by CR Robertson
“I think my dick would be happy with that arrangement,” I said, smoothing her hair back from her beautiful face.
I went to pull out of her, but she wrapped her arms around my middle. “Just a little longer. I’m feeling greedy this morning.” She kissed me like her life depended on it, her lips devouring mine until I was breathless with need.
My dick paid attention, stiffening until he filled her to perfection.
This time we took our time, our bodies undulating as our lips clung to each other. We rocked together; perspiration covering every inch of our naked skin. Sofia pushed my shoulders until I was on my back. She sat on my dick, rotating her hips while she moaned, her hands landing on my stomach. Her eyes were closed, teeth holding her bottom lip captive. I pushed myself up so that I could tease her nipples with my lips.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she arched her back to thrust her breasts forward.
“You’re gonna kill me,” I muttered.
“Death by orgasm sounds pretty good right now.” She ground her hips into mine. “I would happily die with you between my legs as I shatter into a thousand pieces.”
Sofia’s forehead pressed to mine, and I closed my eyes and just held her as she rose up and fell back down onto my dick. Her legs trembled and her pussy tightened around me.
“Nicklas,” she whimpered. “I can’t.”
“Fuck!” I rolled her unto her back, bringing her legs over my shoulders. Slow, hard thrusts brought us both over the edge, her body spasming under mine, even as I flooded her with my essence again.
Sofia groaned when I finally pulled out. “I swear if you keep doing this, my birth control shot isn’t going to be enough to combat this amount of cum.”
My cum trickled down her legs. I would have run a mile if anyone mentioned kids in the past. The thought of her belly rounded with our child made my chest tighten with a foreign emotion.
Sofia Black would be the destruction of me. She was the only person on this planet with the power to bring me to my knees. I could only pray that she never figured that out.
***
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sofia
His face was recognisable as Mario, but his body was covered in wounds that weakened him. The expression in his eyes said they caused horrendous pain. It felt like forever ago that I thought I loved this man. I would have done anything he asked of me because I believed that we were meant to be together.
What I had with Nicklas blew that out of the water and made me realise it had been superficial.
“Sofia, you need to tell this maniac to stop,” Mario pleaded.
I waited for the compassion I’d feel for anyone injured or wounded in the past. Nothing came. All that resided in my head were the memories of being terrified to go to sleep, the fear that someone was watching me. I recalled the bruises on my thighs and stomach that could only have been caused by someone being between my legs without my permission. The only saving grace had been that he had never been inside of me.
“Why did you hurt me, Mario?” I asked in a low voice. He’d been my world, and he used the trust I gave him against me. “Why drug me and creep into my apartment to photograph me?”
He glared at me in anger. “Sofia, release me right now.” He used the tone on me that had me scrambling to obey him in the past.
“Why go to those lengths when I offered myself to you?”
Nicklas strong arm slipped around my waist to tug me into his hard chest. His lips skimmed my shoulder. “Mario isn’t capable of getting it up, Princess. The best he can do is try to fuck unconscious women and pretend he’s having sex.”
I stiffened in shock as Mario launched himself forward, rattling on his chains. “Bastard!”
Nausea burnt a trail up my throat as I imagined his naked body moving on mine as he desperately tried to summon the ability to rape me. Even if I wanted him back then, he never had my permission to drug and assault me. The bruises finally made sense.
My hands automatically grabbed Nicklas’ arm, and Mario’s eyes narrowed at the way he held me and how I clung to him for support.
“You filthy bitch. I looked after you for all those years and you open your legs to this piece of shit as soon as you get here.” He spat at me and I recoiled into Nicklas’ strength.
“Time to go, Princess,” he said into my hair.
“Papa says I should face my enemies.”
“My soul is already tarnished. Let me keep yours pure.” He kissed the top of my head and pushed me toward the door.
Kris sat on the wooden bench outside, his baseball cap on backward the way he always wore it. “Best to walk away. There’s only one of them coming out of there alive.”
