Chapter 18 – Vivian
T here was a current, but it wasn’t too hard to navigate. The water was tinged green. I tried and failed to ignore what might possibly be in those depths. Trading the beautiful Gulf for swamp water and river sludge, life really was going from bad to worse.
One arm and then the other arced through the air to pull me through the water. How far down the river would I swim? Would there be a town I could hide in?
Or will I have to live where the wild things are?
A cackle rumbled in my throat. Better to disappear amongst the homeless and sneak into another country than let my legal guardian get his hands on me.
Never again!
I became a ward of our family’s estate at a young age. Our attorney took charge of me, which wasn’t odd because of Markem’s friendship with my father. We were close. Markem kept my secrets. I thought he really heard me when we talked. We were in constant communication. He was my friend. It wasn’t until college I realized how odd some of our interactions were. “Uncles” didn’t cuddle and watch movies. The tickling…. The wrestling…. The glamping in the backyard or the pool parties were just as bad.
He never did anything to me. Not like other pedos. In that regard, I was luckier than most kids in my situation. But he was working to take away every other resource, so I was wholly dependent on him. Our messed-up dynamic was a silent burden. I didn’t want anyone to know how creepy he was. Little by little, I stole back control.
The dorm, which he disapproved of, and the campus apartment in law school saved me from having to live at his house—well, one of my family’s houses that he kept for me as part of the estate. The day my firm hired me as a practicing attorney, not just an associate, Markem took me out to a fancy dinner and proposed. When I said no, suddenly there was no more job. And then the Illinois Bar Association took away my license to practice law. Markem said he was in love with me, and had been for years. The moment I accepted his proposal, I could have everything back. I planned to take my trust and leave, but when I turned twenty-eight, to my horror, there was fine print attached to my inheritance. I had to be married to access the funds.
But changing the terms of my trust wasn’t even the worst thing Markem did.
If I went back, he would lock me up in that mausoleum he called home. So I cut the rope before the noose pulled tight, and I fled.
Now the rope threatened to tighten again.
He won’t win. I already showed him that he could take everything but me.
His solution was to send someone after me. I shivered, despite the burn in my muscles. Since I was the key to my trust fund, he wouldn’t stop until he had me. Leaving my beautiful, albeit macabre-tinged, life behind wasn’t enough.
There was a shout behind me.
My legs beat against the water as I turned to look. A shock of black hair stuck out against the brackish surface. Luka. Of course, he followed me!
About to turn and swim as hard as I could, I realized his arms flailed. He wasn’t moving.
While the rush of water was to my advantage, because I knew how to use it, Luka was being pushed about like a paper boat. I should let him drown. It would buy me time to escape. I could turn right now, let the river drown his calls.
But that sound would haunt my dreams.
He was my captor, but also my savior. He was the man who saved me from the swamp, but only after chasing me. He took care of me during a migraine but also snatched me out of the night.
“Oh, fuck you!” I hissed.
And then I was paddling against the current. Although it wasn’t that strong if I went the other way, trying to move against it took every drop of energy.
Breathing hard, I pulled up beside Luka. “Don’t panic!”
He cocked his head at me. That steady gaze took me in. Whatever he was going to say was lost when a swell of water brought him under.
“Shit!” I clutched for him, dragging him up.
Water sprayed from his mouth as he spluttered. “I’m a crap swimmer.”
“I can see that,” I snapped. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
I didn’t let go of him the whole way to shore.
Crawling up the bank, I dropped onto my back. Sharp, quick breaths filled my lungs.
“Thank you,” he panted.
I pushed to my hands and knees. “You’re welcome.”
He reached out, fingers sliding against my throat until they lifted to tangle in my hair. “I knew I could get you to touch me.”
An explosion built inside. My chest swelled with the wrathful pressure. I am going to kill him!
But his hands were already skimming all over me. They trailed over the curves and soft plains. “Saints, you’re gorgeous.”
The compliment had to be the reason my voice shook. “I didn’t give you permission to touch me!”
He lifted a shoulder. “I said I wouldn’t until you initiated contact. All bets are off the table, darlin. And I’m done resisting you.”
“I rescind it,” I hissed, struggling to my feet and taking a step back.
My foot slid down the mud. I shot out my arm and reached for him.
The moment my fingers made contact, I froze. What have I done?!
A dangerous smile slanted across his lips. “Lie to me again, Vivian.”
I managed to draw in a single breath.
“Do it. I dare you,” he purred, leaning in close.
Those eyes blazed bright, capturing me in their hold. And then he was on me. He moved so fast that I couldn’t take another breath.
