Vice

by Callie Hart

  “That’s my job. Don’t move until I tell you to.”

  She doesn’t speak. Her breathing is labored, out of control, and her muscles are jumping and trembling, but she holds steady, waiting for me to give her a command.

  Free will.

  I understand the mentality of the men who fuck Fernando’s Servicio in the blue room. They love power, just like I do, but their needs as dominants have darkened. To them, being in control isn’t enough. They have to take something their submissives don’t want to give. They steal their pleasure from them. When I’m fucking a woman, being dominant is so much hotter for me because she lays herself bare, trusts and accepts, and the give and take of power is a flow, back and forth. Natalia may be obeying my every need and wish, but that doesn’t mean she’s powerless. She has so much power over me right now. I’m listening to her very intently. I’m studying her body language, so I will know the second she’s no longer enjoying this experience. And the second she’s not enjoying it is the same second I cease to enjoy it, too.

  “I’m going to fuck you now. I’m going to fuck you so hard. It’s going to be intense. I’m going to need you to stay with me, beautiful. Concentrate. You’re only allowed to come when I say so. Do you think you can do that?”

  Natalia shivers. Water drips slowly from the roof ahead, splashing down onto her back. I stoop down and run my tongue from the top of her ass, all the way up her spine, in between her shoulder blades to the base of her neck, and the shivering gets harder. “I can’t hear you,” I whisper into her ear.

  “Yes. I can do it,” she gasps.

  “Good.”

  I run my fingers over her pussy, rubbing her between her legs, and then slowly I guide myself into her. Just a little. She’s so fucking wet. The heat and the slickness of her pussy damn near makes my eyes roll back into my head. “God…damn…it…” I growl.

  Her body is perfection. She’s feminine, soft as silk, even though she’s toned at the same time. I can’t stop running my hands all over her. Carefully, I ease myself out of her, and then I drive my hips forward on the same movement, gritting my teeth together as I slam myself home.

  Natalia cries out, and the sound of her pleasure echoes around the forest, loud enough to be heard above the roar of the rain.

  “Shhh, beautiful. Be quiet.” I lean forward, taking hold of her by the throat. I push myself into her again, just as hard, and Natalia leans into my hand, using the pressure to cut off her gasp this time. Once I know that lightly choking her isn’t going to freak her the fuck out, I curl my hand around her throat and I squeeze.

  There’s no holding back after that. I fuck her. Holding her by the hip with my other hand, I thrust myself into her over and over again, maintaining the pressure on her throat to keep her from crying out. She can still whimper, though. She can still moan. Every time I rock my hips forward, sliding my dick as far as I can inside her, my balls slapping her pussy, she lets out the tiniest sound—a sound of pure ecstasy that makes me feel like I’m going to explode inside her. She breathes out of her nose, frantically huffing as I power into her.

  “Hold on.” I grind the words out from between my clenched teeth. “Not yet, Natalia. Wait. Wait...” I’m not even sure how long I can make myself wait. It won’t be long, that’s for sure. My balls feel tight and full, and my cock is tingling like crazy. Every time I push myself forward, a thousand tiny fireworks are going off beneath my skin, all over my body, hot and prickly. I allow my head to roll back as the tension builds.

  My eyes snap wide open when I hear something below us, though. Something over the sound of the rain, and of Natalia’s breathing, that shouldn’t be there. I keep on fucking her, but I scan the forest floor below us, watching, searching.

  And then, there he is. Natalia jolts when she sees what I’ve seen: her father, stalking closer to our tree house, his rifle raised and nocked in the crook of his shoulder. He’s alone, his men now gone, and I have the distinct impression he’s not hunting for small game anymore. He’s hunting for me. Natalia freezes, her body going tense underneath me. She’s scared, I can tell. She glances back at me over her shoulder, and there’s a look of blind panic on her face that makes me want to scoop her up in my arms and protect her.

