Page 12

12

FAWN

H e knew. Zane knew I wasn’t really Eddie’s happily married wife, just living a peaceful life in the country. Eddie had told me I had to pretend, to make him believe I wanted this. That I loved Eddie and that I was here of my own free will.

But when Zane had come into my room in the middle of the night, when he’d touched me gently for the first time in so long, I’d lost all ability to act.

I’d lost the ability to do anything other than feel.

His hands sliding up my legs. Grasping my thighs. Opening me up to him and burying his face in my pussy until I’d fallen apart, gasping and sobbing into a pillow in realization I wasn’t as broken as I’d thought.

I’d just needed the right person to touch me.

He’d made me feel things last night I hadn’t felt in so long.

And then he’d gone off with Eddie’s crew this morning, leading the way just like his older brother did. Reminding me once again they were cut from the same cloth.

Hours later, when the sun was high in the midday sky, shouts from the front of the house had me abandoning the laundry and hurrying to the door to see what was going on.

Eddie had left his now favorite position in the recliner and had hobbled out on one crutch. I lingered in the shadows of the porch, peering out through the screen at the commotion. Zane and Eddie’s crew faced off, all of them shouting about something I couldn’t make out with them all talking over the top of each other. Something about money and repairs.

Eddie let out a short, sharp whistle that cut through the argument. “Does someone want to tell me what the fuck happened?”

Spider glared at Zane. “This jackass totaled my truck.”

I peered past the squabbling men and gasped at the damage to the front of Spider’s vehicle. The bumper was barely hanging on, the headlights smashed, the nose of the truck so crumpled it was a miracle they’d managed to get it home.

Zane shrugged. “Not my fault that police car pulled out right in front of me.”

Eddie’s expression went from amused to furious in seconds. “You hit a fucking police car?”

Zane glared at his brother. “See, funny thing happened. There was a fire. And so all of a sudden, there were police cars and ambulances and fire trucks everywhere. The odds of hitting one went from practically nonexistent to high in the space of a few minutes. And since I was suffering from smoke inhalation, seems my reaction time was slower than normal.” He stalked past Spider. “Fuck you, and fuck your truck. Hit my brother up for the cost of the repairs. Because I’m not paying you shit. Consider it your penance for nearly getting me killed.”

Ward gawked at Zane’s back. “That’s fucking cold, brother!”

Zane flipped his middle finger into the air without turning back. “Not your brother, asshole.”

Spider looked unhappily to Eddie. “You’ll get it fixed, right, Ed?”

Eddie just laughed. “Not a fucking chance. Get your junk bucket off my lawn. Make a claim against the cops.”

Spider started up an argument, but Zane was rapidly approaching the house, and I stumbled backward, not wanting to get caught eavesdropping on the men’s conversation. I couldn’t count how many times Eddie had warned me to mind my own business.

I hurried back inside, but the screen door swung open just a second later, and I spun around, Zane’s sharp green eyes meeting mine.

Heat flushed through me at just the sight of him, but it was quickly followed by anger. I’d heard enough of their conversation to know Zane was taking over Eddie’s role. And that they’d set another house on fire today.

Somebody’s entire home had just been destroyed because of Zane and Eddie Sinclair. I’d lost more homes than I could count. I had nothing of my own. No trinkets from my childhood or high school. No photos or old videos with friends or from when Otis was a baby.

Losing your home meant losing a part of yourself, and these men had no idea how much that could hurt.

“Fawn.”

I didn’t answer him, even though his deep, gravelly voice sent tingles through my body. I went back to the laundry, picking up the shirt I’d dropped and refolding it.

His fingers caught my wrist. “Fawn. Stop. We need to talk—”

The front door slammed again, and I ripped my hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

He blinked but dropped my arm instantly. “Last night—”

“Didn’t happen.”

“Zane!” Eddie’s deep laugh echoed through the house, mixing with the groan of his recliner as he slumped back into it. “Bring us a couple of beers. I want to know everything about the job.”

Zane squeezed his eyes shut. “We need to talk,” he whispered to me again. “Not here. Somewhere he won’t interrupt us.”

I shook my head, picking up a pair of Eddie’s pants I’d scrubbed the grime out of. “Just go, Zane. I need to be here for Eddie. And whatever you have to say, I don’t want to hear it.”

