Page 27

Louhi

“Take Borman next door and deal with him,” Digs orders Honey Eyes, the two of them disappearing as Honey Eyes drags the screaming guard from the room.

Digs slices through the bindings at my feet and my breaths become more rapid as I snivel, “Wait—”

Rancor sparks, tossing gasoline on my fiery need for retribution. I’m not finished with those who dared to snuff out my light. Digs ignores me, however, slicing through the rope over my head. My muscles fail me as I fall into Digs’s powerful body, his strong arms wrapping around me as he catches me.

“Shut the fuck up and let me take care of you, Lou. Honey Eyes will keep him warm for you, I promise.” Part of me loves that Digs is calling his mate Honey Eyes now. I hope that nickname sticks long after I’m gone from this place.

He drapes my body carefully across the table in the corner of the room, the biting chill of the metal making me grimace. My wounds pull and sting, but I grit my teeth against the discomfort. Digs disappears and returns a moment later with clean hands and a first aid kit. While I think I’m far past a first aid kit, I don’t say anything as he begins cleaning some of the deeper cuts with antiseptic, making me hiss .

My eyes fill with tears—from the punch of physical or emotional pain, I don’t know—but blink past them, fixing my gaze on the ceiling for a moment before meeting his gaze. “I thought—I thought you were with them.”

His eyes, the color of sunlight kissing the vast ocean, soften in a way I’ve never observed from him. “I told you that you could trust me.”

“You…you proved it,” I whisper, my voice hoarse.

“I said that I would.”

A warm tear slips free, sliding down my cheek as we observe each other, but I don’t make a move to wipe it away. My lashes grow heavier, clumping together, as I fight the urge to let the dam break.

“I’ve never trusted anyone before,” I admit. “Except for my brother.”

His movements halt as he sets the bottle of disinfectant down next to my bare shoulder. As his masked face appears above mine, he brushes a hand over my hair, the look in his eyes spearing me right in the chest. Like a bell tolling, I can hear the sepulchral tone of my heart for the first time since my parents’ death.

Would it really be so bad if I let this man in? How dangerous would it be for me to give Digs a tiny piece of myself? Fuck, I want to open for him like I’ve never opened for anyone.

The tectonic plates between us shift as Digs trails his hand from my head down my face, my neck, my breasts. He leans down, pulling his mask up over his mouth, his pink tongue darting out to lick the bleeding cut just above my nipple, before nipping at the tightened bud.

“Damn vampire,” I hiss.

His dark chuckle reaches my ears. “I’d bleed you dry if that’s what it took to be with you.”

To be with you. Is that what he wants? Is that what I want? Bloody hell, I think it might be .

Doubt creeps in, and I pull my upper body up to lean on my forearms, my abs seeping more blood with the movement.

“I—I don’t even know what you look like.”

“Is that what you need? To see my face? To know what you’re getting?” he asks, his voice rougher than usual.

“No.” I already know I’ll find perfection beneath his mask. I don’t need to see his face to know exactly the man I’m getting in Digs.

“Good, now lie back.” My argument now removed, I gingerly do as I’m told, and he yanks me toward the end of the table by the ankles. I choke on the breath caught in my throat as white-hot pain lances through the open wounds on my back, setting my nerve endings on fire. Curiosity and excitement bubble through me, eclipsing the pain, as my legs dangle over the end, my arse at the edge.

“Wh—what are you doing?”

“Making you mine.”

I want that. I want him.

Raw adrenaline races inside my veins, my heart rate spiking at his words, jolting me to full consciousness. Desire surges through me, likely visible between my thighs, as my entire body tightens in anticipation.

He sweeps his fingers across my bleeding abdomen, making me inhale sharply at the pang, but the kiss of discomfort is overshadowed as he covers my cunt with my blood. My chest heaves as he repeats the process, dipping his fingers into the pools of blood in various places on my person before smearing it inside and out of me.

Lifting my head, I catch him tugging off his shirt that’s covered in the blood of the dead guards and discard it, leaving his tan chest bare, save for the silver dog tags resting against his flesh, glinting beneath the fluorescent light. His burly physique is nothing but cut ridges and hard planes with veins slithering across them. Ample muscles give credence to his solid strength, but he’s lean and lissome in a way that portrays an agility that matches his brawn .

