His teeth sink into my earlobe until it hurts, until I’m arching back against the tree trunk like it’s going to save me. It’s too much. My body can’t hold all this grief and all this want for him. More raindrops fight through the trees and land coldly on my face. “You’re not. You saved me.”
“I pulled you out of the water to make a profit. Any evil bastard would have done the same.”
It hurts to hear it, but it’s a clean pain, not the bruised, broken mess of losing the future I was supposed to have with my dad. “You’re not going—” Poseidon wraps his hand fully around my throat and another stream of fat tears runs down over my cheeks and onto his skin. He’s taking the air from me, little by little. The sea would do it all at once. Poseidon is only playing. He’s only pushing to see when I’ll finally break. Joke’s on him. I’m already ruined. “You’re not going to convince me you’re the villain.”
Another laugh, this one dark like the ocean on a moonless night. “I’m exactly that.” I would believe him if his voice didn’t sound so rough, like a man who’s been standing on the shore and cursing the waves for weeks and months and years. “I keep you here because the sight of those tears on your face is worth the ransom.” He steps in closer, stealing the rest of the space, and presses his tall, muscled body against mine. A shiver works its way down through my spine at how hard he is. How ready. “Here’s your proof, princess.”
And then it doesn’t matter that he has both my wrists in a too-tight grip or that I’m pinned to a tree or that he’s trying to hurt me.
I want him.
I want Poseidon, and if I have to fight my way past this wounded version of him, then I will. He’s jumped into the ocean after me more than once. He sent his only home to the bottom of the ocean to buy me a future. We’re both being swallowed up by grief.
There are two choices: kick for the surface, or let the current take me.
I angle my head forward and bite him back, right through his shirt. He makes a low noise and pushes forward. Forces my head back.
Kisses me.
It’s a hard, vicious thing. Nothing sweet about it. Nothing kind.
It tears a gasp from me as his hand squeezes tighter around my neck. I’m wet. Wet from the rain, and wet from Poseidon, and I clench around the emptiness he’s taunting me with right now.
I’m a shameless captive, and I can’t even say it’s against my will. It’s not.
I try to lift my legs, to wrap them around his waist, but Poseidon kicks them apart and crowds me against the tree.
He searches my face, his breathing ragged, and I don’t know what he’s looking for. I don’t know what to say to get past this monumental torture to some kind of release. Poseidon pushes my arms up above my head and rakes his gaze down over my body. I’m a mess. My tank top is twisted around my waist and my shorts have been tugged down by my own movement.
That’s not enough for Poseidon. He shoves the shorts down, along with my panties, until there’s space for him to put his shoe between my legs and stomp. Both articles are crushed into the mud under his foot. They take my running shoes along with them. My socks, somehow.
I’m left with nothing but my bra and tank top and Poseidon, who leans in close so he can lick the tears off my cheeks. They keep coming, but now he ignores them to put a big palm on the inside of my thigh.
I spread my legs for him. For this shipwrecked pirate with no home. For the man who killed a part of himself so I could live. For the man who hurts me. For the man who repents.
Poseidon strokes his fingers there, circling my opening until my whole body trembles.
Then he impales me. Three thick fingers. Hardly any warning.
My moan echoes off the trees.
2
Poseidon
I wait for Ashley to open her eyes and look at me. Her cheeks are stained pink from crying and from how hot she is for this. My fingers are slicked with her, and her pussy flutters around me. This is the only reason I’m still breathing the air on this godforsaken island.
I need to fuck her.
I need something more from her first.
I’ve become a walking open wound, and I’m beginning to worry about infection. I could die here. From this. From everything. From the island. From the incessant rain.
From my ship, sinking in front of my eyes.
Ashley writhes on my fingers, making little noises of pain and arousal as she does it. My princess can’t help moving her hips like she’s never wanted anything more. I finger-fuck her with slow strokes until her eyelids flutter and her blue eyes meet mine.
The trust there stops my heart.
I came looking for her because I found that damned house empty. No Ashley in any of the rooms, only a hint of her scent. I’ve been furious since I saw her shoes were missing.
Since before then, but this thing she keeps doing—disappearing to climb hills in the forest—is going to kill me, and I’m already half-dead.
I came looking for her, and I found her, and I was an asshole. I said things to push her away and here she is, parting her sweet thighs another inch to let me take her harder. Here she is, testing my grip on her wrists with little pulses that tell me what I already know.
She likes to be held this way. She likes to fight me.
Most of all, she likes to lose.
Only I’m the lost one now.
I’m the monster who came prowling up into the hills to find her and teach her a lesson. Some fucking lesson. She’s learning I can’t stay away from her. She’s learning I’m a terrible prick who’s willing to trade my sanity for her safety. We’re not safe here. She’ll never be safe as long as she’s with me, as long as we’re wanted by the US government. Those Navy ships didn’t back away from the battle because they were finished with us. They were backing off to regroup. Zeus found out through one of his old clients three days after we got here. I have no idea how to get them to stop looking for a US citizen who was kidnapped by a pirate.
Ashley bites her lip to try and stifle a whimper. My teeth click together under the pressure of my jaw. “You should be embarrassed,” I hiss at her. “Fucking my fingers while you cry about your daddy.”
Tears run silent down her face, and she whimpers again. It’s a half-moan now, but Ashley swallows hard and lifts her chin. “I can miss him,” she manages, “and want you.”
“Don’t,” I growl into her face, thrusting my fingers with more force, unable to stop. “Don’t pretend it’s me you want. Don’t lie to yourself.”
I press a thumb to her clit and Ashley shudders.
“I’m the only one who’s being honest.” Her breath hitches with every word. “You’re the liar. You say you’re an evil villain, and you’re not. You say you’re only keeping me here because you want—you want—” I’m coaxing a mean orgasm out of her and it’s working. Ashley isn’t doing a fucking thing to stop me. She’s only getting hotter and wetter. “Because you want money, and you want to see me cry. But it’s not true.”
“It’s all true. And you get off on it. A princess like you always does. You’re a filthy little thing who leaves before sunrise at the next port.”