I chewed the inside of mouth while I contemplated what to do. Part of me wanted to be there for myself and for Nicklas. He shouldn’t have to fight my demons. The other part of me wanted to run away far and fast until I could no longer hear the sounds coming from that room.
Mario had been my only friend.
Mario had ensured that I had no friends.
I’d been in love with Mario.
He had broken my trust and abused me.
I didn’t know what to do anymore. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I dropped to the ground on my knees, my hands bracing me. The door closing behind me sounded and a few moments later Nicklas was on his knees in front of me, his arms holding me tighter than anyone had ever held me before.
“You need to walk away, Sofia. He was your friend. You don’t need to be here, baby.”
I burrowed into him because it was the only place that I felt safe. It reminded me of the night Mama died and Papa held me so tightly that I believed everything would be okay.
Nothing changed. She was still dead when I looked in the coffin.
“Please, Nicklas.”
“Tell me what you need, baby.”
“I don’t know. I hate Mario, but at the same time it hurts me to see him in pain.”
He sat back and tucked my hair behind my ears. “You are too good of a person to have been born into this world, Sofia. Mario was paid to look after you. He would never have been there if Lucas hadn’t dangled money in front of him. Mario was an employee, never your friend. There’s a difference.”
“I don’t have any friends.”
“Aw, baby, of course you do. Maria and Benita adore you. Catarina and Lucrezia are your sisters and your friends.” His eyes met mine. “And I can’t begin to explain how I feel about you.”
My heart thudded in my chest, every beat making me dizzy. It was the closest he ever came to admitting how he felt about me.
“Mario messed with your head for years, and now you need to heal. Let me finish this so the last chain he used to bind you is gone. Men like him can’t stop themselves from abusing those around him. If he lives, then he’ll keep doing it until he breaks you completely. I can’t let him do that.”
He was right. I knew he was, but that didn’t stop me from being torn.
Papa’s voice echoed in my head. “We need to destroy those who would seek to hurt us, Little One. It is the only way to keep our family safe.”
I was the heir to the Black Dynasty, the one Papa expected to stand at his right side. If I’d been a boy, I would have been with my cousin Xavier and his friends eradicating problems. It was time to stop being a cry baby and become Sofia Black.
“I’m fine.” I wiped the tears from my eyes. “Papa would be so ashamed if he saw me right now.”
“Lucas has only ever wanted what was best for his daughters. He never wanted any of you to see the darkness.”
My fingers were trembling when I touched his cheek. “I don’t want you to see the darkness.”
“I am the darkness, Sofia. Sometimes the light can only shine when there is darkness there to protect it.”
“If I had been a boy, I would have been expected to be in that room beside you.”
His lips twitched before leaning forward, his voice low and husky in my ear. “If
you had been a boy, my bed would be very cold.”
Nicklas stood, bringing me up with him in a fluid movement. “You asked to see Mario so he could answer your questions. He is a sick mind who enjoys the pain of others. You’ll never fathom the reasons behind what he did. My guess is you weren’t his first victim and if left to roam, you wouldn’t be his last.”
“I need to see this through to the end.” I would never become who I needed to be unless I walked the path of Papa.
Nicklas nodded. “Kris, stay with Sofia and make sure she’s okay.”
He normally called me Sarah, but this was his tech wizard who was able to hack just about any system he could get his hands on. Those fingers had been on my laptop and phone. He probably knew more about me than I did myself.
Mario’s top lip curled up when I walked in. Blood dripped from a wound at the side of his head. The only clothing he had on were his jogging pants.
My back straightened as I stared him straight in the eye. “Papa didn’t raise a weakling. For every time you drugged me, for every touch you took without my permission, for the security that you stole from me and the possible friends I could have made without you, I will have my revenge.”