It was a lie. Every word. Deep down, my body didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to be here for Eddie. And I did want to know what he wanted to say.

I wanted him to say more of the things he’d said last night in the dark.

But he would back down. My rejection would hurt him, and I knew it. Zane was quiet and sweet, but standing his ground wasn’t exactly something I’d ever seen from him in the past, and I definitely didn’t expect it now that he was under Eddie’s thumb again.

But he caught my chin between two fingers and gripped it hard enough I had no choice but to look up at him. “We are going to talk, Fawn. Away from him.” He leaned in close, his lips brushing over my ear. “Because I’m still thinking about what we did last night.”

My fingers went weak, and the pants I’d been folding fell back into the basket. His breath on my neck was warm, dancing over my skin, reminding me all too quickly of how it had felt between my thighs.

“Zane!”

Eddie’s demands cut through the haze.

I pushed Zane away. “He’ll never let me outside.”

Zane’s gaze bored into mine. “Just tell me you want to.”

I hesitated. But against my better judgment, still scared this entire thing might be a trap, I gave a single nod.

Zane let go of me and walked backward a couple of steps, his gaze lingering on me until he rounded the corner into the kitchen.

It was only then I realized I’d stopped breathing.

But for the first time in years, maybe I didn’t want to die.

I made lunch for the men, fighting the urge to spit in Eddie’s sandwich, then went upstairs to play with Otis while they were distracted. Their muffled voices floated up as Otis and I zoomed trucks around his bedroom floor, and when he grew tired of that, we snuggled on his bed, reading one of the handful of storybooks I’d begged Eddie to buy for him.

He was supposed to have started school in September, but every time I’d brought it up, Eddie had refused to enroll him. He’d said the school system was useless and his lazy mother could teach him.

Which I would have loved with all my heart and done to the best of my ability, even though I’d never been much good at school myself.

Except Eddie had never brought home the supplies I’d asked for. He refused to have an internet connection installed in the house, refused to buy the books I needed to help Otis learn to read and write.

Every time I’d tried to bring it up, I was just met with more and more of the same excuses. That he’d dropped out of school in ninth grade and it hadn’t hurt him none. That schools were breeding grounds for woke bullshit and he didn’t want none of his kids learning that shit.

So I did what I could, teaching Otis by drawing in flour with my finger or by forming letters with cookie dough before it went into the oven. With the few pencils and paper Eddie did bring home, I wrote stories and read them to Otis over and over again, because Lord knew he was a smart kid and had already memorized all the children’s paperbacks we had.

He was so clever. And I wasn’t just saying that because I was his mom. He was such a bright kid, all big, curious eyes and full of smart questions that even had me thinking.

Eddie hated it, of course, and Otis had copped more than one spanking for irritating Eddie with his questions. He’d learned not to ask any in front of his father, which broke my heart, but was necessary for survival.

But when it was just him and me? He was allowed to ask all the questions in the world.

“Do dinosaurs have ankles?” his sleepy little voice asked.

I brushed the hair off his forehead gently. His eyes were half-mast, and though he was really too old for a nap, ever since Eddie had come home, I’d noticed how much more tired Otis was in the afternoons. Like just his father’s presence was enough to cause a restless night’s sleep.

I knew that was the case for me. I felt like I was always tired, because when I did sleep, it was with one eye half open.

Except for last night.

After Zane had left my room, I’d slept like I was dead.

And it had been bliss.

Addictive.

Otis drifted off, and I lay there with him for as long as I dared, before reluctantly tucking a faded blue blanket over his shoulders and closing his door quietly behind me.

I tried to sneak past the living room, but Eddie caught sight of me. “Peach. My dick is hard for your mouth. Get over here.”

Something inside me shriveled up and died, but there was no point pissing Eddie off by arguing. At least Zane wasn’t in the house to witness my humiliation this time.

Like the obedient little wife Eddie so wanted to pretend I was, I dragged my feet over to stand in front of him and then got to my knees.

“Eddie!” Zane hollered from somewhere outside. “Get out here, we’ve got a problem!”

“Deal with it yourself. I’m busy.” Eddie’s fingers tangled in my hair and pulled me closer to him. “Open that pretty mouth for me, Peach. Take it deep. I want it fucking choking you, you hear?”

A fresh wave of disgust and hate filled me.

I’d kill him one day. I didn’t know how. Or when. Or even if I was physically and emotionally capable of taking another life.