His body is nothing short of incredible.

As he unfastens his belt, his abs tighten, bunching as he shoves his uniform trousers and boxer-briefs down past my eye line. He takes his impressive erection in his hand and strokes himself a few times, a bead of moisture glistening at the tip. I moan at the sight, my pussy fluttering. Just as I give in to the temptation to reach for him, he steps between my spread thighs, lining himself up with my entrance.

Craning my neck, I strain to watch as he slides himself up and down through the blood and copious wetness gathered between my legs.

“I told you I’d use my cock to coat your insides in your blood, but I will be the only one to make you bleed from now on. Do you understand?”

I whimper, bucking my hips, urging him to dip inside.

“I said, ‘ Do. You. Understand?’”

“Yes.”

“Say, ‘yes, Sean.’”

Sean. Every time this man reveals something new, another brick of the wall around my heart falls away.

“Yes, Sean,” I repeat, his name tasting like the most decadent dessert on my tongue. “Make me yours, Sean,” I demand, dying to taste his name again.

With our eyes locked, he slides inside, drawing a whimper from me at the glorious invasion. His thrusts are agonizingly slow and methodical, every ridge and vein of his cock caressing my inner walls. He maintains his languid pace, and it’s the sweetest form of torture I’ve endured. My eyes drift close, my fingers finding purchase on the lip of the table as he begins to stroke my clit in tandem.

It’s not long before his self-control snaps, and he begins to slam into me with faster and harder thrusts, just the way I like, the dog tags around his neck jingling with his movements. His cock finds that euphoric place inside of me and assaults it with expert precision, my lashes tickling my cheeks as my eyelids flutter shut.

Just as his name flies from my lips, my eyes snap open, his expression dripping with power and possessiveness. I want to lap it up like it’s the nectar of the gods, and maybe it is—the nectar of someone who’s quickly becoming my god, anyway.

When he removes his fingers from my clit, I whine at the loss, but cut myself off when he leans over my body, grasping me by the neck firmly with one hand and clenching the top of his mask with the other. Slamming back into me, he yanks his mask off, my gaze pinned on his face as I take in his masculine beauty. And damn, he’s nothing short of magnificent.

“Look at me, Lou. See who you belong to.”

And I fucking do.

His clean-shaven jawline is as sharp as the knife he used to pluck that guard’s eyes out. A faint, small scar runs diagonally between his left temple and the top of his cheekbone. His nose is long and strong, appearing to have been broken a few times, and his ash-brown stern eyebrows appear to be a shade or two lighter than his cropped hair. As someone who hasn’t kissed anyone in years, I surprise myself by suddenly dying to feel his enviable lips on mine. They beg to be kissed.

He tightens his grip on my windpipe subtly, an overt reminder of who holds the power here, though it’s not enough to choke me, as he continues to pound into me, his tags kissing my breasts. Relaxing into his grasp, my orgasm tingles on the horizon. I stare into his handsome face as we both chase the wave, my entire body coiling with the impending release.

Just as I’m about to topple into orgasmic bliss, I claim, “You’re mine, Sean.”

He growls a confirmation as I scream through my climax, my back arching, my fingers clawing at the table for purchase before finding Sean’s back, my nails digging into his skin as he follows me into ecstasy. I hope I scar him.

Sean

We stare at each other as our breathing regains its normal rhythm. Lou tentatively reaches up and drags a finger down the side of my face as a small smile touches her lips. I didn’t realize it until now, but I was nervous for her to see my face. I was shielding myself behind the sense of anonymity my mask provided. It felt unguarded for her to see the real me. Though, no more vulnerable than telling her my real name or claiming her as mine, I suppose.

Releasing her neck, I right myself, reluctantly sliding out of her, my cock coated in Louhi. As I stare down at the streaks of her blood still clinging to me, I smirk. Quickly, I redress myself from the waist down and slip into the storage room to grab a blanket.

When I get back, Lou has curled into the fetal position on the table and the sight makes me see red all over again.

I had been asleep when something woke me up. Unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong, I got dressed to make sure everything was locked down as it should be. I had just laced my boots when I heard the scream, immediately recognizing the sound as coming from Louhi. It wasn’t the kind of scream that made my dick hard or something I ever wanted to hear again. No, this scream wrapped itself around my heart like a damn boa constrictor, nearly squeezing the life out of me. It wasn’t the same scream she’s made for me. This scream was different: panicked, agonizing, a sound of surrender that had me racing toward the source at a dead sprint.