His teeth were covered in blood when he laughed a maniacal laugh that startled me. “You were a frigid little bitch who was terrified of her own shadow. You needed me; you still do. Stop playing games, Sofia. Release me right now.”
I slowly sat in the seat in the middle of the room and crossed my legs. My hands held onto my knee so he wouldn’t see the tremor in them. “I don’t need you, Mario. I found what I needed, and it wasn’t you.”
Nicklas stepped in front of him like an avenging angel who had risen up from the depths of hell. When I was little, I believed I needed a prince on a white horse to gallop up Papa’s drive to come and claim me. Now, I realised that I needed someone dark and dangerous, a man who claimed me without repenting and who only let me see his light. Nicklas was that man. The rest of the world witnessed his wrath, while he cradled me in the safety of his arms.
“Time to pay for your sins, motherfucker,” Nicklas said in a deep voice. “This ends now.”
I steeled myself against the revulsion that tried to smother me. This was who Papa needed me to be. If there were enemies at our door, then I needed to be able to repel them. Jordan had taught me to fire a gun. He sat beside me when Xavier decided I needed to be able to drive a car with defensive manoeuvres. He had been the brother I never had. A guiding hand in the darkness. Now, I had to take my place beside them. Nicklas gave me the strength because he needed me to be strong enough to become that woman.
“Who wanted Sofia kidnapped?” Nicklas demanded.
“Go fuck yourself.” Mario tried to headbutt him.
“At least I can do that,” Nicklas chuckled. “I’m not going to ask twice.”
Mario spat at him.
Nicklas shrugged and wandered off to a counter filled with scary looking utensils. He lifted a pair of pliers that wouldn’t look out of place in a dentist’s surgery room. Mario screeched, and I gripped my leg tighter. A bloody nail fell to the floor. Another followed a moment later.
My teeth dug into the inside of my bottom lip to stop me from screaming or whimpering.
Nicklas only stopped when there were no nails left on Mario’s right hand. “I’m gonna ask you again. Who ordered Sofia to be brought in?”
Mario’s gaze met mine. “You said you loved me.”
“I was wrong. I didn’t know what that word meant back then.” I refused to look at Nicklas. There was no way I was telling him that I loved him when his hands were covered in another man’s blood.
“I’ll fucking…” Mario’s words were cut off with Nicklas’ fist connecting with his face.
“You’ll do nothing,” Nicklas said in a calm voice. “Because you’ll not be leaving this room alive. The only thing left for you to decide is if your end will be painful or quick.”
“You’ll never kill me in front of Sofia. She’d never forgive you.”
“Nicklas is doing this for me,” I replied softly. “All he had to do was lock me in a room and wait for Papa to collect me. Instead, he’s standing here cutting a malignancy from my life.”
“Lucas Black and his cronies are no match for the men who wait in the shadows,” Mario laughed. “He thought that he could oppose the Council, but he’ll discover he was wrong. You can’t do worse than that fucker Jay who is the Council’s weapon.”
“Zee is my cousin, and along with Ash and Jay, they’ve been permanent fixtures in my life.” I took a staggered breath. “Who do you think taught me never to keep my escape bag in the apartment? When I mentioned my weird dreams, Jay told me to only drink water from the tap. What do you think would happen if I phoned him right now and told him what you did to me?”
Jordan had always been a feral beast dressed in a designer suit. He took shit from no one and was the only person I’d ever seen say no to Papa and walk away with his limbs intact. Xavier was his nephew, but Jordan was the son that Papa never had. That made me his little sister.
“Looks like I’m a better choice right now,” Nicklas said. “Do yourself a favour and tell me what I want to know. At least you won’t end up like Colin lying there with his dick in his hand.”
I had no idea what Nicklas was talking about, but Mario did with the way his eyes widened.
“We’ve been watching you for a while. It’s open season on the Council, and Xavier and his friends have chosen their side. Who do you think ordered Colin’s hit?”
