by Ashley Jade
Ford.
Ricardo paces back and forth in front of him...but not out of nervousness.
No...in confidence. In complete control.
It's so hypnotizing, so peremptory. I can practically feel the power he has spilling out of him and flowing throughout me...it renders me both aghast and entranced.
So much so, I don't even question why Ford's chained up looking like a drugged up refugee pirate due to the eye patch he's wearing.
Ricardo stops pacing suddenly and grins. If you can even call it that.
It's such a macabre and evil smile—a grisly, foreboding feeling thickens the air and I feel the tiny hairs on both my arms stand up.
“Special Agent Ford Baker,” Ricardo says, his grin widening.
Ford grunts and snaps his head up...he turns ashen when Ricardo pulls a dagger out.
“Tell me, Special Agent,” Ricardo continues. “Do you consider yourself a cultured and intelligent man?”
“Fuck you,” Ford spews and I almost gasp.
“Now, now, Ford...what happened the last time you thought you could speak to me that way?”
Without waiting for an answer, Ricardo rips off Ford's eye patch and I have to hold back my scream when I see the empty hole that used to contain his eyeball.
Ford doesn't though when Ricardo inserts the handle of his dagger inside and twists.
“If you want me to stop...answer the question. Do you consider yourself a cultured and intelligent man?”
“Yes,” he shouts.
Ricardo steps back and rubs his chin. “Can I share a secret with you?”
“Like what?” Ford snaps. “I'm all too aware of just how fucking warped in the head you are. Just like I knew the second I woke up chained in your basement I wasn't getting out alive. So quit the fucking show and dance and get this shit over with.”
Ricardo laughs a deep and throaty laugh, a laugh that's laced in enough evil it pierces me right down to the bone. “You know...I was going to.”
He walks over to the large table filled with various tools. “But just for that? I think I'm going to prolong my fun.”
He opens an antique box and the gleam from the various knives and daggers catch my eye. “Oh and my secret? I've recently become a collector of knives.”
He rests the dagger on the table and picks up another one. A smaller but what looks to be sharper one and holds it up to Ford's face.
Ford cowers and my breath stutters in my chest when he tears out a sliver of flesh from his cheek.
“These beauties come in real handy for a little game the Chinese call—Lingchi.” He switches the knife in his hand out for another. “Do you know what Lingchi is, Ford?”
Ford bows his head and mumbles something I don't understand.
“What was that?”
He speaks again and this time, I understand him perfectly. “Death by a thousand cuts.”
“That's right,” Ricardo says before he cuts out another sliver of skin and Ford screams again.
Oh my God. This is...barbaric.
I take a step forward to put a stop to this, but Ricardo's next statement stops me in my tracks. “I was just going to cut out your tongue and cut off your ears and watch you bleed to death...since I already took care of your eye...but then I realized that it wasn't going to be enough. Because rendering you unable to see, hear, or speak evil ever again...will never undo all the evil you've done to the people I care about. It will never take back you setting up Graham's death, or manipulating and taking advantage of a heartbroken, little girl and sinking your hooks into her. It will never take back you setting my best friend up to die in a warehouse.”
I step back behind the pillar...because in an instant.
This monster...isn't one anymore.
Or rather...he is...but he's one that I can understand. He's a vigilante—albeit a twisted one; because he colors outside the lines—but he's defending those he cares about. Those who have suffered. He's the ultimate anti-hero if there ever was one.
Ricardo slices into his skin again and smiles. “You should see the way she looks at him, Ford. He makes her happy...truly happy. He also protects her, loves her the way she deserves to be loved...and he's going to spend the rest of his life right by her side doing all of those things. He undid all the hell you put her through.”
He points to the ceiling. “And after I take care of you? I know Graham can finally rest in peace...because his daughter will spend the rest of her life with a man who loves her as much as he did.”
A tear slips out of Ford's eye. “I loved her, Ricardo.” He clears his throat. “I love her—”
“No,” Ricardo sneers. “You didn't...because there's no way you could have done any of what you did to her.”
“I was protecting her!” Ford shouts. “Sometimes you have to do the unthinkable to protect someone...your father was going to kill her. If I didn't set up the tape...if I didn't make that deal with him he would have killed her. You know it just as much as I do. I'm a bastard...a monster...evil...call me whatever the fuck you want to call me because of what I did to Graham. I made that deal with your father because I loved her and I had no other way of protecting her. DeLuca gave me no other choice.”
“Doesn't mean you still don't have to suffer for your sins.” He slices through his skin again. “Sooner or later...we all do.”
“When do you get to suffer for yours? Huh?” Ford sneers. “When does DeLuca junior finally get to pay.” Ford chuckles and glares at him. “Oh, that's right. Soon.” His expression turns hard. “Too bad I won't be around to see it, but I'm sure that even from my toasty seat in hell, I'll enjoy every second of her hot little body being fucked over and over again by that per—”
I don't have time to register his statement because Ricardo growls and rams his hand inside his mouth, right before he yanks out his tongue and cuts it off.
“Damn, I really should have done that much earlier.”
