Chapter 6
The Monster
I haven’t felt this at peace in a long time. There’s one less person out in the world that has hurt Ainsley, she’s here sleeping in my arms, and she gave into me. I wasn’t even going to push her tonight. I was going to let her adjust to being back in the house with me, but she had to go tracing her name on my skin.
She made it obvious that she felt responsible for the scar, but I wasn’t lying when I told her it was a comfort. I’ve blamed myself for what happened since the day she was taken from me, and carving her name into my skin was a way for me to pay for my mistakes.
It also helped me feel like she was still here with me. Every day that I looked down and saw it, I knew I had a job to do before I could go back to her. Even now, I know my job isn’t done, but I’ve waited too long to bring her back.
This is where she belongs, in this house, with me. Where I can keep her safe. I won’t make the mistake of keeping her from school this time, but she’s not going back without protection. And I have a feeling once she meets my head of security, she won’t complain as much as she normally would.
My phone rings from the nightstand, reminding me I never stopped recording after she fell asleep. After I hit stop, I answer the call.
“Yeah?”
“Ryker,” comes John’s voice over the speaker. As quietly as I can, I roll out of bed and open the balcony door so I don’t wake Ainsley up. As soon as I’m outside, I press the phone back to my ear.
“What did you find?”
Sometimes John will call me for just an update, other times he calls me to ask about something in the business. Our friendship has been strained since he failed to protect Ainsley, so he doesn’t call me just to chat anymore.
I almost miss having that with him, especially with all the stress I’m under, but I’m finding it hard to just forgive him. Maybe it will be easier once I have Ainsley back.
“One of our men spotted him while staking out the Guerra property. They said they saw him walk in, but he came out a few minutes later and left.”
The boss. Well, the old boss, because I’m the boss now. He hasn’t been spotted since he went into hiding almost four months ago, so why would he slip up now? All to go to the Guerra’s, too. He must not realize that I ruined them from the inside out until there was nothing left of them but an abandoned building.
I keep a man stationed there every day, just to make sure nobody tries to revive that cartel. The last thing I need is another rival cartel that could give the old boss protection from me.
“Make sure there’s always a man stationed there, but tell them not to engage if they see him again. We all know how dangerous he is. Report to me as soon as you hear anything.”
John acknowledges my command and hangs up, leaving me to go back to bed with my girl. As I step inside and slide the door shut behind me, I decide to stand there and watch Ainsley sleeping peacefully. She didn’t slip straight into a nightmare like she did last night, making me think she really did just need me to be with her.
“Cain,” she cries out suddenly. The sound of my name on her lips is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. She’s refusing to say it, preferring to think of me as the monster all over again. I think it’s her way of protecting herself.
I rush over to her, wanting to assure her she’s safe. “I’m here, little one. Just had to step outside for a second and didn’t want to wake you up.”
But as I get closer and crawl into the bed with her, I see her eyes are still closed as she rolls over in the bed.
“But -” she stops, trying to find the words through her dream. “But you’re dead.”
“I’m right here, baby. Shhh. Everything’s okay.” I know she can’t hear me in her dream, too lost in the nightmare she’s reliving as I desperately try to comfort her without waking her.
“Cain,” she sobs. It’s a heart wrenching sob, one that comes from pure agony. She told me she dreamt about me almost every night while she was in captivity, but they were always comforting dreams. Whatever she’s dreaming about right now is more of a nightmare than a dream.
“No, no, please! I’m sorry!” Tears start falling down her cheeks as I pull her into me, hoping the feel of my arms around her will pull her from the nightmare.
“Ainsley, baby, wake up,” I plead with her, not able to listen anymore. Her tears wet my bare chest as she sobs uncontrollably, and then she pauses. Just when I think she’s calming down, she gasps for air, like there’s something wrapped around her throat that I can’t see.
“Ainsley, wake up!” I shout, not caring about shocking her awake anymore. Roughly, I shake her shoulder until her eyes shoot open and she draws in a deep breath. “Ainsley?”
Her eyes meet mine, and the sight of her pain is gut wrenching. Instead of talking, she buries her face back into my chest and sobs uncontrollably. I don’t know what she was dreaming about, but whatever it was, it was too much for her.
“You’re okay, little one. It was just a dream. I’m here. You’re safe.” The words spill out of me as I attempt to comfort her, but something I said seems to only make it worse.
“It wasn’t just a dream,” she sobs into my chest. “It happened, my first night with Carlos.”
Her first night with Carlos? But she was crying out for me. Was she remembering what she thought was me being killed as she was dragged away? She told me he made her listen to that video repeatedly to control her. What doesn’t make sense is why she acted like she was choking at the end of it.
“Tell me what happened,” I whisper gently. I want to provide as much comfort as I can, but I don’t want to force her to talk about it if she’s not ready to yet. She told me everything after I rescued her, but I have a feeling she kept it all bottled up after that and never found someone to talk to. Not even Ethan.
