Marlon looked down on me, his gaze soft and filled with sorrow. “Rogue, you can’t be alone right now. You shouldn’t be.”
I blinked and dislodged the moisture gathering in my eyes. “I’ll be fine, but if Marick finds you in here, you won’t be, and I can’t lose you too. Please. Just go.”
Marlon gathered me close and squeezed me tight. He pressed kisses to the crown of my head.
Killion let out a strangled sob. “Fuck. Fuck this shit.”
Static was followed by Marick’s disembodied voice. “All fighters return to your cells immediately.”
His arrogant, unaffected tone sent the heat of rage coursing through my veins. This was his fault. He’d chosen Anton, a human, to go up against the Pack. Anton was dead because of him and his kind. The chill was gone, and my palms grew hot.
Killion leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Marlon, we need to go.”
Marlon kissed my forehead and then carefully extricated himself from me. He tucked the blanket around me, and with a final look, they both left my cell. The buzzer went off a moment later, and then the doors began to slide closed, but not before I caught a glimpse of Xavier standing in the doorway to his cell opposite mine. His mouth was a downward curve, and his eyes were shrouded in darkness. He inclined his head once before he was blocked from view.
The sound of the outer doors opening echoed down the corridor. Marick? My jaw ached with tension. I pushed off the blanket and strode to the bars to peer out. My heart stalled in my chest at the sight of the monolith led by two guards.
Vex’s hair had come loose and fell about his marble-cut face in waves, his jaw was tight, and his amethyst eyes were chips of ice. Marick strode ahead of him looking pissed. He’d wanted us to lose, he’d wanted me thrown to the Pack, but we’d won even though right now it felt like we’d lost everything.
Marick’s gaze fell on me, and his mouth twisted in a sour expression that had my lips lifting in a satisfied smile. Fuck you, Marick. Fuck you.
But then his eyes lit up, a light bulb moment that sent a lance of ice down my spine. He came to a standstill right outside my cell and held up a hand to halt the procession behind him.
He stood tapping his foot for a moment, his tongue pressed to his top teeth, and then his face broke into a grin.
“You know, we seem to be a little short on cells right now. Plumbing issues in corridor A. Might take a few days to get fixed.” He shrugged. “I think we’ll have to put our newest arrival with another fighter.”
My body went cold.
“Unlock cell four.”
“Hey! No, you can’t do that,” Marlon shouted.
Xavier looked stunned, his mouth parted in horror.
“Put him in with me,” Killion called out.
Marick ignored them all.
Cell four. My cell. He was going to put the Trad in with me. I glanced at Vex, but he’d tucked in his chin. The only indication that he was affected by the news was a tightening of his massive shoulders.
One of the guards strode toward my cell. This was really happening. He was going to do this. He wasn’t bluffing. I hated Marick, hated what he’d done to me, hated what he stood for, and like fuck would I ever beg for anything, but right then, at that moment, my pride took second place to my survival instinct.
“Marick. Please, don’t do this.”
“Please, don’t do this,” he mimicked my tone with a sneer. “Oh, Rogue, I can’t wait to hear you scream.”
The door slid open, and Marick took a step back. “She’s all yours,” he said to Vex. “Consider this a welcome to House Ryzer.”
Vex blocked the entrance to my cell with his huge body, his shoulders touching each side of the door frame.
“Rogue! Shit. Marick, you bastard, you fucking bastard!” Killion yelled.
Vex lifted his chin and locked gazes with me. There was no emotion in that look, no heat, nothing, and then a low growl filtered from his lips, and he was lunging for me. I acted on instinct, lashing out with my fists. “You killed him. You fucking killed him!” But the blow went wild, connecting with his shoulder, and before I could land another, he’d slammed me up against the wall, pinning me there with his huge body.
“No. Get off.” I shoved at him, punching, scratching, but he was immovable, and then his hand was on my throat, pinning my head against the wall. He claimed my mouth, forcing his tongue past my lips. My eyes burned, and my sobs were trapped in my throat as his other hand tore at my clothes.