Teeth sank into my throat, and Luka sucked hard. He didn’t bite, but I would no doubt have a bright hickey to match the angry bruise on his neck.
His hand tugged at my clothing, pulling and tearing.
I squeaked, pushing him back. But I might as well have pushed stone. Even with the slick surface of the riverbank, his feet stayed firmly planted. This bastard was impossibly strong. So I began to pull at his clothes. But he batted my hand away, leaving me half undressed and him still clothed.
I glared at him. “Am I just a toy to you?”
He chuckled. “If I said yes, will you let me play?”
I didn’t answer, but I didn’t have to. He read it in my eyes. We’d been on the edge of collision since we met. Now that it was happening, resistance sapped out of my veins. It wasn’t like there was room for it. Because white-hot, blinding heat filled me—burned me.
Damn me, but I let it.
I hated how much I liked it.
Luka towered over me. That lean body glistened, and taut muscles showed through the wet tee. The white color was basically see-through. Moisture gleamed on his skin, completing the demi-god qualities.
But as his heated gaze roved over my torn top and unbuttoned shorts, a startling realization hit me. My captor wasn’t the only one with power here. I dug my nails into his biceps and tugged him closer, lowering both of us. His weight hovered over me, teasing me. Taunting me. It was right there. I just had to take it.
So I did.
As I drew this man over me, Luka caught me before my back could hit the ground. In one smooth move, he pulled his shirt over his head. As he crouched, metal flashed in the light. Luka did something with his shirt, and then pushed me down—over the shirt.
He made a blanket for me.
The blade of the knife was buried in the earth beside us. I blinked at it, before throwing caution to the wind. I pressed into his body. A rough, brutal moan escaped his throat as the hard bulge in his pants moved against the soft expanse of my belly.
“Aren’t you breaking some vow by doing this?” I hissed, shifting my hips again to create that delicious friction.
Luka chuckled. It wasn’t light. Oh, no! It held a dangerous promise. “The few vows I make, I never break.”
“Look at you, rhyming,” I mocked.
“Careful, darlin, that sharp tongue of yours is going to get you in trouble.” His bright blue gaze trailed over me.
I could feel where it touched me. The skin burned.
“How much more trouble can I be in?” I sassed.
His eyes darkened. Every instinct cried out in my bones for me to extract myself from this. But stubborn idiot that I was, I held my ground.
“The kind that ends up with me fucking those pretty lips and coming all over your tongue.”
I stuck said body part out at him. It was instinct born of defiance.
It was stupid.
He struck.
His teeth caught my tongue, biting hard.
Something more than pain shot through me. It hurt! But it also felt so…dirty. So good! I swallowed the moan. It didn’t stop Luka. He sucked hard. My tongue slid deep into his mouth. I swore stars exploded around the edge of my vision.
When he finally released me, my tongue was swollen and ached. My pussy, the traitorous kitty, sobbed for the same rough treatment. He could give it to me. This monster.
Fuck, but I hated him!
And I hated myself more for wanting this.
I pulled back, shaking my head. “You’ve touched me back. Now I’m done.”
His hand shot out and clenched my chin in an unforgiving grip. “I warned you what would happen if you lied again,” he smirked.
The heat of his words scorched my flesh.
“Two things can be equally true,” I ground out around his vise-like hold on my face. “I can be done with this even though my body’s not finished.”
Luka tsked. “Clever little lawyer. But you’re not escaping on a technicality.”
Before I could cut down his response, his other hand slid down my opened shorts. Twin fingers flicked beneath my panties. A wordless protest whistled past my lips. I knew what he would find there, just like he did.
It wasn’t the river water making me slick.
His touch slid back and forth. And damn her, my pussy wept with relief. Pleasure sizzled, flaring deep from within my core. I was ready to climax, and after the barest of touches!
Luka held up his fingers. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of looking. But it was unavoidable. Like watching a horror movie when the monster appears or staring at the scene of a wreck, I couldn’t not shift my gaze. Right there, clear as day, the damning evidence of my arousal coated his fingers.
Time paused. There was no sound but our heavy breathing. We were poised on the brink, just as we’d been when we were suspended in the air, right before the drop.
But the drop was coming. It was the only way down.
Realizing that, I gave in to the pull of gravity. My fingers lost no time stripping the rest of his clothes—while his scrambled to pull at mine.
The sunlight blazed over my naked flesh.
I should have worried that we were exposed on the riverbank without a stitch of clothing. But this moment felt like another type of dare. Luka snatched my other wrist and dragged both over my head. I struggled, but he pressed into me.
