11
Meg
K oen watches me in stony silence while I quickly get dressed, my heart pumping twice as fast as usual. This is the moment. I must confess my ulterior motive for appearing in his life so suddenly. I’ve never felt closer or more connected to anyone on this earth and the omission is eating me alive from the inside.
Am I a little scared?
Yes. Scared that he’ll cut me off. Scared he won’t think my love is as pure and real as it is. But I’m not scared he’ll hurt me. Not physically, anyway.
“What is it, Meg?” He finishes zipping up his pants, straightening his shirt. “What do you need to tell me? If it’s important enough to make you cry, I need to know now.”
My skin is sensitive with pinpricks, my chest developing a wheezy sensation. “Um.” I squeeze my fingers together. “I’ll start from the beginning. A few days ago, a woman arrived at the door of my house while I was trying to get my brothers and sisters ready for school. I didn’t know this woman. Never seen her before. But, um…” I take a bracing breath. “She told me my father owed her a debt. A very significant one. And she was there to collect it.”
Koen turns eerily still.
He watches me without blinking. Without breathing.
“My father has a lot of problems, you see. With drinking and gambling. It’s why my mother left. It’s why I have to work so much to support everyone.” He still hasn’t moved, but the quality of his gaze has turned lethal and I start to shake. “This woman—”
“What did she say to you?” he asks, silkily.
“I’m getting to that.” I press a hand to my hollow stomach. “I’m scared.”
“Why?”
Some of the moisture in my eyes spills over and tracks down my cheeks, but I don’t have the arm strength to wipe it away. “She told me I had one week to convince you to come back to work for her or—”
“She did what?” He stares off into the distance now, as if piecing together the last few days, recalling every second. “You weren’t on my beach by coincidence.”
“No,” I whisper, adding, “Well, the drowning was real.”
But he doesn’t laugh.
No, nothing about this is the least bit amusing to him and I can only tremble harder when all ten of his fingers stretch at his sides, as if they want to wrap around someone’s throat. Mine? He’s looking right at me and there’s a deranged facet of his expression I haven’t seen before. Somehow, I know this is how he appeared when he killed the man for looking at me in the office building. This is Koen, the killer.
“I love you,” I breathe, winded. “I fell in love with you.”
“Earlier, when you said you would stay with me even if I went back to work as a hit man…” He walks toward me slowly, those long fingers flexing at his sides. “You were still trying to play your angle?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry . My brothers and sisters are at stake, Koen.” I realize I’m backing away from him, my knees wobbling more and more with every second that passes. So badly that I fall into a kneel in front of him, my hands automatically lifting in prayer. It’s this beggar’s position that makes me realize I need to be terrified right now. I’ve betrayed a very dangerous man and he’s angry with me, looming above me with his hands prepared to strangle a throat. This is worst-case scenario. “If you see fit to kill me, I’m begging you to please help them. Please don’t let her hurt them.”
Koen’s steps halt abruptly, a choked sound leaving his mouth. “You think…you think I’m going to kill you?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, my tears splattering on the ground.
Five seconds pass in a heavy, charged silence and then I’m being lifted off the ground. Swiftly. I’m tossed up into his arms like a sack of grain, Koen staring straight ahead while he carries me back in the direction from which we came. “Apparently, Meg, I haven’t done a good enough job expressing how fucking profound my obsession is with you,” he says through his teeth. “You could betray me twice a day for the rest of your life and my sanity would still hinge on there being breath in your lungs. If you die, I die. No matter what you did to me, I could never harm you. I’d turn a gun on myself first.”
Relief assails me, carried on a wave of love so heavy and consuming, I can’t stop myself from turning in his arms and rubbing my face in his neck, wanting to climb inside of him and live there. “But you’re so angry,” I whimper, tasting the salt on his skin.
“Of course I’m angry. At her.” We’re in the parking lot now, not far from his SUV, his legs eating up the distance with purposeful strides. “I’m not going to lie, though, Meg. I’m…feeling a little fucked up. Knowing you were on my beach with a motive, I’m not as convinced that your feelings for me are genuine now. Not as positive as before. I’ll need to take certain precautions to make sure you don’t try and run.”