Marick’s laughter, accompanied by the guys’ indignant yells, flooded the cell. But there was only the Trad and his invasive hands and mouth, his powerful body that had me pinned. There was no escape.
And then Vex pulled back and turned his head to the side. “I don’t like an audience. Shut the fucking hatch and fuck off.” His voice was a lethal rumble.
Through the haze of my tears, I saw Marick raise his hands and back up. The hatch on the outside of the bars slammed shut, cutting us off from everything. And then Vex turned his face back to look down on me.
I met his gaze with as much defiance as possible. “You’re a monster, you know that?”
He smiled thinly. “I see my reputation precedes me.” His gaze dropped to my mouth. “Now do me a favor and scream for me.”
I waited for him to do something to hurt me, to make me scream, but he merely watched me, waiting.
“What?”
He sighed. “Scream, woman. If you want your jailer to think you are being violated you need to put on a show, so fucking scream.” He arched a brow. “Unless you’d rather I fuck you for real. Trust me, I’m not averse to the notion. It’s been a long time.”
He wanted me to fake it?
“Now would be nice,” he drawled. He leaned in slightly. “Maybe you need a nudge.”
His hand slipped down my pants. I opened my mouth and screamed.
“Again.” He pressed his groin to my abdomen, his hardness evidence that he was perfectly ready to make this real.
I had no problem singing for him, again and again, and then he released me and backed up. His gaze was hot as it raked me. “I think that will do.” He canted his head as if listening to something, and then he was striding toward me. He pushed me back to the wall and tore my shorts in two, exposing me.
“No! Don’t.”
But his hands were on his waistband, pushing down his trousers to free his erection.
Oh, God, he was going to.
The hatch began to slide open just as he hoisted me up and settled between my thighs, and then he bit my neck, hard.
My scream was involuntary and real, a cry of pain just in time for Marick to see. His smile was smug, and then the hatch was closed once more.
Vex didn’t move, he remained pressed against me for several beats. Long enough for me to be aware of his breath on my neck, long enough for me to become aware of his erection pressed to my abdomen, thick and hot and pulsing.
He tucked in his chin so his forehead was nestled in the crook of my neck. “Fuck, shit.” When he raised his head to look at me, his pupils were dilated and his cheeks flushed. “I’m going to need a moment.”
I nodded stiffly.
He slowly released me and backed away, but he didn’t bother to cover himself, and my attention dropped to his manhood. Perfectly formed, proud and thick and long. My traitorous body reacted with a flush of warmth and a deep throb at the apex of my thighs.
He inhaled and closed his eyes. “Dammit, woman. Do you want me to fuck you raw?”
His words broke my paralysis, and I quickly grabbed a pair of black pants and a shirt and tugged them on.
“I need to take care of this.” He palmed himself. “Feel free to watch or help out.”
Oh, God. Was he going to … yep, he was.
I stared, mesmerized, as he worked himself, his eyes on me. His chest began to heave, and then he strode into the tiny washroom, and his grunts and groans of release had me aching again.
Shit, what the fuck was wrong with
me? Anton was dead, and I was trapped in my cell with a killer Trad, and all I could think about was touching myself. I was fucked up. So very fucked up. How the heck was I going to get through the next few days sharing a cell with Vex?
He reappeared a moment later, dressed and composed. “I’m sorry about your friend. But it’s kill or be killed in the arena. You know how it works.”
“Yeah, I know that your house is a bunch of sadistic monsters.”
He smiled wryly. “And yet here you are locked in a room with a sadistic monster and completely unharmed.”
There was no arguing with that. “What are you playing at?”
“I’m not playing at anything, Rogue. I’m just trying to survive like everyone else, and fear is a perfect deterrent. People fear you, and they leave you the fuck alone.”
Was he saying his ruthlessness was a façade?
He snorted. “Don’t look at me like that? I’m no saint, trust me. I will kill to survive, but there are some lines I will not cross.” He sat on my bed, his back braced against the wall.