Ford starts shaking with tears...I'm not sure if it's due to the pain or the fact that he knows the end is near and his time is up.
Ricardo's expression changes, and for a moment, I actually think he feels bad.
Ford must too because he whines and weeps his heart out and—I can't believe I find myself thinking this—but it's utterly heartbreaking to witness the final moments before someone's death.
Or rather, murder.
He's pleading for his life with his eyes...begging Ricardo to show him mercy.
Ricardo studies him for a beat before he picks up what looks like a Katana off the table and walks back over to him.
There's this moment between them. It's heavy and intense...filled with so much suffering from one end and the exchange of power in the other.
It's the moment between life and death. The moment where existence and execution is only a breath and heartbeat away.
The moment where Ricardo could still spare him.
Ford knows this and it causes his tears to turn into wails and his whines to turn into shrill pleads. It reminds me of a wounded animal and I actually find my own eyes filling up with tears despite my dislike for him.
My heart is torn right down the middle. I secretly hope he does save him—because that's the Ricardo I remember—and yet, I know I'll still love this side of Ricardo even if he doesn't.
Ricardo holds the katana over the chains keeping Ford in place and his eyes grow soft.
“You want to be let go?” Ricardo whispers, staring into his eyes.
Ford nods softly and the moment is so palpable, I can practically breathe it in—Ricardo's going to spare him after all. I feel it.
Ricardo's not a DeLuca...he still has a soul. He still has compassion.
“Okay,” Ricardo says roughly, angling the blade so he can slice through the chains.
Ford closes his eyes and smiles.
Right before the most gruesome and callous thing I've ever witnessed happens.
At the last moment...Ricardo pulls back and shifts the blade lower.
I almost puke when I hear the metal slicing clean through muscle and tendons as he cuts off his arms instead.
He stands back and laughs darkly. “There you go, Ford.”
Blood flows out in waves of crimson as Ford drops to the floor and gurgling sounds fill the room.
I never knew the human body contained so much blood, but then again I've never seen someone die in such a savage manner before.
Ricardo kneels down before him. “You don't get to hurt the people I care about and live. Now rot in hell.”
He drops his sword as Ford's eyes fix and dilate and his body goes limp.
Ricardo tilts his head up to the ceiling and his eyelids fall shut. “Rest in peace, Graham,” he says, his voice filled with emotion. “He can't hurt her or anyone else ever again. Sorry it wasn't sooner.”
A combination of awareness, acceptance, and passion strike through me and it feels like my body's in a trance when I take a few steps toward him.
He can't see me because his back is to me, but he turns around when I reach him and his hands clench at his sides.
Before he can speak, I do. “You're not a monster,” I say, my voice cracking. “It doesn't excuse what you did in the past, what you just did, or what you might do in the future.”
His jaw hardens but I continue, “But I don't need to stay away from you because I love you.”
I take another step forward and place my hand on his chest, remembering his own words to me so long ago. “I know you never wanted to show me this side—but I see you, Ricardo. And hostage or not, I'm not going anywhere.”
I reach up and touch his face and I feel his heart speed up. “Let your guard down with me for one night. That's all I'm asking for right now. You can go back to being the monster and evil mob boss tomorrow. Let me in tonight...let me be all yours tonight.”
It happens so rapidly the room spins and every single part of my body hums with excitement and adrenaline when he lifts me into his arms.
His lips smash against mine and my breath leaves my lungs so fast it almost burns the second my back slams into the pillar behind me.
But that pillar's not sturdy enough to protect me from the power behind his kiss.
It's a kiss that breaks all the rules, it's a kiss that puts me back together and shatters me all at once.
It's a kiss that makes me fall in love with the sinner and saint that is Ricardo DeLuca.
The sweet angel who turned into the vicious devil.
The only man who can rescue and kill me at the same time.
I will always belong to him and he will always belong to me and nothing will ever change that.
The only thing this kiss changes are the lines between us, because it blurs each and every one of them.
I despise him and I want him.
I hate him and I love him. I love him more than anything in the whole entire world. Where he leads I will always follow, even if it's straight into the depths of hell.
We're both so fucked up and crazy...we'll never be normal.
But together...we're everything.
Everything I used to wish on those dandelions for is right here with him...and I'll never stop fighting for it. I'll never stop fighting for us.
This is the life I want...this is who I want to spend my life with...forever.
I feel so whole when we connect like this, when we're both stripped down raw to the bone. When we show each other our scars and put our demons on display.
When we can heal the other in a way no one else ever can.
I'll survive anything...as long as it leads me right back to this moment right here...as long as it leads me right back to his arms where I belong.
The arms that won't ever let me crumble...because Ricardo will always hold me together, no matter the cost. I feel it in his touch, in his embrace. I feel it every time he looks at me, and even when there's anger in his eyes, his love for me still burns right through. I feel it when he kisses me like he is now. Like my kiss is his dying breath and he'll spend every second he has left on earth cherishing me.
Ricardo loves me right down to the marrow and deeper...he loves me in a way I've never been loved before. This man would do anything in the world for me...including taking his place as a DeLuca for my protection.
