Chapter 14 – IVY
Chapter
Fourteen
IVY
“Ithought we were past this.”
“Not a chance,” I say as I lunge for him again.
Twisting and dodging my attack, he counters with his own and I end up pinned against the wall. Venom’s front pushes against my back while my cheek presses into the wall.
He holds my arms behind me in a vise grip as I try to squirm. “My, my, you are an angry one today. Is this any way to thank me for taking you out?”
“Don’t act like you did me some kind of favor when I’m still not free.”
“Was my company not enjoyable?”
“No!” I growl, heart hammering in my chest.
“Shame. And how about now? Is this the attention you were craving, little beast?” He presses closer, and his body heat unravels me.
I hate the way I feel when he’s this near—something I can’t explain, can’t control.
My body wants to betray me, and it’s confusing as hell.
I can’t handle those feelings. Not now. Not when anger is safer. Anger is where I’m comfortable.
“Just kill me already!” I shout, not wanting to play these games anymore.
“Is this what it’s about? You want me to give you the easy way out? Should I have let Betty’s venom and the belladonna kill you?”
“Easy way?” I laugh. “Does this look easy to you?”
“You don't want to know what this looks like to me, darlin’.”
“I broke your rule, so do what you have to do.”
“I think I have a better idea. I think it’s time we try something else.”
“What do you mean?” My cheek is beginning to ache from being pressed up against this wall so hard.
“We need to take care of your anger problem. It’s not healthy to harbor all that in such a beautiful body. I think it’s time for another lesson.”
“Fuck you, Venom.”
He drops his lips to my ear and whispers, "Mmm, I do love the way you say my name when you're angry." His mouth grazes my skin and goosebumps spike along my arms; something low and wanton wakes in me and I clamp my thighs shut.
I shove my head back into his face. He grunts, surprised, and lets go of my hands as he staggers back. I bolt for the kitchen, snatch a knife, and spin to face him as he comes running in behind me.
“Put that down before you hurt yourself.”
“Let me go.”
“What do you think you’re going to do with that?”
“I’ll do what I have to.”
He smirks, but then I put the knife to my throat, and his smug smile drops for once.
“What are you doing?”
“I told you, I’m ready to do what I have to.”
“Come now, darlin’, don't be foolish. You thanked me for saving your life and now you’re so quick to try to end it? Put the knife down.”
“Let me leave, Venom.”
For a moment, he actually looks sympathetic. “I can’t do that.”
“Fine. So be it.”
I press the knife into my skin. Venom moves in a flash, launching something at me. A sharp pain explodes from my wrist as a small blade lands into my flesh, causing me to drop the knife.
And then he’s on me once more.
He pins me to the floor, my arms above my head. His grip around my bleeding wrist is painful but it only takes my attention away from my anger for a small moment.
“You will never do that again! You hear me?”
His eyes dart across mine, jaw clenched so tight I can see the muscle twitch. He looks furious—but is that… fear? No. Can’t be.
I buck against him, desperate to break free from his grip.
“Stop fighting me, you wild beast!”
“Then let me go!”
“Never, darlin’.”
I search his eyes, looking for something malicious, something evil behind them, but I don't find it. Instead, I see something that scares me more. Longing.
My heart thunders with a mix of terror and temptation as the air around us shifts. An invisible string pulls, but I resist, refusing to be swept away in the storm of his eyes, and push away the feelings he keeps coaxing from me.
His expression hardens, and in one swift motion he hauls me off the ground and slings me over his shoulder. He heads for a door I’ve never seen open before. The hinges creak as it swings wide, revealing a stairwell leading down into darkness.
Oh, fuck. He’s really going to kill me now. Please let it be quick.
He pushes me onto my back on a cold table, tying my hands above my head onto a hook.
“What do you think you're doing! Stop! Get off me!” As I continue to squirm and fight, he wrangles my legs and secures my ankles to each corner of the table. No. No. No. “Untie me right now! What the fuck are you doing! Fucking untie me!”
I can’t be tied up again. I can’t.
Panic seeps in, bringing the memories, the trauma at the forefront.
Venom just stares at me as he leans against the wall with his arms crossed and a sick smile on his face. I hate him!
“I hate you!!!!” I shout with everything I have. “I fucking hate you!! Let me fucking go! I’ll fucking kill you! I swear I’ll kill you!”
His smile widens, and he saunters closer. I buck, trying to break free and clobber him.
He pulls a small flat knife and flips it between his fingers, lifting it toward the dim light before waving the blade in front of my face. I freeze for a heartbeat, but then anger surges back, burning away any trace of fear.
“Do it! Fucking kill me then. Put me out of my fucking misery! DO IT!!!”