“What kind of lines?”
“I won’t violate anyone, and I refuse to hurt a woman.”
My lips curled. “Tell that to the three human females your house killed.”
He swallowed hard. “I’m one man amidst eight sex-starved, drug-addled Trads. I did what I could, and when the time came, I ended their lives quickly to save them further pain.”
“You killed them?”
He met my gaze levelly. “Yes. And if it had looked like we were about to win the fight today, I would have killed you too.” He canted his head. “But I’d heard about your berserker move. The blind rage that turns you into a killing machine, and you were lucky it came out on the sand today.”
“Lucky?” Anger simmered in my veins. “I lost my best friend today. I lost …” My voice cracked as comprehension dawned on his features.
“You loved him.”
I closed my eyes. “There can be no love in this place. There can be no attachments. I know that, I know that, but still …”
“You should get some rest,” he said. “There are many more days of loss to come. Be grateful that for your friend the confinement is over. Your friend is now free.”
I couldn’t keep the disgust off my face. “I think he’d rather be alive because life means hope.”
He let out a sharp bark of laughter and then sobered when he saw I was deadly serious. “Be careful that your optimism doesn’t burn you, Rogue. After a decade in this place, you may want to use that same optimism to hang yourself.”
A decade? “Is that how long you’ve been here?”
His lips curled down. “I’m not into telling stories. Get some sleep. I won’t touch you, not unless you ask me to. But I warn you, when you do ask, I may not be able to stop.”
“Thanks for the warning, but I don’t think that will be an issue.”
We stared each other down for a moment, and then he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He could have taken me up against the wall. He could have allowed Ripper to kill me in the arena, but he hadn’t. He’d been playing a game, a game where he became the feared, where he managed to survive for a decade in this godforsaken shit hole.
He wouldn’t hurt me. The knowledge was now a certainty in my brain, but the bunk wasn’t built for two, and the thought of being squished up against him was not appealing … Okay, it was too appealing, especially when my body was being a horny, confused bitch. I needed alone time. I needed to grieve and cry. Yes, there were more tears, so many more. My chest began to ache.
I crossed my arms. “We can’t share it.”
His eyes remained closed. “In that case, you can sleep on the floor. I may not be into forcing myself on a woman, but I am most definitely into sleeping on a bed.”
Fuck. I picked the blanket Marlon had wrapped me in off the floor and draped it over my shoulders before walking past him to the closed hatch.
He was across the room in a flash, his body blocking my path. “What are you doing?”
“I need to let the others know I’m okay.”
His expression was hard. “And how do you know Marick isn’t listening? The man obviously wants you hurt, possibly dead. If he realizes you’re unharmed, he’ll just think up something else to hurt you, and it may be another member of the Pack.”
A shiver ran up my arms, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “They’ll be worried.”
“And the worst that will happen is they’ll get a shitty night’s sleep.”
He was right.
He sighed. “They will see you tomorrow.” He smiled. “They’ll probably attack me at some point. Fun times.”
“I’ll speak to them and tell them the truth.”
“No,” he snapped. “I didn’t build up a reputation all these years for you to shatter it.” He moved in toward me threateningly. “I don’t need you clearing my name. Let them believe that I’m a monster. Trust me, it’s for the best.”
My temper flared. “Do you want to have to watch your back every minute of every day? Because Marlon, Killion, and Xavier will make your life a misery here if I don’t tell them the truth.”
His jaw ticked.
I exhaled sharply because this conversation was making my head hurt and all I wanted right now was to sleep. “Listen, I’ll be careful, and I’ll tell them to act with animosity toward you. I’ll play the beaten woman for the Trads, at least for a while.”
He looked over my shoulder. “Fine.”
I backed up and climbed onto the bed, expecting him to dither, maybe even retract his earlier statement and sleep on the floor, but he climbed up right beside me.
“Seriously?”
He settled, back to the wall. “Seriously.”
