Chapter 24
GRAYSON
I had never before had to hold a woman while she sobbed her heart out, hour after hour, broken as a side effect of something I had done.
Thank god, if there was one, Axl had fallen into line with the boundaries I’d set.
The first day, we packed up her important clothes and belongings from her apartment and brought them back to my house. Axl made it clear his friends were not impressed with her being loose.
Neither was I.
The second day, Axl had us sit out on the chairs on the patio. He scrubbed his hands through his mop of dark hair—making it even more moplike. Then he began to explain—and I half wanted to block my ears and not listen.
“This is how it is. It’s why I had those men with me out there on the boat. I provide services to people who need the sort of security you and I can do, Grayson.”
I nodded and pulled Emme closer between my knees. “Are you okay to hear this?” I felt her nod imperceptibly. Still not talking much. I had her on the ground at my feet.
“And in return, I get some benefits such as going to those parties. Those weren’t my men.”
It meant he’d lied about only going to one party, before.
I said what had to be said. “You’re too easy with ordering murders.”
“I guess I am. It’s happened before, once. And that is not a lie. I’ve learned to dissociate. It helped that the bastard deserved it.” His smile came and went. “I’ve talked to my clients. We keep Emme quiet. They promised to look for Charity, but so far, nothing. Her body hasn’t been found.”
“And what do your clients do?” Probably not a wise question.
He pursed his lips in a moue of dismissal, tapped one hand where it rested on his knee. “I’m not free to say. I try to keep myself separate as much as I can.”
“How did Martelle find out…you know.”
He shrugged, shook his head.
“Right.” And that was that.
Espionage, drugs, sex trafficking, assassinations? Manipulation of governments to bring about the downfall of civilization? I might never know what they did. I just hoped this last explanation was the truest one.
I checked the news for stories about the trawler and the murders and saw nothing. Ditto about Charity going missing. From what Emme had said, her family were not in the same country. Whoever employed Axl was efficient.
Emme? My guilt remained but ebbed. I’d abducted her at some risk because she had asked for it, made her my sex toy, released her, found her again, and then we rescued her…
the obstacles had been many. Until now. Having her here in our possession, acquiescent and obedient, if in shock, it felt as if she was my well-earned prize for being exceptionally persistent.
I had a girl, a human girl with dark needs. This had always been a fantasy. Win, win.
At first, we only kept her naked in the house and collared.
We leashed her to furniture.
We could have let her dress and behave like a normal guest in our houses, except that I didn’t want to let her think that was going to be acceptable. Grieving or not, I wanted to begin this how we would continue into the future.
Better to get it over with.
It let her know she would be used when we decided to do so.
Not just because it was how I or Axl wanted it to be, no, because it was how I knew she wanted this to be. I knew her mind like I’d never known a woman’s.
It let me watch her ass, in all its magnificence, when she walked anywhere at all.
After those first few days of grief, I could see the restrictions we imposed gave her comfort. I assumed it was a freedom to let go, to simply be, to exist, without the need to fuss over anything else.
No one could do or think kink twenty-four, seven, but my balls were constantly aching just knowing I owned her.
We. I had to remind myself of Axl.
The finer details of how we would make this be enthralling, forever, for all of us, remained to be figured out. Naked most days, she tempted us to grab her and force her. Not doing that became excruciating. It was a virtue we should be rewarded for, Axl decided, within her earshot.
Once she was less fragile, we could bind her, cage her, take her wherever and whenever.
I wanted to see her moan as we wrestled her down, to walk away nonchalantly from her tied to a chain mesh fence out in the fields, dripping with her own arousal as well as our come.
Grass and dirt and mud on her. Then when ready I’d return and take her to be hosed.
I was a dirty bastard, but someone has to lower the standards of the world.
Since I had zero inclination to work on programming, when Axl was absent I took her to art galleries, libraries, and places I thought conjured serenity. Not churches or temples, though—duck ponds. Ducks had a certain je ne sais quoi about them. They made everything okay while you fed them.
I decided a puppy might help. Later, though. Not yet. My place needed a pet…as well as Emme.
It was not the same duck pond that we visited, not the one where I had dragged her under a tree. That might trigger bad memories. Our semi-public sex had been the first domino that fell, and it had led to the night Charity and Emme were taken. My fault. Absolutely my fault.
