Vice

by Callie Hart

  “That’s exactly what you have to do, otherwise you’re going to drive yourself mad.”

  “They were together, you know. Persephone was here maybe six months before Plato arrived. They became friends immediately. They fell in love some time after that. My father keeps his male and female Servicio separated at night. There are two huge dormitories beneath the house, and they’re guarded at all times. They’ve never slept in the same bed together, never fallen asleep in each other’s arms. But they’ve loved each other for years now. And now my father has even taken that from them.”

  Sitting down on the bed next to her, I put my arm around her shoulders. “Simon says don’t think about it right now,” I tell her.

  “Simon? Who is Simon?”

  “You’ve never heard of Simon Says?”

  She shakes her head. “What is it?”

  “If I say, Natalia, take off all your clothes, you don’t have to do it. If I say, Simon says taken off your clothes, then you have to.”

  She looks confused. “Why would I obey you just because you say that?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a children’s game. It doesn’t have to make sense.”

  “Children get naked?”

  I laugh softly. “No, that’s definitely the adult version of the game.”

  “And you can use this Simon Says rule to make the other person do anything?”

  “Anything.”

  Natalia thinks about this. A small frown line appears between her brows as she considers what I’ve just said. She’s so damn beautiful. It hits me every time I look at her. Would I be this attracted to her if I saw her on the street back home? That would be a resounding fuck yes. I’m not drawn to her because of her damsel in distress status. She’s stunning. I’ll admit, I’m thinking about her mouth wrapped around my dick twenty-four seven, in between fearing for my life and the lives of every one around me. But there’s something else about her. Something subtle and at the same time undeniable that draws me to her. It wouldn’t matter where in the world I met her. I would still be captivated, regardless.

  She smiles as she looks up at me, and a surge of blood rushes to my dick. “I want to play,” she says decisively.

  “You do?”

  She nods. “Anything to stop thinking so much. And…I think this will be fun.”

  “All right. Well, you asked for it.”

  She lies back on my bed, exhaling, closing her eyes. I wonder if she has any idea how this is going to end, namely with some hardcore fucking? Because Simon is a sick, perverted motherfucker when I’m talking on his behalf.

  “Who goes first?” she asks.

  “You can.” Instead of lying down next to her, I position myself on the bed, sitting beside her, legs crossed Indian style, watching her as her chest rises and falls. She cracks one eyelid, peering at me out of the corner of her eye.

  “Okay. Simon says…” She hesitates. “Tell me why you kissed me the other day.”

  “Why do you think I kissed you the other day?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”

  “Because…” Man, this is ridiculous. How can she not know the pull she has over men? “I didn’t have a choice,” I tell her. “It wasn’t something I consciously decided to do. You were soaked from the rain, your hair was everywhere. You turned to look at me, and I had to kiss you.”

  She smiles shyly, covering her mouth half-heartedly with one hand. Pressing her fingertips into her lips, she laughs quietly. “Okay. I suppose I will have to accept that as your answer. Do I go again?”

  “Yes. Until you trick me into doing something Simon hasn’t told me to do.”

  “I see. Okay.” She shifts, getting comfortable. “Now, Simon says, tell me about your life, Cade. I already know where you come from. Do you still live in Alabama? Do you work for your father, like Laura did?”

  I look down at my hands, spreading my fingers. I laugh. “No. I don’t live in Alabama anymore. I live in New Mexico. And no, I don’t work for my father.”

  “Then what do you do? Are you like my father? Do you sell drugs and guns to the highest bidder?”

  “No. I belong to a…” God, this is going to sound ridiculous. How am I going to convince her that I’m not just another violent piece of shit when I explain my life to her? “I belong to a motorcycle club. But the Widow Makers are nothing like the other clubs you’ve probably met. We don’t treat women like shit. We do our best to help people, not hurt them. Most of the time. Jamie and I have spent every day since Laura disappeared using the resources available to us to try and find her. We’ve been able to help a lot of other women in the process.”

  “How?”

  “By removing them from circumstances of abuse. By finding them work, new names, new homes. New identities, when they’ve needed them.”