Pleasure seared my senses as he drew his touch through my pussy. A sharp breath filled my lungs, and my lower back bowed off the ground.
His heated gaze raked appreciatively over my straining torso. My nipples pebbled hard enough to ache.
“Damn, you’re fucking gorgeous,” he rasped. His smile took on a wicked slant.
I squirmed against the possessiveness of that look. I was here, participating in this madness because I wanted it just as much as he did.
Luka’s fingers dipped inside me. This time, I couldn’t stop the moan that bubbled out. A rich chuckle sounded overhead, and I wanted to punish him for it.
I grit my teeth, refusing to give him the satisfaction of any more noise.
And then, he began to fuck me with his fingers.
Pleasure wove through me, the intensity so strong that it effectively silenced my mind. Not even a stray thought other than ‘this feels so good’ could form.
The bastard knew it too. That smirk cut a vicious arc across his face.
Determined to drag him down with me, because I would not lose all the power in this twisted relationship, I used my body to drive him mad. My hips rolled. My muscles contracted around his fingers. Digging my heels into the ground, I braced myself to meet every thrust of his touch.
He upped the ante by thumbing my overly sensitive clit. “Look at you, baby. Fucking my hand so good.”
“So well,” I snapped.
He only laughed. “If you’re thinking about grammar, then I’m not doing a good enough job.”
With that, he curled his fingers deep inside. That spot set off a chain reaction.
I gasped, body tensed, pleasure ready to burst. The orgasm was right there. It built, faster and faster with each curl, sweep, and press of his touch. These hands were magic. My body grew rigid, muscles shivering with the impending release.
But then his touch was gone.
I straightened. “ No! ”
His smile brightened with cruelty. “I didn’t say you could come yet.”
“I am NOT playing that game,” I shouted.
“No? You don’t want to play?” He cocked his head to the side. “Then why are your legs trying to clench together?”
They were desperate for friction, but I forced them to straighten and still.
“Oh, now that just won’t do.” Luka lowered himself over me. His hot mouth covered my breast.
My breathing turned harsh. Pleasure crackled down my spine.
When his teeth pressed against the impossibly sensitive nipple, I yelped.
Luka looked up at me, under thick, black lashes that no man should possess. The glint in his eye was sharper than any blade.
The unspoken command in his eye was clear. All I had to do was ask.
I refused to beg.
So I commanded. “Get your fucking cock in me—now.”
“Say please,” he said while lapping at my nipple.
“Never,” I hissed, glaring at him.
It earned me a chuckle. The noise glittered with a dark promise. It should have been a warning.
But my toxic trait was that I embraced red flags.
Luka thrust into me with one vicious move.
The groan that escaped me was guttural and soul-bending. I shut my mouth tight as Luka began pounding into me.
“That’s okay, darlin,” Luka smiled down at me. “Your pretty little mouth doesn’t have to beg when your eyes do it so well for you.”
“You asshole!” I jerked against his hold.
But his fingers around my wrists held me tight while his weight kept me down, allowing his hips to piston into me.
After catching my breath, I met his fire with my own. I wrapped my legs around his lower back. The angle sent his next thrust deeper. I was rewarded by a sensual, animalistic groan. My body might not be toned, but my leg muscles were strong. I tightened them, holding him down so it limited his movements.
This wasn’t lovemaking. This was raw, brutal fucking—an exorcism.
I needed him purged from my system.
“Come on, mister, is that all you’ve got?” I snarled, squeezing my legs.
That was not the right question to ask. Luka drove into me with savage abandon. I relished the fullness of his thick shaft. He was undoubtedly the best dick I’d ever taken.
And will ruin me for all others.
Except…I could get used to this.
Only right as the edge approached again did I realize what dangerous drug I was desperately scrambling to take a hit of. I should stop this. I should end it before I lost my soul to this monster.
Because there was no way I would be able to resist another taste.
It was too late, though.
My body trembled with the impending release.
Luka leaned down to whisper against my ear. “Say please, darlin.”
I screamed. His hand shot out to cover my mouth.
The moment blood flowed to my fingertips, they moved of their own accord. I snatched the blade and pressed it against his throat.
“Let. Me. Come.” I panted, unable to draw enough air to say each word. “Please.”
His wild, villainous smile mirrored my own. “As you wish.”
He leaned into the blade. A thin line of crimson sprouted along the tanned skin of his throat.
I tried to jerk my hand back. It had been a powerplay, nothing more.
“No,” Luka growled, snatching my wrist to keep the blade at his throat. “ You don’t back down from a fight. You got that, babe?”
I swallowed hard and gave him a small nod.