But in that moment, I so wanted to be.

He could be the one to choke.

Zane walked through the door from outside, wiping his hands on the back of his jeans. His gaze fell to me, kneeling at Eddie’s feet like the goddamn sex slave I was, and his eyes filled with an anger I couldn’t stand to see.

But he quickly drew his gaze from me to his brother. “We’ve got a sewage leak, right down the back of the property.”

Eddie’s gaze reluctantly turned away from me and onto his brother. “Then deal with it. That’s what you’re here for. To deal with shit I can’t.”

“It’s a two-man job. No way I can fix this alone. I need you to come with me.”

Eddie stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “How the hell do you expect me to walk all the way to the back of the property? Then get my hands covered in shit trying to fix the pipes, with a fucking gunshot wound? You never were very bright.”

“Then I need someone else. Now. There’s shit going everywhere.”

Eddie recoiled and pushed my head away. “Take her then. Just lost my erection anyway, with all the fucking shit talk.” He gagged in the back of his throat. “Fuck, Zane. You smell disgusting. You’re going to make me vomit.”

It felt a little like poetic justice that Eddie was the one gagging now and complaining about it when just a minute ago he’d literally told me to choke on his cock.

I got up, grateful to have dodged a bullet. “Otis is napping upstairs,” I told Eddie.

“So?”

I should have known better than to think he’d care where his son was or what he was doing.

But I also knew Otis would just stay in his room if he woke up while I was gone, or just quietly slip outside to play in the late afternoon light. He was smart enough to know to stay well out of Eddie’s way unless he couldn’t help it.

I followed Zane outside, really not dressed for yardwork in a faded sundress that did nothing to protect my fair skin from the afternoon heat. I didn’t own heavy work boots like he wore, that were much better suited to the uneven ground. My shoes were old, cheap white canvas sneakers that were a size too big because Eddie could never remember if I was an eight or a nine.

And it’s not like I’d ever been permitted to leave and choose a pair for myself.

Zane glanced over at me. “Will Otis be okay?”

I nodded. “He’s smart.”

“He takes after you then.”

I didn’t say anything because I knew Eddie was smarter than I was. Not in a book sense, but he’d been able to manipulate me, and I hadn’t even noticed. Not for the longest time. My family had been doing terrible things to people for years, and I’d never been able to do anything about that either, too stupid to come up with a plan to do anything but run from all of them.

And look where that had gotten me.

Right back where I’d started, in Eddie’s control.

Because despite his ninth-grade education, he was clever. Conniving.

And I was neither of those things and never would be.

I stomped out of the yard with Zane at my side, and then followed him farther into the trees and along a path I’d never seen before because I’d never been allowed this far from the house. The woods grew thick here, the trees old and untouched by whoever had cleared the ones around the building.

“How far back is the leak?” I hoped it was far. So, so far that it would take an hour to walk there. I had no idea how big the property was or where the neighbors were, but maybe if I could just get a glimpse of another house, I could come up with a plan to get to it. Run to it in the night. Beg them to let me use their phone or call the police.

Zane pointed ahead of us. “Not far. Just around that bend.”

I nodded, crinkling my nose at the smell wafting from Zane’s clothing. I’d need to wash those tonight. A stream trickled lazily somewhere nearby, and the faint smell of smoke clung in the air, like someone had made a campfire recently.

A zing of hope pinged through me. If there were other people out here somewhere, I could get help.

We rounded another bend in the path, and Zane stopped.

I came up behind him and gasped. “What is that?”

Zane grinned. “A bathtub.”

I wandered over to the old clawfoot tub that sat abandoned by the stream and ran my fingers over the chipped porcelain. The outside was made of rusted cast iron, denoting the bath’s age. It had to have been sitting out here for decades.

But despite that realization, things weren’t adding up in my head. The tub seemed to have been cleaned recently, at least as well as a tub that age could be. It was free of the dirt and leaf debris I would have expected. Free of creepy-crawlies too. It had been filled with water, perhaps as a drinking trough for horses.

I was slow to remember there was a stream right there, just feet away, and so a drinking trough was completely unnecessary.

“Is it warm enough for you?” Zane asked quietly from behind me.

I spun around. “What?”