  “So…this Widow Makers club of yours. You don’t fight? You don’t kill people?”

  I crack my index finger, sighing. “We do fight. We do kill people. The world we’re involved in…there’s no escaping hatred and fear.” I wish I could tell her differently. I wish I could honestly say that the club stood for peace and non-violence. Maybe one day we might be able to. Ever since my sister was taken, both Jamie and myself have been single minded in our goal of bringing her home safely, so people have paid the price. Laws have been broken. Lives have been taken. Now I know for sure that Laura is gone, where will that leave the club? I’m not a violent man by nature. I am a man driven by need. I went to war to protect my country, and to protect my best friend, not because I enjoyed the thrill of pulling the trigger on a gun.

  Natalia doesn’t seem shocked by my answer. “You’re honest, Cade. That’s all you can ever be.” We’re both silent, the seconds stretching out between us, filled with the quiet fervor of our thoughts. After a long time, Natalia reaches out, cautiously running her fingertips against the seam of my jeans. Her touch is light, but it’s grounding at the same time. It’s a small gesture—the gesture of someone unsure and nervous, yet desperate to make some form of physical contact.

  “Were you marked, then?” she asks.

  “Marked. Tattooed by your club. To show that you belong to them.”

  “Oh. Yeah. It’s kind of a requirement.”

  Natalia props herself up on one elbow, looking at me. “Show me.”

  “You want to see?” Of course, I never turned my back on her the other day when we fucked in her tree house. I know she noticed the parts of my tattoo that were visible over the tops of my shoulders, but she never saw the full piece. Would it have freaked her out then, if she had seen it?

  “Yes,” she tells me softly. “Please. I’m…interested.”

  She sure as hell looks like she is as well. “All right. If you insist.” I take off my shirt in a smooth, fluid movement, grabbing the material behind my head and pulling it off in one go. Natalia’s unashamed as she studies my body. She tentatively reaches out and runs her hand over my chest, her lower lip fastened tightly between her teeth. She likes what she sees. She likes the fact that I’m ripped. She likes the fact that I’m strong, and powerful. I don’t think this because I’m an asshole, and I’m vain as fuck. I can just see the appreciation on her face, and for the first time it matters to me.

  I’m not jacked for the sake of looking good. I work out and I train hard because I need to know I’m going to be the better man in a fight. I always need to know that I’m going to be able to overpower an assailant, and I can’t do that if I have a fucking beer gut. But now, with Natalia’s eyes roving over my stomach and my chest, her hand skating over my skin, I’m pretty fucking stoked that I look the way I do, because she seems to be into it. Really fucking into it.

  Slowly, I turn around, so she can see my back. She breathes steadily, apparently calm enough, but I can feel her shock. It’s a big tattoo. A really big fucking tattoo. From between my shoulder blades, down to the base of my spine, the black ink spikes and curls, forming the Widow Makers’ club badge. A skull, mouth open, with two guns c
rossed behind it. The top rocker says Widow Makers; the bottom rocker reads New Mexico. Above the bottom rocker, in small, bold lettering: Vice President. My skin feels electrified while Natalia begins to trace her fingers over the lines and shapes of the ink.

  “Did it hurt?” she whispers.

  “Not really, no.” I’m sure she noticed the scars on my chest and on my side. I’ve taken two bullets before. A knife once, when I was in Chino. Those hurt way more than being tattooed, but I don’t need to emphasize the fact that I lead a dangerous life to her. For some reason, I don’t want her to think I’m that kind of guy. I want her to feel safe with me, I want to take her away from nightmares and heartbreak, not introduce her to even more.

  “You’re lucky,” she whispers. “Mine hurt a lot.”

  I spin around. “You have a tattoo?” I never noticed it before. She was completely naked the other day. How could I have missed something like that on her? Natalia nods. Slowly, she pushes back her sleeve, and there, on the inside of her forearm, is a brand. The exact same brand I noticed on Plato, the very first time I met him: A wolf’s head, and underneath it, a large, bold V for Villalobos.

  “He had you branded? Like you’re his fucking property?” Anger seems to be a constant these days. It pollutes me from the inside out, and I can’t seem to get the taste out of my mouth.

