Chapter 16
Ivy
Myles sucks in a slow breath.
I know this silence isn't safety, not really. Silence is just the air between danger and the moment it strikes.
He’s still watching me. I can feel his eyes on every inch of my body. Myles radiates restless energy, like he could tear through walls just for the hell of it. Or through me.
I should be scared.
He wants me scared.
And I am. Just… there are scarier people out there.
He said he’d protect me. That he’d make sure no one lays a finger on me. But I don't think he realises how much I need that protection. How many men are out there looking specifically for me.
I don't know how long I've been here, but I know I missed Jade, if she wasn’t already caught. She’ll be miles away by now.
And Bennett’s men are still looking for me. With knives and ropes, combing through towns, lifting up blankets in abandoned cars, kicking open barn doors. Searching for me like they did the last time I attempted to run away.
The thought sends a chill through my spine.
I can't let them find me. God knows what Bennett would do to me this time.
And this guy, Myles… he isn't like them. Not exactly. Sure, he's loud and violent. Unstable, even. But he's different.
He hasn’t hurt me like Bennett does and he’s been more patient than that old man could ever be.
Myles is gorgeous—in a frightening kind of way. He looks like he's carved out of war. Wild-eyed and handsome enough to make you flounder. All tattoos and tension, like a classic reckless bad-boy.
But his obsession isn’t selfish. He wants me to like it. That alone makes him nothing like Bennett.
It's stupid how much that matters, but I can't deny it changes things.
With Bennett, the danger always came wrapped in disgrace and shame. As if I should be grateful to be his prized slave. He bathed me every week. Ensured I was first to use the water, even before the men. But it always foreshadowed more abuse.
What Myles is offering—kindness with conditions—it's a trade I'm willing and happy to make. As long as it means I won't end up back in Bennett's hands.
At least this monster shows his teeth.
Lifting my eyes, I glance at the ‘monster’ before me. Myles is still watching me like he's hungry but doesn't know if he's allowed to eat.
Even that is more than Bennett gave me.
And he’s right, I can't expect them to keep giving me food and protection while I give them nothing.
I have to earn my keep.
Be useful.
Become invaluable.
I steel myself and meet his eyes with a little more confidence.
“See? I knew you could be a good girl,” his rough voice cuts through the silence.
Butterflies erupt in my stomach from his words. I’ve never been called good before.
‘A good girl’.
I swallow hard and look down again. My mouth feels dry and my voice is barely audible. “If I make it worth it… you’ll protect me?” I whisper.
He stills. I can feel the shift in him.
Those words, they work. I know they work, because I've used similar ones before.
Everything comes at a cost. Nothing is free. This is a trade.
The moment the words left my mouth, his gaze changed. He looks at me like I've given him permission. As if I'm no longer something delicate and part of me likes it.
“Say it again,” he urges, voice full of heat and hunger.
I meet his eyes now and force myself not to look away. “If I make it worth it, you'll protect me?”
He doesn’t move. Just stares.
The silence between us thickens, humming with tension. I feel it in my chest, my throat… low in my stomach.
Then finally, he leans forward, slowly reaching between the bars, like he's testing something, and I force myself to stay still. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers ghosting over my flesh.
“Yes, little doe. No one touches what’s mine,” he murmurs, voice loaded with promise.
This is the part I've survived before. The part I know how to block out.
But with him… it feels different…
My skin isn’t crawling. It actually feels… nice.
His rough hands, unnervingly gentle, brush over my jaw and light my nerve endings on fire. The heat coils lower, spreading like sin, sinking into my core.
Tracing my bottom lip with his thumb, he slips it into my mouth, and I close my lips around it.
He groans. “You're smarter than I gave you credit for,” he mutters. “Zane's got you thinking I'm the problem. But I'm the one who's gonna keep you safe. Not him. Not Phoenix. Me.”
I nod. Because of course I want him to think I believe him.
Zane didn't want me. Phoenix isn’t remotely interested. God knows I need their help, and Myles is the one obsessed, the reason I’m here. Safe… well, safe-ish.
His hand slides down my neck, fingers traveling across my front, ghosting over my nipples. They harden at his touch, but he moves lower to find my waist.
I’m horrified that I have to suppress a gasp as my body tingles, the sensation trickling down my spine.
Maybe he’ll pass over them again if I’m patient.
I hate that it feels so good. That I want him to do it again. But God, I do.
This is the gentlest I've ever seen him. As if he's studying a bomb, exploring, not wanting to shatter me too soon.
My breath hitches when his hand shifts, tracing along the waistband of my oversized drawstring pants. Tension simmers, charging the air with something electric.
Should I stop him?
Could I stop him?
Do I want to?
Some part of me is curious about how someone like him—someone built for violence—can make my body respond this way.
When his hand slips beneath the fabric, I bite my lip to stop the sound that wants to come out.
His fingers don’t tremble like Zane’s did, and I realise something that scares me more than anything else... he knows exactly what he's doing to me.
I should be ashamed, but I'm not.
There's no room for shame in this heat.