  Jesus. This is a dangerous moment. If Fernando finds us, naked, me still inside his daughter, up a fucking tree, then he’s going to kill us both. He doesn’t know about Natalia’s hiding place, though, she said it was a secret she shared with her grandfather and no one else. All we have to do is pray he doesn’t see the ladder. We have to hope he doesn’t look up.

  Natalia reaches back and grabs hold of my thigh, digging her fingernails into my skin. She’s terrified. Slowly, I curve my body over hers, and I move my hand from her neck to cover her mouth. She digs her fingernails in deeper. Her father stops below us, less than twenty feet away, and the tension of the situation is killing me. Somehow I’m still hard. I’m rock fucking solid inside Natalia, and my dick is tingling with an intensity that requires attention. I slowly begin to angle my hips down, sliding myself out of her pussy, and then driving myself back inside her. Natalia breathes heavily through her nose again, a tiny moan escaping her.

  “Shhhhh,” I whisper into her ear. “I mean it. Don’t make a sound.”

  It’s improbable that Fernando would be able to hear such a tiny, imperceptible noise over the crackling, dripping, and splattering of the raindrops falling from the leaves in the trees, but still…she needs to fucking hold her breath.

  I slowly work myself in and out of her, and she presses back against me, grinding against me so I’m as deep inside her as I can go. I kiss and bite at the back of her neck, and she shakes underneath me; I can feel her pulse hammering just below the surface of her skin. I know she’s frightened, but I also know she wants this as badly as I do. Her body wouldn’t be reacting the way it is if she wanted me to stop, that’s for sure. Against all better judgement, I continue to fuck her as her father prowls around below us.

  Natalia bites down on my finger as I slam myself into her harder. I can feel the pressure building in her. She wants to cry out. She wants to scream at the top of her lungs. I know this because I do, too. And yet we’re both silent as church mice as I fuck her senseless.

  Rainwater runs down my back and over my shoulders, now. Natalia’s skin is slick and wet, too. Steam rises off her body as she digs her fingernails into my skin, holding on for dear life. On the ground below, Fernando stops, his head cocked to one side as though he’s heard something. Natalia’s back locks out, rigid, and she pushes back against me, hard. I don’t let go. I thrust deeper, harder, watching her reaction and her father’s movements at the same time.

  She urgently taps my thigh, and then she’s arching her back, her head bent back at the same time, and she’s coming. I lift her so that she’s up on her knees, her back pressed against my chest, the back of her head resting on my collarbone, and I get to see her fall apart. She’s silent, but the ecstasy on her face is something else. She closes her eyes, and her lips part, her chest rising and falling quickly as she writhes against me. I reach my hand down between her legs and I rub her clit as she comes; the warm, slick, wetness of her pleasure is all over my fingertips, and I can’t stop myself any longer.

  I come, slamming my cock inside her like a freight train. I’m not sure if I’m making any noise now; the world feels like it’s disintegrating and falling apart around me. My ears are ringing like crazy. Natalia whimpers in my ear, whispering things softly to me.

  “Don’t let me go. Please, don’t let me go.”

  I feel like I’ve just been smacked in the side of the head. I can’t think straight. Fernando is still paused, listening, and it feels like it doesn’t matter how still I am now, because the sound of my frenzied heartbeat is going to give us away. My cock is still hard inside Natalia; every time she twitches or shifts, a bolt of pleasure rocks through me, sending a shiver through my body.

  Fernando stands there a moment longer, and then he
seems to shake himself. He moves off, still staring down the sight of his rifle, and the rain grows harder.

  Only once he has disappeared into the forest, vanished from sight altogether, do either of us move. Natalia sags, lying flat on the floor of the tree house. Her sigh is one of relief. “Thank god,” she whispers.

  “That your father didn’t see us?”

  She shakes her head, smiling. “No. Thank god you finally took me, Mr. America.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE MOUNTAIN

  Back at the Villalobos estate, Fernando has locked himself away in his study. I haven’t seen him since Natalia and I walked back through the gates, tired and soaked to the bone, but strangely happy. We don’t kiss as we say goodbye to one another. We don’t even look each other in the eye, in case someone sees something passing between us that shouldn’t exist. She just goes her way, and I go mine. With my cell phone now returned to me, I make a call I’ve been dreading.

