Page 31 of Into the Blue (Shades of Vengeance #1)

“Don’t do this,” I try to reason with him. “It’s not going to end well for you.” I can’t help that it sounds like a threat, but that is what I’m telling him. A threat.

He was a mark.

I played my part just like how I was supposed to.

The hurt and betrayal in his eyes crawls under my skin anyway. No amount of rationalization could save me now.

I should have done this differently. I know that now.

Maybe he would have heard me out. We could have allied peacefully.

But, Liezel has what we need to carry out the third part of the plan.

All while he held me in that office, the solution we needed was in motion.

“Ha,” a humorless laugh comes from his full lips as he secures the last of my restraints to the bed. “You’re threatenin’ me when it’s you tied up to my bed?”

He had a point.

From his perspective, I was definitely in the worse position between the two of us.

“Please, Milo. Let me explain.”

“Enough,” he grabs something else and moves from the foot of the bed to sit beside my head. “Don’t want any more of your lies. Only truth. And I’m going to get it.”

A gag.

Oh shit, it’s a gag.

He buckles it behind my head and my teeth instantly sink into it. It’s too dark in here. When he’s not on the bed anymore, he’s basically invisible .

I feel a prick on my thigh and moments later, I lose consciousness.

I wake with a sore jaw though at some point the gag was removed from my mouth. It’s dark in the room and I don’t know what time it is.

The small amount that I’m able to lift my head is just enough to catch Milo’s profile only partially illuminated by the heat lamp in the large enclosure at the back of the room.

My forehead begins to sweat before he can reach me.

I can’t see now that he is blending into the darkness of the room. I know for sure he is doing something I won’t like.

No, no, no.

“Don’t panic, it’s not the best idea for you.”

My breath comes at a rapid pace. “What are you doing?”

“Nothin’.” The bed depresses near my feet and then the horrible sensation of something slithering up my left leg makes me freeze. My heart is beating up through my ears as I try not to move at all.

“We’ll start small.” He says and I hear a knife’s signature sound when he removes it from his hip. I can still feel the snakes moving around the bed, but I can only keep my focus on so many things at once.

One slithers over my arm and the other is moving over my stomach.

I hate how big this bed is now because there are moments when they aren’t touching me at all and then out of nowhere, the sensation returns of their muscular bodies taking advantage of new ground.

They may not be venomous, but I’m sure a bite would hurt all the same.

He walks to where my arm is still outstretched by the bindings.

I know better than to pull on them. My shoulder is healed and all.

However, not strong enough to withstand a similar injury.

I grit my teeth when I feel his fingers on my right forearm.

“You’re right handed?” He asks, already knowing the answer.

I don’t respond or give him the satisfaction of seeing how nervous I am. Even though I can’t see him, I have some weird feeling that he can see me.

“Wonder how thick your skin is…” he says. It’s a taunt. I already know his knife is out.

What had I thought before? I was glad that it wasn’t the pointy side that he was sticking in me.

Yea. That ends today.

“What were you doing in my office?” He asks, grip still tight on my hand.

I press my lips together, trying to manage the overwhelming sensations assaulting me at once.

There’s three sharp pricks at the heel of my palm. They bite into my skin though I know they aren’t deep. It stings and it’s even harder not to jerk on my restraints to get away from the acute pain.

Then his mouth is there, licking over the cuts. It stings but feels entirely different as the soft, warm feel of his tongue over the spot is doing something to me. It shouldn’t be doing anything like this.

The moon shifts from behind the clouds, casting the room in an eerie glow. I’m thankful for that small bit of visibility. I don’t know for how long I will be though.

“You know I came home, hopin’ to see you and relax after the shitty trip I just had.

” He chuffs, the sound cynical and cold to my ears.

He gestures to my left arm which still has the AP fastened tight to it.

I hadn’t thought about the watch, but now I wish I weren’t wearing it.

There’s disgust on his face when I look back at him.

“Thought you’d bring me some peace.” He brings my hand to his mouth again but this time, he kisses where he’s cut me and I shiver.

His lips are gone before another four small nicks are stings against my palm again.

He shakes his head, watching the blood well up from his marks and begin to run down my arm. Milo’s voice is too calm as he asks, “What did you find, Racquelle?”

Shit .