  “Of course I am his property. I am his most prized possession.” Natalia rolls her sleeve back down, holding her hand over the brand like it still hurts her. “He wanted to do it on the inside of my thigh. So any man who dared to try and sleep with me would know he was trespassing. I managed to convince him it would be better to have it here, where it was visible, though.”

  Jesus. On the inside of her thigh? Sick motherfucker. I’m sure he would have wanted to administer the brand himself. Just the thought of it makes me want to throw up.

  “I was only fourteen,” she continues. “I was changing. I started to get breasts,” she explains miserably. “And my father decided a deterrent was in order.”

  “God damn it.”

  “It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”

  “I don’t care how fucking long ago it was. It was still a shitty thing to do to a child.”

  Natalia takes my hand. I could easily allow myself to get lost in the cruelty of her father’s treatment, but what would be the point here, in this moment? This time is sacred, no one watching, no one primed and ready to report us to Fernando. I won’t spoil it by raging over something I can’t go back in time and change. I lift our intertwined hands, and I kiss her wrist, drinking in the soft, subtly sweet smell of her as I inhale.

  “Simon says take all of your clothes off, Natalia Villalobos,” I say quietly, grinning at her.

  “What? It’s still my turn,” she says. Her laughter is hushed, but the ease with which she smiles makes me happy. “I’m not done asking my questions yet.”

  “Save your questions for another time, when we both have to be fully dressed. Right now, we’re alone, and I want to eat that pretty pussy of yours.” I half expect her to deny my request. It would be understandable, given the fact that we’re under her father’s roof, and therefore not entirely safe, but she doesn’t say a word. She sits up, still watching me as she carefully slides the straps of her silk slip over her shoulders, pushing them down to reveal her perfect fucking breasts. I try to stifle my groan, but it’s futile. The frustrated, heated, need-driven sound escapes me, and Natalia shivers.

  “We have to be quiet,” she whispers.

  “I think we’ve already proven we can do quiet.”

  She smiles. “True. But I’m more excited this time.”

  “More excited?”

  “Yes. I know how good you are now, Cade Preston. I know how good you fuck me, and how amazing it feels to have you inside me. The anticipation of it is almost too much to bear.”

  I skate my fingers down her cheek, allowing myself to continue down, down, down, over her jaw, over her neck, her collarbone, and then across the swell of her tits. “If you think I gave it everything I had last time, Natalia, you’re sorely mistaken. That was just a sample. A teaser. A mere taste of what I’m capable of. Would you like me to show you how good I really am?”

  Natalia’s eyes are half-closed. She has a doped, hazy look to her that makes it seem like she’s already halfway to coming. “Yes. I want to know. I want to experience everything with you.” Before our time together is over? There’s a melancholy catch in her words that makes it sound like she has missed these words off of the end of her sentence. I take hold of her hand and lift it to my mouth, sliding her index finger past my lips and into my mouth.

  “I’m going to show you some of those vices we talked about, Natalia. It’s gonna be intense, and it might make you nervous, but it’ll never be more than I think you can handle. And I will never hurt you. Do you trust me enough to hand yourself over to me?”

  This is a seriously big ask. Every day, Natalia has seen men walk into her house. She’s seen them use and abuse the people trapped behind that blue door until they’re so worn down by their own lives that they’d rather end it all than continue suffering the abuse. I don’t want to run the risk of her ever likening me to Fernando’s players. It would fucking kill me. I’m fairly sure Natalia knows I’m different, that I would never do anything to her against her will, but I still have to tread lightly, though.

  She lies back onto the bed, briefly lifting her hips so she can slide her slip over her ass and kick it from her legs. She’s completely naked. Looking at me with those beautiful hazel eyes of hers, she slowly nods her head. “I know what you’re thinking,” she says in a steady voice. “You’re thinking that I am too fragile to cope with whatever you have in store for me. But I’m not. You think I’m not prepared to offer myself up to you in the way that you want me to, but you’re wrong. I am ready. And I can handle it. Most important of all, I want it.”