He stepped forward and dipped his fingers into the water. “I made it hotter than I would like, because I know women normally like their baths to be scalding…”

I stared at him, not comprehending the words. “I don’t understand. I thought we were fixing a leaking sewer pipe? Where is it?”

Zane shrugged. “Way over there. I already fixed it hours ago. But I found this on my way…”

I blinked. “And so you… You don’t need me to fix a broken pipe with you?”

Zane didn’t budge from his spot. “I think my brother asks enough of you. All I need you to do is soak in that tub.”

I seriously didn’t understand. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Because I thought you might enjoy it?” His cheeks went pink. “If it was a stupid idea, just forget this ever happened.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s…” I looked over the scene, the late afternoon sun sinking between the trees in a dazzling display of oranges and pinks and yellows. The stream trickled peacefully, opening up a few feet away into a small pool, just big enough for one to bathe in if they smelled of shit, like Zane did.

And yet, he hadn’t thought about himself for a second. He’d cleaned out the tub. Started a fire. Heated water. Then made up a lie to get me out of the house so I could soak in it.

I dipped my hand into the wet heat. I’d never wanted anything so much in my life.

Tears pricked at the backs of my eyes.

Zane seemed to know, and he turned away, heading toward the stream. “Enjoy that, Fawn.”

I frowned at his retreating back. “Wait. Aren’t you going to watch me?”

He turned back around, his eyes wide. “Because you want me to, or because my brother never lets you so much as piss with the door closed?”

I didn’t answer. The idea of him watching me bathe did something to deep-rooted parts of my body that hadn’t been stimulated in a long time, at least before last night. I had asked because I was so used to showering with the door open or with Eddie sitting on the closed toilet, his greedy gaze roaming all over my naked flesh and him touching me when all I wanted to do was be alone.

Zane nodded in understanding. “That’s what I thought. I’ll be down at the stream cleaning up if you need me.”

I watched him walk to the edge of the stream and kneel at the water’s edge, scrubbing his hands in the clear, clean water.

He didn’t turn back. Didn’t even try to sneak a peek.

With my gaze glued on his broad shoulders, I slipped out of my dress, folding it neatly and setting it on a patch of leaf-littered grass on the other side of the tub. A couple of towels I recognized from ones I’d had hanging on the line to dry earlier in the day already sat there, folded and waiting for me when I was finished bathing.

It took me a long moment to stop staring at them. I actually physically pinched the inside of my arm, because my brain couldn’t comprehend that any of this was real. When the scene didn’t disappear, and with my arm throbbing from the vicious tweaking I’d given my skin, I then switched to frantically trying to come up with ways that this was a trap or a trick.

But I couldn’t come up with anything.

Or maybe, I just didn’t want to.

Maybe I just wanted to be a woman, out with a man, who was selfless enough to do nice things for her.

I slipped out of my underwear. Toed off my shoes.

A slight breeze kissed my skin, making every inch of it feel alive. Sinking into the hot water straight afterward was complete bliss. I couldn’t help the groan of pleasure that slipped from my mouth, and unlike last night, where Zane’s hand over my mouth had been necessary to keep me quiet, this time, there was nobody around to hear me.

Nobody but the man down by the stream who paused at the noise, hesitated like it had affected him, then went back to scrubbing his hands.

He had a bar of soap, I realized, a froth forming at the edge of the water as he rinsed it off his skin.

Another bar sat on the edge of the bathtub, nothing fancy, just the cheap stuff Eddie bought, but I was well used to it. And welcomed the feeling of getting clean.

I had no idea how we’d explain not reeking of shit to Eddie when we got back to the house. We’d have to sneak through the back. Maybe call out to him that we wouldn’t come near him until we smelled better, since it seemed to trouble his delicate sensibilities so much.

I stifled a laugh, remembering the way he’d gagged just from the smell wafting off Zane. It was the same thing he’d done whenever Otis’s diapers had needed changing.

I wondered if Zane knew about his brother’s aversion to feces. And if that was exactly why he’d orchestrated a sewage emergency.

I sank beneath the water, letting it wash over my hair and fill my ears. The warmth enveloped me deliciously, and when I came back up for air, it was with a sense of peace. It was foreign, but I welcomed it. Let it soothe away frazzled nerves that never felt relaxed. Let it ease tense muscles that knew no other way to be.

I rested my arms on the edges of the bathtub, the water just covering my breasts. “You’re going to rub your hands raw if you keep scrubbing them like that,” I called to Zane.