  “Get your ass home. Now.” Jamie’s never told me to do anything before. Ever. Seems like today is a day of firsts, though. He is majorly pissed, and it’s all my fault. I should never have told him Laura is dead. I shouldn’t have told him I plan on killing Fernando, and I probably should have kept the fact that I just fucked his daughter up a tree to myself, too.

  “You’re mad. Fucking certifiable. You’ve lost your fucking mind,” he hisses down the phone. “Come home. Get on the next flight out of Ecuador. I mean it, Cade.”

  “And leave Fernando breathing? I don’t think so, man.”

  “I loved Laura, too, okay? Fernando won’t go unpunished. We’ll figure it out here, though, together, like we always do. And once we have a sane plan of action, we can make sure he pays for what he did to her. This, what you’re doing, is more than ill advised, though, brother. It’s fucking stupid, and it’s going to get you killed.”

  “We’ve all got to die someday.”

  “See what I mean? Fucking stupid, Cade. Fucking stupid. We dragged each other out of hell in the desert. We’ve been through nightmare after nightmare ever since we got back. You think I’m going to let you die on your own, in another fucking country, in another fucking continent, without coming to get you? You know we’re going out in a blaze of glory together, you asshole.”

  “Do not come down here,” I snap into the phone. “This situation’s already precarious enough as it is. If you show up, the shit is royally going to hit the fan. I just know it.”

  “Cade.” His voice is hard and terse. He’s so angry with me, I can hear that plainly enough, but what the hell am I supposed to do? Let him come down here and get himself killed? There’s an extremely high probability that I’m going to end up getting shot in the back of the head out here; I’m not going to condemn my best friend to the same fate as me.

  “Jamie. Do not come down here. Promise me.”

  “I’m not eleven years old, asshole. I’m not making promises. If I’m hit with even the slightest suspicion that things are going sideways down there, I’m getting on a plane and I’m dragging your ass out of there whether you like it or not. Do you hear me? Don’t forget, I’m the president of this club, Cade. You’re meant to do what the fuck I tell you.”

  “That’s low. You’re pulling rank on me now?”

  “If I fucking have to. You think I’ll let some hurt feelings get in the way of your life? You’re wrong, man. You’re so, so wrong.”

  I sigh heavily. He’s not going to back off here, I know it. It’s shitty that he’s trying to order me home like some fucking subordinate, when we’ve always been equals. Jamie calls the shots, sure, but he’s never treated me like I need to bow down to him. There’s a very good chance I’m being pig-headed here, and he’s just trying to look out for me, I’m aware of that, but it still stings.

  “I’ll be careful,” I tell him.

  “Damn right you will. And you’ve got to stop fucking the girl, man. Trust me. That is going to blow up in your face in no time at all.”

  Jamie can hardly talk about fucking the wrong girls. He’s in love with a woman he shouldn’t have gone anywhere near with a ten-foot pole. He knows how hypocritical he sounds, because he says, “Learn from my mistakes, brother. I know you’re mad, and I know you’re hurting, I am too, but please…just don’t do anything stupid.”

  I grind my teeth, closing my eyes. “Okay. I’m gonna play this smart, I swear.”

  Jamie’s quiet for a moment, and then he huffs out a deep breath. I can imagine the look of worry on his face right now, as he paces back and forth in the Widow Makers’ clubhouse. “All right, dude. I’m trusting you,” he says. “Don’t fuck this up. Don’t put the club at risk. And whatever you do, don’t get yourself fucking killed.”

  ******

  The next morning, Harrison drags me out of bed at 6 a.m., and Fernando questions me relentlessly about where I disappeared to with his daughter for four hours. His anger is palpable—the kind you feel like a slap in the face. The man is all over the place. One minute he’s asking me to stay away, the next he’s telling me to take his daughter out into the forest. Now it seems as though we’re firmly back in “stay-the-fuck-away-from-her-asshole” territory.