Myles growls, the sound rumbling low in his chest, as his fingers brush over the sensitive flesh between my legs. Then they dip deeper, into the wetness pooling at my centre.
He freezes, chest heaving, and looks down at where his hand is buried in my pants.
“Fuck,” he breathes. “You're wet for me?”
His fingers slide over my pussy again, deeper this time, like he's struggling to hold onto that last bit of self-control.
As he rubs slow circles around my clit, my thighs open wider by themselves. A gasp escapes my lips as a heady sensation builds.
I can't help myself. I’m desperate, unravelling at the seams.
It doesn't go unnoticed.
“There she is,” he murmurs. “Already aching for me.”
In a flash, he snatches his hand out, kicking away his chair. I yelp as he yanks my pants down, dragging me across the bed on my back. I end up with my ass pressed against the bars, trousers around my ankles.
Shamefully eager, I flex my feet to help him take the sweatpants off me.
Is it so wrong that I might actually want to be his ‘good girl’?
Tossing my pants across the room, he pulls one of my legs between the bars.
I’m left panting, fear renewed as my new position leaves me completely at his mercy.
But I only find myself wetter.
Needier.
“Goddamn,” he groans. “Look at you.” Dropping to his knees like a man begging at the foot of a throne, his eyes stay locked between my legs in awe.
“Such a pretty little pussy. This will never be hidden from me again. You got that, little doe?” he says roughly, voice strained. “This is how it’ll work. You supply me this, and I’ll provide you everything.”
Myles doesn't give me time to respond before he pulls my other leg through another gap in the bars and snaps a pair of handcuffs on my ankles.
A startled noise escapes me as I realise he’s trapped me. The cold metal bites into my skin and panic ripples over me. My breathing picks up and I meet his amused eyes with horror.
A smirk creeps onto his features that I’m grateful he doesn’t put to words.
Is he going to leave me here like this? Legs tied open and helpless. This wasn’t part of the deal.
Turning his attention back to my core, he tosses my legs over his shoulders, taking a moment to gawk as his hands stroke my thighs.
Then his fingers find my pussy again, sliding over me possessively, spreading my arousal. Pleasure quickly floods my senses, and any hint of apprehension is drowned in the waves.
A soft moan slips from my lips, body shuddering as my thoughts quiet at his touch. There’s nothing but the glide of his fingers and the way my body leans in, traitorous and greedy.
“That’s it, little doe. Give me your sweet moans,” Myles voice rumbles through me as he pushes two digits inside.
Sucking in a breath, my walls clench around his fingers as they work me, sending a rush of warmth through my body. My back arches, and my hands grip the blanket like it’s the only thing grounding me.
He starts pumping slowly at first. But deep, curling just right, finding every place that makes me gasp and squirm.
“Fuck, little doe, your cunt is so tight,” he breathes, grinning like he's half-feral. “You don't even know what you do to me.”
I can't think straight.
I can't even speak.
I can only feel.
As his thumb finds my clit, his lips find my inner thigh. “You’re such a good girl for me, finally letting me see you like this,” he groans, grazing his teeth over my flesh.
Butterflies explode through me again. God, I’ll never tire of hearing him say that.
His thumb rolls over the sensitive bud in purposeful circles. My hips buck, head spinning, unfiltered moans spilling from my lips.
“Fuuuck,” he growls. “That's it, little doe. Let go. Come all over my fingers like the good girl you are.” His voice is ragged, fingers speeding up, chasing my pleasure.
I’m spiralling now. No thoughts. No shame. Just a scream building at the base of my spine. My hips rock against his hand as my moans grow louder, back arching off the mattress.
“I need to see you come, Ivy. I wanna see you fall apart for me,” he pants, voice thick with primal hunger. “Say it. Say you want that.”
Lifting my head, I meet his eyes with desperation. But all that comes out of my mouth is a needy moan.
He grins like I just confessed everything, eyes darkening with malicious intent. “That's what I thought.”
Leaning in, he presses his face between the bars and flattens his tongue over my clit.
I cry out as the sensations of his warm tongue scatter any remaining logic. His fingers massage inside me, pushing me to the edge, every nerve sparking with electricity.
This was supposed to be a trade. But he’s taking more. And my body has shifted loyalty, betraying me and begging to give him everything.
I’m not sure if I’m breaking or blooming.
But I want this. I want him to see me like this—undone, unafraid.
His tongue laps at my core, electric currents dancing over my skin. Before I realise it, I'm falling amongst stars.
He only grows more desperate, feverishly licking, sucking, dipping his tongue inside me alongside his fingers. Devouring everything that drips from me, he eats like a man denied food and love in equal measure.
My orgasm builds higher than I thought possible. Cries growing louder, my voice echoes in the prison that now feels like a throne.
He doesn't stop until he’s licked me clean, leaving me as nothing but shaking limbs.
Sitting back on his heels, Myles sucks his fingers with a satisfied smile.
“Mine,” he growls.
I don’t know who I am in this moment. But it feels like Myles is right.
…I think I’m his.