My throat constricts to the point of pain. “My feelings are real, Koen. They are.”
“Say what you want, I won’t risk you leaving.” We’ve reached the SUV and he stands me up, using his body to pin me hard to the side of the vehicle, his eyes scanning our surroundings, a new, heightened awareness in his gaze. Does he think we’re being watched? By her? “I’m bringing you back to our home while I handle this.”
“No.” I reach up and stroke his face. “Let me help.”
“Meg…” He laughs without humor, the sound so dark it rivals the night. “If your precious skin got so much as nicked, I would go on a fucking rampage. No.” He opens the passenger side door, picks me up by the waist and installs me in the seat, his forehead pressed to mine while he engages the seatbelt in its slot. “No, you’re going to remain safe and sound at our house.” He kisses my mouth. “I’ll make sure the cuffs aren’t too tight.”
Koen
I’m on the edge of violent oblivion, trying to prevent myself from being caught up in that addictive whirlwind. I want to let the beast inside me out of its cage, but my ire involves a threat to my Meg, making me worry that if I set that animal free, I’ll never get him locked back up. And I can’t be a beast when I have a woman to love.
A woman who thinks I could hurt her.
As I carry her into my study and sit her down on the edge of my desk, I want to howl with pain at the memory of how she dropped to her knees in front of me, as if to beg for her life to be spared. How could she love me and fear me at the same time? Is that even possible? No. Yes? I’m unsure.
That’s why she’ll be chained until I have a clearer understanding of her feelings for me. The fact that she can experience fear in my presence only proves I need to retain my manhood. My humanity.
But my God, it’s hard.
I’ll slaughter Etta for what she’s done. I’ll slit her throat with my sharpest blade and be a mile away by the time she loses enough blood to expire. Threaten my girl? Threaten my fucking girl? I’m going to make an example out of my former boss. I’m going to inspire even more terror in the underworld than I already have, but the focus of it will be Meg.
Look at Meg and die. Speak to Meg and die.
That’s the message I’ll send tonight.
I keep one eye trained on Meg while I cross to the hidden door on the other side of the room, punching a code into my phone to make it pop open. Not bothering to keep the contents hidden, including weaponry and disguises, I retrieve restraints from a higher shelf, followed by a knife and I close the door once again.
“Please don’t chain me up,” she sniffs.
My heart slams itself into my ribcage. “You know I have to, Meg.”
“No, you don’t.” She scoots off the desk and books toward the door, but I anticipate her move, catching her with an arm around the waist. The metal restraints hit the ground with a clang, because she’s struggling so much and it takes both hands to wrestle her down to the floor, using my body to flatten her petite one on the rug. Looking at me with a fighting spirit in her eyes, she tries with all her might to free herself, but every movement she makes causes the nightshirt she wears to twist around her body, eventually uncovering her pussy and tits, so blessedly bare and young. Chafed from my whiskers and love bites.
Ignoring the eager swelling of my cock, I lean down to bring us nose to nose. “It’s only until I get back.”
“Get back from where?” she cries.
“Dealing with Etta.”
Meg is already shaking her head, the fight mostly gone from her frame. “I don’t want you to kill anyone else on my behalf. I want you to live a life without violence. That’s why I had such a hard time doing what I came here to do in the first place.” Tears pool in her eyes. “I want you to be free.”
A voice in my head whispers listen to that…she really loves you . But I can’t believe it now. Not yet. I need one hundred percent assurance I won’t lose her.
“I don’t want to kill anymore, either, Meg. But I will consider any murder justified if a person has the bad judgment to threaten what’s mine. She knew she risked death by sending you here,” I say, reaching for the restraints. Flipping up the edge of my carpet, I find the metal loop installed for the purpose of holding criminals for interrogation purposes. The fact that I’m using it on my girlfriend gives me pause, my stomach sinking with dread, but I remind myself it’s only for the night. “I’ll unchain you as soon as I get back.”
Gone are the tears, and now, she’s just pissed off.