He didn’t turn around. “Maybe so. But you’re naked just a few feet away, and moaning. So I’m just going to keep scrubbing until you’re done and dressed.”

A tiny smile lifted the corner of my mouth as he did indeed scrub at his skin with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. But the more he did it, the more I really was concerned he was going to rub his skin right down to the bone. “You wanted to talk about last night—”

He groaned, standing abruptly. “I know that’s why I got you down here. We do need to talk. But fuck, Fawn.” His shoulders heaved with the weight of too-fast breaths. “I can’t talk about last night when you’re naked.”

“I could get dressed.”

“I would not enjoy that either.” Keeping his back to me, he pulled off his shirt and then his boots.

I laughed while he hopped around on one foot, trying to get his socks off, but the laughter died away as soon as he lowered his work pants, and then his underwear.

He splashed his way into the water naked, wading out into the middle of the stream, which was hip-deep on him, before ducking down to fully submerge himself.

He came back up, all bronzed muscle and water droplets running down his spine. The globes of his ass just peeking out from the water.

“Jesus Christ,” I mumbled to myself, mouth watering.

He still hadn’t peeked a single look at me.

But I stared shamelessly, taking my fill of everything I hadn’t gotten to see in the dark.

Remembering the way he’d touched me, and the response it had elicited from my body, a surge of lust filled me once again.

Zane would leave soon. I was sure of it. Eddie would get better, and he’d release whatever hold it was he had on Zane that currently kept him here. And when that happened, I’d be alone again. Maybe for years. Maybe for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t imagine going another day without having a man touch me the way Zane had last night, let alone years.

It lit up a panic inside me. One that overcame the fear that Zane was tricking me.

Being left alone again was somehow worse.

I got up from the bath, the water sloshing around me, some spilling over the edge of the tub onto the ground below. I stepped out, ignoring the sharp bite of crunchy leaves and twigs beneath my feet, as well as the towels Zane had left for me.

There was no way of keeping my footsteps silent.

“Are you decent?” Zane called. “You found the towels? Can I turn around?”

I wasn’t decent. I was completely bare-ass naked. But that didn’t stop me from softly saying, “You can turn around.”

His groan was guttural, his gaze hitting my body in all the right spots in the space of a second. It roamed across my breasts, my belly, my sex. It lingered on my thighs, my lips, my eyes.

I closed the distance between us, wading into the water until I stood in front of him.

“You wanted to talk,” I whispered.

“I don’t anymore,” he said back, just as softly. He swallowed thickly. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“You already said that.”

“You need to hear it more than once.”

I let out a slow breath, because he was right, I did. But even more than his words, I needed his touch. I needed someone to hold me the way he had last night. Someone to make me feel alive, because the memories of what we’d done was the only way I’d gotten through a day of Eddie’s constant demands and leering stares.

“If you’re tricking me, if this is some kind of game to you…”

He was so quick to answer, his voice deep with sincerity. “I’m not playing any games. He’s blackmailing me. Threatening to hurt our mom if I don’t do what he says. I can’t let him do that.” There was honesty in his eyes. The pureness he’d always had, that time somehow hadn’t taken from him the way it had from me.

But I wanted it back. I wanted to trust people again. To believe not every person out there wanted to hurt me. And so I told him the truth. “He said I had to pretend I wanted this. Make you believe I was here of my own free will.” I swallowed hard, shaking my head. “But I’m not. Not for a second. He chains me up. Never lets me leave. I’m his prisoner. His slave.” My voice broke, as all the built-up anger inside me exploded. “His goddamn fucking property just as much as his car, or this house, and everything inside it is.”

Zane pulled me into his arms, his strong embrace wrapping around me.

I buried my face in his chest and heaved deep breaths of his scent.

I never wanted to move. I could have stood there like that for a lifetime, skin against skin, his hands tight against my back, in what felt like him holding me together. That spark of attraction and the friendship that had always been there between Zane and me suddenly also felt like protection. Not in the same way my brother or sister would have offered. Neither of them would have thought twice about running a blade across Eddie’s throat or squeezing the trigger point-blank against his temple.

Zane didn’t have that sort of violence in him. Neither did I.

Neither of us were our siblings. And I wouldn’t—couldn’t—resent that in him when I couldn’t change it in myself either.