“I had a dream that night that you weren’t actually dead, and you were there to rescue me. It was the first of those dreams,” she answers. The first of the many dreams she used to have about me, promising her I was alive. “Except, as soon as I got my hopes up, Carlos shot you in front of me. Your blood splattered all over me and I watched you die. I woke up from the dream to find Carlos choking me. I couldn’t breathe, and he was furious that I was crying out your name in his presence.”
The more she tells me, the more helpless I feel. I know she’s never going to fully recover from what happened to her, but talking about it will help.
“What else, baby?”
She draws in another breath, gathering her strength to tell me the next part. “It was a relief when he let go and I could breathe, but…”
She stops, not knowing how to put her thoughts into words. I don’t interrupt as I wait for her to decide if she can tell me more. “I almost wished he would have just finished. Strangled me until I died, and then I wouldn’t have had to live through that torture, and I wouldn’t have had to live without you.”
I never knew she felt that way. By the end, she had lost all hope and was willing to jump off that balcony, but I didn’t know she wanted it all to end when she thought I died.
“I’m here, Ainsley. I’m here, and I’m not dead. You’re not at that house anymore. You’re safe here, with me. I promise.”
She relaxes into me as her tears slow, but by the heaving of her body, I know she hasn’t calmed down yet. While she tries to catch her breath, I rub her back and whisper soothing words into her ear. After a while, the room is silent as she allows me to hold her while she tries to fall back asleep.
“I guess you were wrong,” she mumbles sleepily. “You don’t actually take away my nightmares.”
I chuckle into her hair, ready to burst this bubble for her. “You’re wrong, little one. I stepped outside for a phone call and when I came back, your nightmare had started.”
“Hm. Maybe being here won’t be the worst thing,” she admits. Before I can come up with a reply, her light snores fill the room as she drifts into a more peaceful sleep.
“Cain,” Ainsley breathes in relief as she sees me there, standing in front of her. I can’t get enough of hearing her say my name, but I won’t tell her that. If I do, she’ll stop.
“I’m here, little one,” I assure her as she looks at me like I’m a figment of her imagination, not believing she’s actually seeing me here.
“But -” she stops, looking over me one more time, still not believing I’m real. “But you’re dead.”
Her words slap me across the face, shocking the breath out of my chest. She thinks I’m dead? No, I’m here to help her. I promised her I’d always come for her. How could she think I would just leave her here?
“I -” I start to tell her I’m okay and I’m here to bring her home with me, but a click from behind her stops my words before they can come out. When I look behind her, I see a gun pointing straight at me, a man ready to take his revenge right behind it.
“Cain?”
I can’t answer her. As my eyes fall back to her beautiful face, memorizing every feature I can, the calm around me shatters as the gun goes off, and then there’s nothing.
I know I’m dead. The image of my blood splattered on Ainsley’s face is the only thing I can see as blackness consumes me, telling me I failed. She screamed my name, but I couldn’t hear her.
Isn’t the pain supposed to go away once you’re dead? Right now, all I can feel is the agony of knowing I failed Ainsley, and she’ll be stuck in that house forever.
I try to call out her name to tell her I’m still here, that I’ll figure this out, but it feels like I’m drowning in the blackness. It fills my lungs, blocks my nose from smelling anything, and clouds my vision. This is it.
“Ainsley?” Her name is the first word on my lips as my eyes spring open, pulling me back into my bedroom with Ainsley still wrapped in my arms.
Her breaths are still even and she doesn’t stir as I call her name, letting me know she’s still asleep. I pull her closer to me, needing to feel her warmth and know she’s safe. She nuzzles into me, not even realizing it, but I’m just glad it was only me having a nightmare this time.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize I blame myself for her nightmare, as well as for it happening in the first place. All of this is my fault, and a better man would let her go, but I’m not that man. I’m the worst there is, and I refuse to let her go, because I know she can be happy with me. She will be happy with me.
“Cain,” she murmurs sleepily, throwing her leg over mine to get even closer.
A better man wouldn’t have his cock standing at attention, ready to plunge into her while she’s sleeping. But my little seductress can drive me crazy without even trying.
She moans against me as she shifts her hips against me, seeking my cock as if she’s awake. I don’t move, waiting to see what she’ll do. She adjusts herself against me until I’m lined up at her entrance, and it’s taking everything in me not to grip her hips and pull her down onto my aching length.
She does all the work for me. Even in her sleep, she sinks herself onto me, moaning as she goes. I don’t stop her, but I know I should probably wake her up at this point.
“Ainsley,” I growl, loud enough that she stirs as she wakes up. It’s almost impossible for me to keep myself from moving inside her, but I don’t want her to wake up and be angry. “If you don’t wake up right now, I’m going to stick it in your ass.”
Her eyes snap open, focusing on me quicker than they should when she was so deep in her sleep only a moment ago. As she’s registering that she’s awake, her eyes roll back in her head and she lets out a loud, uncontrolled groan.
“What are you -” she stops herself as realization sets in, and her eyes open wide in panic.
“Not me, baby. This was all you. Care to tell me what you were dreaming about?”
Her cheeks turn a bright shade of pink that I’ve missed as she remembers her dream, which I’m assuming is about me so I don’t think about murdering someone while I’m inside of her. When she looks around, assessing our position, her cheeks go from bright pink to a dark red.