She glares at me, her rosy little tits puffing up and down…and goddamn, is she something. Her eyelids get noticeably heavy when I draw her wrists up above her head and click the cuffs around her wrists, securing them to the loop in the ground. My hips are between her thighs and I look down her stretched-out body now, feeling like a sicko for wanting to bang her hot, horny body just like this. Chained up on the ground.
I can’t. You can’t.
Still… “Do you need my cock one more time before I go?”
“No,” she pouts, redirecting her glare at the wall.
“I can feel your nipples against my chest, baby,” I groan against her cheek. “So stiff. Needing me to suck and play with them.”
She shakes her head, but she’s breathing hard, her face flushing pink.
“Meg…” I trail my open mouth down her chin, over her throat and down between her tits, inhaling the soft, feminine musk of her body. “You weren’t destined for a nice man. You would walk all over one of those, wouldn’t you?” I curl my tongue around her left nipple and listen to her stifle a moan over the slow, wet friction, her tight body already trembling beneath mine. “You won’t walk all over Daddy, though. Oh, no. And you damn well know it. And it gets your pussy wet. Doesn’t it. Knowing I can handle you. Knowing I’ll still fuck your little girl brains out on the floor of my office while we’re in the middle of an argument. You love that. Don’t you?”
Her lips press together hard, but she can’t keep them that way, because she needs to breathe. Needs to pant. Which she does within seconds, her ribcage expanding and retracting beneath me, her body beginning to squirm. “Y-yes.”
“Yes, what?”
She closes her yes. “I love that.”
“I know, baby,” I rasp, triumph grinding like gears in my throat, pushing two fingers inside her tight pussy and jiggling them a little roughly while she gasps, yanking hard on the chains. “I know it’s confusing to be mad and scared but want my dick so bad anyway.” Quickly, I unzip my pants, position my tip so it rests right on top of her sweet, wet hole. “But you’ll never be confused once I’m inside you. That’s when everything makes sense. You’re on your back to fuck your Daddy, Meg. There’s nothing confusing about that.”
“Please,” she says, her teeth chattering now. “Please, please, please.”
I drive into her with a roar, surrounding myself in perfect, too-snug heat that immediately transports me to heaven. “I’m the man you need in your life, even if I’m not as good as you deserve,” I growl into a kiss, looking into her dazed eyes while I buck, buck, buck my hips. “I’m your world now. I’m your family. My cock is the only father figure you need. Open those gorgeous legs for it.”
It's borderline nasty the way I fuck her, humping and grunting on top of her, my jaw totally slack, but son of a bitch, her enjoyment of being restrained increases with every pump of my length into her mouthwatering body. I tear the shirt off, so I can see her tits bounce like a lecher, flattening her on the ground when my balls begin to pulse wildly at the sight, hammering deep, rocking and moaning without giving a shit how I sound or look. I’m in an unbreakable headlock of lust and love for this creature and she’s at my mercy.
Better yet, she wants and needs to be there.
Her eyes say it all, bright with her approaching orgasm, her teeth drawing blood on her full lower lip. “I’m going to…I’m…” She twists in her bonds, screaming as I take tight hold of her butt, tilt her hips and press deep, groaning at the hot squeeze of her cunt, my sperm spurting into her rhythmically, the pleasure so complete, I feel it in the quieting of my brain and the sudden weight of my heart. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
“I’ll never leave you,” she sobs. “How could I ever leave you? I love you.” She leans up to plant kisses on my shoulders, my face. “Don’t lock me up. Believe me.”
“Meg,” I say, shaken. Conflicted. “I’m new at love. Just…just bear with me.”
She studies my face and whatever she sees causes her to nod, resigned. “Fine. Maybe I don’t deserve to be trusted again yet.”
“You deserve everything, Meg.” I reach up and shake the chains in my hand. “This is caused by my own madness.”
“I love your madness,” she murmurs, projecting adoration up at me, which only strangles me with guilt. “I love all of you.”
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” I say hoarsely, kissing every inch of her face. “I’ll be back as soon as I take care of this situation. No one is going to hurt you or your family.”
“I trust you,” she says, without hesitation.
Do I deserve the honor of that responsibility?
I’ll soon find out.