Fuck this, I was too drained to argue. I rolled onto my side so my back was pressed to his thigh and closed my eyes. Anton’s face swam into my mind, but it wasn’t his final glassy-eyed stare I saw, it was the smile just after he’d kissed me. It was his promise to always have my back, and he had. He’d saved my life, and I wouldn’t repay him by falling apart. I’d honor his memory by staying alive and finding a way off this rock.
7
I woke to hot breath on the nape of my neck and a heavy weight over my waist. My body froze, and my pulse spiked with panic, and then the events of the night before flooded my mind. A deep pit opened inside me, and then irritation flooded my limbs. I shrugged off Vex’s arm and slid off the bed.
He groaned and rolled onto his front, but not before I caught sight of his morning glory. So much for boundaries. Urgh. At least he hadn’t tried anything. I ran a hand over my face. It was time to put on an act for Marick and the Trads.
The drilling and rumble of the machinery were getting louder, but Vex slumbered on. His body was so large that it took up most of the bed, and his legs dangled off the bottom. It would be comical if the circumstances weren’t so fucked up.
He was my punishment. He was meant to break me. The muscles across his shoulders rippled as he shifted position to cushion his head on his arms. Shit, he was big, and those muscles and that ass … I tore my gaze away and headed to the tiny washroom where I splashed water on my face to cool myself down. The heat should be gone by now. It usually lasted a week at the most, but it was lingering this time. A good hard workout in the training room should release some tension. Morning business done, I headed back into the room to find Vex lying on his back staring up at the ceiling. He turned his head to look at me and narrowed his eyes. And then he was off the bed and stalking toward me.
A spike of adrenaline shot through me as I backed up. “What?”
He grabbed the back of my neck. “You look too fresh. Too unaffected.”
“What do you mean?”
He grabbed the sleeve of my shirt and tugged. It tore with a rip.
“What the—”
He slid his hand into my hair and made a fist, yanking my head back.
My throat worked, but no words came because, in
that moment, pinned between his body and the wall, I was completely at his mercy.
His lilac gaze dropped to my lips. “You need to look used. Your mouth needs to look swollen and bruised, your hair mussed, your eyes glazed.” He leaned in. “I’m going to have to kiss you.”
Was he asking my permission this time? Seemed like it. “Fine, do it quick.”
His lips curled in a half smile. “I don’t do quick, Rogue. Not when it comes to sex.”
“We’re not having sex, though, it’s just a kiss. Get it over with.”
He arched a brow, and then he claimed my mouth with his soft lips, with just the right amount of pressure to tease and draw me out, to make me want to kiss him back, and fuck, I was leaning into him, opening for him. His chest rumbled. Was he laughing at me? But the thought slipped like sand through a sieve when he nipped my bottom lip and then sucked on it. He drew back, grazing it with his teeth, and then nothing mattered but his tongue against mine. Nothing mattered but the shocks of pleasure that rushed down my neck and over my shoulders. Nothing mattered but his scent, sharp and electric as it enveloped me. His grip on the back of my neck flexed, and his calloused thumb rasped against my skin, sending shivers across my collar bones. A moan bubbled up my throat, but he swallowed it and pushed me into the wall, grinding against me, his hardness hot and ready for me. Heat pooled at the apex of my thighs, and then his hand was on my hip, on my thigh, urging me to hook a leg around his waist, to give him access to rub against my core, until we were practically dry humping. Although, shit, there was nothing dry about this. I was wet for him. The heat inside bloomed to flood my system, to drive away coherent thought until I was the one kissing him and clawing at him to get closer while I sucked on his tongue.
“Fuck!” He tore his mouth away and grabbed one of my hands. He forced it down between us and into the waistband of his pants so it was touching his hard, hot cock.
“Is this what you want?” his voice was a husky rasp. “I can give it to you. I can fuck you right now, Rogue, if you want it.” He inhaled me. “If you need it.”
My hand curled around his shaft, and I swept a thumb over the wet tip.
Rogue: Survivor’s Heart book 1: Planet Athion Page 5