I wanted to kill Eddie with every bone in my body, but I knew I couldn’t. I would have done it by now if I could.

But what we did have was this. A stolen moment of connection I so desperately needed. I lifted my head to stare up at him, drawing back just a tiny bit so I could see his face. “This is dangerous. He’ll kill me if he finds out what we did last night. What we’re doing out here. And I don’t just mean that in the offhand way most people use it.”

He smoothed his hand over the back of my head. “I know. But…”

“But what?”

He stared down at me with those eyes I’d always thought beautiful. They were still filled with the kindness I’d always seen there, but now there was something more. A heat that had kindled years before, but I’d chosen not to see, because I’d picked the wrong brother.

His voice was deep. Husky. “But I really fucking want to kiss you, Fawn. I want to kiss you so damn bad. I always have.”

His fingers slid to the side of my face, the heel of his hand resting against my jaw. He lowered his head, giving me every chance to back away. To say no. To decide for myself what I did or didn’t want.

But in that moment, despite the danger, despite the repercussions, Zane was something I wanted with every fiber of my being.

“Say yes,” he whispered against my lips.

It was the easiest yes I’d ever uttered in my life.

His lips connected with mine.

In an instant, my legs were mush. My knees buckled at his gentle touch and the warm connection. It spread from my lips, tingling its way down my neck and then farther, through my torso and limbs until my entire body felt alive in a way it hadn’t been for the longest time.

It was me who deepened the kiss, needing him closer, greedy for more.

His tongue met mine, and a deep-rooted groan reverberated between us. His hands found my hips, and he lifted me, my legs instinctively wrapping around his waist.

I moaned at the feel of his hard dick pressed between us. I was so opened up to him, all it would take was one well-positioned slide and I’d be on his cock.

Heat thrummed through me, a desperate need to have him inside me.

But he gripped me tighter, kissing me like we were teenagers too scared to go further. His fingers slid to my ass, supporting my weight but making it impossible for me to move to where I needed to.

I rocked against his erection, and we both groaned, but the kiss didn’t end. The gentleness gave way to deep plunges of tongues that spun my head in a way no other man ever had. I suddenly felt like I was drowning, not in the water, but in us. In him. His scent. His mouth. His fingers.

“Zane,” I gasped, squirming in his hold.

But whatever I’d been about to say was lost to his mouth.

He seemed content to just stand there, kissing me and never going further.

But it was killing me. To have him like this but not have him all the way.

My nipples were so hard they ached. My core so wet and slippery I was sure he was coated in my arousal. I moaned against his lips and managed to get out the one word that accurately portrayed what I needed. “More.”

“You don’t need to do this,” he mumbled against my mouth, and then my chin, and then my neck. “We can just kiss.”

I pressed my mouth to his neck. “Is that what you really want?”

“Not even for a moment.”

“He could walk out here at any second.”

Zane let out a growl. “Don’t talk about him when your pussy is sliding all over my dick.” He shifted me higher, so his dick nudged my entrance. “You’re so fucking wet.”

Even though he’d begged me not to talk about his brother, I couldn’t help it. “I’m never wet for him. I wasn’t even sure my body was capable anymore.”

Zane’s gaze caught mine and he slowly inched me down his cock, making sure I had all the time I needed to adjust to his size. I shuddered as I bottomed out, deliciously full of him.

“You’re perfect,” he whispered, kissing me again. “You aren’t broken.”

Zane read people in a way his brother couldn’t. While Eddie needed fear to get them to do what he wanted, Zane watched quietly, so he could understand what was going on in their heads without them even uttering a sound.

I kissed him again, plunging my tongue against his. His hips rocked to meet my core, withdrawing and then pushing back inside, the friction between us so perfectly rubbing my clit at the same time. My legs shook, and my hips ached, not used to being in this sort of position, because Lord knew Eddie had never taken me swimming then fucked me standing up like this. It was too intimate. There was too much connection.

All Eddie had ever wanted was a warm hole to stick his dick. He never looked at me when he was forcing me onto his cock.

He didn’t want to see the dead expression in my eyes, or maybe he would have to realize that the fantasy he’d made up about how happy we were out here was nothing but lies his messed-up brain told him.