  Well, shit. She really does know what I’m thinking. I suppose it’s obvious I’d be thinking these things, but I’m impressed that she has the backbone to come out and speak her mind. Most girls would be too shy, or too nervous to ever voice their thoughts like that.

  She wants to know my vices? Fine. I’ll show them to her. Starting with vice number one: deep throat.

  “Okay. So be it. Move to the edge of the bed,” I tell her. She does so without question. Arranging her so that her head is hanging over the edge of the mattress, I rub my fingers over her lips, parting them, excitement already taking over me. “Open your mouth, Natalia. Open it real fucking wide.”

  She smiles a little as she does what I’ve asked her to. That smile is wicked, and filled with desire. Her lips are wet, her tongue darting out between them as she lies there, anticipating what I’m going to do next. I slowly undo the fly of my jeans, lowering them down over my hips. I reach inside my boxers and take my dick out. I’m already hard. So fucking hard that it actually hurts. Feels like my body is trying to jam so much blood into my cock that it’s going to explode at any second.

  Shit, touching myself feels so fucking good when I’m looking down at her flawless body, her nipples peaked contracted into small, pink buds that I want to run my tongue over, her legs open just a little, her hands lying beside her on the bed, her fingers twitching like she wants to reach up and touch me. I remove my pants and my boxers, getting rid of them entirely, and then I stand over her, thinking about what comes next.

  “If you tell me to stop, I’ll stop,” I say. “But don’t say it if you don’t mean it. Don’t play games, Natalia. I’m going to fuck you so hard, and you’re going to enjoy it. I promise you.”

  She nods, her mouth still wide open. Fuck, she’s such a good girl. So obedient. I lower myself an inch at a time, and then I tease her mouth with the end of my dick, rubbing the tip across her lips, slowly pushing myself inside.

  So warm. So wet. So fucking good. Natalia huffs heavily through her nose as I push myself deep into her mouth. My balls ache almost painfully as I feel
her tongue shift in her mouth, stroking against the side of my cock. She swallows, and the pressure is enough to send a shiver of pleasure through my body. It starts in my balls, spreading outward until I have pins and needles across my shoulder blades, my buttocks and the soles of my fucking feet.

  Natalia blinks, her back arching a little. She moans, and I have to fight the urge that rushes me to grab hold of her head and thrust myself down her throat. If I do that, I’ll be finished. I’ll come so quickly, and I don’t want that. I’ll still be hard. I’ll still be able to fuck her again, but I want to make every second of this last.

  I lean over her, cupping her left breast in my hand, squeezing and rolling her nipple between my fingers. She makes a sharp gasping sound at the pain, but she doesn’t move. My cock throbs in her mouth, and I can tell she can probably taste me by now. My pre-come will be all over her tongue. The very thought is galvanizing. I allow myself to rock my hips forward, just a little, and Natalia whimpers.

  “Suck for me, baby. Slowly. Move your tongue and nothing else.”

  When she obeys me, massaging my dick slowly inside her mouth, heat blasts me in waves. I bend over her and take her nipple into my mouth, biting down onto the swollen bundle of flesh. Natalia rocks her hips, whimpering again. She likes it. She likes the little jolt of pain I’ve sent spiraling around her body.

  Vice number two: teeth.

  I fucking love using my teeth on a girl. On her breasts. On her lips. On her neck. On her clit. Just the right amount of pressure on a girl’s clitoris can send her bucking and screaming into an orgasm in the blink of an eye. I bite Natalia again, this time on her other breast, just below her nipple, and she writhes, breathing frantically down her nose. If her mouth wasn’t stuffed full with my cock, she’d probably be hyperventilating. Since her mouth is stuffed full with my cock, I take the opportunity to pull back a little and then I drive forward, grinding my teeth together as I feel myself sinking deeper into her, inch by inch.

  My cock is above average in length, and thick. Really fucking thick. It isn’t easy to suck a dick like mine, especially the way I like it to be sucked, but Natalia’s currently blowing both my cock and my mind. She opens that sweet mouth of hers even wider, letting her head fall loose over the side of the bed, and I can tell how fucking amazing this is going to be.