Even from down the dingy hallway, her presence radiated from the room she was held in like a torch cutting through the inky night. She lights up the dark; but much like a bonfire, if you get too close, you’ll burn to ashes.

What she doesn’t realize is that I’d risk a thousand infernos for her.

The tether grounding me snapped like a rotten cord weathered from years of sunlight. I’ve never known rage like the kind that pumped through me at the sight of Lou strung up, sliced open, covered in her own blood. However, it was the look of total defeat etched onto her pretty, blood-smeared face that cut my heart open. She had given up. She was waiting for death to take her from me. She was fucking ready for it. That only made me angrier, and I didn’t hesitate in killing Davis for daring to make her feel that way.

The faint glimmer of herself that resurfaced when she told me that she wanted Jones for herself was the only thing that pulled me back from losing myself to the pitch-black rage nearly eclipsing my mind. It gave me pause when she said she wanted his eyes, but fuck if I didn’t want to give that woman everything she desires in this world, including a set of eyeballs. The fact that she trusted me with her retribution told me everything I wondered about how Lou felt about me.

She trusts me.

That was only etched into stone the moment she said she was mine. She sealed her damn fate when she cried out that I was hers too.

“Sean,” Lou mumbles, and my heart squeezes at the sweet sound of my name on her luscious lips.

Begrudgingly, I tug my mask back over my head, but forgo my shirt before answering her, “Yeah, Lou?”

“Can I kill the other one?” she asks groggily, making me chuckle as I wrap the blanket tightly around her, scooping her into my arms as I carry her from the room. I’m growing concerned about her blood loss and injuries. I shouldn’t have fucked her like that, but I couldn’t stop myself because I’m a bastard of the highest order .

“Yeah, baby. You can kill him,” I promise as her eyes drift close.

Gently, I place her on the table in the center of the infirmary operating room. We need some privacy, and since I’ll, apparently, be removing the eyes of anyone who sees her naked body, this is my only option.

When her brown eyes crack open again and she takes in the room we’re in, panic transforms her face.

“Breathe with me,” I instruct her, grabbing her by the shoulders and staring into her eyes. Fuck, I’ve gone softer than wet clay, but I don’t mind so much when it comes to Lou.

“In and out. Yeah, that’s it,” I coach her, and when she’s regained a semblance of calm, I add, “I needed to bring you in here so I can stitch you up, okay? I won’t leave you.”

She gives me a small nod, yet wraps the blanket around her tighter. What the fuck happened to this girl that she loses her shit every time we come in here?

Deciding that this isn’t the time to talk to her about that, I ask something equally important. “Can you tell me what happened tonight? What did they do?”

I want to think they didn’t sexually assault her, but I need to make sure I didn’t make a royal mistake by drawing that conclusion. The fact that everyone learned that the camera had been removed tells me they chose that room on purpose, wanting to hide their actions.

When her breathing is robotic, but steady, I release her, moving to the cabinet, grabbing more antiseptic and the suture kit. Jones would’ve been better at this, but he’s dead, and while it won’t be as pretty, I know how to do it. Every soldier on the island has been trained with basic survival skills, and I guess that’s coming in handy now; though I doubt the government would like to hear that I’m using my training to help an inmate, no matter how special I claim she is.

When I return to Lou, she’s still in the same position, stretched out with the blanket around her. I pull up the bottom of the blanket to reveal her upper thigh, and give her a shot of lidocaine.

“Lou?” I prompt.

“They drugged me and took me from my cell. When I came to, I was how you found me. They said something about me being sentenced to die, but no one cared how they did it. That’s when they began cutting me.”

Despite the sickening agony she endured, relief floods me that they didn’t take things further. If they had, I’d have found a way to bring Jones and Davis back to kill them again, more viciously.

She’s quiet for a long time before she admits almost wistfully, “No one’s ever rescued me before.”

Well, fuck me straight to hell. I position my body so I’m staring down into her face and yank the stupid mask from my head once more, wanting her to see my whole face as I explain, “Louhi, believe me when I say that I’ll save you every fucking time.”