“I missed you,” I pant when he grants me a brief moment of air between his intense kisses.
“Missed you more.” He drops his forehead to mine. “So damn much, Lou-Lou,” he whispers as he nips at my bottom lip before the kiss turns so tender and sweet my legs turn to jelly.
“Show me,” I dig my nails into his back impatiently, I don't know how much longer I can wait for this. “Show me how much you missed me, Ricardo. Show me how much you want me. Make me yours again.”
He nips on my lip harder and when I taste the faintest hint of blood we both moan.
“You know damn well who you belong to, Lou-Lou. Just like I know damn well who I belong to.”
“Marlene?” I ask and that earns me a hard bite between my shoulder blades right before he's soothing the sting out with his tongue.
He flicks my earlobe and I melt against him as he rasps, “You think I would want any other woman's pussy when I've already had the best?”
I can't help but smirk as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into me. “Maybe it won't be so easy this time...maybe I'll make you earn this pussy again.”
I'm such a dirty liar—I'm his the second he takes me and he knows that—but I love provoking him. I love the way he makes me submit to him without abandon.
He digs his erection into my stomach and tugs on my ponytail. “I don't have to earn anything Lou-Lou...I worship you and the fucking ground you walk on. Maybe I'll make you beg for me this time around.”
The protest I was prepared to issue dies when his hand tightens around my hip. “I'll make you beg for me to lick your clit until you're coming all over my face.”
I part my lips and he slowly circles his tongue against mine until he takes complete control and sucks on it in a way that makes me yearn to do that to him. “I'll make you beg for my cock to be inside your mouth until you gag on it and swallow every inch.”
His eyes go smokey and he hitches my leg tighter around him before he presses into me in a way that has my body aching for more. “ I'll make you beg for my cock to be so deep inside your sweet pussy you won't know where you end and I begin.”
His face contorts in pain and his eyes change—and for a second—I see the vulnerability swirling in those dark orbs. The thing he's telling me without words.
He doesn't want to fuck up...he doesn't want to get so lost in me or in the moment that he can't find his way back. He doesn't want to get lost in the dark and hurt me tonight or ever again. He doesn't want to hear me beg for him, he needs to hear me beg for him, for this...to make sure everything he does is everything I want.
“Lou-Lou, I do—” he starts, his voice laced in agony.
Before he can finish that statement, I tug on his collar and lick his lips until I feel his body tense against me. “Go ahead and make me beg for your cock, Ricardo.” I suck his earlobe into my mouth and whisper, “Because I'm not taking my panties off until you make me. And just so we're perfectly clear, I want you to make me.”
That smirk...that slow, seductive, all-knowing and challenging smirk that spreads across his lips almost causes me to drop them for him right then.
Instead he's the one who drops to his knees. And that feral, predatory look in his eyes right now tells me that he's either going to kill me...or make me come harder than I ever have tonight.
He tugs my jeans off my hips and helps me step out of them before tossing them across the room.
I take my shirt off next and I see him visibly swallow as his expression fills with enough heat to light the damn world on fire.
“Beautiful,” he murmurs against the skin of my thighs before he looks up at me and his expression turns serious. “You're so beautiful, Lou-Lou.”
My heart takes flight, because although men have said that to me in the past, Ricardo's the only one who makes me believe it in the only way it actually matters.
He's not talking about my physical appearance...he's talking about all my ugly on the inside. The way he's looking at me makes me feel more beautiful than I've ever felt in my whole entire life.
This is my Ricky...my dark, broken savior who fell in love with a wicked, broken bird and saw her for what she really was.
He saw the things in me that no one else could.
He saw my light in the dark...because it shines for him.
I've been so lonely without him, without my missing piece, just thinking about it is enough to make me tear up and almost ruin this moment between us.
But the soft kisses he plants along the tops of my thighs as his fingertips brush the small of my back and he pulls me closer to him render me captive and every bad feeling disappears with his fiery touch.
He stares up at me as he licks a teasing path right along the edge of my panties, his tongue making delightful little circles against my flesh as I turn to liquid—floating to some place only he can bring me. Somewhere only we know.
His lips hit the wet spot just above my clit and my hips buck, which only causes him to smirk again. He hasn't even touched me and already I'm anticipating the things he's going to do to me. The things I know he can do to me.
I don't have the self-control that he does. I'm a needy mess and I don't care. My body craves him, Ricardo's my poison and no way in hell do I want the antidote. I want to overdose on him many different times and many different ways tonight.
I fist his hair when he buries his face into the fabric and nips at my clit.
When the tip of his tongue darts out and he pushes the lace against my clit, creating the perfect friction, I urge him to continue with my moans.
My lower stomach contracts when he swirls his tongue and groans that deep, hungry groan of his and starts lapping at me like a starved man, like this is more for his pleasure than mine.
“Please,” I whimper. “I need more, more of you.”
He nudges the lace over to the side slightly and his lips graze my sensitive skin, taunting me. Making sure I know just how great this could feel if something wasn't separating us.
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