Page 41 of Savage Captor (Deadly Devotion #1)

“Do what you will.” I’ll submit to his depravities, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be happy about it. That doesn’t mean I’ll thank him for doing this to me or be nice to him. I can try to appear to enjoy what he’s doing to me in the morning, but not tonight.

“Scarlett,” Monster repeats again. His fingers on my nipple slow, until he’s just cupping my breasts. “If I’d have known, I would have handled that differently. Let me make it up to you.”

I look at him, swallowing harshly. There’s nothing he could do to make that experience up to me. Even though I try to hide it, he must see the defiance in my eyes, because he reaches up to cup my cheek. “Please. I didn’t want it to be like that either.”

I scan his face, looking for any hints of insincerity.

His voice has changed back to his normal one—not the dominant one he uses when he wants me to fall in line.

His dom-tone is meant to leave no room for negotiations, but right now, I hear something akin to a plea in his tone.

He’s trying to mask it, but I think he genuinely wants me to give him a chance to change the narrative on tonight.

Despite my bluster, I want to change the narrative, too. I’ll be a little less miserable while I plan my way out of here if I don’t think of tonight as the time I got raped. I don’t want to be a victim.

Monster might be looking for redemption, but I’m looking for something else entirely. I’m seeking to take back a morsel of control.

I exhale a deep breath and force myself to relax. Coax myself to relax. Messed up as it is, if Monster can manage to make tonight slightly more palatable, he’ll be doing a favor for both of us.

“There it is,” he murmurs softly. “Good girl.”

Warmth tugs at my lower belly at his praise. It’s completely wrong, but it’s there; some desire to be acknowledged and seen in a positive light.

God, it’s screwed up. It’s so screwed up, but I need this.

I need something to ease the blows of tonight.

I know that everything’s different now—I just know it.

My virginity is gone, brutally torn away from me by a cruel twist of fate, but maybe the pain can be softened with a little pleasure.

Just a drop to ease the jagged edges of this terrible, endless night.

“Have you ever been touched by another man?” Monster asks.

I bite my lower lip as he runs his thumbs back and forward over my nipples. It feels strange, so strange, but also… good. The touch and sensation it inspires is entirely foreign, but not unwelcome. Any other time it would be, but not right now.

“I asked you a question, Scarlett.”

I shake my head slowly.

He pinches my nipples. “Words. ”

“N-no.”

“Good. Very good.” Monster pauses to think for a moment. “Ever been touched by a woman?”

“No.”

“Excellent. I’m going to touch you a lot from here on out, Scarlett, and not just the way I have been the last few weeks.

I’m going to touch you anywhere I want, however I want, for whatever purpose I want.

” One of his hands disappears from my breast, and I gasp as he cups my pussy in his palm.

Tears spark in my eyes at the sting I feel down there.

“This pussy is going to get used to taking a pounding. You got that?”

“Monster,” I whisper. “Please…”

“No. Whatever it is you’re going to ask, no, because I’ll decide what you do and don’t get.

And if you’re a very good girl for me, Scarlett, what you’ll get is spoiled.

With orgasms, with presents, with whatever you want.

If you’re a bad girl, you won’t get anything—except to take my cock whenever I feel like it. Got it?”

His words are humiliating. He’s treating me like an object instead of a person—no, more like a pet . A dog that’ll get rewarded if it follows commands but locked in a cage if it deviates from its master’s wishes.

Monster’s fingers press inside me as his eyes darken. The intrusion hurts . “Do you fucking understand me?”

I can’t refuse him without making things worse for myself; that’s the crux of our issue. It’s either agree with him, become his dog, or live in misery until the day I die—which I still suspect won’t be far off. “Yes.”

“Good girl.” His fingers slip out of me, and I can't hide my breath of relief. The ache is still present, but it becomes a stinging burn when he grips me too hard, let alone penetrates the flesh he tore just minutes ago. “Here’s a taste of a reward. Spread your legs wider for me. ”

I swallow hard but don’t move. Monster arches an imperious eyebrow. “Now, Scarlett, unless defying me is your invitation for a second round. If that’s the case, I’m happy to oblige.”

It’s all threats with him. All blackmail. All horror . Either I do something I don’t want to do, or something I want even less will ensue.

I just have to endure until I can find a way out of here . I need to get my hands on a layout of this building, and of the surrounding buildings—the whole forest—and then I can go about getting myself the hell away.

I slowly inch my legs apart.

“Good girl,” Monster murmurs, and I hate the heat that flickers to life inside of me from his praise. I hate every fiber of his being… even if there are parts of him I understand. Like the broken man who lost his brother.