Luka rolled his hips, giving me the friction I needed. “Now show me how good you are, and fucking come.”
A whimper slid past my lips.
How could mere words make me this hot? It didn’t make sense, but it didn’t have to for it to work.
Luka fucked me with everything he had. The knife wriggled against his neck. It was a delicate dance between cutting him open and pulling it back. I knew if I did that he would stop.
And there was no way I would survive stopping again.
The furious speed with which his hips snapped into me had me seeing stars. I wasn’t the only one affected. Rough, short breaths puffed from his lungs. His lean muscles strained. A fine sheen glistened in the hot sunlight.
With a zap of raw electricity, my muscles seized. The primal cry that left my throat was barely smothered by his palm. I didn’t care who heard or saw. The blast of agonizing pleasure seared every fiber of my being.
Luka didn’t stop. He fucked me straight through my orgasm and kept the high going as he came. That sculpted, carved body tensed above me.
And then, in a wash of horror, the only thing powerful enough to kill the moment, I realized he hadn’t worn protection.
Bracing an arm on either side of my head, that glacial gaze watched me. The damn knife remained pressed against his throat, but it was a flimsy, useless gesture.
His voice seemed light and lazy, but there was a hardness behind his words as he asked, “What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”
“You came—” I gulped “—inside me.”
“Oh, that,” he chuckled, plucking the knife from my fingers. “Don’t worry about it.”
Anger shot up my spine. “I will too worry about it!”
My fist shot out, ready to collide with his face.
The infuriating bastard caught it. Pressing his lips against my racing pulse, he murmured, “When I tell you something, Vivian, you need to listen.”
“No!” I tried and failed to snatch my arm away. “You kidnapped me for my scheming, horrible family attorney! Or have you forgotten with your near-drowning experience?”
Snatching both my wrists and holding them against my chest, Luka pinned me with a look. This one, I would be smart to heed. “I haven’t lied to you. Selective truths—something you lawyers should be very familiar with. But I haven’t lied. So if I say don’t worry, it’s because you don’t have to fucking worry, Vivian!”
Just because I knew not to poke the beast didn’t mean I had to listen. “I don’t trust you!”
“Well, you should,” he snapped. “How else do you think you’re going to get out of this nightmare?”
Oh, the nerve of this man! “Fuck you!”
“I just did, babe,” he said between clenched teeth. “And why you don’t have to worry is because I had a vasectomy nine years ago.”
I blinked. He couldn’t be…he couldn’t be much older than me. Which would have put him in his early twenties when he did that. What the hell kind of young adult got snipped?
But he wasn’t talking.
Pushing to his feet, stony mask in place, he snatched his dirty jeans. “Get dressed,” was all that he said.
I obeyed. Questions raced in my mind. Emotions stewed in my chest. But my smart ass decided instead to hold up my torn tee. “Can’t. Some wild animal shredded my top.”
Luka shot me a sideways glare. But as he looked at the evidence of our encounter, a slow smile spread across his face, forcing whatever storm cloud tormented his mind to retreat. It wasn’t banished, but it wasn’t dominant.
He tossed me his sliced, dirty shirt. “Here, tie this into a crop top. It will do until we get you back to the car. I think you have one more outfit left when I packed your things.”
The reminder that he’d broken into my little house just served as a visceral reminder that our encounter was premeditated. “I’m not going back!”
Luka tugged at the back of his neck. Frustration clearly scrawled across his face. “If you fight me, I will make you pass out and throw your limp body over my shoulder.”
He would do it. There was no reason not to believe him.
In the face of defeat, instead of letting it crush me, I pulled the need to fight around me. No one wrote the story of my life except for me.
“But if you come with me, I might have a solution,” Luka insisted, hands dropping to his sides. “You never gave me a chance to finish in the car.”
Those words sapped the intensity of the panic. The fight or flight instinct simmered down to a puff of steam. “I’m listening.”
Luka jerked his chin. “We’re about a mile from the car—and on the wrong side of the river.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Tell me now. Tell me here.”
A muscle in that sharp jaw feathered. His nostrils widened as he sucked in a deep breath. I crossed my arms and, despite the height difference, stared him down.
When he realized I wouldn’t budge without him giving me something, he let out an exasperated growl. “You don’t have to go to Markem. You could stay with me.”
Shock rippled through me. Did this monster just offer me his protection? My kidnapper—stay with my kidnapper? That had to be the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. And in law school, there was so much shit coming out of everyone’s damned mouths.
Throwing back my head, I began to laugh until I couldn’t breathe, tears streamed down my face, and I was in real danger of peeing myself.