Dark Need (House of Sin 3)

Which means there’s only one solution to make her beg for forgiveness …

Pain.

Present

Her lips part. “What do you do then?”

She doesn’t really want the answers to her questions, yet she keeps on asking.

Is she that much of a masochist? Or does she just enjoy her own fear?

My tongue darts out to wet my bottom lip as I wonder what would happen if I do tell her.

No one’s here to listen.

And no one will rescue her if she tries to escape.

I hate speaking, especially small talk, but this isn’t that. I can tell from the serious look on her face that she’s genuinely interested. But she isn’t prepared for my answer.

“I punish people,” I respond.

“In that dungeon?”

When I nod, she swallows.

I hadn’t planned on her seeing where I work, but I needed an alternate route outside so she wouldn’t try to talk to the other … guests.

Anything to stop them from riling each other up and starting a riot.

But now it’s come back to bite me in the ass.

“How?” she asks.

I bite my bottom lip as I stare her directly in the eyes, wanting to savor the moment as she shifts in her seat. “Torture.”

Her pupils dilate, and the expected muscles tighten, her shoulders rising as her thighs clench hard.

“So those tools I saw … you use them on those people?” she asks.

I nod.

She sucks in a breath. “Even women?”

When my eyes narrow, she holds her breath as though she’s afraid I might show her what I do right here and now.

But I promised Eli I’d safely get her to the location, so that’s not an option.

However, no one ever said she needs to know that.

“I thought the women were punished with sex,” she mutters.

“Most of the time,” I reply, still not looking away. “But some …”

“Needed harsher treatment,” she fills in, sucking at the air like she’s struggling to breathe.

Fear settles in her eyes, and I can’t help but tilt my head, a slight hint of a smirk forming on my lips at the sight of her clutching the log underneath her ass. The scent of fear has always excited me, especially that of my victims, but none compare to the smell of hers. The way she inches back as I rub my beard and lean in. The way I can almost hear her heart beat faster and faster at the thought of me chasing her, catching her … doing whatever I want to her body.

Whatever I could.

Smell her hair.

Sink my teeth into her skin.

Suck on her ….

Suddenly, pain shoots down between my legs, my thighs tensing at the volatile sharp sting. My hand instinctively reaches for my cock. I groan and close my eyes while I clench my teeth and force myself to think of something else.

Violence. Blood. Hurt. Slicing.

Anything to take my thoughts away from this woman and from what’s forbidden.

My mind trails off to the safety of the dungeon, to the place I called home for so long. No distractions, just me and my victims. Me and my stone-cold heart.

Pain is what I thrive in.

But this?

This is what I cannot take.

Because when I open my eyes, she’s still there, still so very naked, wrapped in nothing but a blanket, and it’s set off something in my body that I do not want and cannot control.

So I get up from my log. “Stay,” I bark before I march off.

Chapter 7

April

When he disappears behind a few trees, I’m completely stunned.

What the hell just happened?

I know the questions I asked were very out there, and I’m not sure I was prepared for the answers, but I didn’t expect this reaction.

Was it because of something I said? Or because of something I did?

I clutch the blanket closer to my body, feeling very cold all of a sudden.

Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to dig so deep, but I was too curious to stop. I mean, when do you ever get the chance to sit down with one of these men and have a one-on-one conversation? Never.

This was the only shot I was gonna have at getting a little closer to the truth, so I took it.

But the way he just said the word “torture” as though it meant nothing to him caught me off guard. I mean, I know sadists exist … I just never expected to talk to someone who does it on the daily like some sort of profession.

And then to actually admit that some get sex as a punishment and others get pain? That just boggles my mind.

But it wasn’t his answers that made me feel so small at that moment. It was the way he looked at me, his eyes penetrating my very soul as though he was searching for my reaction. That’s what made me clench my thighs together and wish I wasn’t so naked.

But I guess it’s too late for that.