My guilt stopped me doing anything to her, and my need to get her happier consumed me. I could wait, weeks if necessary. My dick might drop off, but I would wait.
I waited three long fucking weeks.
Axl had taken to staying at his own house, after I growled at him when he roughed her up in the kitchen.
How much longer though before even I snapped?
She still wasn’t talking much, and I wondered if we should risk a therapist. I almost needed one myself.
Two days before, we’d taken a chance, and I did some light flogging of her pussy while Axl held her backward over an armrest. She’d jerked and struggled before relaxing into it, her cunt glistening with wetness—especially after she was lightly choked.
Promising, I had thought.
After I extracted the fingers I inserted into her cunt during the choking, I’d amended it to very promising. My sopping wet fingers had been eloquent testimonial to her readiness.
Maybe tonight could be it? D E Day. Dick in Emme Day. Though Axl wasn’t here.
After supper, I pulled out half the bed part of the extendable lounge, with the two wide screens connected to my PC.
I had a controller linked so I could play propped on pillows and lying down.
Emme lay curled beside me, soft of body and partly naked.
Her warm breath huffed through the cloth weave of my shirt.
As the game started, I drifted my gaze down over her contours, over her hips and her breasts where they pushed into me and squeezed from the gap at the top of her white shift. Her pink lacy panties showed at the bottom where the dress ended. It was fun buying stuff for her.
We even had a new kitten outfit with fluffy ears. I wanted to use that soon. Please, let it be soon.
Once the game was going, I showed her the mechanics, the companies one could join, how to do grinding to rank up and get enough for the better gear. When she sat up and showed interest, I handed her the controller and watched her play.
A text chimed.
Axl: Coming over. I can see you’re playing, and that she is too
“Fuck. Where’d you hide the cam, Axl?”
That had been said aloud. Another text arrived.
Axl: The Shadow never reveals his secrets
Axl migrated from his house to mine and joined us for an all-night gaming session. She curled up on both of us and fought a few monsters, made some gold, outfitted a ghost paladin with a fresh sword and armor. Her smiles and yells of triumph were good to see.
Axl unfolded the other long section, making one big double bed. Emme sat cross-legged in the middle.
At one AM, I gave Axl a nod.
Distracted by the game, she was surprised when he gently edged her face his way and kissed her. I took the controller from her and set it aside, shifted closer. I’d always wondered what to do with her first—rough was her normal preference, and mine.
What if, though, what if she needed resetting? I couldn’t fuck her tied to a fence, yet.
Not, quite yet.
There was no hurry.
Watching Axl seduce her was enough for tonight.
Same as I, he’d watched her fall apart after her friend’s disappearance and torture.
I knew Axl better than I did anyone. He looked at her differently since the boat. Having never before seen anyone killed or tortured, myself, I was fucking disturbed. He’d said that murder wasn’t new to him. Even so, that had to change a man.
He was still my friend, and I trusted him to do his best by me. And by Emme.
I watched his mouth work on hers and his large hand cup her breast before crushing it and making her gasp.
I had her hand. Her fingers stiffened beneath mine as he dragged her up the sofa to him and higher.
I began to nibble on her fingertips then moved even closer until I was nestled along her back, my erection pulsing, stuffed as it was, against her soft ass.
She’d loved Axl sucking on her fingers, and I began to do the same, after angling her arm into a lock position at her back. I worked my way along each fingertip, while he undid the two ties on the little dress and spread open the top, revealing lush cleavage.
Over her shoulder, I watched.
I would have bet, I’d never see gentle from this man, but we both knew doing too much, too soon, might shatter what was left of her. My estimation of him rose.
Emme tried to retrieve her hand from my grip. I hung on and bit her wrist, which made her gasp and me smile. I kept her arm trapped, her hand and arm bent flat against her back. Then I inched her dress to her waist, her panties lower, baring her.
The noises she was making as we handled her, crushing her softness between us—exquisite.
I lifted her leg and slid my dick into the groove of her cunt lips, between her thighs. Wet, thank god. Messy and slick and wet. I bit back a groan.
It had been too long. Too fucking hard. I bit her shoulder.