I can’t tell you that,’ he said. ‘It’s not my decision when you’re told about your purpose. You don’t belong to me.’

Finishing the knot behind her neck, she crossed to him, resting her hands on his hips. ‘I… I think I want to.’

‘That’s what they want,’ he said, his timbre low and quiet. ‘They want you to think that.’

‘What do you want me to think? You don’t want to own me?’

Grinding his teeth, emotions washed over his face. ‘I want you to go upstairs, get showered and changed, then get back to work.’

‘That’s it?’ she asked. ‘You tell me that you don’t want me to wear a bikini anymore and that I don’t belong to you then you just dismiss me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s it. Get to it, or you’ll get more than a spanking.’

Lowering her chin, she slid her arms around him. ‘Now I’m curious.’

‘This time not from me,’ he said, unlocking her arms from around him. ‘If Bruno catches you not where he left you, then you’ll be going back in there.’

His eyes moved behind her and she turned to see the door to the place she’d been kept captive. ‘You’d let him put me back in there?’

‘Yeah I would,’ he said, without hesitating. ‘Though I’m not sure I’d be able to leave you alone at night.’

The idea of being back in that hovel made her feel sick, but knowing that Dax might come down to join her because he was compelled beyond logic or reason to do so, made her smile. ‘I’ll do what you say.’

‘I know that you will. You were told that was the only thing you had to do, what you were told.’

‘I’m not doing it because it’s Bruno’s rule. I’m doing it because… because I want you to trust me. I’ll have your back, Dax, if anything goes down. I’m going to be on your side.’

‘Talking like that could get you hurt,’ he said with a frown. ‘You worry about yourself, Minx. Nobody else.’

‘Are you doing the same thing?’ she asked.

Leaving him to consider that, she headed for the stairs. She didn’t want him to answer because she didn’t want to push him into saying something that neither of them wanted to hear. If he admitted to caring for her then he would be in trouble. But if he denied it then he would be lying, and she didn’t want him doing that. So she went upstairs and did as he had requested, then went back to work.

Keeping up appearances for Bruno was important and doing so would show Dax that he could trust her. But when they were alone, she’d keep pushing on the buttons that she had found, only now she wasn’t so clear on her motivation. Was she manipulating him to ensure her safety or escape? Or were her own buttons on show as well? Meaning that maybe she too felt more than she’d anticipated for the street fighter with the sinister eyes and the rock hard body that made her weak.

It was a few nights later when she was lying in their bed in the dark that she decided to push for more. He had connected her ankle to the bedpost, as he always did, while he went into the bathroom. The burst of light from the side of the room told her that he was coming back. He extinguished the light, closed the door, and came back to bed.

Because it was so dark there was no way for him to know that she was still awake. Snatching her hand he hauled her body to his, turning his back on her, he pulled her to mould against him, signalling that he was ready to sleep, except she wasn’t.

‘Why do you let me do it?’ she whispered against the smooth skin in front of her lips.

‘Do what?’ he grumbled.

Dax was a man who enjoyed his sleep and when he decided it was time for it, he wasn’t long delayed in achieving it.

‘You let me be me here, in this room, when we’re alone. Why don’t you tell Bruno that I’m playing him?’

‘You’re not,’ he said. ‘He wants you to do what you’re told and you do. You let him do whatever he wants with you.’

‘So you think that if I keep taking his orders it will eventually become automatic?’’

‘What do you want from me, Minx?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me to beat you and lock you up?’

‘No.’

‘Bruno is here to teach you to take orders and I’m here to fuck you into line.’

She was compliant in bed with him – for the most part. So he was right, in a way, he did his job just by sharing a bed with her. But that didn’t explain why he let her sass him in a way that Bruno would never tolerate.

‘Do you have family?’

‘No blood,’ he said.

‘I haven’t seen my mother in years,’ she said. ‘My sister stays with my aunt, least she did the last I heard—‘

‘I don’t need your life story, just access to your pussy.’

‘What about your parents?’ she asked, bending her elbow to curl a hand under her pillow, the other was still confined in his. On nights like this, after she was tied to the foot post, they often slept further down the bed, but her face was still buried in his back.

‘Never knew my mom, dad started me fighting at eight to make us some money, he sold me to the circuit when I was about ten. I ran away a few times, got picked up by the cops a few times, then I met Mauri.’

‘That’s so sad,’ she said, kissing his spine.

‘No sadder than your step-dad molesting you.’

‘He didn’t actually… you know… he just tried it one too many times, and I knew I could only fight him off for so long. My mother didn’t give a damn and so I left. I stayed with my aunt sometimes, then she moved to Florida and—‘