“Good. Feel your rage.” His blade flashes, slicing away my pants, then my underwear, leaving me bare to the cool air and his hungry stare. “Let it fill your veins; let it threaten to consume you.”
He sets the weapon aside, pushes my shirt up but leaves my breasts covered, then drags a finger in slow circles around my belly button.
His gaze fixes on my stomach, as if lost in thought.
“You live in a constant state of survival. And though I know too well the scars trauma leaves, I don’t want to watch you keep yourself captive—don’t want to see you destroy yourself. ”
My chest rises and falls too fast, eyes darting over his face, trying to read him.
“You didn’t get to choose what happened to you,” he murmurs, fingers brushing my skin again, raising goosebumps. Then his eyes lock onto mine. “But you do get to choose what happens now. So tell me”—his touch lingers, searing—“is it time to heal, little beast?”
I look at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion.
“Release your rage. Give it to me, darlin’. All of it. Relieve yourself of the burden of harboring such toxic anger. Replace it with this.”
He moves lower, skimming the top of my pussy with a gentle touch and my body stills. “Let me show you.”
He doesn’t move, as if he’s waiting for my permission. I’m still so angry but now something else is beginning to creep its way in. Like a fever taking hold, burning and blurring my thoughts.
I nod, and without hesitation his hand slides between my thighs. Two fingers drive inside me and I gasp at the sudden, hard intrusion. Rage spikes, then shifts, twisting into something else.
Slowly, like a snake, it coils through me, slithering along my flesh before sinking its fangs deep. A different kind of venom floods my veins—soothing, heating, consuming.
My eyes snap to his. I clench around his fingers, breath ragged. His gaze pins me, sharp and unrelenting. There’s no cocky smirk, only a tight jaw and a rigid body, like he’s fighting himself as much as me.
He curls his fingers, begins to pump into me. My back bows off the table, a gasp tearing from me, and still I can’t look away. I don’t want to. His stare sears me open, melting away the armor I’ve carried, leaving me raw, trembling, twisted with desire.
What is happening? This can’t be right, but ohh… it feels so good.
“Venom…” I whimper.
“Shhh.” He places a finger to my mouth as he continues his movements between my thighs. “Just feel.”
And I do. I feel everything. Too much. Things I don’t want to be feeling. Things I haven’t felt in so, so long. I should still be angry. I hate him… right?
They say there’s a fine line between hate and…
A tear escapes my eye for the first time since I was a child and Venom swipes his thumb at it, bringing it to his mouth and licking it.
“You cry so sweetly, darlin’.”
He pushes his thumb into my mouth. I wrap my lips around him and suck, swirling my tongue around his warm thumb. He rolls his eyes and lets out a small groan, enough to let me know he’s pleased.
My pulse beats frantically. He’s in my mouth and in my pussy and I’ve lost all train of thought. I don’t even know what I was so angry about anymore. All I know is I want to just let go and surrender to this moment. Surrender to him as he consumes me.
He picks up his speed and adjusts so the heel of his palm keeps rubbing against my clit. I pull at my restraints.
Oh god.
The coiling inside me is terrifying, a delicious force threatening to sweep me away. But as much as I fear giving in, I also feel desperate for it.
The ache inside me intensifies.
Fuck, it aches so good.
“Do it. Come for me, beast. And don’t look away.”
I stare at him through the strands of hair falling over his forehead, swaying with each sharp jerk of his hand between my thighs. And god—his words, the way he’s staring at me, those damn fingers.
I let go and explode.
My vision tunnels as I cry out around his thumb and bite down on him. He hisses and my body bucks and writhes through the first orgasm I’ve ever received by a man.
I’ve been toyed with before, but no man has ever given me an orgasm. None have ever even cared to. It was always about simply using me, and their pleasure, their twisted desires.
As I come down from the euphoric high, I release him, and he slips out of me. He drags his soaking wet fingers up my legs, around my belly and then across my mouth. Then he swiftly unties me and walks away without a word. Leaving me reeling, confused, and satisfied, yet still craving.... more.
I sit on the table and stare at the stairs he just disappeared from.
Why do I feel like this just changed everything between us? Now I’m more scared than I have ever been.
But it isn’t that moment that haunts me later, when I’m lying awake and trying to sleep. It’s something else—the memory I wish I could outrun: the first time I met the man who fed me false promises… and revealed himself to be a monster.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty little cherry.” He strokes his finger over my cheek, then toys with my hair as he circles me.
“Please, don’t hurt me. I’m just looking for a job.”
“Oh Cherry, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take such good care of you. So much so that you’ll never want to leave.” He smirks, and I recoil further away from him. “The name is Nikolai. Welcome.”