Mario stared at a place on the wall, disconnecting from his surroundings. “You may as well kill me now. When Silas realises that Sofia is here, he will rain the wrath of God himself down on you to get to her. She’s interested him for a long time. When he finds out that you’ve had your dick anywhere near her, he’ll cut it off and make you swallow it.”
Nicklas’ body stiffened and there was a hatred in his expression that I never witnessed before. The time for torture and torment were over, and a different version of Nicklas appeared. In their place was a cold-blooded killer who stabbed Mario repeatedly until he hung limp from the metal manacles, blood pooling at his feet.
The attack had been sudden and ferocious.
Who was Silas, and why did the mention of his name provoke such a reaction?
The vacant look in Mario’s eyes told me that he was gone. I waited for the dam to break inside me, but it never came. All I felt was worry about Nicklas. He was hurting and instinctively I wanted to help him. I’d witnessed his darkness, but it didn’t scare me, it called to me.
I stood on shaky legs and walked to him. Nicklas stared at me as if waiting for me to lash out at him. I held my hand out. “Come on, we need to get you cleaned up.” He stared at his hand in mine. The me that existed a few weeks ago would have run sobbing from the room. Those weeks had changed me.
None of the strange looks stopped me from leading him back to my room. I refused to even acknowledge that anyone existed except Nicklas and me. His expression was dark and brooding even as I peeled the T-shirt away from his entranced body. It was only when I tried to unbutton his jeans that his expression cleared, and he seemed to recognise me.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “There’s nothing to be sorry for, Nicklas.” He’d done that for me.
“Silas…” I pressed my fingers to his lips.
“Later. Right now, we need to get you clean.”
The expression in his eyes told me that a ghost from the past had walked into that room to join us earlier. Every one of us had triggers, and Silas seemed to be one for Nicklas.
The water pounded down on us in the shower to wash both of us clean from the sins of our past. Each of us was haunted by ghosts. There was nothing sexual in our touch, just hands skimming over skin to remove blood and the events of the past. It felt like we were symbolically washing our pasts away to make a path for the future. Wrapped in towels, we laid on the b
ed and held each other in silence.
There was honesty in silence, emotions that spoke louder than words. The light finally began to dim outside, and I pushed myself up to peer down at Nicklas. He stared at me silently while I linked my fingers through his hand on his stomach.
“I knew I loved you the day you took me on a tour through the forest to the waterfall. I suspected it before, but that was the day I knew for sure.” Something inside me whispered that he needed to know that someone loved him. His fingers tightened around mine.
Nicklas’ chest lifted and fell in a sigh. “You shouldn’t love me because I’m cursed. Everyone that I love dies. Silas killed my foster parents, and that was the night your father saved my worthless soul. He took an insignificant boy off the street and put him into his army.”
I never knew his connection with Papa, but I never imagined that he’d taken Nicklas in when he was younger and alone.
I rested my head on his chest and watched him. Nicklas stared out the open window. “You shouldn’t have had to witness that.”
“He’s not the first man I’ve watched you kill,” I said in a low tone. “The last two ended up thrown over the cliff.”
Nicklas glanced at me briefly. “I’ve really fucked all this up.” He covered his face with his free hand.
I crawled over him to grab his face. “I just told you that I love you and you act like I stole your last chocolate bar.”
He glared at me wordlessly.
My forehead pressed to his, the tips of our noses touching. “I love you, Nicklas. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want me to, I can’t change the way I feel.”
“I…” He swallowed. “Death surrounds me, baby. I want you to live because knowing that you’re alive somewhere in this shitty world means that I can breathe.”
It was as close to him telling me that he loved me as I was going to get.
We stayed wrapped together until the tapers were lit on the patio and the noises outside told us it was dinnertime.
My hair had dried into unruly curls that I was trying to tame when Nicklas appeared behind me. His arms slipped around my waist and his chin settled on top of my head. He watched me in the mirror.