I know he broke something in me because I shouldn’t enjoy this. Enjoy is too strong an emotion. It’s like I can’t help but try to squeeze my thighs when his lips meet my hand, soothing the sting before I can truly feel it.

I squirm and squeeze, unable to help how his voice and his mouth are doing things to me that I can’t control.

“Different blade today. Don’t worry. It will scar.”

I can’t see what he’s doing to my hand. All I know is that the anticipation of what he will do next is killing me.

Four more cuts follow and they hurt, like he’s cutting deeper than before. It hurts with the first, but by the time he gets to the fourth, I scream.

“Let’s try an easier question.” His face is above mine now. A tiny droplet of my blood just at the corner of his mouth. He’s untethered—Rage in his eyes though all his words are calm. “Why are you here, Racquelle? You prepared to die for the secrets you’re keepin’ from me?”

I want to come out of my skin. I wish I could tell him, but I know I can’t.

Am I willing to die for this?

I have to be. It’s not only my life on the line.

If I die then too much will fall apart without me. Too many people rely on me now. Whatever I do from this point forward, has to be around getting out of this house.

Or at least to my phone—a phone.

Tears track down my face, as I think quickly. He wipes them away with his thumb, pressing the finger to his mouth taking that alongside the blood still slowly dripping from my hand.

It’s crude.

So crude and wrong.

Still my mind skews the wrong direction.

Just like the first time he showed me his blade in malice, I throw caution aside and lean into the possession he has over me.

If Milo wanted me dead, I would be.

I know that without a doubt.

He’s already executed multiple men just to have me to himself.

Changed his business.

Changed his lifestyle.

My voice is tentative and broken when I say his name softly. “Milo, please.”

His eyes meet mine, depths soaking in everything of me at his mercy. It’s not only anger simmering in those eyes, but betrayal.

I betrayed his trust.

Something he doesn’t give to anyone.

“Listen to me, please,” I beg. Pride long gone when I am so vulnerable.

His jaw works, but he sits back. Giving me space.

Rocky, you have to make this work.

You have no other choice.

“After my mother passed I went looking for my father.” I swallow deeply, allowing the pain of her passing to bleed into my words because it is the truth. Missing parts of the truth, but still true. “Searching led me here to Clayton Terrace. Off Topz was hiring and I got the job… and you found me.”

Skepticism remains on his face, but he asks, “Did you find him?”

I nod, not ready to tell him what I know he won’t want to hear.

Swiping the blade along his sleeve to clean it. He returns it to the sheath and begins looking for something under the bed that I can’t see.

A small box is in his hands and he opens it to pull out… a bandage.

My hand stings immediately with whatever he’s cleaning it with. “Don’t want you to bleed out,” he explains as he applies a bandage over my hand.

Saying nothing, I wait for him to finish tending to the damage he caused. Milo makes no attempt to free me from where I’m restrained on the bed, but he does remove the snakes at least. He carries one in his hands while the other has worked its way up his arm.

I breathe a sigh of relief that I’m the only snake on this bed again.

He returns to the bed, sitting between my legs still spread wide with only the thin cotton material of my sleep shorts between us. They do nothing to disguise the wet spot that only grows with his proximity. He doesn’t comment on it, just runs a finger over the dampness.

I can’t close my legs to keep him from making it worse and he knows it .

He rubs a slow circle around my clit. It’s too slow to truly make me come, but it’s more than enough to tease me.

“Milo, I—”

“That’s enough talking for now.”

Rocky, you have to give him what he wants.

You have no other choice.

“That feel good?” He asks, the same slow, teasing pace setting my nerves on fire.

Time he spends with his gloved finger exploring the dip and swell of my lips to the hood of my clit. Over and over. Moments that become minutes of his ministrations. My brain gets fuzzy as lust rises in his focus on my body.

I start to speak, but snap my mouth closed. He said no talking. I nod my head.

“Can you take more?”

I nod my head again.

He reaches for his hip and the knife is back out. Lifting the leg of my shorts, he cuts them open from one side to the other so my pussy is completely exposed to him.

Milo makes quick work of cutting the top flap of my shorts so that it isn’t in his way. For too long, he just looks at the knife against my thigh. The flat of the blade rests along the crease with the sharp serrated edge closest to my sensitive flesh.

Oh, fuck.

Please , I beg emphatically in his direction.

He doesn’t hear me, but he smiles anyway, taking a moment to readjust the glove on his hand.