I rocked my hips with Zane’s, faster, letting some of that anger and rage fuel my movements. I used Zane’s body, not in the same way his brother used mine, but in a way that brought us both pleasure. And Zane responded in kind, his thrusts faster, harder, each one meeting me so perfectly, stimulating all the neglected parts inside me even I hadn’t been able to wake up.

My orgasm built low, a swirling tingle of nerve endings meeting his touch, everything centering on the connection between us and then spreading like wildfire.

“Oh!” I moaned.

He crushed his mouth to mine, swallowing the sound, even though there was nobody to hear us.

“I need to come,” he groaned in response. “Fuck. I don’t even have a condom. I shouldn’t—”

I slammed my mouth against his again to stop him talking. If he said we couldn’t finish this, I was sure I would actually die.

And that was no longer something I wanted to do.

I squeezed my thighs around him tighter, taking control, bouncing on him without the rhythm he’d had because I was so out of practice, but it didn’t matter because I was just chasing what felt good.

And what felt good for me clearly also felt good for him.

He kissed me hard, my lips bruising beneath his, but the pain was perfection, and that orgasm building inside me had gathered so much steam it needed to find its release.

Buried deep inside me, he shouted my name.

And it was like he’d summoned my orgasm to meet his. Feeling exploded inside me, a gush of arousal or his cum, I didn’t know which, coating my inner thighs. I gripped him harder, pressing my nails into his back while we both fell apart in each other’s arms.

I felt the orgasm in every part of me, from my toes to the very top of my head, and even though we’d both come, Zane didn’t stop kissing me. His kisses turned from frantic and demanding to soft and sweet, and I squealed when he lowered us both back into the water to clean up.

But he was still inside me, and I didn’t want him to leave.

So he just held me there, his dick warm inside, while the water cooled our heated skin.

“I don’t want to go back,” he murmured.

“Me neither. But Otis…”

“I know.” He pulled away and scrubbed his face with his hand. Guilt suddenly took the place of the desire that had been there only moments before.

I froze. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “I need to tell you something. But before I do, I need you to know I didn’t have sex with you just now because I thought it would be my only chance. I didn’t even mean to have sex with you at all…” His brow was full of stress lines. “I just wanted to get you out of that house and do something nice for you.”

I nodded, believing him. “I know. But you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

“The police know you’re here. They know what’s going on. I crashed the car on purpose earlier. And when I was giving my details to the cops, and the other guys were all occupied making statements, I told them about you and Otis and that you’re being held here against your will.”

Shock punched through me. “You what? What did they say?”

His eyes gleamed. “They’re coming out to investigate. All you have to do is tell them the truth, Fawn. They’ll escort you off the property.”

A traitorous glimmer of hope lit up inside me. But my fingers trembled, and I shook my head. “He’ll just come after us. You know he will. He’ll find us wherever we go. Just like he found you. I can’t say anything to the police.”

Zane gripped my arms tighter. “He can’t find you if he’s in prison. His guys are blabbermouths. The ‘legit’ company they’re running is one they blackmailed their way into owning, and it just so happens, they have the contract for the biggest insurance company in the area. I’ll bet anything the house we set on fire earlier today was insured through them.”

“Which means Eddie has a legal company they can use to wash the cash from their illegal activities.”

“Can guarantee Eddie’s never built so much as a treehouse, let alone one that would pass any sort of building code. He’s just keeping the owners happy with extra work in exchange for them washing his cash. If they know where to look, and who to press, the cops can trace all of that back to Eddie.”

I shook my head. “He’ll be out in ninety days. He’ll barely get a slap on the wrist for the drug charges. I don’t even think there’s any in the house right now. It would be a misdemeanor at best.”

Zane brushed water out of his eyes. “It’s not just the drugs. They’ve started helping the Guerras traffic women.”

My mouth dropped open. “Eddie told you that?”

“No, but his guys have big mouths. And human trafficking attracts a jail sentence that’s a lot longer than ninety days.” He gripped my fingers. “You just need to tell them the truth.”

“And he’ll end up in prison,” I whispered, the glimmer of hope shining just a little brighter.

Zane tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “And you’ll be free.”

“We’ll all be free.”

Zane nodded, breathing out a soft breath. “We should get back.”

We dried off quickly and dressed, Zane dragging on his stinking work clothes, me slipping back into the dress that had gotten sweaty from the walk out here. But I didn’t notice the smell anymore.

All I smelled as we walked back to Eddie and the house of horrors he’d created, was freedom.