“Um, I, um.” She tries to collect her thoughts while she squirms away from me, trying to put some distance between us. My arm snakes around her waist, holding her tight to my body to keep her from escaping.
“Where do you think you’re going?” As she stops squirming, I push deeper inside of her until she’s taking all of me.
“Ca -” She cuts herself off before she can say my name. Her eyes close as she takes a deep breath, preparing to start over. “I just woke up.”
“Tell me about it,” I respond with a smirk, making her blush all over again. Before she can try to run away from me again, I grab her hips and pull her with me as I roll onto my back. Once she’s on top of me, her hands instinctively land on my chest to hold herself upright. “Clearly that dream had you worked up. Why not let me take care of you?”
“Because,” she starts, “last night was a one-time thing. It’s not going to happen again.”
I laugh, unable to hold it in as she tries to explain her reasoning. “Yeah? ‘Cause it’s already happening again.”
My eyes skate down her naked body as I push my hips into her, reminding her where my cock is sitting right now.
“The question is, are you going to take advantage of this opportunity or are you going to let your head get in the way? Personally, I’d prefer if we both walked out of this happy.”
My hips sink down into the bed, pulling away from her just enough to slam back inside. She throws her head back, allowing herself to enjoy it, and then makes her decision. Slowly, unsure if she should do this, she moves.
Grabbing her hips so I have something to hold on to, I match her rhythm, careful not to scare her into stopping. She was already soaked when she slipped onto me, but now that she’s giving in, her arousal flows out of her.
“You’re riding my cock so well, Ainsley,” I praise her, knowing how it affects her. All I want right now is to take over and take her roughly, the way I know she likes it, but there’s nothing better than watching my girl take her pleasure from me.
“You’re.” Pant. “A.” Pant. “Monster.”
I smirk, even though her eyes are closed so she can’t see it. “That’s right, baby. I’m a monster, but I’m your monster. Just because I don’t live in the basement of your nightmares anymore doesn’t mean I won’t continue to torment you. I’ll torment you every single day for the rest of your life, just to remind you that you chose this monster.”
“Fucking you doesn’t mean I’m choosing you,” she’s quick to correct me.
“Touch yourself,” I command her. I’m already dangerously close, but I need her to finish first.
“I’m not on birth control,” she tells me, as if I would think she was. “You should probably put a condom on before…”
Sometimes, it’s absolutely adorable how shy she is, even when she’s in such a compromising position. When she doesn’t obey my command, I sit up quickly, holding her so she doesn’t fall without the support of leaning on my chest. My thumb slips between our bodies, gently strumming her clit and giving her the friction she needs.
“When you have my babies, will you call them your little monsters? Or will you actually call them by their names? Personally, I don’t mind you calling me your monster, though hearing my name slip from your lips while you were asleep was very seductive.”
She squeezes her eyes closed, trying to block out everything happening around her as she focuses on her pleasure. “You told me to take advantage of waking up on your cock, so stop distracting me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I answer right away, surprised at how much I enjoy her bossy side.
I stay silent as our hips clash, meeting each other thrust for thrust. My thumb continues its strokes, bringing her closer to her orgasm. Instead of pleasure on her face, though, I see frustration.
“I said stop distracting me, not stay silent. I like it when you talk -” She cuts herself off as she tries to think of a nice way to put it. “When you say -”
I chuckle, deciding to put her out of her misery. “You like it when I talk dirty to you? You want me to tell you that you’re my good little slut, taking my cock like it was made just for you?”
She moans as she grabs my shoulders, sinking herself onto me as my words start to affect her and bring her closer to the edge. I stop the motion of my thumb, pulling her hand down to replace mine as mine snakes around her, finding the tight hole I breached for the first time last night.
“Relax for me, baby,” I instruct her. She does as she’s told, though her face is painted with uncertainty. My thumb pushes inside her tight hole, feeling as she relaxes and opens up for me. Fuck, I can’t wait for that to be my cock.
“You like it when I’m filling your holes? Just wait, Ainsley. One of these days, I’ll have my cock in your ass, a vibrator in your pussy, and a gag in your mouth.”
She whimpers at the image I’m painting in her mind, strumming herself faster as she focuses on it.
“Picture it, my little succubus. Your gorgeous, round ass pushed up against me while it takes the brutal thrusts of my cock. Your pussy quivering around the vibrator as orgasm after orgasm slams into you. Drool dripping out around a gag as you try to tell me how fucking good it feels. Would you like that, baby?”
“Yes!” she screams as her pussy clenches around me, her orgasm finally slamming into her.
“That’s right, baby.” My thrusts speed up, no longer waiting for her to finish before I can find my own pleasure. “Cry out my name while you come all over my cock. Do it.”
“Monster,” she answers with a growl. I slam into her one last time, spilling inside of her while her pussy continues gripping onto me tightly, pulling every drop of my orgasm out of me.
“Next time, you won’t be allowed to come until you say my name,” I threaten her.
“There won’t be a next time.”