Dark Need (House of Sin 3)

This is what they do.

They put us up against each other.

Try to make us see there is no way out but forward.

Fight through the pain, fight through the tears, and don’t ever feel sorry.

In the end, it will all be worth it.

April

Present

I haven’t seen or spoken to Soren in hours.

I don’t know if he’s still around, and I don’t know what to do about that. Though I doubt he would just leave me stranded in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

He wanted to complete his job more than anything, and that means keeping me safe. So he must be close by. Just not close enough so I can see him.

But the mess in this cabin almost makes it impossible to navigate around, so I opt to enter my bedroom instead. Sighing, I lie down on the bed and stare up at the ceiling, images of him pounding into me flashing through my head.

My body gets flustered, so I grab a pillow to cover my face, and I scream out loud.

Goddammit, why can’t I get him and his hot fuckery out of my head?

It was wrong, so wrong, and I hate him for doing what he did, for taking from me what wasn’t his to take.

Yet … it felt so … fucking good.

That every time I think about it, I get wet all over again.

And I shouldn’t. I know that.

But how am I supposed to stop my body from reacting to him the way it does?

Just think of something else.

Think of flowers. Think of the sea. Think of vacation. Of being home.

Home … that would be nice. I would open my bakery to earn some hard money and work on getting my loans paid off so I can fulfill the promise I made to my parents before they died. I am going to make it.

And I am never, ever going to trust men again.

Because all they ever do is cheat and have sex.

That’s all their brains are hardwired for.

Sex, sex, sex.

Even if they hurt the woman they care about, even if they made a vow of abstinence together … none of it matters.

I cover my face again with the pillow as I’m embarrassed for even thinking about my ex.

Why did I go there?

None of it is even remotely relatable.

Eric is somewhere out there with his new fling, and I’m … here … caught up in a whirlwind of my own making with a man who acts more like a beast than a man.

Groaning, I turn around on the bed, forcing myself to stop thinking about it.

Focus on your future, April. Focus on your escape. And focus … on not letting yourself get enticed into having dirty, raunchy sex with the mountain man right outside.

Soren

After I’ve chopped all the blocks we need to keep the place warm, I throw them into the wooden box behind the cabin and blow out a breath. Time to gather the courage to go back inside and face the girl.

Why can’t this just be easy?

Whenever I tortured a woman in my dungeon, her cries never made me stop. Not until I’d completed my job. Yet this girl manages to make me feel … weak.

And if there’s anything I hate, it’s feeling weak.

But how do I fix this?

I can’t go back in time and undo what happened.

She shouldn’t have ripped off the metal. I warned her what would happen, and she did it anyway.

And why did she want to help me?

Why did she even care how painful that metal was for me?

She’s a captive. My captive.

She’s supposed to hate me.

She isn’t supposed to … feel pity for me.

And it makes me want to lash out.

I throw my ax in the same box and stomp back inside wearing a scowl that predicts thunder. But when I look around, she’s nowhere to be seen. Rage fills me again, and I throw open every door I can find, leaving nothing unscathed. Until I find her snoring lightly in her bed with rosy cheeks and tearstained eyes.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

For a moment there, I almost thought she had actually run.

Like she would be foolish enough to try to escape me, let alone survive out there in the wild.

No, she wouldn’t do something that stupid. Not her.

I gaze at her while she’s asleep. She looks so peaceful. Like she’s dreaming about nice things. Things I’ve never dreamed about … except right before she ripped the metal off my body.

My nostrils flare. She brought this onto herself.

That metal was there to protect her, not me. She shouldn’t have dared to tame the beast.

Now I’m free, and the pain no longer exists. And every time I look at her, my body hardens, and I want nothing more than to drag her out of that bed and fuck her against the wall.

My cock swells in my pants, and my eyes pinch as I expect a wave of pain.