I was like that when I lost Mom…

“Stop thinking,” Monster commands me. “Feel, Scarlett.” His thumb rises to rest on my clit, and despite the light pressure, the sensation is so intense that I jerk. It feels weird. Super weird, but also… perversely enjoyable.

Monster rubs a slow circle over my bundle of nerves, and I gasp. He smirks. “That’s more like it,” he murmurs.

The tilt of his lips is far more cruel than it is amused, but I don’t have time to think about that, because something tugs in my lower belly. It’s almost like an ache, except different. More, somehow. It’s… perversely enjoyable.

“No more thoughts, hmm?” he asks, speeding his motions on my clit. My back arches involuntarily, and my hips buck into his touch. “Is that an invitation for another round on my cock? ”

“No, please,” I breathe. Sex hurt so much, but this feels good. It’s getting better by the moment, and that tug inside me is spreading into a warm ache.

“I’ll fuck you if I want to fuck you, Scarlett,” he mutters.

“I’m being kind to you tonight, but don’t expect me to be so considerate in the future.

Remember, I decide what happens .” He stares deep into my eyes as he works my clit, proving his point.

“And right now, I’m deciding that you’re going to come.

Come for me .” He shifts his body to the side and leans over me.

I suck in a sharp breath as he licks a path over the top swell of my breast, and then laves his tongue over my nipple.

The sensation shoots sparks through my body that converge around my clit, and my inner muscles clench.

He sucks my nipple into his mouth, releasing it long enough to murmur, “Come now .”

I try to hold back the pleasure that I can feel building toward some sort of crest, just to be defiant.

Just to prove that he might’ve taken my body, but that doesn’t mean he owns me.

Not my heart and certainly not my soul. I try so hard, but my attempts are entirely in vain.

I jerk as pleasure slams into me with frightening impact, making my back bow.

My inner muscles pulse, clenching over and over again as Monster sucks my nipple and circles my clit, and renewed tears spark in my eyes.

Any remnant of pain ebbs, leaving behind only warm, silken pleasure that quickly morphs into a raging inferno—because Monster doesn’t stop.

He switches nipples, but doesn’t give my clit a break, and suddenly, the pleasure is too much. I’ve never orgasmed before, and while it felt incredibly good for a little while, it doesn’t feel quite so good anymore. There’s a sharp edge to the pleasure that’s beginning to border on pain.

“Monster, please,” I whisper. “Please. Too much.”

“I say when it’s too much,” he responds, pulling off my nipple.

“God, I wish I had my fingers inside of you for that. I would kill to feel you clench around them as you come.” He leans forward until our eyes are locked, and the movements of his thumb stop.

It pins my clit down with steady pressure, and I feel it throb with each of my heartbeats.

I’m confused and enlightened at once, and I think I might actually understand what the hype about sex is now.

I know it doesn’t always culminate in orgasms, as the previous…

intrusion proved, but when it does I can imagine it’s amazing.

Monster’s eyes flick down to my lips and lock on them. He wets his own with a quick dart of his tongue, and perversely, that’s when panic sets in. He’s already taken a lot of my firsts that he doesn’t deserve, but I do not want to kiss him. I want to keep that first, if nothing else.

“Please, no,” I whisper. Because I want to make this plea very damn convincing, I reach up with my hand and cup his cheek.

It’s coarse beneath my touch, a bit rugged, and not entirely unpleasant.

What truly shocks me is his reaction; he releases a small moan, and his eyes flutter at my touch.

Jesus , do I really affect him that much?

I’ve never instigated touching him, so maybe it’s the surprise factor?

“You don’t want me to kiss you?” he asks, gazing into my eyes again.

I shake my head. What can I say that’ll convince him to leave this one choice to me? “I don’t want to kiss you until I want to. That’s what would make it real.”

His eyes close for several long moments.

When they open, there’s a mix of resignation and disappointment in them.

“Alright. You can have that—but only that, Scarlett. I won’t make you kiss me.

Everything else is up for grabs.” He releases my clit and climbs off my body.

“Shower if you want. I’ve got some things I need to take care of. I’ll be back later.”

He gave me power. Not much, but just enough to tell me that I have power over him .

He cares about me wanting him, otherwise he would’ve just laughed and kissed me anyways when I protested.

In a world where I’ve only ever been afforded very little power, almost all of which has now been stripped away, knowing that Monster wants something from me makes me feel damn power ful .

Several things click into place. His gentleness with me the last few weeks—I couldn’t understand it before, it confounded me, but now I get it.

Even the darkest, cruelest Monsters crave love, and Monster lost the one person who loved him—his twin. He’s searching for something to replace that connection—something very different than a sibling bond, granted, but a bond nevertheless. And for some reason, he’s searching for that with me .

Now that… that is something I can work with.