  “I am sure you’ve had a chance to speak to your employer by now, Kechu,” Fernando snaps. “When can we expect his royal highness to arrive?” Fernando grins, baring his teeth, and it’s not a happy grin. It’s a death mask, and I want to smash my fist right fucking through it.

  “He’s dealing with a private matter at home,” I say. “He should be here in no more than a week or so.” A week should be enough time for me to get my shit together and make this man dead. A part of me doesn’t know why I’m stretching this out so ridiculously. I could slip into his room at night, one way or another, and put him down the same way I did to Julio. I could wrap the cord from the light pull around his throat right now and strangle the bastard to death; the struggle probably wouldn’t even alert the guys standing guard outside his office. There are a million ways I could get what I want and get the fuck out of here, but I’m dragging my heels. I know I am.

  It boils down to the fact that I’m a pleasure delayer. The wait, knowing what’s about to go down, knowing that he won’t see it coming, is almost too sweet and satisfying to turn away from. And now, there’s also Natalia. I fucked her. I shouldn’t have, but I did, and what stands between us isn’t as simple as a casual hookup. I look at her and I feel bottomless. I feel like I’m falling. I feel responsible, and protective, and violently angry all at once. It’s fucking scary.

  I’ve avoided feeling this way about a woman since before I was deployed. I don’t want or need to be feeling this way now, but I have no choice in the matter. She’s under my skin, now. I try not to think about what will happen to her when I leave here, because the truth is I just can’t see it. I can’t see me leaving her, period, and I have no idea how the fuck I’m going to make that work.

  So fucking dumb.

  “A week is too long, Kechu. I’m beginning to think your boss does not respect my time.”

  “He does. He’s also a loyal man, though, and he won’t leave his family when they need him. Like you, I imagine. If Natalia was sick, or in some sort of trouble, you wouldn’t leave her side, would you?” I know this is a tricky hand to play as soon as the words are out of my mouth. Fernando’s expression is thunderous.

  “You would be wise to leave Natalia out of this, Kechu. Don’t think to use my love for my daughter to excuse your Louis James’s behavior.”

  I hold my hands up—I surrender. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to use Natalia. Mr. Aubertin will be here as soon as he can, you have my word.” I don’t give him Jamie’s word, though. He hasn’t given it, and I don’t want to sully his reputation as an honest man. I’m more than happy to give him my word, though. I’ll make promises all day long, and I won’t give a shit about breaking them. Later, when I’m killing the son of a bitch, how will any of it matter anyway?

  “All right. You may leave no
w. Perhaps you ought to get out of the house today, Kechu. We are expecting guests who might not be happy to see you. Word of what happened to William has spread among even more of my clients. These are volatile men with volatile habits. I cannot ensure your safety while they are here.”

  “Understood. I’m happy to make myself scarce.”

  I am, too. Jamie might have pissed me off, but in fairness he has a point. I should probably have some sort of contingency plan in place, for when the time comes and I need to make a quick exit.

  Natalia is nowhere to be found as I leave the mansion. Not that I can go looking for her. With the bi-polar mood Fernando is in today, if anyone suspects I’m purposefully seeking her out, especially Ocho, then I’m in big trouble. I leave the grounds of the Villalobos estate on foot. There are gardeners everywhere, trimming and clipping at bushes, edging the lawn, working tirelessly to make the place look beautiful. I see Ocho meandering along the workers along the perimeter of the grounds, walking parallel to me as I head toward the long, wide wood chipped pathway that cuts into the forest.

  Obviously he didn’t fall into one of Fernando’s game traps and get killed yesterday when he wandered off alone, more’s the pity. I can’t shake the feeling that he’s bad fucking news. He’s always there. Always lurking, always watching. He sees everything, and he probably hears everything, too. I don’t believe for a second that he doesn’t speak English. Or at least understand it. I keep a steady, even pace. I’d love to break into a run and lose the fucker, but running around places like this generally makes you look guilty. I don’t need a slug to the back just because I want to shake Ocho.